Civil Procedure

Credits: 4
The study of adjudication in modern legal systems as well as the role of participating lawyers — from the initial decision to commence a lawsuit through to the final disposition of the suit. The course focuses upon persistent problems common to various kinds of formal adjudication, approaching the subject from functional, comparative, and historical perspectives.

Constitutional Law 

Credits: 4
The study of the United States Constitution, in terms of the structure of government it establishes and the rights it confers upon individuals. The course explores the origin and operation of judicial review, the separation of powers, and more generally the interrelationship between the branches of the federal government, and the respective powers of the federal and state governments, particularly with respect to the regulation of interstate and foreign commerce. The course also provides an initial exposure to the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, including doctrines relating to equal protection of the laws and procedural and substantive due process of law. 

Contracts

Credits: 4   
The study of voluntary obligations. The course explores the bases for enforcing promises, e.g., consideration, bargain and reliance, and quasi-contractual obligations. The mechanics of contract formation, including formalities and the effects of adopting a writing, are also explored. The course focuses upon the interpretation of contract and identification of breach, and the subject of remedies and the interests protected by various methods of contract enforcement and calculation of damages. The course may also cover conditions, order of performance, and measures used to incorporate realities external to the classic contract, such as justifications for non-performance and the concept of relational contracts.

Criminal Law 

Credits: 4 
The study of the substantive criminal law as a means of social control. The course focuses on evaluation of the considerations which do, or should, determine what behavior warrants criminal sanctions. The course also explores the factors which bear on the treatment or punishment to be imposed for such conduct.

Critical Legal Analysis

Credits: 3

Critical Legal Analysis is designed to improve students’ ability to deconstruct legal rules, to explain and evaluate the significance of facts, to thoroughly support conclusions of law, and to effectively organize content.  These skills are critical in applying law to the hypothetical questions typical of both law school and bar exams.  The hands-on learning methodology used in the course will include in-class analytical and writing work in both individual and group settings.

Critical Legal Analysis is a required course for some students.  The course helps students develop their legal reasoning and analysis skills and improve their ability to communicate clear and well supported reasoning through legal writing. We work on critical legal reading, identifying legal rules and principles, organized and clear legal writing, using facts appropriately, and much more.

Legal Analysis, Writing & Research Skills I & II

Credits: 5 
This course covers how to research legal sources, analyze legal issues, and write objective and persuasive documents. Students research, draft, and revise several objective memoranda, a trial brief, and an appellate brief that cover a wide variety of legal topics. Students present an appellate oral argument in the spring semester.

Property

Credits: 4 
The study of the rights associated with real property, with special emphasis on possessory estates and basic concepts such as possession, ownership, and title. Rights in the land of another and a brief introduction to future interests and, at times, to personal property are also included.

Torts

Credits: 4 
The study of the nature of civil wrongs and of elementary jurisprudential conceptions concerning liability. Intentional torts and their relations to the law of crimes, the law of negligence, theories of causation and their philosophical foundations, products liability and other forms of liability without fault, and professional malpractice, affirmative defenses, comparative fault, damages, insurance, and alternatives to the torts system may also be discussed. 

Law and Inequality Pilot

(First Year Elective Course)

1 Non-Course Credit

Various Faculty

United States criminal and civil legal systems have created and maintained doctrines and procedural rules that discriminate against Black people, Indigenous communities, people of color, women, immigrants, and other marginalized communities. Understanding pervasive structural inequality and persistent racism, and the law’s role in perpetuating these conditions, is essential to lawyer competency. Faculty teaching this small section class will select and publish a particular topic related to inequality as a focus for their respective class section. Topics may include property, the criminal legal system, reproductive justice, education, citizenship and immigration, international law, technology or other topics. Faculty may employ a variety of educational modalities, including readings, reflective writings, discussion, inter-disciplinary materials, visits to historical sites, guest lectures, exercises and other activities. Assigned materials will invite students to reflect on issues of racial justice, structural inequality, identity, cultural context and cultural competency among other topics. Class assignments and activities will encourage the development of anti-racist and critical perspectives on legal doctrine, procedural rules and justice system outcomes.

Administrative Law

Credits: 3 
This course provides a general introduction to the constraints upon and the procedures used by administrative agencies, sometimes referred to as “the Fourth Branch of Government,” and thus provides critical context for other subjects areas in which administrative agencies play a key role, (e.g., environmental law, securities regulation, immigration, and taxation). The course examines the relationship of administrative agencies to the President, Congress, and the courts — exploring issues such as the delegation of quasi-legislative and quasi-adjudicatory powers to agencies, and the constitutionality of various means the President and Congress have sought to use to exert control over agency decision-making. The course introduces students to the process of agency adjudication, exploring both the constitutional due process requirements and requirements imposed by the federal Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). The course also familiarizes students with agency rule-making processes, focusing on the rule-making processes established by the APA. Students will also study judicial review of agency action, in particular considering the availability of judicial review and the scope of judicial review when it is available. Depending upon the professor, the course may also cover agencies’ powers to obtain information (by subpoena, record-keeping requirements, or inspections) and citizens’ rights to obtain government information, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, and attend public meetings, pursuant to the Sunshine Act.

Admiralty Law

Credits: 3
This course will introduce students to the basic principles of admiralty law, i.e., the statutes and common law regulating the rights and liabilities associated with the carriage of goods and passengers over water. The course will cover admiralty jurisdiction (including the respective jurisdictions of the federal and state courts), as well as the special procedures applicable to admiralty litigation. Students will study substantive admiralty law, including the law regarding the injury and death of maritime workers and passengers, the lease of vessels (i.e., charter parties), the carriage of goods, marine insurance, and liability for collisions among ocean-going vessels. As part of this study, students will explore the impact of and the general international maritime law upon the maritime law of the United States.

Advanced Civil Procedure

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Civil Procedure.
This problem-based advanced course covers select topics addressed in the first-year civil procedure course in greater depth and also covers select topics that may not be covered in the first-year course.  Range of topics includes pretrial procedures, jury trials, motions, verdicts and judgments, appealability and review, and alternative dispute resolution.

Advanced Contracts

Advanced Contracts will explore several important topics in the law of contracts that are heavily tested on the bar exam each year but that the introductory 4-credit contracts course does not cover. These issues include the recognized defenses to contract formation (misrepresentation, fraud, duress, undue influence, and unconscionability); circumstances when contracts can be voided for other reasons (misunderstanding, mistake, and changed circumstances); the important concepts of material breach, substantial performance, and anticipatory repudiation; calculating damages in the law of contracts; the assignment of contractual rights and delegation of contractual duties; and the rights of third parties beneficiaries in contract law. The problems this course covers are more complex and business-orientated than in the basic contracts course, and many of these issues are not covered anywhere else in the curriculum. Students who enroll in this course will be introduced to these topics, will learn how to recognize them when they appear in essay and multiple choice questions, and will learn how to solve problems involving them.

Advanced Contracts: TV Production

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Contracts.
This course will provide an introduction to the business side of the television industry, with emphasis on the non-scripted/reality side of the television business.  The course will focus on contract drafting in the television industry with respect to production and related agreements, with stress on the underlying rights issues involved, while also learning about appropriate contractual wording and phrasing techniques.  Thus, students will continue to develop the skills required for transactional attorneys, while concentrating on the issues required to be addressed to get programming on the air.  This will be accomplished by a combination of case law study and contract drafting assignments, along with mock negotiations and related classroom discussion.

Advanced Legal Research Seminar

Credits: 2 
Prerequisite: Legal Analysis, Writing & Research Skills I & II. 
The objective of this seminar is to give students an in-depth knowledge of general research tools and a good working knowledge of advanced tools available in specific subject areas. Both online and hard copy resources will be examined.

Advanced Legal Writing for Motion Practice

Credits: 2
This small, interactive seminar gives students the opportunity to further skills introduced in LAWRSI and LAWRSII by providing an intensive and collaborative experience in drafting documents at the trial court level. The course simulates real world law practice by having students work from a mock case file to prepare documents related to motion practice. Those documents include client correspondence, supporting certifications, a statement of undisputed material facts, and a brief. Through class exercises, ungraded assignments, and graded assignments, students will learn advanced techniques to master clear, concise, and persuasive legal writing.

Advanced Legislative Advocacy:  A Living Laboratory

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Legislative Advocacy
Building on the fall introductory course in Legislative Advocacy, students will work as a unified advocacy shop with preselected nonprofit organizations from across New Jersey to help them develop, advocate and pass public interest legislation through the New Jersey Legislature. As in the fall, our approach will be holistic, encompassing every road of advocacy    not only traditional lobbying, but also the media, grassroots organizing and other innovations rooted in political and interpersonal behavior. Students, together with our partner organizations, will work closely with Senators and Assembly members who become the prime sponsors of legislation developed in the course, as well as with staff, legislative leadership and other key stakeholders. The course will meet in all day conferences on four Fridays throughout the semester, with four additional hours scheduled with the instructor based on developments with the selected legislation in the New Jersey Legislature.

Advanced Metropolitan Equity

Credits: 3
Prerequisite one or more of the following: Race, Class and Metropolitan Equity; Housing Law and Policy; State and Local Government; Poverty Law; Land Use Controls. 
How do the legal rules and political policies governing place affect inequality of resources and opportunity? This is the central question in this class, which adds a significant investigatory element to the interdisciplinary study of how benefits and burdens are distributed in the context of cities, suburbs, race and class. Undertaking the primary work product of the law school’s Center on Law in Metropolitan Equity (CLiME), we engage in clinical research on topics of immediate relevance, such as fair housing, infrastructure and transportation, education finance, tax base inequity, environmental justice and public health disparities. Clinical research involves the typical rigor of in-class study and discussion with the hands-on experience of designing a project, consulting with relevant organizations and agencies outside RLS, conducting field research and authoring the legal and policy analysis of your conclusions for a public audience. Students of this class are CLiME “fellows” and as such will have their work published on the CLiME website (http://www.clime.newark.rutgers.edu/). The class offers a rare opportunity for initiative and independent work in a collective enterprise.

Advanced Torts

Credits: 2
This course extends the foundation of First-Year Introductory Torts to explore additional doctrinal areas and consider the connections between tort law and contemporary social problems more broadly. We will examine topics ranging from school shootings to deep fake pornography to suing the police, and we will explore the sometimes shifting contours of the economic torts, privacy torts, and constitutional torts. We will also consider the broader issues impacting contemporary tort law generally, including the growing use of arbitration, the rise of tort reform, the blurring of tort and criminal law, and the increasing role of third party responsibility in tort litigation.

American Legal History

Credits: 3
This course explores the social and cultural meaning of legal texts in American history. It covers topics ranging from 1776 through the 20th century, but focuses on 19th-century themes (e.g., the women’s rights movement, the Civil War and Reconstruction-era constitutional amendments, and 19th-century morals regulation, including laws against obscenity and polygamy). A central, though by no means exclusive, organizing frame for the course will be constructions of gender and sexuality in American legal history. Readings will consist of both primary and secondary historical sources.

Anatomy of Impact Investment Deals

Credits: 2
This course will consist of intensive case studies and practical explorations of two types of impact investment structures pioneered by The Nature Conservancy (TNC). The first structure is TNC’s modernization of debt for nature swaps using international capital markets. The second is an exploration of private equity funds and how these investment vehicles can meld financial, social and environmental outcomes. During our seminar, we will discuss a number of common issues in the impact investment and ESG space such as securities, corporate governance, fiduciary duties, international law and more. Classes will take on a variety of formats, including discussion of general principles, deep dives into particular topics, and mock negotiations.

Animal Law/Animal Rights: Theory and Practice

Credits: 3
This course will be a seminar-type course in which students will discuss animal law/animal rights topics at greater length.  Students will be expected to do a major written presentation, such as a pleading, brief, etc., or a significant theoretical project.

Antitrust

Credits: 3 (plus a 1-credit co-requisite practicum)
An introduction to the law of antitrust, including the common law of restraint of trade, the basic federal antitrust statutes, the enforcement policy guidelines of the federal antitrust enforcement agencies, and the  application of these statutes and guidelines to various arrangements, practices, and institutions (e.g., formal cartels, price-fixing conspiracies, “conscious  parallelism,” trade association activities, resale price maintenance, mergers, boycotts, and tying arrangements) whose effects are potentially anti-competitive.

Artificial Intelligence and Internet Legal Policy - Emerging Law & Policy

Credits: 2
This course will examine the legal difficulties associated with artificial intelligence and the Internet. It will provide an overview of the legal and policy options available to law makers to address the complications which are associated with applying existing statues and case law to artificial intelligence and Internet transactions. Focusing on publishing, telecommunications and broadcasting transactions, this course will address the following legal questions: When are existing statues and case law sufficient to address legal difficulties associated with artificial intelligence and the Internet by considering the doctrines that govern legal interpretation? What limitations are placed on the legislative process, such as constitutional rules governing the relations between the actors responsible for enacting and implementing statutes when addressing novel artificial intelligence and Internet subject matter? How to facilitate governance to yield acceptable results when artificial intelligence and Internet difficulties arise? Key doctrinal areas of inquiry include intellectual property, civil and criminal legal liability, and privacy. Neither Internet Law nor E-Commerce are prerequisites but recommended.

Asset Management Regulation

Credits: 3
Employee benefits issues arise in the context of business acquisitions and divestitures, labor negotiations, health care, family law, and a host of other practices. Knowledge of employee benefits is highly valued by many in private practice and in-house. This course examines employee benefits governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and its subsequent amendments. It will cover defined benefit and defined contribution plans, and employee welfare benefit plans. The course examines the rules on eligibility, participation, vesting, funding, and plan discrimination; it also considers cafeteria plans, flexible spending accounts, and other employee welfare benefits. The course will review portions of the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

Aviation Accident Law

Credits: 2
The course will address the most important aspects of litigating aviation accident cases from a practitioner’s viewpoint. We will introduce students to this complex interdisciplinary practice area and explore the major procedural, strategic and substantive legal issues at play when litigating an aviation accident. Specific topics to be covered include liability against  airlines, owners and operators, manufacturers, maintenance companies and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); compensatory and punitive damages; choice of law analysis; international contracts of carriage and treaties; transportation and security regulations; jurisdiction and venue considerations; the challenges of discovery and use of experts; and, the role of federal agencies such as the FAA and NTSB. Case studies will include several major local aviation disasters (TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island, NY, American Airlines Flight 587 at Belle Harbor, NY and the 9/11 terrorist attacks), as well as other high profile cases. This course will bring together many areas of law including civil procedure, torts, administrative law, contracts, conflicts of law, and international law.

Bankruptcy

Credits: 3
Course not open to students who have taken Debtor-Creditor Law.
Covers basic bankruptcy law--Title 11 of the United States Code--and federal regulation of debtor-creditor relations.

Business Organizations

Credits: 4
This course covers the standard subject matter of a general course in corporation law, including the nature, formation, promotion, and governance of corporations. Specific topics include comparison of the corporation with the partnership, as well as a discussion of non-partnership unincorporated businesses (LLC, etc.); powers of the board, officers, and shareholders; the federal proxy rules; insider trading and securities fraud; problems of the close corporation; directors’ fiduciary duties to the corporation and duties to the investing public; social concerns and their relation to corporate governance.

Business Torts and Intellectual Property

Credits: 3 
This course is oriented toward an understanding and analysis of the common law and statutory materials available for the acquisition and protection of commercial property rights. Detailed treatment is afforded the law of trademarks, trade secrets, and trade values. The interrelationship of unfair competition, trade values, patents, copyright, and false advertising is considered in some depth. Students will be encouraged to assume the role of legal counsel in typical commercial settings.

Canadian Legal System

Credits: 3
The United States and Canada, our neighbor to the North, share a good deal in the way of culture, history, and legal tradition. But Canada is also profoundly different in several important respects: Its system of government is parliamentary rather than presidential. Its equivalent to the United States Bill of Rights dates back only to 1982 rather than 1789. The legal system of Quebec, Canada's second-most populous province, is grounded in French civil law rather than English common law. Perhaps most important, Canada achieved its independence, not by revolution or war, but by a peaceful and gradual process of separation from the United Kingdom.
This course will explore the special character of Canada through an introduction to its legal system and constitutional doctrine. General topics at the start of the course will include the nature of parliamentary government, the role of the courts and structure of the judicial system, the understanding of aboriginal rights, the place of Quebec in Canada, and the substantial differences between the Canadian and United States systems of federalism. The remainder of the course will focus on topics in Canadian constitutional law, particularly with regard to rights and freedoms including freedom of expression, equality, and cutting-edge questions such as same-sex marriage.

Charitable Nonprofit Organizations

Credits: 2
This course focuses on the tax treatment of U.S. public charities and private foundations, tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.  The course will also include a survey of other tax-exempt organizations, including business leagues and social welfare organizations, as they compare to charities. The course provides an analysis of the requirements for federal tax exemption, including the prohibition on private inurement and benefit, excess benefit transactions, lobbying, and political campaign activities, and also includes an analysis around the unrelated business income tax, the private foundation excise taxes, and the current tax issues affecting certain public charities, such as donor advised funds and supporting organizations.  The course will also examine a number of legal challenges facing charities around formation, obtaining tax-exempt status, governance, and maintenance of tax-exempt status.  Through case description and analysis, this course aims to give students a solid introduction to grant making practicalities and operations within public charities and private foundations.

Citizenship and Nationality Law

Credits: 2

The course examines questions regarding a) the attribution, acquisition and loss of national citizenship status and b) the significance of the status’s possession or lack thereof for rights and recognition. Through readings in law, policy and legal theory, the course will cover: territorial birthright citizenship, citizenship by descent, naturalization, denaturalization, expatriation, plural citizenship, citizenship in subnational, quasi-national and extra-national locales, and the relationship between citizenship status and various rights and benefits within nation-states. The course focuses, in significant part, on citizenship law in the United States, and pays extensive attention to its constitutional dimensions. However, we will also consider citizenship and nationality questions in comparative and international perspective.

Commercial Law

Credits: 4 
Course not open to students who have taken Secured Transactions.
A basic course in sales, secured transactions, and negotiable instruments. Depending on the professor, course coverage can include Uniform Commercial Code articles 2 (sales), 2A (leases), 3 (negotiable instruments/payments), 4 (bank deposits), 4A (funds transfers), 5 (letters of credit), 8 (investment securities), and 9 (secured transactions).

Class Actions & Complex Litigation

Credits: 3
Modern society generates legal problems of a scale and complexity unimaginable to the drafters of the 1938 Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This course explores the ambitious — and at-times controversial — ways that courts and litigants have responded. The course begins with a review of procedural doctrines such as joinder and preclusion that determine how much "peace" a lawsuit can provide. We then turn to a close study of the most important attempt to scale-up civil procedure to the problems of mass society — the class action. Although the modern class action rule was adopted in 1966, courts continue to grapple with basic questions about the circumstances in which a claim can be litigated on an aggregate basis. After studying the evolution of class action law through the current Supreme Court term, we explore other leading responses to mass harms, including multi-district litigation, informal aggregation, and arbitration. By the course's conclusion, students will gain exposure to some of the most timely issues in civil litigation. Throughout, we will consider litigation strategy, the role of settlement, and the demands complex litigation places on the judiciary. Short written assignments and robust class participation are required.

Common Law Capstone

Credits: 4
Registration possibly required.
The Advanced Common Law Capstone course complements and brings together the multistate core curriculum, with a particular emphasis on topics tested on the New Jersey bar examination. The Capstone reinforces concepts covered in the required curriculum and introduces new legal issues in the seven core subjects of torts, property, contracts, civil procedure, constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, and evidence. It serves as a capstone to a student’s legal education by filling in curricular gaps and reviewing topics tested on the Multistate and New Jersey bar examinations. Course evaluation will be based on the student’s performance on multiple-choice testing that simulates the Multistate Bar Examination. The Capstone will be beneficial for students planning to take the New Jersey bar examination, but it is not a substitute for a post-graduate bar preparation course, the completion of which is key to passage of the bar examination.

Comparative International Legal Regimes

Credits: 3
Rather than focusing on one legal regime, this course will compare a variety of legal regimes and this at the international level. It will mainly focus on human rights law, humanitarian law, environmental law, and international trade law. On the basis of these international legal regimes, taken as examples, expressions and tools of international law contributing, or not, to global governance, the objectives of the course will be the following: 1) to acquire basic knowledge on each of these international legal regimes, chosen for their relevance and importance in the overall landscape of international law and global governance; 2) to compare the extent to which there is overlap and  convergence in the fundamental principles, values and objectives of each of these regimes; 3) to assess the extent to which tensions and contradictions exist amongst them; 4) analyzing whether or not, and to what extent, these regimes are part of and, amount to a sound and coherent system of global governance; and 5) to examine the conditions under which these international legal regimes could contribute to a better global governance of the world, including in their relations to relevant national legal regimes.

Conflict of Laws

Credits: 3 
This course examines the legal problems that arise when a lawsuit involves parties and events connected to two or more states. These problems concern personal and subject matter jurisdiction, choice of the applicable state law, and recognition of the judgment by courts of other states. In addition, students will explore the theories used by courts and recommended by scholars to resolve these problems.

Constitutional Law II

Credits: 3 or 4
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law
Course not open to students who have previously taken First Amendment Law.
Constitutional Law II will cover the many federal constitutional law areas tested on the multi-state bar exam that are not covered or are covered lightly in the required first-year Constitutional Law course. Topics will include broad coverage of freedom of speech, press and association not covered in Constitutional Law, separation of church and state, the right to bear arms, economic rights, such as takings and the contracts clause, equal protection and substantive due process areas not covered in Constitutional Law, and federal and state powers and federalism issues not covered in Constitutional Law.

Constitutional Law: Powers of the President

Credits: 2
This course will cover the constitutional power of the President of the United States.

Much more so than the constitutional powers of the federal courts and of congress, the constitutional powers of the president are defined by custom, tradition, and events, and comparatively less by the text of the Constitution. We will look at the powers of early presidents, the expansive claims of executive power of President Lincoln during the Civil War, the development of presidential powers with the rise and expansion of the administrative state, and the growth of the Commander-in-Chief powers since the mid-20th century, among other areas. What constrains the constitutional power of the presidents? Are judicial or congressional checks on presidential power effective? Does the modern era require stronger presidents than the founding era? Do separation of powers systems inevitably devolve into overly powerful presidential managed democracies?

Upper class writing credit available.

Construction Law

Credits: 2
Construction is one of the largest, if not the largest segments of the U.S. and world economy. Lawyers play a significant role in the construction process, as both counselors and litigators. The American Bar Association’s Forum on the Construction Industry is one of the largest groups within the ABA, with over 6500 members. This course will expose the law student to the legal, business and technical issues construction lawyers must master to effectively serve their clients. The legal and business relationships that define the construction process will be examined from the point of view of all participants, covering every stage of a construction project from conception through final completion and the resolution of disputes. Legal issues involving contractual relationships, damages, liens, defects, insurance and suretyship and dispute resolution will be presented from the perspective of the construction practitioner.

Consumer Law

Credits: 3 
This course will review the common law, statutory, federal, and state regulatory machinery for protecting consumers from deception and abuse. We will begin with a brief overview of the history of consumer law and discuss its relationship to the law of contracts. We will then discuss a series of timely topics, including the regulation of disclosure, the constitutional limits of advertising regulation, the regulation and enforcement of boiler plate language in contracts entered into on line, consumer privacy, predatory lending, consumer product warranties, and the private enforcement of consumer rights. There will be a final exam for this course.

Copyright & Trademark

Credits: 3 
This course surveys all areas of intellectual property with a focus on copyright and trademark law. The student will examine the laws that protect the ideas, trade secrets, rights of publicity, copyrights, trademarks, and patents of creators. This course is based in federal statutes and interpretative case law. However, state law is also reviewed and considered, with particular emphasis on relationships between state and federal laws within the constitutional framework of federalism. The move for global harmonization of intellectual property law is explored while reviewing subject matter of cases that cover a broad spectrum of products and services from the turn of the century to modern day technologies.

Corporate Finance

Credits: 3 or 4
Prerequisite: Business Associations
The law and economics of the financing of corporations, including (1) the valuation of securities and of the issuing corporation; (2) the rights of senior security holders; (3) insolvency reorganization; (4) capital structure and dividend policy; and (5) mergers, recapitalizations, and takeovers. Course materials include basic financial economics and documentation from actual financing transactions in addition to cases, statutes, and other traditional materials.

Corporate Reorganization

Credits: 2
This course explores the key legal and policy issues that are implicated when a firm reorganizes under or in the shadow of Chapter 11 of the federal Bankruptcy Code. These include the substantive and procedural requirements for confirming a plan of reorganization, the choice between judicial and market valuation of the reorganizing firm, the use of auctions and options in the bankruptcy process, the tradeoffs between liquidation and reorganization, priorities in distribution, the absolute priority rule and its “new value” exception, private workouts, prepackaged plans of reorganization, claims trading, the relevance of non-bankruptcy law to the reorganization process, and the use of Chapter 11 as a mechanism of corporate governance.

Corporate Tax

Credits: 3

Prerequisite: Federal Income Tax.

This course focuses on the federal income tax laws relating to the conduct of business in corporate form. It deals with the transactions in which tax considerations are of particular importance in business planning, including the organization of a corporation, the formulation of its capital structure, dividend distributions to shareholders, stock redemptions, sales of stock or assets, liquidations, and corporate reorganizations.

Corporate Transactions

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Business Associations
In this course students study a diverse mix of corporate transactions. Following the business school “case study” model, students analyze these transactions to provide a context in which to learn legal and financial principles and to understand the key agreements that implement the transactions (e.g., confidentiality agreements, letters of intent, merger agreements and legal opinions). The course involves lectures and guest speakers who participated (as accountants, intermediaries, clients or lawyers) in the transactions being studied. This is also a skills course involving negotiation exercises and the drafting of contract provisions. Ethical issues that arise in transactional matters are a key focus of the course.

Criminal Law Theory: The Sexual Offenses

Credits 2
Our law criminalizes a remarkably broad array of sexual, and sex-related, conduct. Among the offenses to be covered in this course are rape, sexual assault, human sex trafficking, female genital mutilation, voyeurism, public indecency, sexual transmission of disease, prostitution, pimping, statutory rape, child molestation, abuse of position of trust, child grooming, sexting, revenge porn, possession of child pornography, failure to register as a sex offender, adultery, assault by sadomasochism, incest, polygamy, bestiality, and necrophilia. We will consider these offenses from a practical and policy perspective, as well as from a more theoretical one. We will pay particular attention to the concepts of harmfulness, wrongfulness, offensiveness, consent, autonomy, deviance, and sex itself. Ultimately, we will be interested in the proper limits of the criminal law: Where has the law gone too far in criminalizing (or decriminalizing) various forms of sexual conduct? Where should it go further?

Criminal Procedure: Adjudication

Credits: 3
Addresses the rules that govern the processing of criminal cases, with emphasis on the adjudication stage: preliminary examination, indictment, plea bargaining, trial, sentence, appeal, and collateral attack.

Criminal Procedure: Investigation

Credits: 4 
This course provides an overview of the constitutional amendments regulating police conduct in the administration of criminal justice with special emphasis on the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment; searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment; and police interrogations under the Fifth Amendment. Supreme Court decisions in this area have reflected intense division among the justices. Class lectures and discussion will explore the different types of arguments through which constitutional doctrine is developed and the competing assumptions and values that inform the doctrinal divisions.

Crisis Management and Lawyers

Credits: 2
Lawyers must often assist companies confronted with crises that arise on many fronts, including: fires, accidents and explosions; product tampering or defects; workplace violence; hazardous material discharges; customer data theft/loss; financial irregularities; employee misconduct and technology disruptions/failures. Such events disrupt business operations, provoke governmental investigations and expose the company to civil litigation, as well as criminal prosecution. The resultant damage to a company’s operations, profitability and reputation can cripple or destroy it. 
Proactive planning and an effective response to a crisis significantly mitigate its consequences. This course provides practical instruction as to the lawyer’s role in assessing the hazards and risks companies face, conducting legal audits to assure corporate compliance with applicable standards and authorities and creating an effective plan to sustain business continuity in the event of a crisis. The class also addresses the legal strategies and techniques for responding to crises, including responding to criminal investigations; initiating product recalls; conducting forensic and internal investigations; preserving electronic data and other evidence; media relations; regulatory proceedings and civil litigation.

Critical Legal Analysis

Credits: 3

Critical Legal Analysis is designed to improve students’ ability to deconstruct legal rules, to explain and evaluate the significance of facts, to thoroughly support conclusions of law, and to effectively organize content.  These skills are critical in applying law to the hypothetical questions typical of both law school and bar exams.  The hands-on learning methodology used in the course will include in-class analytical and writing work in both individual and group settings.

Critical Legal Analysis is a required course for some students.  The course helps students develop their legal reasoning and analysis skills and improve their ability to communicate clear and well supported reasoning through legal writing. We work on critical legal reading, identifying legal rules and principles, organized and clear legal writing, using facts appropriately, and much more.

Current Issues in Bankruptcy

Credits: 2
This course addresses emerging developments in bankruptcy such as the effect of Stern v. Marshall and its progeny on bankruptcy court jurisdiction; and recent noteworthy decisions in areas such as the automatic stay, individual chapter 7 and 13 cases, chapter 11 asset sales and reorganization, exemptions, preferential and fraudulent transfers (using the Madoff case and similar others), intellectual property rights in bankruptcy, attorney compensation in bankruptcy, and discharge of debts (e.g., student loan debt).

Current Issues in Intelligence & National Security 

Credits: 2
 This course gives graduate students an overview of the organization and functions of intelligence agencies, links to national security and foreign relations, as well as current dilemmas in terms of law, research, and policy. Lectures and presentations by guest speakers will supplement a conventional research-centered perspective with more policy-driven debates, strategic considerations and reflections anchored on current issues and events.

Debtor & Injustice

Credits: 2 
This course will discuss the current landscape of household debt and the injustices associated with our system of household borrowing. We will discuss racism and racial disparities as well as other forms of inequality, we will discuss the degree to which Americans must rely on debt in order to survive, and we will discuss forms of extractive debt. We will discuss the legal frameworks for both borrowing and debt relief and will explore potential policy solutions to ameliorate the justices associated with the present landscape of household debt.

Debtor-Creditor Law

Credits: 4 
Course provides an introduction to the law of security interests in personal property under Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code and the law of individual bankruptcy and corporate reorganization under the Federal Bankruptcy Code. Article 9 topics include the creation and perfection of security interests, priority among the holders of competing interests, and the enforcement of contract rights under the UCC. Bankruptcy topics include the rights of creditors in bankruptcy, individual’s right to discharge, the relationship between bankruptcy law and state law, treatment of executory contracts, bankruptcy planning, restructuring of corporations in Chapter 11, and procedure for confirming plans of reorganization./p>

Doing Business in China: Law & Politics

Credits: 3
Course not open to students who have taken Introduction to Chinese Law.
This course begins with an introduction to the legal system of the People’s Republic of China. After a brief description of the historical, cultural and political roots of China’s legal regime, we will turn to a variety of Chinese laws governing business transactions and dispute resolution (e.g. anti-competition law, company law, contract law, IP law, joint-venture law, tax law, anti-corruption law). We will also study cases and important legal issues American companies may encounter while doing business in China through agents, distributors, joint ventures, or wholly-owned subsidiaries.

Economic Regulation

Credits: 2 
This course explores the legal and economic bases for the economic regulation of business. Included are a review of the constitutional limits upon regulation and the evolving rationales for regulation, and, with increasing frequency, deregulation. While the materials will be drawn from several industries, the greatest focus will be on the great transformation which has occurred in the last quarter century in the regulation of the traditional public utility firms – particularly those in the energy fields.

Education Law

Credits: 3
A survey of the law governing public elementary and secondary education. The course considers the substantive legal issues that arise in public schools as well as the role of the law and lawyers in public education. Topics include education administration, governance and policy making; school desegregation, school choice and school finance; students’ rights, including the right to attend school, due process, privacy, freedom of expression and freedom of religion; special education; and employment law issues as they arise in the public school context, including tenure, seniority, discipline, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and collective bargaining.

Electronic Commerce 

Credits: 2
The Internet is reshaping every aspect of business activity. In the emerging digital age of electronic commerce, companies will have to adapt quickly and cleverly or risk being overwhelmed by rivals. Today’s laws were mostly framed for pre-Internet conditions, but rapid changes are essential for electronic commerce to flourish. This course examines the specific business law-related issues which every firm must address when marketing a product online, executing an electronic payment process, or an associated electronic delivery of goods and services. The Internet has changed expectations about convenience, speed, comparability, price, service, and business transactions at every level. Such changes are being reflected in corresponding changes in commercial law. Most of the difficulties addressed by this seminar did not even exist five years ago, such as MP3 pirates, digital signature cross-certification, UCC Article 2B, website tenant rights, among others. Unlike an Internet Law course, which considers a broad cross-section of Internet legal matters, this course will focus on legal issues associated with computer, information, and telecommunication technologies as well as the Internet that result in electronic business transactions.

Employment Discrimination

Credits: 3 
Covers substantive and procedural law relating to discrimination in employment on grounds of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Emphasis is placed on developments under the Federal Civil Rights Act. Considers both public and private sector problems; judicial proceedings under the Civil Rights Act; administrative procedures under the acts, under Executive Order 11246 as amended, and under state civil rights acts; the relationship among the administrative process, the judicial process, and arbitration proceedings under collective bargaining agreements; and questions of remedy (including issues relating to numerical standards, sometimes called “quotas”).

Employment Law

Credits: 3 
Current topics in the employment relation that fall outside the system of collective bargaining, including: regulation of employment termination; privacy rights on the job (including hiring questionnaire, disclosure of personnel information, searches and seizures, drug testing, electronic monitoring); employment relations of independent contractors and home workers; employee representation on board of directors; employee-owned businesses. Problems relating to invention agreements and covenants not to compete also may be considered.

Energy, Economics, & the Environment

Credits: 2
This course will explore the legal and economic basis for the regulation of the financial and physical energy markets in the context of environmental concerns, consumer costs and safety. It will also cover legal issues arising in the context of energy production, sale and distribution or transmission of energy derived from renewable energy including wind and solar power as well as more traditional forms of energy including coal, natural gas and nuclear. The course will describe jurisdictional issues of entities like Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Commodities Futures Trading Commission, Justice Department, regional transmission organizations, Secretary of Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, state public utility commissions and the interplay between national energy policy and state and local energy and land use issues. Policy issues associated with deregulation of the energy industry, rate regulation, siting of liquid natural gas facilities, pipelines and new transmission lines and policies that encourage new generation and renewable energy, as well as the impact of fraud and market manipulation in the financial markets will also be covered. Students will participate in a dialogue on carbon tax and cap and trade and other policies to reduce CO2 emissions. Students will have an opportunity to participate (on a volunteer basis) in a half-day program on site at power plant (past classes have had presentations from the Atlantic City Utilities Authority and the Oyster Creek Nuclear facility).

Entertainment Law & Business

Credits: 2 
Course not open to students who have taken Law of the Entertainment Industry.
This course examines a variety of legal and business issues confronted by the attorney in the entertainment industry. This practice-oriented course focuses on and explores contractual issues, industry customs and practices, and the law that impacts on entertainment management, music recording and publishing, motion pictures, television, book publishing, live theater, and new and emerging technologies. Current events and new business and legal developments are discussed and analyzed during each class.

Environmental Justice

Credits: 3
Environmental justice is a social movement grounded in the synthesis of environmental and civil rights law and policy. This course will provide students with a broad overview of environmental law and introduce the concept of environmental justice.  It will allow students to engage in an analysis of theories of causation, competing claims of evidence concerning the degree of environmental disparity based upon race and class, and theories of risk assessment.  The course will provide grounding in the practice of environmental and land use law, including facility permitting, mechanisms to address contaminated properties, and litigation responses to claims of injustice.  We will regularly use case studies to focus on the multiple roles of a lawyer and the realities of environmental justice practice.

Environmental Law

Credits: 3

Environmental law in the United States, as a distinct field of legal practice and scholarship, is younger than some of today’s law students and probably most of their teachers and parents, yet it affects profoundly our quality of life, our society, and our economy. This introductory course surveys environmental law through study of a suite of major federal environmental statutes. The evolution and current state of these laws will reveal recurrent themes and problems in the law of environmental protection. The course will also address issues of environmental justice and emerging legal responses to climate change.

ERISA & Employee Benefits

Credits: 3
Employee benefits issues arise in the context of business acquisitions and divestitures, labor negotiations, health care, family law, and a host of other practices. Knowledge of employee benefits is highly valued by many in private practice and in-house. This course examines employee benefits governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and its subsequent amendments. It will cover defined benefit and defined contribution plans, and employee welfare benefit plans. The course examines the rules on eligibility, participation, vesting, funding, and plan discrimination; it also considers cafeteria plans, flexible spending accounts, and other employee welfare benefits. The course will review portions of the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)

Estates in Land & Future Interests

Credits: 1
The seminar will offer a systematic presentation of the rules and classifications of the estate law. It will largely repeat the Estates and Future Interests segment of the first year Property course — with more time devoted to understanding and applying each rule. We will be particularly focusing on practicing problems and learning how to classify estates and future interests and determine their validity or invalidity.

Estate Planning

Credits: 2 
(Trust and Estates is highly recommended)
Most estate planning will address a world where the estate tax either does not exist or can be avoided. Class will open with problems surrounding the initial engagement and documents used in estate planning. It will then consider the elements of the gift tax (which is not scheduled to be repealed). The key element in estate planning is frequently valuation of property, and the legal vehicles and rules surrounding valuation – but not the valuation process itself – will be discussed. Valuation vehicles are the key to avoiding the estate tax even if it continues. They are also key in circumstances where the gift tax may arise. The so-called carryover basis regime that will accompany estate tax repeal will be considered, and dispositive instruments for the typical two-person married household (more than 80 percent of all decedents) will be emphasized.

Evidence

Credits: 4 
Prepares the student to use rules of evidence in the preparation and trial of civil and criminal litigation. Using the Federal Rules of Evidence as a framework, the traditional categories (relevance, hearsay, impeachment, writings, experts, privileges, etc.) are examined with the objective of training students to understand the rationale behind all evidence rules so that they can reason about and use all rules of evidence with maximum effectiveness.

Experts in Litigation

Credits: 2
Prerequisites: Evidence AND either Trial Presentation or participation in an Inter or Intramural Moot Court competition for credit.
This skills course will explore the expanding role of experts in litigation with a focus on both the relevant law and practical and strategic aspects of using experts in the development of a case theory and in discovery, as well as the development and presentation of expert testimony in depositions and at trial.   Students will confront and explore these issues by representing opposing parties in a mock case from the complaint to trial testimony, with opportunities to interact with and conduct examinations of real experts, including consultations with experts in case theory development and in discovery, taking and defending the depositions of experts, and presenting and cross examining expert testimony at trial.

Family Law

Credits: 3 or 4 (as designated)
Examines the legal aspects of the family unit, including establishment of the marital relationship, intrafamily rights and responsibilities, marriage dissolution, problems of support and the custody of children, and, as time allows, the role of the state in protecting the welfare of children. The changing role of women is implicated and explored in each area. The four-credit version of this course will include a greater focus on the relationship between parents, children, and the state.

Family Law ADR

Credits: 2
This course introduces the student to the basic divorce mediation process and skills development. Through discussion, simulations, and role-play exercises, this course will highlight the structure and goals of the divorce mediation process. The course will focus on the negotiation skills and techniques mediators use to help parties in resolving their disputes and reaching a mutually acceptable durable agreement. The course also examines the underlying negotiation techniques and strategies that mediators may use; the roles of attorneys and clients; dealing with difficult people and power imbalances; cultural considerations; the ethical issues mediators may face; and drafting agreements. The course also addresses the use of other professionals, including financial mental and health practitioners in the mediation process. The course also compares the mediation process with the collaborative process.

Federal Courts

Credits: 4
Course not open to students who have previously taken Federal Jurisdiction.
An inquiry into the powers of the various federal courts; into their relations among themselves and to other arms of governments (state and federal); and into the science, art, and politics of successfully invoking their powers. The major focus is on the role of the federal courts in our constitutional system. Consideration of the types of cases the federal courts should adjudicate, the circumstances under which they should hear cases, when they should defer to proceedings in state courts or decisions by state officials, and the extent to which Congress can alter federal court jurisdiction.

Federal Income Tax

Credits: 4  
This is the basic course in tax law.  It focuses on the basics of the federal income taxation of individuals.   

Federal Jurisdiction

Credits:  3 
Course not open to students who have previously taken Federal Courts. 
An inquiry into the powers of the various federal courts; into their relations among themselves and to other arms of governments (state and federal); and into the science, art, and politics of successfully invoking their powers. The major focus is on the role of the federal courts in our constitutional system. Consideration of the types of cases the federal courts should adjudicate, the circumstances under which they should hear cases, when they should defer to proceedings in state courts or decisions by state officials, and the extent to which Congress can alter federal court jurisdiction. 

Federal Wealth Transfer Taxation & Estate Planning 

Credits: 2 
Trusts and Estates is not a prerequisite for this course, but while not essential, it does provide helpful background information.  
The "death tax" as it is commonly referred to is often a hot topic raised by both polictical parties, and as you might guess, the parties generally have diametrically opposing views on it.  Despite puvlic rhetoric about the elimination of the "death tax" this tax is alive and well. The Fedearl Wealth Transfer tax is a unified system that levies a tax on the right to transfer property during lifetime (the Gift Tax), at death (the Estate Tax) and imposes this tax at every generational level (the Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax).  This course will examine the relationship between and fundamental principles of these three donative taxes through case law planning concepts and techniques utilized by estate tax practioners to be based in large part on a series of drafting exercises that simulate the estate planning practice.  

Financial Institutions Law & Regulation

Credits: 2 
This course introduces the student to the regulation of financial institutions. We will explore both the regulators and the regulations that have evolved in the United States to govern the business of banks, broker-dealers, insurance companies, asset managers, complex financial conglomerates, and government-sponsored enterprises.  We will also analyze various financial activities conducted by these financial institutions including consumer finance, commercial loans, underwriting, insurance, asset management, and derivative transactions. We will focus attention on the 2007-2009 financial crisis and its aftermath with an emphasis on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. We will also exam the historical underpinnings of our current regulatory framework. Finally, in recognition of the global nature of our modern financial system, we will touch upon the regulatory framework and policies in other places around the world, especially the European Union.

Financial Statement Analysis 

Credits: 2 
Course not open to students who have previously taken Legal Accounting. 
This course is intended for persons who have never studied accounting. The course begins with an explanation of double-entry bookkeeping and some practice in making bookkeeping entries, and progresses through the preparation and understanding of financial statements of corporations, the stockholders’ equity accounts, and the principles used in determining net corporate income. 

First Amendment Law

Credits: 3 
This course surveys major doctrines and areas of controversy arising under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The course will begin with the Religion Clauses. This portion of the course will cover free exercise doctrine and protection of religious conduct vis-à-vis the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. This portion will also cover the relationship between church and state as understood under the Establishment Clause and various tests applied under Establishment Clause doctrine. In addition to the foregoing, course coverage will include statutory protection of religious freedom, church property disputes, employment disputes, accommodations of religion under the Establishment Clause, government financing of religion, religion in public schools, and government-sponsored religious displays. After treating the Religion clauses, the course will turn to the Free Speech Clause. This portion will cover political speech and the limits placed on expression that advocates illegal or harmful conduct, obscenity law, hate speech, commercial speech, symbolic speech, public forum doctrine, and the right of expressive association. Due to time constraints, the course will not be comprehensive. Certain First Amendment topics, including campaign finance reform and the Constitution’s Press clause, will not be treated.

Foreign Relations & National Security Law

Credits: 3 
An analysis of legal issues arising in the conduct of United States foreign relations and national security, focusing on the constitutional distribution of foreign affairs powers among the executive, the legislature, and the courts; the roles of the President and Congress in initiating and using military force; treaty-making; international law as U.S. law; human rights litigation in U.S. courts; and the justiciability of foreign affairs issues. Several weeks will focus on current issues such as the use of force by the President with or without congressional authorization, and the use of drones for targeting killings. 

Gaming Law 

Credits: 2 
This course will provide an analysis of federal and state laws governing legalized gaming in the United States with an emphasis on New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Nevada, and the Internet. The powers of federal and state regulatory agencies are examined, and the underlying reasons for regulation and the methods utilized to ensure the integrity of the gaming industry will be discussed. The course focuses on the history of legalized gaming activities, the licensing process, and the extensive regulation of the gaming industry. Current and future trends of gaming, including the expansion of gaming in the United States, internationally, and through the Internet will be analyzed. Various statutes, administrative regulations, case law, and articles will be used as course materials. 

Global Business Regulation

Credits: 3
This course will review different mechanisms for regulating the social conduct of businesses operating outside the U.S. We will cover hard public law (e.g. U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Alien Tort Claims Act, and securities regulation), as well as soft or voluntary mechanisms (e.g. the UN Global Compact, private certification schemes - such as B(enefit) or Fair Trade labels in global value chains, industry association standardization programs, and consumer-led "civil regulation"). We will rely primarily on case studies to examine different types of corporate misconduct and explore the interactions between hard and soft law. This approach will provide students with a practical framework for assessing the relative strengths and weaknesses of different sources of regulation. A central aim is to expand students' understanding of key terms, such as "compliance," "law," "governance," and "enforcement." In addition to a final paper (capable of meeting the writing requirement, as desired by the individual student), students will prepare case studies to be presented in class. (Course can count toward Business Law Certificate) (previously offered as Transnational Business Regulation).

Global Climate Change: Science, Law, & Economics 

Credits: 3 
People are now faced in varying degrees by the worst pollution problem of all time, the worst environmental problem of all time, and likely the worst human problem of all time. Yet, the major greenhouse gas polluting states have not established effective policies and practices to mitigate climate change risks and most climate programs are now headed in the wrong direction. Professor Latin has recently completed a book on “Climate Change Policy Mistakes” and the syllabus of the most recent global climate change course is at www.ecovitality.org/climate/. The topics and materials are certain to change each year, which means the previous syllabus is only a general guideline to the types of issues to be addressed this coming semester. 
The course will explore recent legislative and EPA efforts to impose climate regulation; cap-and-trade systems, carbon taxes, and other economic-incentive approaches; international climate treaties and continuing negotiations on climate and development issues; and alternative remedies or partial solutions for climate change hazards. Professor Latin posts assignments and materials on his own website at: www.ecovitality.org, not on Blackboard. Please use the link to access the course on this website. 

Health Care Law I 

Credits: 3 
An introduction to the basic tenets of Health Law, this course will cover fundamental legal principles, laws, regulations, and issues facing health care lawyers, with a focus on health system structure, accreditation, licensing, as well as emphasis on regulatory aspects of the discipline including Medicare fraud and abuse laws, Stark laws, and other federal and state laws. Students who take this course will develop a basic understanding of the practice of health law and the fundamental principles thereof. 

Health Care Law II 

Credits: 3 
The law of Health Care is one of the most expansive and dynamic areas of law practice today, principally because of the passage in March 2010 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Because the new law encourages cost reduction through the coordinated provision of health services by new entities that include hospitals, primary and specialty physician practices and insurance companies, increased demand for lawyers with expertise in health law regulation is inevitable. This is an overview introductory course that will attempt to cover the major contemporary legal and policy issues in Health Law. Topics to be covered include the following: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; the doctor-patient relationship; medical malpractice; refusal of life support and physician assistance in end-of-life treatment; reproductive rights; governmental regulation (federal and state), including ERISA, Stark Law, Anti-Kickback Law, False Claims Act, Civil Monetary Penalties, certificates of need and licensure; health care insurance, including Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance and reimbursement issues; policy issues relevant to health insurance reform. 
This course is open to all students, even if they have not taken Health Care Law I, which offers a thorough grounding in health law basics. 

Health Law & Policy 

Credits: 3
An introduction to the basic tenets of Health Law, this course will cover fundamental legal principles, laws, regulations, and issues facing health care lawyers, with a focus on health system structure, accreditation, licensing, as well as emphasis on regulatory aspects of the discipline including Medicare fraud and abuse laws, Stark laws, and other federal and state laws. Students who take this course will develop a basic understanding of the practice of health law and the fundamental principles thereof. 

History of the Common Law 

Credits: 3 
This course will survey the deep historical origins of our legal system and set its development in social and cultural context. We will begin by examining the extraordinary, lost world of ancient Germanic and Anglo-Saxon law, including the system of dispute resolution among the Vikings. We then will examine English legal history after the great Norman conquest of 1066 and the legal revolution wrought by Henry II and the Angevin court, the ultimate foundation of our legal system today. Topics will include Roman law and its reception in England and on the continent; the significance of Magna Carta; the legal foundations of feudalism; the development of Parliament and Parliamentary supremacy (against which our federal constitution poses itself); Chancery and the history of equity jurisdiction; the development of forms of action; hundred, shire, seigniorial, and borough courts; the Court of Common Pleas, King’s Bench, and Exchequer; compurgation, trial by battle, ordeal, and the history of the jury; the development of the legal profession and the history of legal education; crime and punishment in early modern England; classics of legal historiography, especially the work of F. W. Maitland, and the history and ideological significance of how the development of the common law has been understood and imagined; and the reception of the common law in colonial and revolutionary America. The course will be based in lectures and supplemented by student discussion. No previous historical knowledge required. 

Housing Law and Policy

Credits: 3  
Registration preference is given to first year students. Registration limited to 12 students. 
This course explores selected legal and policy issues in housing and urban development (often omitted in the first year Property course because of time constraints) such as: (1) is there a right to housing? (2) how private is private property? (3) the limits of eminent domain; (4) private government through homeowner associations; (5) Mt. Laurel and exclusionary zoning; (6) landlord/tenant reform efforts (rent strikes, tenant unions, housing courts, the implied warranty of habitability, protection against retaliatory eviction, and other changes); (7) public housing; (8) homelessness; (9) squatting; (10) rent control; (11) anti-discrimination legislation; (12) federal subsidy programs; (13) predatory lending; (14) farmworker housing; (15) housing integration programs, etc. (For more detailed information, ask Mrs. Caraballo, room 420A, for a copy of the memo describing, in detail, the work of the seminar.) 

Immigration & Naturalization Law 

Credits:  3  
Survey of laws dealing with the defense of alien rights. Analysis of current law governing the admission, exclusion, and deportation of aliens. Discussion of eligibility requirements in various immigrant, and non-immigrant visa categories. Reviews of laws pertaining to acquisition of U.S. citizenship. 

Implicit Bias and the Law

Credits: 2
Implicit bias refers to the automatic association of stereotypes and attitudes toward identity groups, often without our conscious awareness.  This course will examine how implicit biases undermine fairness and equity in various areas of law, from property, contracts, criminal law, family law, and employment.  Students will have the opportunity to learn the social science of "implicit social cognition" as well as the practical consequences of implicit biases and other unconscious phenomena on our society and within the legal system.  The goal will be critical inquiry to determine how best to eliminate the differential treatment people experience as a result of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender expression, class, religion, and other identity groups.

Incarceration Policy & Violence

Credits: 2

With a growing public interest in finding ways to reduce mass incarceration, it has become increasingly clear that the ability to rapidly reduce the size of the prison population hinges on the way we confront the problems posed by people serving sentences for violent crime. This class will cover the history of policies regarding people who commit violent crime, the nature of violent crime, what is known about people in prison for violence, and the effectiveness of current policies for dealing with them. Students will be responsible for exploring in detail an aspect of this topic of their choosing. Students interested in this class should check with the professor about it before enrolling. 

Insurance Law

Credits: 2 
From the “mom and pop” candy store to the largest multi-national corporation, every business relies on insurance to protect itself from catastrophe. This course will provide an introduction to the nature of insurance, including the marketplace (brokers, agents, and insurance carriers) and the major commercial lines of insurance. We will also discuss in detail fundamental insurance law concepts, the key provisions of an insurance contract, and the major current areas of litigation between commercial policyholders and insurers. 

Intellectual Property Financing

Credits: 2 
Today hard assets such as real estate and equipment make up only a third of most company’s stock market value with intangible assets such as trademarks and patents comprising the balance. This seminar will initially cover the basics of intellectual property. Thereafter, it will examine the use of intellectual property as credit support. We will study the interaction between the law of secured transactions (emphasizing Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code) and relevant federal and state laws that govern the creation, perfection and enforcement of security interests in this asset class. Approaches to drafting loan documents to include covenants that allow monitoring of intellectual property collateral to mitigate risks in the transaction and provide for adequate enforcement rights will be addressed. Relevant statutes and case law will be studied. 

International Business Law: Trade, Labor & Human Rights

Credits: 3
This course is given through Rutgers Business School–Newark.  
This course will explore the intersection of international business and economic regulation with labor and human rights. Some of the questions that we will address include: How do we enforce labor rights in a global economy? What is the relationship between foreign direct investment, liberalization of trade, and respect for human rights? Should the international trading system allow for linkages between trading privileges and human and labor rights enforcement? Does corporate law in different jurisdictions adequately provide for representation and protection of non-shareholder stakeholder interests? How do different regimes regulate labor relations and protect workers rights? How legitimate and effective are self-regulatory regimes that use voluntary codes of conduct to police supply chains and corporate activity? Are there institutions and models used in international business law, such as commercial arbitration, that might be utilized in the human and labor rights arena? Are “core labor rights” as defined by the ILO such as freedom of association truly universal, or useful, concepts? What is the business and human rights movement and for what does it advocate?  
In exploring these and other questions, we will study basic concepts of international business and human rights law such as international trade law, corporate governance, comparative and international labor law, the UN system, and the International Financial Institutions. Although primarily using a legal methodology, this course will be interdisciplinary and will be of interest to students of business, law, global affairs, and other academic disciplines.

International Business Transactions

Credits: 3 
A study of the private law aspects of international transactions. General topics include U.S. law as it affects the entry of persons, goods, and investment to national markets, multinational corporations, export controls, international institutions that affect private transactions, such as GATT and the EEC, and the comparative study of similar topics in both developed and developing countries.

International Children’s Rights

Credits: 2 
This course deals with aspects of contemporary childhood, adolescence and youth, with a particular focus on human rights violations and remedies globally. The course starts by asking how conceptions of childhood and adolescence have changed over time and space. It then introduces fundamental international and regional human rights principles and their relevance to key contemporary concerns. How can we ascertain a child's perspective and opinions? What does the notion of “the best interests of a child” mean in practice? What policies enable adolescents to be agents? Since ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child over twenty years ago, considerable progress has been made in advancing young children’s rights, including their enjoyment of basic social and economic entitlements such as access to primary education and health care. These gains are not matched by corresponding advances for older children, particularly girls. In many developing societies, secondary and tertiary education remains widely inaccessible, maternal mortality and teenage suicide remain large cause of female adolescent death, and youth unemployment and violence have reached epidemic proportions. Deaths and injuries sustained during distress migration also impinge heavily on adolescents. How can the gap in realization of adolescent and youth human rights be addressed? Conflict and disaster situations present particular risks for children and adolescents, including in relation to trafficking and other forced migration contexts. The course will explore legal, humanitarian, development and other strategies for understanding and advancing the human rights of children, adolescents and youth globally. For example, what opportunities do the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and related campaigns offer for child protection and adolescent rights? The course will engage with several overarching conceptual approaches to protections of children and youth rights. Topics covered include education and health policies, trafficking and child labor, intercountry adoption, gender specific harms. migration and citizenship.

International Commercial Arbitration

Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Contracts.
The course is intended to provide students with an understanding of the law and practice of international commercial arbitration. Using the issues presented in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration (“Vis”) Moot problem as an integral part of the learning experience, this course will cover the basics of international commercial arbitration, from the drafting of the arbitration clause, selection of the arbitrators, presentation of the case to the arbitral tribunal, to the recognition/enforcement and/or setting aside of the arbitral award. The course will explore the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, the Federal Arbitration Act, the UNCITRAL Model Law, as well as other treaties and conventions that largely account for why international arbitration is one of the leading mechanisms for resolving international business disputes. The course will introduce the students to the major international arbitral institutions and review their rules of procedure. Students who enroll in this course may also be interested in competing in the Vis Moot Court Competition.

International Comparative Jurisprudence: Rights & Sentiments in a Globalizing Legal Culture

Credits: 3
The course focuses on jurisprudence, that is the study and theory of law, from a comparative perspective. It starts by analyzing law from a theoretical standpoint and continues by examining it through history and cross-cultural perspectives. On this basis, which offers a general understanding of law and jurisprudence, the course addresses issues of law/jurisprudence in a comparative fashion, especially in the contemporary context. Taking as an entry point the nature and dynamics of rights and duties and their relations with sentiments in a world going through a process of increasing globalization, it analyzes some of the key aspects of law taken from Europe, the United States, Latin America, and Asia. The course ends with exploring what the central questions studied throughout the semester mean for the future of law, both nationally and internationally.

International Court Advocacy

Credits: 2
The course will focus on the sources of international law and their application in addressing world order problems.  In particular, we will explore legal research methods, legal writing and oral advocacy skills in the area of public international law, such as preparation of written petitions and memorials, presentation of oral arguments, and general international lawyering skills.  These skills will be explored through various exercises (written and oral) which will be both conducted prior to and during class.  Students interested in participating in the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition are recommended to take this course.

International Development Law & Finance

Credits: 3
This course prepares students to serve as "development lawyers" who can provide legal advice and support for efforts to advance the achievement of international development objectives, such as poverty alleviation. It provides an overview of the competing conceptions of development and introduces students to the various public and private institutions (e.g. the United Nations, the World Bank, the Gates Foundation, Kiva, and impact investment funds) engaged in development work. We will discuss how these institutions finance development and how, in so doing, they create development law, while also being regulated by it. In addition to a final paper (capable of meeting the writing requirement, as desired by the individual student), students will prepare 5 short reading response papers over the course of the semester.

International Human Rights Law

Credits: 3
This course will provide an overview of the international legal and institutional system for the protection of human rights. We will look at the material both from an academic perspective and from the point of view of the human rights practitioner, tackling theoretical issues in the field as well as assessing the practical strengths and weaknesses of human rights law.

International Law & International Legitimacy

Credits: 3 
Bringing together theory and practice, the course will examine the extent and limits of international law and international organizations in support of human rights and global justice. It will describe the contribution of international and international organizations in these areas, as well as evaluate them. It will also explore suggestions to achieve a better alignment of international law and international organizations, and human rights and global justice in the future. The course begins with methodological and practical considerations on teaching law and international law in the context of the course and beyond. It continues with outlining some of the key theoretical aspects of law, comparing in particular law at the national and international levels. From this perspective, the course also analyzes the key principles of international law. Following this approach, the course becomes more practical and examines how international law functions in concrete terms. This more practical aspect of the course focuses on international law in relation to international organizations and member states. In order to do so, the course sheds light on UN peacekeeping operations and humanitarian crises. Later on, the course offers a critical analysis of international law, in the process highlighting its progressive and conservative dimensions. It ends with looking ahead and exploring how international law is likely to evolve in the coming years, especially in relation with issues of global justice and global policy.

Internet Law

Credits: 2 
The Internet as a medium for commerce and communications poses novel legal challenges. This course addresses issues that must be considered when transacting business, offering services, or merely using the Internet. It covers electronic commerce, intellectual property protection, state regulations, contracts, privacy, torts, taxation, speech, crime, security regulations, advertising, and jurisdiction.

 Intro to International Law

Credits: 3 
The content of the course will cover the role of legal processes, institutions, and organizations in the evolving world community. It covers the manner in which traditional international law arose and calls for an analysis of the basic concepts of international law: sources, subjects, sovereignty, treaties and agreements, jurisdiction, state responsibility, the use of force, and peaceful settlement of disputes. Insofar as possible, it deals with the interrelated problems of war, poverty and mal-development, social injustice, and ecological instability throughout the globe.

International Law & International Organizations: Extent & Limits in Support of Human Rights & Global Justice

Credits: 3
Course not open to students who have taken International Legitimacy & Global Justice.
Bringing together theory and practice, the course will examine the extent and limits of international law and international organizations in support of human rights and global justice. It will describe and evaluate their contribution in these areas. The course will also explore suggestions to achieve a better alignment of international law and international organizations with the demands of human rights and global justice in the future. The course is open to graduate students from the Rutgers Law School and the Division of Global Affairs.

International Legitimacy & Global Justice

Credits: 3
Course not open to students who have taken International Law & International Organizations: Extent & Limits in Support of Human Rights & Global Justice.
Bringing together theory and practice, the course will examine the extent and limits of international law and international organizations in support of human rights and global justice. It will describe and evaluate their contribution in these areas. The course will also explore suggestions to achieve a better alignment of international law and international organizations with the demands of human rights and global justice in the future. The course is open to graduate students from the Rutgers Law School and the Division of Global Affairs.

International Tax

Credits: 3 
Prerequisite: Federal Income Tax.

This course focuses on the basics of the U.S. taxation of income from international transactions. The goal is to gain an understanding of the principal statutory and treaty tax rules and concepts that apply to investment and business activity by non-U.S. persons in the United States (“inbound taxation”) and to investment and business activity by U.S. persons abroad (“outbound taxation”).  

International Trade Regulation

Credits: 3
This course introduces students to the principal legal, business, and policy aspects of international trade, with a strong focus on United States trade law within the context of the WTO-GATT Agreements. The course will generally explore “globalization,” in terms of the forms of international business penetration, income determinations, country classifications, and principles of sovereignty. The individual topics covered will include: 1) the foundations of International Trade Law, 2) international legal structures such as the World Trade Organization (“WTO”), General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (“GATT”), and the North American Free Trade Alliance (“NAFTA”), 3) the intersection of international trade and domestic standards, 4) Antidumping and Countervailing Duty law, 5) unilateral United States retaliation against foreign practices under “Section 301” of the U.S. trade statutes, and 6) trade in the context of intellectual property rights.

Islamic Jurisprudence

Credits: 2 
This course introduces the student to the history, sources and methodology of Islamic Law and Jurisprudence (The Shari’a). The student will gain a basic familiarity with the four primary sources of the Shari’a: The Holy Qu’ran, the Sunnah (precedent) of the Prophet Muhammad, the Doctrine of Ijma’ (Consensus), and Qiyas (methods of analogical reasoning used by Islamic jurists). The course is divided into two parts. In Part I, students study the history, theory and sources of Islamic jurisprudence. Part II comprises Islamic family law, with specific reference to Islamic family law in American courts.

Issues in Corporate Governance

Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Business Associations
This seminar will explore the rapidly-evolving subject of corporate governance.  Issues we will cover include the recent federalization of aspects of corporate governance represented by Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank legislation; shareholder activism and roles in governance; corporate philanthropy (including the newly-created Benefits Corporation); sustainability; corporate social responsibility; shareholder proposals; "say on pay"; proxy contests; hostile tender offers; the fiduciary duties of directors; and comparative corporate governance.

Jewish Law

Credits: 2 
Covers the evolution and development of Jewish Law from Biblical to Talmudic to post-Talmudic to current times. Included among the various categories of law are torts, real estate, criminal law, and commercial contracts. Addresses the judiciary and the legislative and other rule-making systems. The course culminates in an intensive study of personal property. No prior knowledge of Judaism or Hebrew is necessary.

Jewish Law & Ethics

Credits: 2 
This course will introduce students to the methodology and approach of Jewish law, with a special focus on ethics. We will survey the methodology and process Jewish law uses to address legal issues confronting modern society and compare and contrast with the American legal system. We will examine the principles used by Jewish law including the relationship between law and ethics, in such areas as abortion, euthanasia. and the right to die.

Jurisprudence: Human Rights & Animal Rights

Credits: 3 
In this course, we will first examine the concept of a right and the differences between moral theories based on rights and those based on consequences, virtue, or other considerations. As part of this portion of the course, we will consider the relationship between law and morality. We will then explore the ways in which race, sex, sexual orientation, and species limit membership in the moral and legal community. We will examine rights issues raised in various contexts involving humans and nonhumans, including abortion, the status of women in a patriarchal society, gay rights, affirmative action, capital punishment, vegetarianism, the status of nonhumans as property, and the use of animals in biomedical experiments.

Labor Law

Credits: 3 
A study of creation and operation of the process of collective bargaining between unions and employers under the National Labor Relations Act, the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, and the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959.

Land Redevelopment Law

Credits: 2
This course is oriented toward an understanding and analysis of the context, policy, statutory and case law structure for redevelopment of New Jersey’s urban centers, cities and towns. This is in the context of New Jersey being the most densely populated state in the country and the Smart Growth trends rendering greenfields development more difficult while creating incentives and mechanisms to facilitate redevelopment utilizing existing infrastructure, systems, and resources. 

Land Use Controls

Credits: 3 
An analysis of various legal controls which are available to carry out planning policy, with special emphasis on the relationship between implementing various planning goals and the basic principles of constitutional law. Review of the legal problems involved in zoning ordinances and in various types of housing and redevelopment legislation. Special attention given to the implications of such controls for civil liberties and basic democratic values. Current land use problems, including Mount Laurel.

Land Use Law and Practice

Credits: 3 
This course is oriented toward the pragmatic (more than theoretical) aspects of land use law, policy and practice, including studying the tools and historical/legal foundation of modern land use law; zoning and General Plans; the process of land development; zoning; and redevelopment in the context of New Jersey’s urban centers, cities and towns. In addition to providing the historical and contemporary aspects of land use law, this course will introduce students to the practical skills needed to be a land use practitioner, including but not limited to: 1) reviewing proposed land use projects and site plans; 2) engaging in discussions with land use professionals, including engineers, architects and planners; 3) reviewing how to prepare and submit various applications before Planning Boards and Zoning Boards of Adjustments; and 4) how to prepare for hearings before Planning Boards and Zoning Boards of Adjustments.

Latinos/as and the Law

Credits: 2

Latino/as and the Law addresses the legal norms that have shaped, in part, the experience of Latinos and Latinas in this country.  The Latino community in the U.S. has consistently used the courts to ensure equal treatment for all in civil rights and human rights jurisprudence.  The modern civil rights era has also impacted upon the actual experience of Latinx and all national minorities in this country.  Accordingly, the course will explore legal and public policy concerns in areas such as education, criminal justice, policing, voting and immigration, generally. The learning goals of the course include  understanding the contributions Latinx communities have made to the development of U.S. civil rights and human rights norms and appreciating legal regulations at the intersection of Latino identifiers in race, language and national origin with the protections of anti-discrimination laws. 

Law and Economics

Credits: 3
This course introduces students to the economic analysis of law. It also introduces basic tools from economics that are useful for all lawyers, such as thinking about data in a sophisticated way. Economics has become an important tool for those who want to understand the effect legal rules have on the way people behave. In the class, we will explore the extent to which the principles of economics can be used to explain the workings of the legal system. We will systematically analyze core areas of the law (such as Torts, Contracts, Property, Criminal Law, Civil Procedure), from an economic perspective. The topics covered include the Coase Theorem, the effect of different liability rules, the determination of damages for breach of contract, the setting of optimal criminal sanctions, the economics of legal procedure, and behavioral law and economics. The course is aimed at a general audience of students. No economic background is needed to take it.

Law & Mass Communications

 Credits: 2 
This course explores the law that impacts upon the publication and broadcast of news and related content by traditional media, primarily newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. The course covers defamation, privacy causes of action and related news-gathering torts, journalist’s access to government information and government proceedings, reporters’ privilege to protect confidential sources and material, broadcast regulation, and the impact of new technologies on media law. Some emphasis is placed on the problems of developing a coherent theory of “freedom of the press” in the context of the media today. 

Law & the Humanities (I and II)

Credits: 2 
Books may differ in two courses. Students may enroll in both Law & the Humanities I and II in either sequence. 
Law is not the most effective means of social control. Custom, morality, ethics, religion, and habit are more pervasive and have much to do with the way people act in their day-to-day lives. Though cultures differ radically across the planet, the experience of being a human is remarkably constant in many respects; we are always in the process of trying to become, while culture is affecting us as we affect it. Drama, music, dance, architecture, painting, and literature are some practices which are conventionally labeled as humanities. The course will be concerned primarily with fiction, albeit other domains – painting, film, drama – will also be explored. Fiction is a useful way to explore the experience of being a human in various societies over time and around the world. Illustrative books from past courses (some will be repeated) include: The Book of Job; Aeschylus, The Orestian Trilogy; Plato, Phaedrus; Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter; Dreiser, Sister Carrie; Eliot, Middlemarch; Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov; Morrison, Beloved; Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Mahfouz, Palace Walk; Amado, Captains of the Sands; Allende, The House of Spirits; Gordimer, None to Accompany Me; Roy, The God of Small Things; and McEwan, Atonement.

Law Revision in New Jersey

Credits: 2
Students must enroll in both the classroom component and a field placement.
Statutory drafting requires a precision not demanded by other forms of legal writing.  Every word chosen by the drafter of a statute must mean something unique, and should represent the option least likely to be misunderstood by the reader. Students who take this course will have the opportunity to work with Staff of the New Jersey Law Revision Commission to intensively research various areas of the law and prepare draft statutory language for consideration by the Commission and, ultimately, the Legislature. Students will: identify, research and analyze areas of the law in need of revision; reach out to memebers of the public for input; and draft a report including both explanatory material and proposed statutory language. In order to provide context and support for the students' hands-on experience,  the course will include consideration of: the rolle of statutes and the legislature generally, the legistlative and law revision processes in New Jersey, legislative structure and format, statutory interpretation, and other matters relevant to statutory drafting.

Law of Democracy: Elections & the Political Process

Credits: 3
Course not open to students who have previously taken Election Law & the Political Process.
Provides a comprehensive overview of the political process, and examines the most significant contemporary legal and constitutional issues affecting federal and state elections. The course will cover rights of access to the political process, voting rights, group-based disenfranchisement, as well as structural issues such as campaign finance regulation, redistricting (generally, as well as partisan and race-based redistricting), the role of political parties and Bush v. Gore. The course also will touch on critical aspects of New Jersey’s election law including the nomination process, reporting of campaign contributions and expenditures, pay-to-play, public financing of campaigns, and other significant topics.

Legal Analysis

Credits: 3
Registration possibly required.
This course will extend and polish your analytical skills and understanding of legal concepts as well as make you more aware of the learning process itself. The class reinforces concepts covered in the required curriculum and introduces new legal issues in the core subjects of civil procedure, constitutional law, contracts, criminal law, property, and torts. We will emphasize reading and understanding the facts, reasoning, and conclusions of cases and related legal materials as well as how to organize, present, and evaluate legal arguments gleaned from statutes and regulations as well as cases. Students will be expected to participate in class regularly and frequently write answers to problems both in class and as homework assignments. Students also will write reflective essays concerning the learning process itself.

Legislation

Credits: 3 

Because most law is rooted in statutes passed by legislatures, every lawyer needs a basic understanding of the law and informal norms governing the creation and application of statutory law.  The Legislation course introduces students to the law surrounding legislative bodies and the legislative process, enforcement and application of statutory law by the executive branch, and judicial interpretation of statutes.  
The course will touch on the formal and informal norms regulating the legislative process, including campaign finance regulation, political and race-based gerrymanders, lobbying regulation, and anti-corruption norms, such as conflict of interest and financial disclosure laws.
In addition, the course focuses heavily on application and enforcement of statutory law by administrative agencies and courts.  On the administrative side, the course examines agency interpretation and discretionary enforcement of statutes.  On the judicial side, the course includes comprehensive coverage of the law of statutory interpretation, with topics ranging from textualist and intentionalist interpretive methods, to the canons of statutory interpretation.  

Leiden Study Abroad

 Credits: 11 
This registration is for students enrolled in the cooperative study abroad program at Leiden University, the Netherlands.

Media Law and the First Amendment 

An in-depth look at the development of defamation and privacy law in the United States, New Jersey and New York, largely in the context of classic First Amendment battles over free speech and free press in old-line media and now social media. This will include present-day issues involving liability for misinformation and the continued viability of protections for covering public officials and public issues in cases like New York Times v Sullivan. The class will also cover issues involved with newsgathering and access to information through laws such as FOIA, OPRA and FOIL.  Material in the class can also be applied in the employment and commercial litigation contexts.

Mental Health Law

Credits: 3 
This course will examine various ways in which American law responds to the existence of mental illness. Readings and discussions explore such matters as privacy and the psychiatrist/patient privilege, the psychiatrist’s duty to warn potential victims of a patient’s violent impulses, a patient’s right to refuse medication, the standard for confining those mentally ill individuals who are “dangerous” in mental institutions, and the implications of mental illness for crime and punishment, including such issues as the insanity defense and competency to be executed.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Credits: 3

Mergers & acquisitions (M&A) are crucial events for a firm and lawyers are critically involved in various phases of dealmaking: approach, valuation, structuring, negotiation, and execution. The course will analyze contract, corporate, and securities law issues relating to M&A, including important bodies of law such as merger statutes, the Williams Act, proxy rules, fiduciary duties, and appraisal statutes. The course approach is legal, not financial even though certain basic concepts of accounting and finance will be taught.

Military Law and Justice

Credits: 2
This course will ground the student in the history and tradition of a separate military law for members of the armed forces. The Uniform Code of Military Justice, Court-Martial procedures and evidence, law of war authorities and national security cases will be covered. Each session will contain specific legal concepts relevant to the subject matter. Students will develop a broad appreciation for the importance of a separate law and procedure for members of the armed forces. The final grade will be based on class participation, a presentation to the class and a term paper.

Movement Law

Credits: 1
This seminar will explore the foundations and methods of “Movement Law” —an approach to legal scholarship that builds solidarity, accountability, and engagement with grassroots organizing and left social movements. First, we will begin by studying the rich legacy of scholarship and practice upon which both movement law and movement lawyering have emerged. Then, we will move through the four methodological moves of movement law as outlined by Amna Akbar, Sameer M. Ashar, and Jocelyn Simonson. First, we will identify a series of social movements to engage with for the semester and attend to those movements’ specific modes of resistance. These will include but are not limited to Black Lives Matter, March for Our Lives, Transgender Day of Visibility, and the struggle for independence in Puerto Rico. Second, we will analyze their strategies, tactics, and experiments of resistance and protest through scholarship, primary source documents, and engagement with movement leaders. Third we will explore how these strategies and tactics interpret, reform, or reimagine laws, legal institutions, and the role of the legal professional. Fourth, we will explore practical strategies for producing knowledge with and for the benefit of social movements in the legal academy with accountability and shared autonomy. Together, we will learn how we might displace the legal scholar as the expert on law and social movements and center radically democratic spaces of ideation and struggles for social change. Student final projects will consist of students engaging with the work of a social movement of their choice and producing a substantial piece of writing that employs the four moves of movement law.

Municipal Corporations

Credits: 2
This course will consider the forms and functions of local government, the workings of the legislative, judicial and executive branches thereof, the relationship of local government to county and state authority and the legal issues likely to be involved with all of the foregoing. The course will consider the principal decisions of the United States Supreme Court and the New Jersey courts, with some emphasis given to zoning and planning matters, tort claims and state and federal constitutional issues that have particular relevance to local government.

National Security Law

Credits: 2
This course will explore the ways in which terrorism has challenged the traditional legal constructs of international and domestic law designed to protect national security. It will begin with an historical discussion of the evolution of the international law of sovereignty and war, the doctrine of posse comitatus, and the type of terrorism that has led to today’s war on terror. It will proceed to examine the ways in which acts of terror were handled pre-and-post 9/11, including the passage and implementation of the Patriot Act, the designation of detained individuals as enemy combatants, the use of immigration laws and material witness statutes to detain individuals, and the respective roles of domestic lawmakers and courts, international alliances, and the United Nations in conducting the war on terror.

New Jersey Practice

Credits: 3
To prepare students for the bar examination and in representation of clients in civil actions, the course covers the entire litigation process from initial client interview through standing to sue; personal jurisdiction and service of process; federal removal procedure; complaint, answer, affirmative defenses, counterclaims and crossclaims; venue; joinder of claims and parties; default judgment procedure; motions to dismiss on the pleadings, discovery and summary judgment motions; interrogatories, requests for documents, depositions and requests for admissions; offer of judgment and arbitration; preparation for trial; jury selection, openings, summation and jury verdicts; trial and post-trial motions; attorney fees and interest on judgments and basic appellate rules for trial lawyers.

New Jersey Supreme Court: Powers & Relationships

Credits: 3
This course will explore the powers of the New Jersey Supreme Court under the New Jersey State Constitution and as described in the Court’s opinions; consider representative opinions of the Court and of other State Supreme Courts and the United States Supreme Court in order to understand the interactions between those other Courts and the New Jersey Supreme Court; and, examine the relationships between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government in New Jersey through a review of decisions that directly address those relationships as well as decisions that invalidate acts of the other branches.

New York Practice

Credits: 2 
This course examines New York Civil Practice Law: organization and jurisdiction of the courts; civil actions, process; joinder of parties, claims and remedies, venue; discovery; pretrial motions, including summary judgment; pre-trial conference; consolidation; trial motions; verdicts, finding and judgments; post-trial motions; executions; Article 78 proceedings; contempt; attachment and capias; injunctions and special proceedings; appeals — final, interlocutory and discretionary; scope of review; mandate and judgment.

Non-Profit Corporations/Tax Exempt Organizations

Credits: 2
This course studies the “Independent Sector” of the economy – the non-profit corporation. Areas of study will be the organization, management and governance of such corporations; the indirect subsidy of tax exemption; the scope of charity, both nationally and internationally; and the consequences of such organizations engaging in commercial activities.  
In the winter session, the course is taught as a one-week intensive program in the Dominican Republic, and partners Rutgers Law School with UMDNJ, the NJIT, and Cambiando Vidas, an established 501(c)(3) operating principally in the San Juan de la Maguano region of inland D.R., near the Haitian border. Already a successful home-building non-profit modeled on Habitat-for-Humanity, Cambiando Vidas will work with students from the three Newark universities in the construction of a sturdy, modern home for a poor family in the rural village of Las Charcas. The team from Rutgers will be comprised of 15 upper-level law students, who will spend the mornings each day building the home and mingling with the community, and the afternoons and evenings in the classroom. The class will use the case study as its focal point, examining Cambiando Vidas itself, an established 503(c)(3) charitable organization, and will explore developing two new organizations in partnership with the other student groups participating in the program.
Students interested in participating in this program should know that in addition to tuition charged by Rutgers, Cambiando Vidas charges $1,200 for costs of the trip (not including airfare). If you are interested in taking this class in January, you should contact Dean Rothman (arothman@kinoy.rutgers.edu) as soon as possible, as space is extremely limited.

Non-Profit Law

Credits: 2
This course focuses on the tax treatment of U.S. public charities and private foundations, tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. It provides an analysis of the requirements for federal tax exemption, including the prohibition on private inurement and benefit, excess benefit transactions, lobbying, and political campaign activities; and also includes analysis of the unrelated business income tax, the private foundation excise taxes, and the current tax issues affecting certain public charities, such as donor advised funds and supporting organizations. Additionally, the course will examine a number of legal challenges facing charities around formation, obtaining tax-exempt status, governance, and maintenance of tax-exempt status, and will also include a survey of other tax-exempt organizations as they compare to charities.

The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement

Credits: 1
This course provides an overview of how the Northern Ireland civil rights movement challenged Northern Ireland’s government to end housing and employment discrimination, end gerrymandering of electoral districts, institute a one-person-one-vote system, disband the Ulster Special Constabulary militia, and repeal the Special Powers Act. Special emphasis will be placed on how Northern Ireland civil rights activists modeled the peaceful protest of the U.S. civil rights movement in opposing societal inequality. The course will examine the government’s reliance on laws to perpetuate religious, political, and cultural discrimination, and the government’s misuse of emergency laws to stifle dissent. Students will study cases - for example, the European Court of Human Rights decisions on internment (the Irish State cases I and II), the Coroner’s Verdict in the Ballymurphy Inquest (Lady Chief Justice Siobhan Keegan), and the British Government’s Bloody Sunday Inquiry Report (Chairman, Lord Saville of Newdigate) - that illustrate how certain biased decisions had a long-lasting impact on the justice system. Students will strengthen skills related to legal analysis and real-world problem-solving by learning about the intense legal debate surrounding the unresolved transitional justice, human rights, and rule of law issue from that era: i.e., addressing the legacy of Northern Ireland’s past? The class will be driven by readings, lectures, and class discussions. One hour of class each day will be asynchronous, and it will involve a reading/writing component. The remaining 1 ½ hours of daily class will be virtual and synchronous.

Partnership Tax

Credits: 3

Prerequisite: Federal Income Tax.

This course focuses on the federal income tax treatment of partnerships (including limited liability companies) and partners. It begins with the choice of entity for a new business venture, and then addresses the issues that arise in the formation of a partnership or LLC and in its operation. Covered topics include capital accounts, partnership allocations, contribution of property, partnership liabilities, partner/partnership transactions, sales of partnership interests, distributions to partners, retirement and death of partners, and disguised sales and exchanges.

Patent Law

Credits: 3 or 4 (as designated)
A study of the patent law statutes and case law. The course covers the requisites of patentability, including eligible subject matter, utility, novelty, nonobviousness and disclosure. It then turns to patent enforcement issues, including claim interpretation, the doctrine of equivalents and remedies. The course also addresses the policy underpinnings of the patent system and the international context in which patents operate. The course is designed for a broad range of students, including those who may encounter patent issues as part of a general litigation, corporate or regulatory practice. No scientific, technical or patent background is required.

Patent Litigation

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Patent Law.
This course will review the major events and issues in a typical patent-infringement litigation, beginning with the filing of a complaint and answer, and ending with an appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The topics to be covered include pleading requirements (both as to infringement and defenses), discovery (fact and expert), patent-claim construction (a so-called Markman hearing), and motions for summary judgment (validity, infringement and enforceability). The practical application of key patent law and procedural law concepts will be explored through discussion of key Federal Circuit and Supreme Court decisions.

Patient-Centered Health Law

Credits: 3
This course surveys complex patient-centered legal issues created by the intersection of health law and ethics. Basic tenants of core legal concepts surrounding the interaction between patients and health care providers, from the perspective of the legal professionals advising client-stakeholders, will be introduced during the semester. Students will have the opportunity to learn and comprehend the legal concepts and navigate certain health law issues through practical, scenario-based exercises. Topics covered during the course may include the following: autonomy, informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, provider ethics and liability, guardianship, mental capacity, end of life decision-making, and organ, tissue and other anatomic gifting.

Pharmaceutical Patent Law

Credits: 2
This course is open to students who either: (a) have completed Patent Law; (b) have completed Copyright and Trademark or Business Torts and Intellectual Property and are simultaneously enrolled in Patent Law; or (c) have taken the Patent Bar or are former Patent Examiners.
Compared with other types of companies, pharmaceutical/life science companies face unique challenges in bringing their new products (drugs) to market, and protecting them once they reach the market, due in large part to the convergence of patent, FDA and antitrust laws. This course will study the various statutory and regulatory regimes in play, focusing on real-world problems confronting the industry. Topics include patent litigation between innovators and generics, settlements and antitrust scrutiny; generic biologics; patent prosecution and transactional issues; the branded and generic drug approval processes; and Orange Book listing requirements and strategies.

Political & Corporate Corruption Law

Credits: 2
Law is the primary public tool to meet the challenges posed by political and corporate corruption. Bribery, bid-rigging, undisclosed conflicts of interest, omission of material information from corporate disclosures, legal restraints on political activity by government workers, and the use of campaign contributions to gain political influence are all within the range of laws designed to limit and restrain public and private corruption. This course will examine leading corruption cases including the Watergate and Iran contra scandals; the Enron, Arthur Anderson, Worldcom fraud cases; the Abscam congressional payoff prosecutions, corporate fiduciary duty as seen in the Miliken and Martha Stewart cases; the Trump and Clinton-era impeachment investigations. An important feature of the course will be an extended legal analysis of corruption issues arising out of New Jersey’s political and governmental system. The full range of legal and ethical tools concerning governmental and business corruption will be explored, including the federal Hobbs Act, civil and criminal RICO applied to corporate and political corruption cases; New Jersey’ anti-bribery act; legislative disclosure rules, Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance, the status of “pay to play” donations under anti-bribery laws; obstruction of justice and destruction of corporate records. Constitutional questions as to state/federal enforcement power in political and corporate cases will also be examined.

Poverty Law

Credits: 3
After introduction to the some of the basic currents of American anti-poverty policy, the course will examine federal and state constitutional protections for the poor with regard to housing, access to the courts, access to the political process, and education, among other areas. It will then examine federal social welfare law and programs (both the procedural protections relevant to the award and termination of benefits and some salient substantive provisions). It will then proceed to an examination of the intersection of poverty and race and the application of civil rights law to address issues of particular concern to low-income communities and individuals of color. Finally, in whatever time remains, it may address other issues such as the legal implications of particular interdisciplinary or multifaceted problems such as homelessness or the application of international human rights law regimes on issues of world hunger and global poverty.

Pretrial Criminal Practice

Credits: 2

This course will examine the events that happen in the life of a criminal case before that case is finally tried in Court. Specifically, we will examine, inter alia, initial court appearances and arraignments, bail applications, discovery and inspection in criminal cases, criminal pretrial motions, and plea proceedings. While much of the course will look at criminal cases from the perspective of a criminal defendant, certain vital parts of the prosecutor’s role will also be examined, including the filing of criminal complaints, the securing of arrest warrants, Grand Jury procedures, the procurement of search warrants, and the employment of other investigative tools. The aim is that at the end of the course students will have a good idea of how criminal matters are initiated and how they ultimately make their way to a trial by jury.

Products Liability

Credits: 2 or 3 
This course examines and analyzes the origins and current role of products liability law in American society and discusses current trends in products liability law in Congress and the courts. Additionally, focuses on the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability and the many interesting and complex issues addressed therein from the perspectives of consumers, manufacturers, and plaintiffs’ lawyers. These issues include potential causes of action against manufacturers or distributors of products including: liability for defective products, including standards for determining whether a product is defective (such as strict liability and risk-utility tests); liability for failure to warn of a product’s dangers; and liability for failure to recall a  defective product. Also considers manufacturers’ and distributors’ affirmative defenses to such causes of action, including: statutes of limitation and repose; compliance with the current state of the art; assumption of risk; failure to prove proximate cause; and preemption.

Professional & Academic Development

Credits: 0
This course will introduce and reinforce bar examination study and test taking strategies for the New York and New Jersey bar exams. Students will receive substantial feedback on their written work, and learn the distinct legal writing styles specifically required by the New York and the New Jersey bar exams. This course is designed to complement the commercial courses that are traditionally taken by students each summer. Whereas the summer courses are designed to teach each student the substantive law that may be tested on the bar exam, this course will teach each student how to attack the bar exam itself. This will include teaching students the best study strategies to use during the summer commercial courses, the best test taking strategies for each segment of the respective bar exams, the best way to manage time during the summer and on the bar exam itself, which areas of the substantive law students should focus on and, more importantly, which areas students do not need to focus on. Students will become familiar with what each bar exam requires and, critically, what each bar exam does not require.

Professional Responsibility (2 Credits)

Credits: 2 
Course not open to students who have taken Professional Responsibility.
An introduction to the lawyer’s role and the law governing it, including such subjects as confidentiality, conflicts of interest, the limits of advocacy, lawyer fees, delivery of legal services, malpractice liability, and client misconduct. The course will focus on a series of problems, which will be explored in the light of professional rules, readings, and personal choices.

Professional Responsibility (3 Credits)

Credits: 3 
Course not open to students who have taken Legal Profession.
The number of suits against lawyers is growing, as is the law of malpractice and the involvement of other lawyers representing plaintiffs or defendants. This course considers such issues as the applicable causes of action, suits by non-clients, the role of experts and professional rules, defenses, and the prevention of malpractice.

Punishment & Sentencing

Credits: 3
Punishment and sentencing serve many different functions in society. This course explores connections between specific sentencing rules and the purposes, politics, and practicalities of criminal justice. In this course, we will consider the role of the U.S. Constitution in limiting legislative initiatives and judicial discretion. We will examine federal and state sentencing guidelines; sentencing factors that determine the choice of a penalty for an individual offender; the role of race, class and gender in administration of criminal sentences; death penalty jurisprudence; treatment of sex offenders and other important issues of distribution of criminal punishment today.

Race, Civil Rights, & Equality

Credits: 3
This class will examine the arc of civil rights law and changing conceptions of race and racial equality. A principal goal of the course is to enhance students’ understanding of equal protection doctrine as it applies to race and to develop a critical analysis of that doctrine. Among the topics that will be discussed: how law structures social conceptions of equality and the role that courts can and should play in promoting equality. The course will examine these topics principally through the lens of Supreme Court cases, but will also take an interdisciplinary approach by drawing on social science, historical materials and social commentary on race. The class will also explore the practical aspects of modern civil rights litigation as both a defensive and affirmative tool, with a focus on the civil rights cases from the Supreme Court’s most recent term.

Race, Class, & Metropolitan Equity

Credits: 3
This class examines the role of law and other disciplines in the creation and amelioration of structural inequality. Structural inequality is viewed primarily through the lens of place-based opportunities. That is, we examine the institutional resources available to households, neighborhoods and municipalities where they’re located. We analyze the rules and policies that enhance those resources as well as the barriers that limit them. Among the topics we explore in detail are concentrated wealth and poverty; local land use regulation; public finance; educational equity; racial and economic segregation; state and federal housing policy; public health; infrastructure and transportation. We explore solutions to the disparities affecting different parts of our regions by utilizing the interdisciplinary perspective of metropolitan equity—the range of legal and policy reforms at the regional level that may provide greater social balance, political efficiency and economic opportunity for a changing society. Students are primarily graded on research papers. (This class is associated with the Rutgers Center on Law in Metropolitan Equity and is often cross-listed with other Rutgers University-Newark graduate departments.)

Race, Religion, & Law

Credits: 2
While the black church formed the core of the civil rights movement, with the rise of the black nationalist and black power movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s black freedom activists increasingly rejected Christianity as well as Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Christian inspired emphasis on nonviolence and reconciliation. In this seminar we will explore and interrogate the relationship between the religiously inspired nature of the civil rights movement, the African-American Christian tradition more generally, the ideological commitments of black power activists, and the commitments and goals of the dominant form of race and law scholarship, “Critical Race Theory.” While in light of the richness of our subject matter we are unlikely to arrive at any definite conclusions, students will emerge from this course able to engage the relationship between race and law scholarship, on the one hand, and the African-American Christian tradition and the religiously inspired civil rights movement, on the other.

Real Estate Transactions

Credits: 3 
A survey course encompassing typical residential and commercial transactions, title assurances, and financing techniques.

Redevelopment Law

Credits: 2
This course is oriented toward an understanding and analysis of the context, policy, statutory and case law structure for redevelopment of New Jersey’s urban centers as well as other types of municipalities. This is in the context of New Jersey being the most densely populated state in the country and the Smart Growth trends rendering green fields development more difficult while creating incentives and mechanisms to facilitate redevelopment utilizing existing infrastructure, systems, and resources.

Refugee Law

Credits: 2
This course will examine concepts underlying refugee and humanitarian protection afforded to various classes of immigrants, with an emphasis on United States law and policy. The majority of the course will focus on the law of asylum, a form of relief available to those refugees who have been persecuted in the past or fear future persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. A portion of the course will be devoted to relief under the Convention of Torture. The course will also address practical aspects of refugee representation, including the impact of psychological trauma and cross-cultural communication. Students will engage in experiential learning, for example by observing asylum hearings or visiting a local detention center and will take an exam at the end of the semester. There is no prerequisite for this class, and no prior knowledge of immigration law is presumed.
Students who have enrolled in Asylum Law may not also enroll in Refugee Law.

Regulation of Cryptoassets

Credits: 3
This course explores blockchain technology, decentralized finance, cryptocurrencies, and digital assets. Students will examine financial regulation, securities law, and commodity derivatives regulation applied to crypto-related institutions, assets, and services. The focus of this class is the federal regulatory framework in the United States, U.S. state regulation, international law, and law of the European Union.

The course will begin with a review of technology and consensus protocols, such as proof of work and proof of stake, as well as the variety of regulators that have jurisdiction over digital assets, cryptoasset markets, and their participants. The course will proceed to regulation of banking institutions and payment services, including related cases and administrative actions against crypto and fintech firms. The next part of the course will focus on securities law, the role of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the status of issuers offering cryptoassets and cryptoexchanges providing listing services, and related caselaw. The fourth module will be devoted to commodity regulation and the impact of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on cryptoasset markets and their infrastructure. The fifth module will provide an overview of state regulations, and the sixth part of the course will concentrate on the challenges of international regulation, international institutions, and the European Union laws and regulations.

Regulatory State

Credits: 4
This four-credit course provides an introduction to the institutions and procedures of the federal regulatory state. Although judge-made common law continues to play an important role in the U.S. legal system, many areas of society are governed by statutes that are passed by Congress and implemented by administrative agencies. This course explores the role that Congress, agencies, and courts play in this lawmaking process, and the constitutional law governing these institutions' relationships with one another. The course is open to all upper-level students but will be particularly beneficial for students beginning their second year of studies, as it provides a foundation for upper-level courses in consumer protection, environmental law, financial regulation, tax, and securities regulation. This class may not be taken with, and is not open to students who have previously taken, Administrative Law.

Remedies

Credits: 2 or 3 (as designated)
This course covers the remedies available to successful litigants in civil lawsuits. Subject areas include contract law, sale of goods, real property, and torts. The readings reintroduce students to the most important categories of remedies including compensatory, preventative, restitutionary, punitive and ancillary remedies. In particular, the class will focus on legal and equitable remedies that are available in American courts as well as litigation strategies to achieve an appropriate remedy. Finally, the class discussions in this course will explore the role of the judiciary in American government and society.

Retirement & Welfare Benefit Plans

Credits: 3
This course will cover the federal law governing qualified employer-sponsored retirement plans and, to a lesser extent, other types of employee benefits, such as healthcare plans, group-term life insurance, and dependent care assistance.   It will explore issues from the perspective of large and small businesses sponsoring plans and from the perspective of employees participating in these plans.
We will cover  a variety of topics: various types of retirement plans (including defined benefit plans and 401(k) plans) and of welfare benefit plans (such as flexible spending accounts); rules for vesting and nondiscrimination and limits on  benefits; disclosure requirements and fiduciary responsibilities under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) for sponsors of  retirement or welfare plans; income tax implications for participants; rollovers of retirement benefits to individual retirement accounts (traditional and Roth IRAs) on termination of employment;  required minimum distributions for retired individuals;  the impact of bankruptcy and divorce; and plan terminations and mergers.
While studying current rules, we will also discuss criticisms of these rules and recent reform proposals designed to increase effectiveness, reduce complexity, and limit revenue losses.

Securities Arbitration

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Business Associations.
The course involves analysis of securities arbitration with an emphasis on the practitioner’s role, and considers the procedural and substantive aspects from the perspective of both claimant and defense counsel. This course will explore the laws and rules governing the sales practices and conduct of broker-dealers with respect to the sale of securities to their customers, and will provide an introduction to the causes of action and remedies available to aggrieved customers (and defenses thereto), including securities fraud claims under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5; Securities Act claims under Sections 11 and 12; State Blue Sky laws, and other State statutory and common law causes of action. The course will also focus on the rules and procedure governing arbitration practice before FINRA, including the filing of the Statement of Claim, responding with a Statement of Answer, arbitrator selection, pre-hearing conferences, discovery, pre-hearing motions including discovery motions and motions for subpoenas, witness and final hearing preparation and confirmation of awards.

Securities Litigation

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Business Associations.
Securities fraud litigation has seen significant legal developments in recent years, including a number of high profile cases. This course provides an introduction to the law of securities litigation. Issues covered include securities fraud litigation under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5; Securities Act claims under Sections 11 and 12(a)(2); tender of offer fraud; and proxy fraud. Procedural issues that arise in the class action context will also be included in this analysis. In addition, we will study the enforcement role of the Securities and Exchange Commission and certain issues that arise in criminal law cases. Recent statutory developments, including the Sarbanes Oxley Act, will also be covered. The course involves analysis of securities litigation with an emphasis on the practitioner’s role.

Securities & Capital Market Regulation

Credits: 4
Pre- or corequisite: Business Associations or permission of instructor.
Analyzes the series of statutes collectively referred to as the federal securities laws and examines the structure and practices of the key capital markets. The basic materials are court decisions, the Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and SEC rules and regulation. Areas covered include public offerings of securities, tender offers, regulation of broker-dealers, and continuous disclosure requirements.

Sexuality, Gender Identity, & the Law

Credits: 3
This course explores the different ways in which the law regulates and accounts for sexuality and gender identity. Topics covered include the right to privacy and its impact on the authority of the state to regulate reproductive freedom sexual conduct; the right to equal protection and the permissibility of government-sponsored distinctions on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity; the right to free speech and association of LGBT people (and of those who do not want to associate with them); questions related to the intersection of LGBT rights and religious freedom; issues of employment discrimination by both public and private entities; and, finally, family law issues related to marriage and parenting as they impact LGBT individuals.

Social Media Law

Credits: 2
Social media platforms are used by billions of people around the globe to engage in a vast array of discourse and expression. They are also the center of public scrutiny and rapidly changing legal obligations. This course will offer a practical survey into the legal issues currently facing social media platforms, and thus affecting the people who use these services every day. Topics will include content regulation and moderation law, intellectual property, and data privacy among others. The course will explore these topics under U.S. law as well as under international legal regimes and discuss long-standing precedent alongside recent developments and public debate in the changing landscape of social media law.

Social Security Law

Credits: 3
This course will provide an in-depth introduction to social security law, policy and practice with focus on the Social Security Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs, and, in particular, their disability components. The course will commence with exploration of the historical and social foundations of social security and social insurance for the aged, the difference between social insurance and means-tested or welfare programs, and early constitutional challenges to the Act and the programs’ administration. It will then take a brief look at future issues such as looming debates on social security trust fund long-term solvency and calls for social security privatization. After analysis of major substantive issues in the social security old age and survivors’ programs, the bulk of the course will shift its focus to the largest and most heavily litigated programs in the social security system—the disability programs. After theoretical exploration of the social and legal construction of “disability,” and relationship of social security disability to other sources of disability law and policy, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the course will provide comprehensive examination of the substantive law, elaborate administrative adjudicative system, and federal court judicial review of social security disability claims. 

Sports Law

Credits: 2
This course will provide an overview of the key legal concepts and topics and their intersection into the world of sports. Topics such as antitrust, agency, contract law, regulation, governance, labor law and collective bargaining, media, intellectual property, etc. will be examined in relation to their influence on the management, operation, and regulation of sports. Students will be exposed to a variety of contemporary issues in the field of sports law and provided insight into opportunities in the field.

State & Local Government Law

Credits: 3
Although the focus of many law school courses is on federal law, state and local law actually affect the majority of people most directly and concretely. Local governments and states have substantial law-making and regulatory authority, in areas as diverse as education policy, civil rights, tax law, land use, and environmental issues, and they are responsible for financing and providing most public services. They are also the locus of significant political participation and meaning for voters. This course examines where state and local governments get their substantial law-making and regulatory authority, the limits on the exercises of those powers, and the difficulties that arise when state and local governments have differing political visions. We will consider the forms and types of local governments, how local governments are created and destroyed, the meaning of home rule, the problem of preemption, the basics of municipal finance, and the role of order maintenance and policing in local governance.

State & Local Taxation

Credits: 2
This course focuses on one of the most rapidly growing areas in taxation, examining the major types of taxation imposed and collected by state and local governments. The course will begin with a discussion of the constitutional constraints upon a state’s ability to tax out-of-state corporations based on the corporations’ “minimum contacts” with their state. The course will then focus on particular types of taxation, beginning with Corporate Income, Franchise, and Gross Receipts taxes. In studying such taxes, students will examine how states determine the appropriate proportion of such income taxable by a particular state, and the constraints upon such state determinations. The course will explore Sales/Use taxes, which have become a much greater percentage of corporations’ overall tax liability. Two major issues raised by such taxes are, first, identifying which receipts are taxable, and, second, determining the proper sourcing of receipts. Property taxes, including the different methods of valuing property and questions regarding which items are included in the tax base, will also be covered. Course will conclude with a brief overview of some issues related to payroll taxes. A basic familiarity with state and local taxation is important for anyone currently working in or interested in pursuing a career in taxation, and may well be helpful to students pursuing a corporate transactional practice.

Taxation of Financial Products

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Federal Income Tax.
The taxation of financial products has become an important and sometimes controversial topic during the last decade. Seemingly similar products are often taxed in different ways - why? The proper tax treatment of financial products is often determined by reference to fundamental tax principles, such as the doctrine of substance over form, the nature of true "ownership" for tax purposes, and the "open transaction" principle. This course is an effort to provide a bridge between such fundamental tax principles and the taxation of financial products by applying these fundamental tax principles to sophisticated products. By acquiring a firm grasp of these principles, students will be able to cut through the complex details of financial products and become comfortable with a more intuitive understanding of the proper tax treatment. Topics will include monetization transactions, the constructive ownership rules, original issue discount, and the taxation of derivatives (options, swaps, forward contracts). This course only requires the basic tax course as it builds on the theoretical concepts a student accumulated there and applies them to sophisticated financial products. It will benefit students who want a deeper and more applied understanding of the basic fundamental concepts learned in the basic tax course and will also help students gain a general appreciation for the sophistication of products that currently exist in the marketplace.

Taxation of Donative Transfers & Philanthropy

Credits: 3
This course will examine the life cycle of a gift, with an emphasis on charitable transfers and philanthropy. The course will appeal to students interested in estate planning and working with nonprofit organizations. Part 1, on private donative transfers, will survey the basic structure and operation of federal gift and estate tax, and the perennial controversy over whether the succession of wealth should be taxed at all, and if so, to what extent. Part 2, on charitable contributions, will examine the definition of a charitable gift and the extent of permissible donor control over charitable assets following a completed gift. Part 3, on the legal treatment of nonprofit organizations, will examine the recipients of philanthropy, charitable nonprofit organizations, which collectively comprise 10% of the American economy. This Part will include coverage of entity formation, tax exemption status and scope, and the operation and governance of charitable nonprofits.

Tax Policy

Credits: 3
In this course, we will explore the policy issues that influence our choice of tax laws. We will not focus in any significant detail on the mechanics of the current tax law. Rather, we will spend our time thinking about what the tax law could or should be. Specific topics will include progressivity; tax compliance and complexity; whether a consumption tax (such as a VAT) is desirable as a replacement for, or an addition to, an income tax; tax expenditures; and reform or repeal of the estate tax. Evaluation will be based on class participation and on a final paper, which may be used to satisfy the writing requirement.

Toxic Torts & Toxic Substances Regulation

Credits: 3
Toxic substances present some of the most fascinating and difficult problems in tort litigation and environmental and health regulation. The harmful effects of toxic exposures may not appear until years or decades after initial exposures; thousands or millions of people may be exposed before the dangers become known, creating the prospect of multi-billion-dollar torts litigation; people are exposed to many chemicals and drugs in their lives, often making it hard to establish causal connections with specific exposures; scientific uncertainty is widespread, forcing the tort law and regulatory systems to deal with serious credibility and reliability issues; hundreds of chemicals and drugs do not receive adequate testing before they are marketed; and when a “foreseeability” test is imposed in toxic torts litigation, this requires very expensive evidentiary proceedings about “who knew what when” over a long period of time. This course provides a comparative introduction to toxic torts and regulation. We will consider how these two imperfect legal institutions deal with characteristic problems of toxic exposures and toxic effects, and we will also evaluate these institutions from legal policy and social policy perspectives.

Transitional Justice

Credits: 2
Recently, there has been a proliferation of scholarly studies on the nature and relationships between human rights, justice, truth, and reconciliation in post conflict plural societies, where conflicts have been accompanied by massive violations of human rights. Of special interest is the debate on the balance between justice and truth optimal for state reconstruction and stabilization after the end of conflicts. This course, therefore, interrogates the relationships between justice and peace, and truth and reconciliation with special focus on truth commissions and transitional justice mechanisms recent post conflict states have used to come to terms with past serious violations of human rights.

Transnational Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Credits: 2 or 3 (as designated)
Procedural, strategic, and substantive legal issues that are most likely to confront the American lawyer in handling the resolution of disputes that transcend national borders. Topics explored include the gathering of evidence, privileges and immunities, enforcement of judgments and awards, jurisdiction and access to judicial systems, and the extraterritorial application of domestic laws.

Trusts & Estates

 Credits: 4 
A survey of the law of wills, trusts and other testamentary documents, with an emphasis on state statutes and the Uniform Probate Code. The course also includes some estate and trust administration, guardianships, and some estate and gift tax implications. The tax coverage is limited and will not prepare the students for estate planning.

White Collar Crime

Credits: 2
This course considers the legal, moral, and policy considerations that underlie a number of key white collar criminal offenses, including perjury, mail and securities fraud, false statements, obstruction of justice, bribery, extortion and blackmail, tax evasion, regulatory offenses, money laundering, conspiracy, and RICO. Interwoven will be an ongoing treatment of various issues of corporate and organizational liability, individual liability in an organizational setting, federal jurisdiction over crime, the question of overcriminalization, sentencing, and the role of the white collar prosecutor and defense attorney.

9/11 and Lawfare

Credits: 2 
This course will explore the ways in which the nation's response to the attacks on 9/11 has challenged and in some cases transformed previously settled areas of national security law. The attacks provoked an assertion of executive power that rivaled in scope President Lincoln's assertion of emergency presidential powers during the Civil War. The ensuing intense legal debate has been dubbed Lawfare and has spawned a website devoted to the controversies. The seminar will explore the dimensions of the assertion of executive power by the Bush administration, its modifications under President Obama, and its current status under President Trump. In doing so, it will expose students to the debates surrounding such issues as enhanced interrogation, the use of armed drones, the scope of the authorization for the use of military force adopted after 9/11, the permissibility of widespread surveillance, the justification for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the efficacy of the use of military tribunals to try so-called enemy combatants, and the role of Congress and the courts in providing oversight of executive branch actions.

Access to Justice Seminar

Credits: 2 
This seminar examines the ways in which the courts and the legal profession support or, instead, undermine access to justice. We will engage with current debates on how to reform the courts to promote fairness and equality. We will study the capacity and limits of legal services provided by the market, the government, volunteer work, and non-profits. The course will cover both theoretical and practical perspectives on access to justice, taking a close look at the mechanics of the courts, while also exploring philosophical questions of how to distribute legal services if there is not enough supply to meet demand. Readings will include articles by social scientists and legal scholars, plus some popular media pieces and U.S. Supreme Court opinions. This is a writing-intensive course in which each student will write short commentary on the readings and then a longer paper on a topic of their choice. The final class sessions will be devoted to workshopping students’ papers.

Advanced Immigration and Citizenship Law

Credits: 2 
Pre- or Co-Requisite: Immigration Law.
The Advanced Immigration and Citizenship Law Seminar (“Seminar”) examines selected topics in immigration and nationality law that were not covered in the basic immigration law course.Topics may include birthright citizenship, naturalization, prosecutorial discretion (including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), rights of detainees, rights of undocumented immigrants, intersection of family law and immigration law, intersection of criminal law and immigration law, refugee and asylum law, among others. It is primarily a discussion-based course that requires active participation. 

Advanced Immigration Sanctuary Seminar

Credits: 2 
Pre- or Co-Requisite: Immigration Law [unless given permission by professor(s)]
Advanced Immigration Sanctuary Seminar explores topics and issues in immigration law that focuses on the meaning of the term “sanctuary” in the immigration context. In particular, the course will examine federal, state, and local laws, cases, and policies as well as policies, advocacy efforts, and programs adopted by non-profit organizations, including churches, universities, and private actors. The course will pay particular attention to laws and policies adopted in New Jersey, including the Immigrant Trust Directive and the New Jersey Professional and Occupational Licensing Law. Students will write papers that could satisfy the Graduation Writing Requirement.

Advanced Legal Writing

Credits: 2 
Advanced Legal Writing is a two-credit course designed to build upon the skills taught in LAWRSI and LAWRSII. It is an intensive writing seminar taught with both in-class and online instruction. Each week, students review lectures online, read assigned materials, and write or rewrite an assignment, such as in-class exercises, client letters, parts of a motions brief, and other legal documents.

Advanced Mediation Seminar

Credits: 2 
This seminar addresses a variety of current issues in the practice of mediation. Topics include ethnicity, gender and power in mediation, the scope of confidentiality, the establishment and enforcement of ethical standards, mediation in the community, the role and practice of lawyers in mediation, the use of apology in mediation, the different settings in which mediation can take place, techniques of effective mediation, and mediation and justice. Additional topics are selected during the seminar. Students are expected to conduct independent research on selected topics, report to the seminar, and write a paper on their research. With permission of the instructor, students may conduct empirical research, or may participate in mediation and use their experience, together with other research, as a basis for analysis.

Applied Legal Studies

Applied Legal Studies is a skills-development course with the goal of introducing students to the bar review and bar exam process.  Its focus is on improving the analytical skills, writing skills, memorization skills, and the self-assessment skills needed to do well on bar exam questions, especially essay questions and the multistate practice test.

While the course integrates some of the legal topics covered on the bar exam, the goal of the course is not to provide a review of the substantive material typically studied in preparation for a bar exam. The law we cover will mostly be used as a vehicle for learning the skills necessary to memorize the law and answer essay questions.

Art Law Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar will examine how the law shapes, contours and constrains both the visual arts and artists. Emphasis will be given to issues such as copyright protection for artists; the moral and economic rights of artists; censorship and First Amendment rights of artists; artists’ business relationships; public support for art and the display of art in public places; preservation of art and cultural property; stolen art and forgeries; the international movement of art, repatriation of cultural objects and the illicit international trade in art; and the role of museums in society. In addition to casebook readings and weekly discussions, the class will consider contemporary art controversies as a means of examining these broader issues. Students will participate in a field trip to a local museum or listen to a panel presentation by local gallery owners and museum curators. Requirements for all students include: class participation, an “op-ed” column on an assigned topic to be debated in class, and a research paper. Class size will be limited to 20 students.

Banking Law Seminar

Credits: 2 
Prerequisite: Business Associations. 
This seminar will provide an overview of federal regulation of commercial banking institutions, including such topics as the definition of a bank, geographical product restrictions, mergers of banking institutions and bank holding company regulations. The first half of the semester will consist of readings and lectures intended to introduce students to banking regulation. During the second half, students will be expected to prepare and give presentations on specific issues of current interest.

Business Ethics for Lawyers

Credits: 2

Whether working at a law firm, government agency, non-profit, in-house or other organization, lawyers face ethical and moral dilemmas and special challenges in the practice of law. This business ethics course is designed to bridge the gap between personal moral choices and the business and legal challenges faced by working attorneys. As part of that focus, we will explore dilemmas in navigating ambiguous rules, the adversarial system and the pressures of modern practice, using real-life scenarios and current legal issues. Topics such as ethical decision-making, philosophical ethics, organizational culture, behavioral legal ethics and the interplay between moral principles and the law, will be examined. The goal of the course is to help you identify, understand and resolve ethical and moral issues in a rational, pragmatic and responsible manner in your professional and personal lives. This course includes a student paper, which may be used to satisfy the Graduation Writing Requirement with the prior written permission of the instructor.

Business Planning Seminar

Credits: 2
The seminar will focus on common planning issues facing attorneys representing a private business, large or small, during the various stages of the life of a business, from start up, through stages of growth, to the sale or other disposition of the business. The seminar will also address deadlock amongst owners of a business and succession planning. To assist in the discussion of various issues, each class will center upon a particular set of facts, many of which are based on the actual experiences of the professors or guest speakers. The seminar will touch upon the wide variety of issues confronting counsel for private businesses, including tax, employment, corporation and limited liability company issues. For example, the seminar will review the various factors that affect the decision to organize a new business as a corporation or limited liability company, such as the contributions to the business of the various parties, the nature of the business, the anticipated path to growth of the business and the personal interests of the owners, and the tax and business consequences of this choice of entity. Business Associations is the only prerequisite for the seminar. While specific tax issues will be addressed, a tax course is not a prerequisite. Furthermore, no business experience is necessary.

Child Migration & U.S. Immigration Policy

Credits: 2 or 3*
*Three credit offering includes seminar and trip to Guatemala.
This timely course will examine the factors leading to child migration, with a focus on the recent surge in Central American children coming to the U.S. border alone.  In a weekly two-hour seminar, this course will focus on five main areas: (1) U.S. immigration policy towards children, including substantive law and procedure; (2) current push and pull factors leading to child migration from Central America; (3) the intersection between immigration law and state courts; (4) best practices in working with children in crisis across cultures; and (5) the challenges of reintegration after deportation. The course will be co-taught by professors from Rutgers-Camden and Rutgers-Newark and will be available to students in both locations. Some of the classes also will be led by guest speakers from other disciplines, including a child psychologist, an expert on gang prevention, and a professor of Latin American Studies. There will be no final exam, but students will be required to complete a research paper, which can satisfy the writing requirement.

Child Welfare System Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar will focus on the doctrinal and theoretical issues involved in the child welfare system, as well as some of the issues that occur in practice. Students will study state and federal statutes and case law, as well as various law review articles to gain a comprehensive understanding of how our child welfare system functions to protect abused and neglected children, how the courts operate alongside and in conjunction with this system, and whether all of this state intervention is always in the best interest of the children. As such, there will be classes on the concept of parens patriae and what it means in theory and in practice, how child abuse and neglect are defined, when parental rights should be terminated, what are the rights and entitlements of older youth who are forced to turn 18 as a ward of the state, and whether it is always best for children to be adopted when they cannot return to their biological families, among other topics. In addition, to provide students with a sense of what it is like to be an attorney representing a child, parent, or the state in a child protection matter, we will discuss the roles of each of these lawyers, as well as some of the complicated ethical dilemmas that inevitably arise. Finally, toward the end of the semester, the class will host a panel of attorneys practicing in this area to share some of their insights and experiences.

Children & the Law Seminar

Credits: 3
This seminar, which focuses on material generally not covered in the Family Law course, will examine the constitutional and public framework for allocating power and responsibility among children, the family and the state. Recognizing that parents generally have power to make a wide range of decisions about their children’s lives, this seminar will examine such questions as: When is it appropriate for the state to limit parental power? Under what circumstances should the law give children power to decide certain matters for themselves, and when should children be held responsible for their own actions? What responsibility does and should the state have to provide for children’s needs? The class will explore selected legal topics relevant to these themes, including medical and psychiatric treatment, educational rights, child abuse and neglect, and foster care and adoption. It will also consider the changing nature of childhood and emphasize the sociological and psychological issues raised by the current legal structure. Each student in the seminar will have the opportunity to choose a topic for a class presentation and paper. Recent presentations have included topics such as intersexed children, cyberbullying, anencephalic newborns, undocumented children, the charter school controversy, and international adoption.

Choice of Law

Credits: 2
Choice of Law is a significant topic in Conflict of Laws, which is one of the subjects tested on the New York Bar Exam. (The other Conflict of Laws topics are Personal Jurisdiction and Recognition of Judgments, which are covered in Civil Procedure.)
Choice of law problems arise when the parties and events involved in a case have connections with two or more jurisdictions whose laws would determine the outcome of the case differently. The court hearing the case must choose which jurisdiction’s law to apply. When the jurisdictions are states of the United States, no single choice of law rule or approach exists for the forum state to use in making its choice. This course explains the various rules or approaches state courts use to resolve choice of law problems. One segment of the course traces the development of New York’s approach to choice of law.

Citizens & Policing

Credits: 2
As applied to frequently occurring factual scenarios, this course will enable students to identify information that may assist in a criminal investigation and the legal standards which protect suspect rights and effectively limit law enforcement access to this information. This information may pertain to the identification of a suspect or may consist of the suspect’s statements to informants, alleged accomplices, or law enforcement officers. Students will get some “hands on” experience by drafting applications for to obtain information such as phone records and stored electronic communications and to search physical locations and cell phone content. Students will become familiar with the potential use of the Grand Jury as an investigative tool to acquire documentation and memorialize witness statement. A guest lecturer will describe the use of sequential security camera footage, social media, and technology to circumstantially identify a suspect without use of eyewitness testimony.

Civil/Human Rights Lawyering

Credits: 2
This class will teach you the nuts and bolts of being a civil rights and human rights lawyers. Most law students assume that if a public official violates someone's rights, that the victim will be successful if s/he sues the public official, city, state or country responsible for the violation. It is not that easy. There is an entire body of jurisprudence that every civil rights and human rights lawyer needs to know before filing a lawsuit. Not knowing this law could result in dismissal of an otherwise meritorious case. This class will explore the law surrounding: suing governmental officials and municipal governments, state action, suing private parties for civil rights/human rights abuses, qualified and absolute immunity used by governmental officials to escape liability, using the Alien Tort Statue (ATS) to sue for human rights violations in U.S. Courts, and when to litigate in international human rights tribunals. In addition to focusing on black letter law, this class has a writing component. Students will draft complaints and other pleadings and will engage in oral argument related to the cases that we will be studying.

Cognitive Psychology for Lawyers Seminar

Credits: 2
The last 30 years have seen a veritable explosion of new knowledge and new concepts of how people perceive, think, and decide. These stress that most thinking and deciding is done without conscious thought or rational deliberation. Named in various fields as "the new unconscious," "System 1 and System 2 Thinking," and "behavioral economics" these have revolutionized the varous academic domains where they have appeared. Will they do the same for law? They shed new light on a broad range of legal activities and doctrine - how lawyers persuade judges and juries, how lawyers negotiate, how mediators work, the accuracy of witness memory and perception, the nature of biases, the limits of free will and legal responsibility, and so on. The seminar will explore these topics through books written for the general public by important researchers in the field. The second half of the seminar will be devoted to student reports on approved research projects. Prior familiarity with academic psychology is not required. In fact, a seminar composed of students with a variety of backgrounds and experiences would be desirable. Grading will be on the basis of a paper and class participation. Student papers may be used to satisfy the Graduation Writing Requirement with the prior written permission of the instructor.

Comparative Corporate Governance Seminar

 Credits: 2 
This seminar will investigate and compare standards of performance applied to corporations, and to their governing bodies and executives. The point of departure will be the U.S. system. We will use the UK and France to represent, respectively, the Anglo-Saxon and Continental perspectives, without forgetting the impact of the European Union. To gain a fuller understanding, we will also explore the social, historical and cultural contexts that may help explain differences and similarities. Depending on the particular experience and language skills of seminar participants, we will add other national perspectives as well.

Comparative Law and Jurisprudence: Rights in a Globalizing Legal Culture

Credits: 3
This course focuses on law and jurisprudence from a comparative perspective. We will begin by analyzing law from a theoretical standpoint and continue by examining it through historical and cross-cultural perspectives. On this basis, which offers a general understanding of law and jurisprudence, we will address issues of law/jurisprudence in a comparative fashion, especially in the contemporary context. Taking as an entry point the nature and dynamics of rights and duties in a world going through a process of intensified globalization, we will analyze some of the key aspects of law taken from Europe, the United States, Latin America, and Asia. We will complete the course by exploring what the central questions studied throughout the semester mean for the future of law, both nationally and internationally.

Computer Crimes Seminar

Credits: 2
This course explores the growing field of cybercrime and the Fourth Amendment issues arising in investigations involving computers, digital media and digital communications. Discussion will include both legal and policy issues now encountered by judges, legislators, prosecutors and defense counsel as they react to the ever-growing and changing computer-related crime. We will consider the interplay between traditional laws, investigations and prosecutions, on the one hand, and cyberspace, on the other. Topics include: computer crimes, such as computer hacking, logic bombs, viruses, worms, cyberterrorism, Trojan horses, and identity theft; criminal procedure, such as electronic surveillance and the Fourth Amendment in cyberspace; and policy, including defining what cyber conduct should be criminalized, identifying appropriate resolutions, and discussing civil liberties online.

Confinement, Reentry, & Policy Seminar

Credits: 2
Every day in this country, nearly 1,800 people are released from prisons, jails, and detention facilities – a number likely to rise in the ensuing months with the implementation in California of the “population reduction order” required by the U.S. Supreme Court in this year’s Coleman/Plata decision, and preemptive measures taken elsewhere). In those states with the highest rates of confinement, the communities to which offenders will return are disproportionately poor and racially segregated. Legal, physical, psychological, financial, and social barriers await their return; and, not surprisingly, more than two-thirds of them will “reoffend” within three years of release. In many circles, there is general agreement that the system, with its chronic recidivism and ballooning cost, is “broken” and in critical need of reform. The question that remains hotly debated, and that to which we repeatedly will return over the course of the semester, is “How?”.
As its title suggests, this interdisciplinary seminar examines the roots of the challenges of reentry in the legal history of mass incarceration, while at the same time tracing the contours of policy skirmishes occurring in local, state, and federal arenas regarding “best practices” for addressing this phenomenon.
For our purposes, this requires a study of how law – constitutional, statutory, and judicially-rendered at the local, state, and federal levels – directly impacts communities, public safety, justice, and human development, and also how social categorizations of persons by gender, race, class, and sexuality reflect and refract certain assumptions about deviance and criminality. While the course takes a national arc, our focus will remain local, with appropriate consideration given to New Jersey and New York (in our assigned readings and featured guest speakers). 
In addition to weekly written responses to assigned readings, a final research paper (15+ pages, in the style of a law review/scholarly article) is required (in lieu of an exam).

Constitution and Social Inequality

Credits: 2
Course explores intersections of constitutional law, critical theory, and policy in examining instances of persistent social inequality in the U.S. and comparatively. Topics draw from fourteenth amendment jurisprudence connected to due process and equal protection, including in contexts of economic opportunity, race, gender, and other social dimensions. Students develop research and writing on cutting-edge and current debates on diverse inequalities in law and policy. Writing Intensive.

Constitutional Theory Seminar

Credits: 3

This seminar focuses on constitutional theory and its use in litigation, judicial decisions, legislation, and executive action. Students will learn to effectively weave constitutional theory into their own legal arguments. Topics will include judicial review, court reform, stare decisis, religion, and equality. Perspectives will include originalism and living constitutionalism, pragmatism and legal realism, feminism, and critical race theory. Readings will include recent U.S. Supreme Court opinions, as well as scholarly articles by Amy Coney Barrett, Stephen Breyer, and a diverse array of scholars.

Consumer Finance Law Seminar

Credits: 2
This course explores the state and federal regulation of consumer financial transactions.  These regulations include the Consumer Credit Protection Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.  We will discuss the laws governing both the creation and enforcement of consumer credit contracts, from mortgages to credit cards to payday loans to car loans.  We will discuss particular problems—such as predatory lending, discrimination, and the criminalization of non-payment—and will analyze whether existing regulations are capable of addressing these issues.   

Corporate Compliance & Enterprise Risk Management

Credits: 3
This course examines the rules, policies, and standards that govern the rapidly growing field of corporate compliance and enterprise risk management. It will begin with an overview of the foundations of corporate governance and risk management, especially the role of the board of directors and executive officers, and the nature of the compliance function. It will then delve into the practice of corporate compliance from the point of view of various actors in the compliance arena, such as corporate managers, regulators, prosecutors, gatekeepers (e.g., attorneys and accountants), and whistleblowers. The course will also address specific compliance issues in the financial services and pharmaceutical industries. It will conclude with a consideration of the relationship between ethics and compliance and the particular role of attorneys in enterprise risk management. During the semester, we plan to invite several outside speakers who are leaders in the fields of compliance and risk management. 

Corporate Governance 

Credits: 3
This seminar will explore the rapidly-evolving subject of corporate governance.  Issues we will cover include the roles of directors, officers and shareholders in corporate governance;  the roles of the state and federal governments; the roles of stock exchanges; recent federalization of aspects of corporate governance represented by Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank legislation; executive compensation; board diversity; shareholder activism; corporate philanthropy; sustainability; corporate social responsibility; shareholder proposals; proxy contests; hostile tender offers; and comparative corporate governance.  Course grades will be determined based upon classroom participation and a term paper.

Corporate Social Responsibility Seminar

 Credits: 2
This seminar will explore the role and purpose of the American business corporation in society. In the process, it will consider a range of scholarship from the school of progressive corporate law. Broadly speaking, this scholarship seeks to integrate commitments to social justice into the law that governs U.S. corporations and to challenge concepts that privilege wealth maximization for shareholders over protections for the environment, for human rights, and for the interests of corporate “stakeholders” such as workers, consumers, and local communities. The seminar will also explore case studies of the global CSR movement and investigate new ways to harness the power of corporations to create a more socially just and equitable society.

Criminal Law Theory Seminar

Credits 2
This seminar examines contemporary theoretical debates in criminal law and procedure.  Topics will vary from year to year but may include the criminalization of drug distribution, "stand your ground" rules in self-defense, the role of neuroscience in criminal trials, the ethics of plea bargaining, the challenges of mass incarceration, and the viability of restorative justice.  Readings will focus on recent scholarship.  Leading scholars from nearby law schools may also visit the seminar to present and discuss works in progress.  Students will write a final paper on a topic of their choice. 

Critical Race Theory

Credits: 2 
Critical race theory (CRT) is both a discipline and an intellectual movement that first emerged in American legal scholarship in the late 1980s. CRT investigates the paradox of racism’s persistence despite significant, it not universal, condemnation by state policy and by the norms of polite society. Critical race theory rejects the conventional liberal position that racism is aberrational and isolated, instead taking the position that racism is ordinary and normal in contemporary society, and perhaps integral to social practices and institutions – such as housing patterns, schools, the criminal legal system and capitalism. Different than traditional civil rights, which embraces incrementalism, critical race theory challenges the foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, color-blind approach to solving legal problems, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law. This class will explore the central tenets of CRT, its key writings and application to our most pressing social problems. It also explores CRT’s methodologies for legal scholarship and analysis, including storytelling and narrative.

Cuba Legal Field Study

Credits: 2
Cuba, an island nation neighbor of the United States, just 90 miles off the Florida coast, has a long and complex relationship with the United States.  This relationship has been openly hostile since the success of the Cuban revolution in 1959.  That the proximity of Cuba affects the national security of the US is undisputed.  Likewise, the 11 million inhabitants of the island and the more than 1.3 million Cubans living in the United States have had a dramatic effect on the culture and politics of the United States.  In 1960 the United States imposed an embargo against Cuba.  This embargo, which the Cuban government insisted was a blockade, severely restricts commercial, economic, and financial contact, by persons and entities subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with Cuba.  After 50 years of imposing an embargo which sought to topple the regime, in December 2014 President Obama ordered the restoration of full diplomatic relations and the opening of an embassy in Havana.
This two credit seminar will explore the historical development of Cuba's legal system.  Students will be exposed to the civil law, which is the basis of Cuba's present legal system.  We will examine the evolution of the Cuban constitution and its role in addressing changes in Cuban Society. 

Cultural Heritage Law Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar provides an introduction to the law pertaining to cultural heritage such as ancient artifacts, historical relics, and fine art. Topics covered include illicit antiquities trade, cultural heritage protection in times of armed conflict, repatriation of colonially acquired artifacts, repatriation of Nazi looted objects, repatriation of Native American remains under NAGPRA, bilateral agreements between source and market nations, and the role that museums and auction houses play in the illicit antiquities trade. Each student will submit a scholarly paper on a pertinent topic of their choice. One field trip to a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site will be included.

Cybersecurity & Data Protection

Credits: 2
This seminar explores the growing field of cybersecurity and data protection, covering both the relevant legal and regulatory landscape relevant to cybersecurity, as well as a practical guide to understanding what cybersecurity is, and some fundamental technical concepts. Our goal is to provide a conceptual baseline for students considering one of the many potential attorney-career paths in the field of cybersecurity and data protection. While this course will cover some technical concepts, no prior technical knowledge is required.

Developing a Solo or Small Firm Practice Seminar

Credits: 2
This class focuses on the issues surrounding the development of a solo or small firm practice, spanning legal, business, and ethical concerns, in the context of how to structure a practice, how to build a client base, how to develop a sustainable practice area, and how to manage the practice once up and running. The course is designed particularly for those students who are considering this option, so that the practice they develop can survive and thrive.

Education Law Seminar

Credits: 2 
This seminar deals with the basic legal structure of the public education system and explores a range of current legal and educational policy issues confronting the public schools. These include: various aspects of equal educational opportunity such as school finance reform, and racial and socioeconomic diversity; state-local district relations and responsibility for the quality of education provided; student rights; and pupil classification and other means to meet special pupil needs. To a substantial degree, the seminar uses pending cases and legislative developments to illuminate the issues.

Ethics of Criminal Practice

Credits: 2 
The Ethics of Criminal Practice is a skills-based seminar course that provides students with a concrete understanding of the ethical dilemmas faced by defense attorneys and prosecutors as they navigate the criminal justice system. Frequent simulation exercises, coupled with robust discussions and dynamic guest speakers, provide students with the opportunity to fine tune their ethical compasses, practice their oral advocacy skills, and hone their negotiation abilities. Topics covered will include, among others, client counseling, conflicts of interest, duty of candor, the decision to charge, prosecutorial discretion, plea negotiations, and possibilities for reforming the system.

Elder Law Seminar

Credits: 2 
Elder Law has been part of the curriculum since 1983-84 when the law school was among only a handful to anticipate the emergence of this new area of law. The legal community now recognizes that elder law, while not yet fully delineated, can be a self-contained area of practice in which attorneys may have to deal with their clients holistically. In addition, firms and solo practitioners recognize they can no longer conduct “business as usual” with their older clients without regard to the complex of federal and state statutory and administrative law and public and private institutions to which older Americans are beholden for their daily existence. This seminar explores the resources, issues, and substantive law in representation of older Americans in their quest for economic and personal independence. Topics include income maintenance through devices in the public and private sector; the maintenance of autonomy in the face of increasing vulnerability through use of surrogate decision-making devices; problems of health care and housing; and concerns for dying.

Election Law and Political Process Seminar

Credits: 2 
Course not open to students who have previously taken Law of Democracy: Elections & the Political Process.

A practicum on the law of the political process and democratic self-government, including matters such as voting rights, election law, and campaign finance law. Topics covered include the constitutional aspects of the right to vote, including voter eligibility; legislative redistricting; campaign practices (including campaign finance); administration of the voting process (including rules for voter eligibility, casting, counting, and recounting of ballots, and judicial contests of election results); the path to constitutional amendments; and election reform and modernization. Throughout the course, we will consider the various roles that lawyers play in political advocacy, and the value of movement lawyering.

Federalism Seminar

Credits: 2
Federal-state relations are a subject of great controversy in contemporary political debates and legal discourse, both in the United States and the European Union ("EU"). This seminar will explore the origins and history of federalism, competing theories of federalism, and the current law and practice governing the relationship between the federal and state governments.
This seminar will examine (1) federal preemption of state law, and the intersection of preemption doctrines with both the federal government's preeminent role in foreign relations and federal agencies' broad powers, (2) the scope of federal common law after Erie Railroad v. Tompkins, (3) the dormant Commerce Clause constraints on states, (4) whether and to what extent "political protections" of federalism currently actually exist, (5) contemporary debates regarding the breadth of the Commerce Clause and other enumerated powers, and (6) interstate compacts and interstate compact agencies as mechanisms for federal/state and state-to-state cooperation. The seminar might also explore the EU's model for EU/nation-state relations.
The course will discuss issues that are generally not covered in Constitutional Law or, if they are, only superficially. Moreover, the historical and conceptual portion of the seminar will provide new insights into even those federalism issues that participants have covered in Constitutional Law.

Financial Crisis Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar examine the various financial products, financial institutions, and regulators that played a role in the crisis. We will explore the causes of the financial crisis, will consider whether the response to the financial crisis is adequate to prevent a subsequent crisis, and will explore alternative ways of handling financial firms in distress (including under the Bankruptcy Code). There will be an emphasis on the monetary implications of shadow banking and Dodd-Frank's failure to provide a mechanism for addressing the monetary consequences of defaults by financial firms.

Financial Institutions Seminar

Credits: 2 
Prerequisite: Business Associations. 
This seminar will examine current issues affecting regulations of different institutions providing financial services, specifically focusing on the impact of deregulation on the financial services industry, the existing regulatory structure (administered by the SEC, federal and state bank regulators, stock exchanges, and securities organizations), and recent proposals for functional regulations of financial products.

Financial Regulations and Innovations

Credits: 3

The Financial Regulation and Innovations course introduces students to the system of institutions and regulations in the financial sector. A part of the course focuses on cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and cutting-edge fintech developments. The course covers a broad range of subject areas, including jurisdictional issues, practical regulatory requirements, and obligations imposed on traditional financial institutions and fintech firms.

Students will discuss institutions such as financial holding companies, the Federal Reserve System of the United States, broker-dealers, shadow banking firms, derivatives markets, asset managers, and money markets. Students will also examine the regulation of systemic risk, the functions of market makers and exchanges, the basic concepts of crypto-exchange trading, the regulation of investment advisors, the major developments in traditional and innovative payment systems, the duties and structure of mutual funds, and the regulation of business conduct and market integrity of various institutions in securities, derivatives, and crypto asset markets. The course is designed for students preparing to practice business law, including financial transactions, federal securities regulation, banking law, international and cross-border financial regulation, regulation of fintech and crypto-firms, and derivatives regulation.

Frontiers of Civil Rights

Credits: 2 
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, growing out of a sweeping grassroots civil roots movement, was one of most important pieces of legislation passed in American history. One advocate called it  “Magna Carta Human Rights.”  During its first fifty years it produced enormous changes in legal doctrine, the workplace, and society. At the time of its enactment, there was only limited guidance as to the meaning of key terms in the act such as “discrimination”, “race”, “sex”, and “national origin”.  During this seminar you will learn about the development of these concepts and other parts Act through the interplay of the three branches of government, as navigated by lawyers pressing a robust and dynamic understanding to legal advocacy. You will examine, from a practitioner’s perspective, how social change, evolving ideas of race and gender, sexual orientation, gender identity,  globalization, global conflict, social media, big data and other technology will continue to shape the Act over the next fifty years and consider legal strategies to navigate this terrain.

Gender & the Law Seminar

Credits: 2
Course not open to students who have taken either Sex Discrimination Seminar or Gender, Gender Identity, Sexuality, and the Law Seminar.
This seminar will explore the intersections of law, gender, and sexuality through the frameworks of constitutional law, anti-discrimination law, family law, and legal theory. Topics include employment discrimination, reproductive rights, intimate relationships, violence, and pornography. The seminar will explore throughout these topics legal and social constructions of gender and sexuality, privacy, autonomy, and the intersections of gender, sexuality, class, race, and ethnicity.

Gender, Gender Identity, Sexuality, & the Law Seminar

Credits: 2
Course not open to students who have taken either Sex Discrimination Seminar or Gender & the Law Seminar.
This seminar will explore the intersections of law, gender, gender identity, and sexuality through the frameworks of constitutional law, anti-discrimination law, family law, and legal theory. Topics include employment discrimination, intimate relationships, family, and violence. The seminar will explore throughout these topics legal and social constructions of gender (including gender identity) and sexuality, privacy, autonomy, and the intersections of gender, sexuality, class, race, and ethnicity.

Global Labor Rights Seminar

Credits: 2
There are many current efforts to use law to raise labor standards in the developing world, but little systematic understanding of when such regulation arises and what, if anything, it accomplishes.  We will examine standards of the International Labor Organization; labor rights applied in US courts (US statutes with extraterritorial application; tort and human rights suits against US and foreign employers); labor standards in trade law; labor standards in bilateral trade agreements such as the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation; corporate codes; transnational collective bargaining and framework agreements; consumer boycotts and their settlement.   We will then examine how these diverse actors and doctrines work together, or fail to, when addressing child labor, unsafe workplaces, sexual trafficking and other forced or slave labor, and migrant labor. Students will write a research paper examining one such campaign or litigation.

Hedge Fund & Investment Adviser Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar will focus on the private investment entities commonly referred to as “hedge funds,” as well as registered investment advisers. Hedge funds and their advisers, which heretofore have generally not been registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, play an increasingly influential role in the financial markets. The regulatory framework of hedge funds has been dramatically changed by the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, which generally requires the managers of hedge funds to register as investment advisers with the SEC. The seminar will address the legal and economic issues associated with different forms of private investment entities, such as "traditional" hedge funds and private equity funds, and the distinctions between domestic and offshore funds, and review federal and state regulation of hedge funds and investment advisers, including the new requirements for the registration of hedge fund managers, the consequences of such registration to hedge fund managers, investors, and the financial markets, the various exceptions to registration, best practices in complying with the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and applicable provisions of other federal securities laws. The seminar will explore the process of forming a hedge fund and a private equity fund, the operation of a hedge fund and a private equity fund, including a review of the legal and business issues and associated documents, and the process of registering as an investment adviser. Seminar members will, individually and in teams, participate in negotiations and the drafting of documents.

History of American Corporate Governance Seminar

Credits: 2 
This seminar covers the history of corporate governance and regulation from the framing of the Constitution to the adoption of the New Deal era securities acts. Topics may include theories of the corporate form, the development of general incorporation statutes, innovations in corporate organization, political opposition to corporations, corporate corruption and scandals, women and corporations, the creation of a managerial class, the rise of corporate lawyering, the landmark role of New Jersey in state corporate regulation, and the origins of federal regulation of public companies.

Human Rights Seminar

Credits: 2
Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in 1948, the expansion of human rights law has been impressive: from civil and political rights to social rights and women’s rights, and to areas where even transnational corporations are expected to respect and protect human rights. In parallel, international regimes of human rights protection have also flourished: the United Nations as well as regional courts, such as the European and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Yet, today we witness to an also remarkable pushback against the very idea of human rights. States withdraw from human rights treaties and resist the decisions by international human rights bodies.

This seminar explores the law, theory, and practice of international human rights law, with the goal to provide students with an informed and critical perspective on some of the most pressing issues that human rights law face today. We will review the history and evolution of the international human rights project, the expansion of human rights norms, and the challenges that current events pose to such project, in the United States and elsewhere.

Human Trafficking Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar will examine the international and individual state legal frameworks to combat trafficking in persons around the globe. Topics will include the development and implementation of the Palermo Protocol, individual state responsibility and responses, and substantive and procedural challenges to effective enforcement of available legal measures. In addition, we will examine specific populations and industries particularly affected by trafficking.

Immigration Policy Seminar

Credits: 2
Who should be allowed to come to America: what mix of people who add value to the economy, relatives of Americans, or who? Is the right to migrate a human right Should it be? What drives current patterns of migration, and how responsive are they to legal regulation? Currently, lawful permanent residence status automatically confers the right to stay, work, be removed only for cause, and become a citizen. Should any or all of these questions be decoupled from the others? Should the requirements to become a U.S. citizen be revised? What are the implications of the ease with which individuals may be citizens of more than one country? Will we see increasing numbers of people holding multiple citizenship? Is this a good or bad thing? What is the economic impact on U.S. workers and consumers of current levels and forms of migration? Can the process of permitting employers to sponsor immigrants be made more useful and efficient for them without creating unacceptable risks of job loss or downward wage pressure for U.S. workers? Can fair programs for temporary workers be designed, or are they all exploitative? Must 75% of all agricultural labor be performed by workers without any legal authorization to be here? Can existing labor unions, or new worker organizations, be given a formal role in the immigration process to prevent exploitation of either migrant or US workers? Should the NAFTA countries (Canada, U.S., Mexico) gradually evolve toward a single free labor market on the model of the European Union? Or should border security be made more effective? Should the concept of refugee include a broader range of oppressed people, or remain limited to those who are persecuted for group membership or political opinion? Do state and local governments have any role to play in the regulation of migration?

Institutional Reform Litigation Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar will explore the use of litigation as a vehicle for transformative institutional change on behalf of poor and disenfranchised constituencies. It will examine the role of substantive law, legal procedure and advocacy in advancing client interests as a group. Looking beyond judicial forums, the seminar will examine litigation as a form of public advocacy, as a means to lobby government and as a means to communicate with the press and educate the public. It will consider how recovering attorney’s fees relates to the success or failure of institutional reform. As a model, the seminar will focus on an era of litigation over the last 30 years to change conditions, programs, management and even the governance of jails and prisons, and other law enforcement practices. The seminar will evaluate whether such litigation led to successful periods of institutional reform or created a backlash against perceived judicial activism that diminished the ability of lawyers to protect individual rights. The seminar will include practical considerations in the drafting and functions of a complaint, the assembly of evidence from public documents and client testimony, obtaining discovery and admissions from defendants, the role of experts, initiating and managing negotiations, achieving resolution through trial or consent orders, and the monitoring and enforcement of structural injunctions and other remedial court orders.

International Criminal Law

Credits: 2
This course examines the historical development of international criminal law; the institutions and procedures through which international crimes have been and are currently prosecuted; substantive international crimes including war crimes, crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, genocide, torture, and terrorism; as well as modes of responsibility, available defenses, and sentencing.

International Law & Terrorism Seminar

Credits: 2 
This seminar explores a number of basic questions: What is “terrorism”? Is the term legally meaningful? What other terminology could be used to denote the same phenomena? How can this type of violence be effectively punished and prevented? What is the role of the United Nations and other inter-governmental organizations in this process? What is the role of international law (treaties, customary international law, general principles)? What are the roles of individual states? What limitations does international law place on the means that may be used to respond to such violence?

International Women’s Human Rights Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar will examine questions of women’s human rights in international perspective. One of the most important developments in international law in the last two decades has been its increasing recognition of the universality and centrality of women’s rights. We will examine women’s civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights under international law. Topics will include the Women’s Convention, cultural relativism, religious fundamentalism and women’s rights, the impact of armed conflict on women, the role of women’s organizations, women’s economic rights and empowerment, and violence against women.

Internet Law

Credits: 2 
The Internet as a medium for commerce and communications poses novel legal challenges. This course addresses issues that must be considered when transacting business, offering services, or merely using the Internet. It covers electronic commerce, intellectual property protection, state regulations, contracts, privacy, torts, taxation, speech, crime, security regulations, advertising, and jurisdiction.

Internet Litigation Seminar

Credits: 2 
The Internet interpenetrates all aspects of litigation.  This course addresses issues that must be considered when litigating civil or criminal matters or merely advising clients with respect to litigation from an Internet perspective. It covers basic civil and criminal litigation statutes, rules and regulations with an emphasis on Internet related aspects. The seminar will consider specific litigation issues related  to Internet privacy, electronic commerce, Internet intellectual property violations, Internet torts, taxation of Internet transaction, Internet speech violations, among others.

Islam, Secularism, & Human Rights Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar critically examines the theory and practice of Islamic and secular governance, with special attention devoted to the rights of women and religious minorities. The seminar will draw on international human rights law, comparative constitutional law, and political philosophy to explore the relationship between religion, the state, and the individual. The seminar will relate the laws of selected countries—including the United States, France, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran—to broader intellectual and political movements—including liberalism, republicanism, feminism, multiculturalism, modernism, and fundamentalism.

Issues in Higher Education Law Seminar

Credits: 2
This course examines the legal issues that confront universities and the laws, statutes and regulations that govern them. This is a course more about practice than theory. Rutgers itself will be a semester long case study and students will analyze issues and fact patterns based on matters that were handled by Rutgers’ attorneys or that have otherwise impacted the University. This course will focus on topical issues and study how societal changes and rapid technological developments over the last few decades have translated into legal and policy issues for universities, such as accommodations for students with disabilities; students, faculty or staff and mental health issues; social networks and student life; DMCA and file-sharing; copyright in a digital age; athletic programs and Title 9; FERPA, HIPAA and privacy; Bayh-Dole and commercialization of university intellectual property; ethics of internet research; regulation of animal research and the tension between the free flow of ideas and restriction of the export of certain data and technologies to countries unfriendly to the United State. Students will have the opportunity to choose issues of particular interest to them to research more fully.

Judicial Valuation Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar will examine some of the theories, methodologies, processes, and strategies employed by litigants and courts in legal valuation disputes. Doctrinal areas covered may include corporate appraisal rights, eminent domain, equitable distribution of marital property, estate tax, and damages for antitrust violations, torts, breach of contract, securities fraud, and infringement of intellectual property rights. Students will be required to perform original empirical research concerning how valuation disputes are resolved in a specific doctrinal context and to present their findings to the seminar both orally and in a written paper.

Justice in the Age of AI

Credits: 2

Increasingly, the world is influenced by algorithms used in the many applications we have grown to rely on for work and play. The use of enhanced computing and predictive analytics has transformed our economy and changed our daily lives. There are tremendous opportunities developing from artificial intelligence, big data and algorithms. As a result, we are collectively driven to advance the use of algorithms and associated technologies toward the goal of a more just and dynamic society. The legal profession has a responsibility to be at the forefront of this revolution. This seminar examines a broad range of legal and policy challenges posed by algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and other emergent technologies. This includes regulatory stress on existing frameworks designed to ensure opportunity, nondiscrimination, competition, and justice. Through assigned readings, weekly discussion, and engagement with experts, students will explore the many promises and perils of algorithms and AI.

Jurisprudence

Credits: 2
This seminar is designed as a broad introduction to influential writings on the nature and legitimacy of law. By the conclusion of the semester, students will be familiar with many of the major issues in the philosophy of law and will have a sophisticated understanding of the nature of legal reasoning and argumentation. Particular topics that will be closely considered include the relationship between law and morality, the concept of justice and the authority of law.

Law Against Torture Seminar

Credits: 2
Torture is at the heart of human rights law and activism. This interdisciplinary course will explore selected topics (legal, moral, historical, psychological, inter alia) arising from the practice of torture and efforts to define and prohibit it. United States, international, and some comparative law will be considered. Topics will include the Convention Against Torture; the Geneva Conventions; cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment; rendition; non-refoulement; accountability; rape as torture, intelligence gathering, and national security; targeted killings, and other unintended consequences; the historical contexts of both torture and the campaigns to prohibit it.

Law & Finance of Mergers & Acquisitions Seminar

Credits: 2
In this course, we will read and discuss scholarship in the fields of law, finance and law and economics relating to mergers and acquisitions. The seminar will deal with issues such as the impact of M&A on corporate constituencies (shareholders, directors, managers, employees, customers and communities), the structural elements of M&A deals, financial evaluation, implementation, as well as in-depth analysis of some recent M&A contract.
Each week, students will be assigned an article and a short reaction paper (2-4 pages), which will be discussed in class. At the end of the seminar, students will write a paper of no more than 12 pages on a topic of their choice among those that were touched upon during the seminar. Thirty-five percent of the final grade will depend on the weekly papers, 15% on class participation and the remainder on the final paper.

Law and Literature

Credits: 2
Starting from Mitchell Travis' seminal article "Making Space: Law and Science Fiction," this particular course will expose the upper-division law student to ideas, iterations, and manifestations contemporary with current and classic science fiction novels, short stories, and graphic novellas. We will challenge such concepts as “humanity,” “alienness,” “civilization,” “anarchy,” and, of course, “time and space” towards understanding the legal and power structures each author chooses to instantiate. Authors read for this course will include Margaret Atwood, Frank Herbert, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ted Chiang, and N.K. Jemison, among others. We will question the experiences and expectations presented by each author in order to imagine how law resolves (or exacerbates) conflict, power is retained (or lost), and “reality”is manifest in the near- and long-term future(s). Students will acquire research and writing skills in narrative structure and in literary theory, including the ability to find and apply critical works by Foucault, Baudrillard, Lyotard, Jameson, and other relevant postmodern theorists in the development of their original legal scholarship. Student comprehension will ultimately be evaluated through a “ready for publication” seminar paper that brings contemporary, or perhaps even-future-oriented, legal analyses to a problem or set of problems identified through the texts. This course fulfills the Writing Intensive requirement as described in Appendix B of the Law School Academic Rules.

Law & Public Policy Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar will focus on developing an understanding of the relationship between law, public policy and politics. We will explore this in the context of concrete policy issues currently being debated in the state of New Jersey, including but not limited to public employee pension and benefit reform, education reform and marriage equality. The student will learn the skill set necessary to conduct an analysis of specific public policy issues, identify emerging issues and evaluate why some issues reach the forefront of the public agenda. A heavy emphasis will be placed on the student actively participating during class since oral communication is an essential skill for the lawyer who wishes to shape and advance public policy. The course will include interactive discussions of fundamental concepts illustrated by concrete policy decisions, guest speakers, and written assignments. Evaluation will be based on class participation, a short written assignment and a project focusing on a major public policy issue currently being debated in state of New Jersey that will be presented in a paper and to the class.

Law and Religion Seminar

Credits: 2
This course focuses on historical and current interpretations of the free exercise and establishment clauses of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. It begins with a focus on the meaning of free exercise and no establishment of religion in the early period of the Republic. With this background in view, the course will trace the development of free exercise and establishment clause jurisprudence, including relevant statutes, up to the present period. Topics will include, among others, religious exemptions from general laws, Sabbath day observance, proselytism, the role of religion in public education, religious displays in public life, and the extent to which religious institutions may regulate employment according to their religious beliefs.

Law of War Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar critically examines the most important unresolved issues in international law regarding the use of armed force, the conduct of hostilities, and the aftermath of armed conflict. Topics may include anticipatory self-defense, humanitarian intervention, targeted killing, proportionality, force protection, human shields, military occupation, and war crimes.

Law of Work and Care

Credits: 2
This course focuses on racial, gender, and economic justice issues at intersections of the legal regulation of work and care provision. The course focuses on the U.S. context and includes global and comparative perspectives.

Law, the Holocaust, and Genocide Prevention 

Credits: 2

Law, the Holocaust, and Genocide Prevention, will study the role of law and lawyers and judges in both facilitating genocide and investigating and prosecuting it.  We will examine the persecution of the Jewish communities in Nazi Germany and the participation of lawyers in the planning and execution of the so-called Final Solution.  We will then focus on the Nuremberg international tribunal established by the United States, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union to prosecute and punish major war criminals of the European Axis powers.  Students will study the case brought against Nazi leaders prosecuted by Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, and the role of military lawyers in prosecuting and defending Nazis accused of war crimes.  The course will then turn to an examination of the efforts since World War Two to define genocide as a crime, to study and identify the root causes of genocide, and to prosecute and prevent it.  The Cambodian, Rwandan, and Serbian cases will be examined.  The course will be driven by readings, class discussion and student presentations.  Students may opt to fulfill the writing requirement.  By the end of the semester, students will understand legal concepts related to international law, military commissions and genocide, and strengthen skills related to legal analysis and reasoning and real-world problem-solving.  

Lawyers in Fiction Seminar

Credits: 2
We will read and discuss classic and contemporary works in which lawyers appear as characters. Among the possible authors (in alphabetical order) are Honoré de Balzac, John Barth, Albert Camus, William Gaddis, Jane Gardam, Henry James, Franz Kafka, Harper Lee, Herman Melville, and Leo Tolstoy. In addition to enjoying and understanding these works, we will focus on the character and problems of the lawyers they depict.  There will be a few side readings from the legal literature, such as part of Marc Galanter’s survey of lawyer jokes. Graduate students from outside the law school are encouraged to enroll. In addition to short weekly emailed responses to assigned readings, students will write and rewrite a paper instead of taking an exam.

Low Income Housing Seminar

Credits: 2

The Low Income Housing Seminar critically explores the ways in which we provide housing for the families and individuals with income substantially below the  median income of the United States. The seminar explores both the private and publci methods of providing such housing, from the private rental market to privately-provided housing using a variety of public subsidies to public housing. The seminar looks at the interplay between income and race, and the impact of discrimination on housing opportunities and on homelessness. Because of the crisis created by the Covid-19 virus, the Fall 2020 seminar will emphasize the impact of the crisis on low-income housing. Each student will be expected to write a paper on some aspect of the Covid-19 crisis and the impact of the crisis on low -income housing and families and individuals.This seminar is an Upper Level Intensive Writing Seminar for all enrolled students and will satisfy one of the two intensive writing experiences required of each student after completion of  the required courses. 

Mastering Appellate Advocacy

Credits: 2

This course, open to members of the Rutgers's national appellate advocacy team, will focus on sharpening written and oral appellate advocacy skills with a focus on U.S. Supreme Court litigation.  This intensive skills course involves drafting a full merits brief in a current U.S. Supreme Court case, writing workshops, and oral advocacy exercises honing oral advocacy skills.  Students will learn the practical details of appellate advocacy by examining appellate briefs from some of the nation's top appellate advocates and analyzing appellate arguments by U.S. Supreme Court practitioners

Moral Puzzles of Criminal Law Seminar

Credits: 2
Seminar participants may, but are not required to, satisfy a senior writing requirment by the seminar final paper. This seminar will explore and compare a number of legal and moral concepts. Can someone “cause” a result by doing nothing? How should the law treat a person who did the right thing but for a wrong reason? Should people be able to consent to actions that would hurt them? These are only some of the questions that will be discussed. In addition to cases and theoretical works, the seminar materials include movies, popular legal non-fiction, and news stories.

Native American Law

Credits: 2
This course is aimed at a comprehensive understanding of Native American law, the history that has formed this law, and the impact on Tribal Nations and communities. Native American Law is, in a sense, the most all-encompassing of any field of law, as it necessarily entails the study of the Constitution, federalism and the federal system, international law, the full span of American (and colonial) legal and political history, criminal and civil law and jurisdiction, etc. Due in large part to its all–encompassing nature, Native American Law, even at the highest federal level, has had and continues to have direct, immediate, and long–lasting impact on the lives of Native people in this country. The course will explore the divisions and contentions among Tribal, federal and state governments, and unravel the coded language of colonialism by delving into the history of Native Peoples prior to colonization, understanding the intricacies of Tribal sovereignty, dissecting landmark Federal "Indian law" cases, and going "behind the scenes" of these cases to examine the lives of the people and Native communities at the heart of pivotal Supreme Court cases.

Patient Centered Health Law

Credits: 2

This course provides a foundation in the basic tenets of Autonomy and Informed Consent, Privacy, Confidentiality, Provider Ethics and Liability, End of Life Decision-making, Withdrawal of Treatment, Capacity, Mental Health, Guardianship and Special Medical Guardianship, as well as other health law and bioethics related topics by means of readings, lectures and presentations from instructors, and potentially practitioners in the fields of medicine, health law, public health, bioethics and allied fields. Students will be expected to be actively engaged in class discussions. Evaluation will be based on class participation, mock case consultation scenarios in which each student shall play the role of counsel or co-counsel at least once, current event analysis and presentation, and a paper that will be presented to the class.

Police Misconduct Law and Policy

Credits: 2

This seminar will address numerous legal and policy issues at the heart of modern controversies in American policing.  In particular, we will study tools commonly used to combat alleged police misconduct, including class actions, criminal prosecutions, anti-discrimination legislation, and investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice.  Case studies will include the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program, the suspicionless surveillance of Muslim communities in New Jersey and New York, and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in response to the deaths of unarmed civilians in Ferguson and Baltimore.

Pretrial Justice Reform Seminar

Credits: 2
New Jersey’s new pretrial justice statutes place it on the cutting edge in answering the questions: can states fairly hold people in jail who have been charged with, but not convicted of, crimes? And, if so, under what conditions and after what sort of process? In this course we will examine the problems that led New Jersey to abandon its reliance on money bail and break ground with its new system of pretrial detention and release. We will study the mechanics of the system, focusing on the statutes, the Court Rules and the emerging case law. Each student will be required to write an original research paper or draft two briefs on selected issues relating to the implementation of bail reform. Guest lecturers will include prosecutors, defense attorneys,  and members of the Judiciary.

Problem Solving Justice Seminar

Credits: 2
This course will introduce and examine problem solving courts as social change agents. It will also explore the pros and cons of both traditional courts and problem solving courts through in depth discussions. Students will learn about the emergence of therapeutic courts as alternative models. They will evaluate problem solving courts impact on the adversarial system of traditional courts. The course, among other things, will examine: Do these courts violate a defendant’s constitutional rights? Does the judge lose their neutrality in the problem solving model? What branch of government is better suited to address social ills? These issues will be explored through scheduled debates, classroom discussions and two papers. Students who take this class will also gain first-hand knowledge through court visits and guest speakers.

Property, Race, and Social Identity

Credits: 2
This course explores the intersection of property law and social identity, including race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, disability and gender, the legal framework of dispossession, the relationship of property to space and place-making, and the intersection of property law with revolution and repair. Special attention will be paid to how each of these experiences has been at the locus of recent social events including the Black Lives Matter movement. Different frameworks, such as comparative and international law, and critical race theory, will provide students with a way to explore issues beyond those explored in the first-year property law course. Students will examine policy related to cutting-edge issues, including environmental justice, real estate transactions, commodification of the body, and land-use law.

Public Education Law Seminar

Credits: 2 
This seminar deals with the basic legal structure of the public education system and explores a range of current legal and educational policy issues confronting the public schools. These include: various aspects of equal educational opportunity such as school finance reform, and racial and socioeconomic diversity; state-local district relations and responsibility for the quality of education provided; student rights; and pupil classification and other means to meet special pupil needs. To a substantial degree, the seminar uses pending cases and legislative developments to illuminate the issues.

Public Finance & Social Infrastructure Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar provides an introduction to the role and evolution of public debt in advancing crucial social infrastructure projects such as highways, rails, schools, waste treatment facilities and fire houses at the federal, local and state level. Review of both academic materials and specific case studies will provide a practitioner’s perspective into the difference between pay-as-you financing and issuance of public debt, mechanics and constitutionality of public financing, and challenges and limitations faced by governments in striking the right balance between necessity versus over reliance on public debt. This seminar will require a 25-page paper to be submitted by students at the end of the semester.

Public Interest Law Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar will explore a number of areas of public interest law that are currently being considered by the courts. Topics will be chosen in large part based upon the students’ interests, but are likely to include such issues as same-sex marriage, creation of DNA databases, government surveillance in a post‐911 world, and race and gender discrimination. We will also be hosting moot court arguments of public interest cases coming before the New Jersey Supreme Court with the attorneys arguing the actual cases for the public interest side. The judges will be ex‐justices of the New Jersey Supreme Court, retired Appellate Division judges, and various law professors and experts in the respective areas of law. After the mock arguments, the justices and our class will analyze the arguments to help the attorneys prepare for their actual Supreme Court appearances.

Race, Gender, & Tort Law Seminar

Credits: 2 
This seminar explores how harms involving race and gender are treated under tort law. We will attempt to define the nature of race and gender-based injuries, and evaluate the adequacy of existing tort law to address them. Through an examination of specific topics, we will consider issues such as the effect of race and gender on the development of causes of action and standards of conduct, the relationship between tort law and civil rights remedies, and questions involving damages and non-discrimination in jury selection. Problems of essentialism and the intersection of race and gender will be addressed.

Race, Law, & Politics Seminar

Credits: 2
In this seminar, we will examine the extent to which President Obama’s election satisfies the goals of the Civil Rights Movement and the aspirations of American Civil Rights Law. As part of our discussion, we will explore how American Law took up the goal of racial integration, the extent to which its integrative agenda has been achieved, and the adequacy or inadequacy of American Law on such topics as majority-minority districts, reverse discrimination claims, and affirmative action. Our discussion of these issues will include analysis of their relationship to identity politics, and potential directions forward in light of President Obama’s historic election.

Role of the General Counsel Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar replicates the general counsel’s office of a major corporation and acquaints students with a large transaction and its attendant legal and practical problems. It also replicates the day-to-day activities of such an office. The emphasis is on a transaction and other events which pose issues of corporate law and governance. Seminar members are expected to work individually and in teams, to present materials both orally and in writing, and to play active roles in the issues under consideration.

Science & International Law Seminar

Credits: 2 
This seminar will explore international and comparative law aspects of scientific advances, with particular focus on biotechnology. It will consider issues in the areas of international trade, patent law, international public health, and international environmental law. A science background is not required.

Second Amendment Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar will examine the emerging treatment of the firearms freedom by the judiciary in light of District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago. Topics will include the text and history of the Second Amendment, state constitutional and statutory provisions. The constitutional theories support the enforcement of the right to bear arms, including the incorporation doctrine and the privileges and immunities clause, will be discussed. The seminar will also examine any emerging doctrinal trends that determine whether future governmental regulation affecting this nascent individual constitutional right are permissible.

Sentencing and the Criminal Justice System

Credits: 2
This course will focus on the role of sentencing in the criminal justice system. It will explore theories of punishment and the purposes and goals of a sentencing structure. It will analyze the pros and cons of offender-based v. offense-based sentencing paradigms. The course will also examine the appropriate considerations in the imposition of sentence in criminal cases and the role of plea bargaining. This will include the concepts of aggravating and mitigating factors and the roles of prosecutors and defense attorneys in the process. Finally, the course will discuss judges and juries as sentencing decision makers.

Sex Discrimination Seminar

Credits: 2
Course not open to students who have taken either Gender & the Law Seminar or Gender, Gender Identity, Sexuality, & the Law Seminar.
This seminar will explore the intersections of law, gender, and sexuality through the frameworks of constitutional law, anti-discrimination law, family law, and legal theory. Topics include employment discrimination, reproductive rights, intimate relationships, violence, and pornography. The seminar will explore throughout these topics legal and social constructions of gender and sexuality, privacy, autonomy, and the intersections of gender, sexuality, class, race, and ethnicity.

Social Media and Terrorism

Credits: 2

This course will examine the impact of international and U.S law on the content of social media.  The use of platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter by ISIS and like-minded groups has raised many challenging questions regarding the repercussions of extreme speech across borders. Among other factors, the proliferation of social media has exposed the limits of unilateral content legislation and put the struggle to accommodate competing interests of free speech, privacy and security in stark relief. Further, the anonymity afforded by social media has made ‘extreme’ speech and incitement of violence effortless and, in some cases, beyond the realms of traditional law. The aim of this course is to examine the need for a fresh approach and the potential role technology may play in curbing extreme speech.

South African Constitutional Law

Credits: 2
Enrollment by permission of instructor.
This course introduces students to South African Constitutional Law. The course begins with an introduction to the history of South Africa (as it relates to the development of the country's Constitution) and to the jurisprudence of the country's Constitutional Court. Over Spring break the class travels as a group to South Africa to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges facing the country and of the ways in which the country's Constitution is shaping its response to those challenges.

Special Education Law Seminar

Credits: 2
The course will start with an historical examination of the public education system’s treatment of children with disabilities, and the subsequent federal legislative response to the inadequate educational opportunities afforded them (namely the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (“IDEA”) and its predecessor Acts, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans With Disabilities Act (“ADA”)). We then will cover each step of the special education process, including “child find,” evaluation, eligibility and classification, individualized educational program (“IEP”) development, student discipline, procedural safeguards, court proceedings, available remedies, and the meaning of the statutory requirement that schools provide “a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment.” At each stage, we will examine the applicable statutory law and regulations, the seminal cases governing the particular area and the relevant policy issues.  
This course is open to all students, whether or not they are taking the Education and Health Law Clinic. All students who are taking the Education and Health Law Clinic for the first time must take this course simultaneously, if they have not taken the class previously.

State & Local Government

Credits: 2
This seminar provides an introduction to the role of state government as it pertains to issues including but not limited to taxation, environment, health care, infrastructure and education. Review of both academic materials and specific case studies will provide a practitioner’s perspective on the fast changing public policy and political paradigm in state government and examine its concomitant effects. This seminar will require a paper to be submitted by students at the end of the semester.

State & Local Government Law

Credits: 3
Although the focus of many law school courses is on federal law, state and local law actually affect the majority of people most directly and concretely. Local governments and states have substantial law-making and regulatory authority, in areas as diverse as education policy, civil rights, tax law, land use, and environmental issues, and they are responsible for financing and providing most public services. They are also the locus of significant political participation and meaning for voters. This course examines where state and local governments get their substantial law-making and regulatory authority, the limits on the exercises of those powers, and the difficulties that arise when state and local governments have differing political visions. We will consider the forms and types of local governments, how local governments are created and destroyed, the meaning of home rule, the problem of preemption, the basics of municipal finance, and the role of order maintenance and policing in local governance.

The Thirteenth Amendment: Past, Present, and Future

Credits: 2
The Thirteenth Amendment singlehandedly transformed the Constitution of the United States from that of a slave nation to that of a modern republic. It is the only rights guarantee that protects not only against government, but also against private concentrations of power including multi-national corporations. It contains terms, for example “involuntary” and “servitude,” that – in other contexts – have sparked intense debate among philosophers and policy makers. And it has spawned a doctrinal concept, the “badges and incidents of slavery” that appears potentially expansive. Yet, the Thirteenth Amendment exerts very little influence on law or social practice. How did this situation come about? How might it be changed? This seminar will approach the Amendment as a case study in constitutional interpretation and politics. We will examine the past, the present, and – to the best of our ability – the future of the Amendment, including the prospects for expanding its role in attacking present-day forms of exploitation and subjugation for example mass incarceration, human trafficking, and limitations on the celebratory display of confederate symbols.

Trump and the Law Seminar

2 Credits

Is Donald Trump a threat to the rule of law? Is the Trump presidency an extraordinary event or the product of long term trends in American law and politics? How has the Trump presidency shaped law in the United States? What comes after Trump? This two-credit seminar will explore the rise of Trumpism, the major legal controversies of the Trump administration, and Trump's impact on American law via readings in law, political science, and political theory. Students will be required to complete a series of brief response papers and a 7,500 word seminar paper.

U.S. Legal Thought Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar provides an introduction to the most important approaches found in 20th century legal scholarship, including Legal Realism, Legal Process, Law and Economics, Law and Society, and Critical theorists. We will study the 20 classic articles found inThe Canon of American Legal Thought (David Kennedy & William W. Fisher III eds., 2006) (Princeton University Press), which range from Holmes to John Dewey to Lon Fuller to Ronald Coase to Duncan Kennedy to Catherine McKinnon. This collection was first created to help students from abroad to understand the contemporary United States legal system, and is equally illuminating for those who know more about our law than about the ideas scholars and practitioners deploy to analyze and change it. Our goal will be to understand what these scholars are saying and relate their thought to broader social concerns and developments.

Urban Law & Policy Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar will briefly introduce urban theory and different approaches to urban planning. After this introduction, the class will explore the history of cities in New Jersey, focusing on Newark's development from the first New Jersey Constitution to the present. Next, using Newark as a case study, the class will discuss state and local efforts to redevelop urban areas, to provide educational opportunities in urban areas, to combat urban crime, as well as the effect of New Jersey's affordable housing law on urban areas. Several guest speakers are expected to join the class discussions on these various topics.

Van-dwelling and the Law Seminar

Credits: 2

This law and society seminar will explore the legal issues related to the growing van-dwelling movement. The seminar will explore the economic, housing, environmental and other factors that have fueled the movement as well as the opportunities presented by the internet and the gig economy that have enabled millions of Americans to move into vehicles. Legal topics covered will include land use laws such as those governing open lands, labor laws governing the gig and mobile work economy, social security law and laws pertaining to privacy. Students will write a paper and make a class presentation. Students may elect to write a paper of sufficient length and depth to satisfy the writing requirement, but this is not required for the seminar.

Wrongful Convictions

Credits: 2
This course is about the conviction and incarceration of the factually innocent in the American criminal justice system. We will examine how and why wrongful convictions occur, the sources of error (e.g., eyewitness mis-identifications, false confessions, perjured testimony from jailhouse informants, police and prosecutorial misconduct, etc), and what can be done to minimize future errors. It will be taught as a seminar, paper required, or a two credit course with an examination, at the option of the instructor.

Youth Critical Legal Studies

Credits: 2
This seminar will explore the material oppression of youth under U.S. law and elevate the youth movements that radically reimagine the possibilities for law and society. Using critical legal studies, critical race theory, movement law, children and the law, and education studies, we will analyze the resistance, strategies, and experiments of mobilized youth who have contested oppression under the law and exclusion from legal epistemology. The course will begin with the role of youth in the creation of the US Constitution, the abolition of enslavement, and the resistance to the genocide of indigenous peoples. The course will end with the freedom dreams of 21st century, mobilized youth who organize from the classrooms of segregated schools to the beaches of Puerto Rico, to reconceptualize of intergenerational justice under the law. Together, we will study, write, and engage in discussions with youth movement leaders and allied legal practitioners and scholars. This seminar is a writing-intensive course in which each student will write a short commentary on the readings and then a longer paper on a topic of their choice. Each student will be responsible for facilitating a class discussion and will have the opportunity to elevate a youth movement of their choice. The final class sessions will be devoted to workshopping students’ papers.

Youth, Rights, and Race Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar explores the history, legal doctrine, and politics of juvenile justice in the United States. It begins by examining the legal, social, and historical underpinnings of the juvenile court and the due process revolution of the 20th century. We next turn to the social- and neuroscience of adolescence and to the U.S. Supreme Court’s evolving jurisprudence of youth. Current issues and challenges facing the juvenile justice system follow, including such topics as prosecution of children in adult court, the unique obligations of juvenile defenders and prosecutors, and mass incarceration and the decarceration movement. The final segment of the course focuses on racial and ethnic disparities, implicit and explicit bias, and strategies for achieving equal justice. The course features numerous guest speakers and at least one field trip, if student schedules permit. Students will participate in several simulation exercises and may choose to write either a traditional research paper or a juvenile justice policy reform proposal.

Accounting and Financial Statement Analysis

Credits: 3 
The course not open to students who have previously taken Legal Accounting or Financial Statement Analysis.
Accounting and finance issues arise in a number of contexts, including business law, corporations, compliance, contracts, securities law, litigation, trusts and estates, family law, and others. This course is intended for students who have never studied accounting. The course covers essential accounting principles and standards, double-entry bookkeeping, financial statement preparation, key components of financial statements, valuation principles, finance theory, corporate finance, application of accounting principles in contracts and litigation, and the role of lawyers, auditors, and other gatekeepers.

Administrative Law Research

Credits: 1
Prerequisite: LAWRS I & II.
Students will study the theory, methodology, and research environment associated with performing administrative law research. The course will focus on both federal and New Jersey administrative research resources. Students will gain hands-on experience in finding and utilizing administrative law resources in both print and online formats. There will be short weekly in-class and take home assignments to help students master the use of relevant research tools. Each student will produce a legal memorandum that addresses and analyzes an administrative law problem

Advanced Intellectual Property

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Copyright and Trademark, or Business Torts  and Intellectual Property, or Patent Law.
Provides an intensive study of issues and concerns pertaining to the prosecution, protection, exploitation, and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Practices and procedures important to obtaining, using, protecting, and defending the use of ideas, trade secrets, copyrights, patents, and trademarks are examined. Students develop their transactional, negotiation, and litigation skills through preparation of documents and mock negotiation. Current developments in intellectual property law are reviewed and integrated into the course study.

Advanced Legal Research

Credits: 2

The objective of this seminar is to give students an in-depth knowledge of general legal research tools and a good working knowledge of advanced legal research tools available in a variety of areas of practice.  By the end of the course, students will be able to identify pertinent primary and secondary sources and will be able to choose the best sources given practical considerations of time, cost, and availability of sources.  Both online and hard copy resources will be examined.

Advanced Legislative Research

Credits: 1 
This one-credit intensive course will be offered during the summer session. Instruction will consist of lectures and direct research over three class days. Students will study the theory and methodology of performing legislative research and compiling legislative histories and learn to use legislative research as a tool for legal advocacy. The course will focus on federal legislative materials as well as legislative documents in New Jersey and New York. Students will gain hands-on experience utilizing the resources of the Rutgers Law Library and the library’s computer labs and examine legislative documents in both print and online formats. Each student will produce a legal memorandum that analyzes the legislative history of a particular statute.

Advanced Topics in Criminal Law Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar will examine a range of selected issues dealt with only in passing, if at all, in the first-year Criminal Law course. The overarching purpose of the course will be to explore the moral concepts that underlie the substantive criminal law, particularly those of harm, culpability, and wrongfulness. We will deal with issues involving both the “general part” of the criminal law (the part that deals with general rules and principles that apply to some or all of the range of criminal offenses) and its “special part” (the part that identifies and defines the specific offenses that are subject to criminal sanctions). Among the topics dealt with will be the nature and purposes of punishment, the act requirement, omission liability, causation, legality, complicity, inchoate liability, justification, excuse, the codification of criminal law, and various specific offenses such as homicide, rape, and theft.

Advanced Trial Practice

Credits: 2
Prerequisites: Trial Presentation and Evidence.
Advanced Trial Practice will afford students the opportunity to refine their litigation skills and to explore more advanced aspects of trial advocacy, such as jury selection, case theory and strategy, the ways in which jurors process information, working with experts, principles of persuasion, storytelling and narrative, and the use of computers in the courtroom. All students will be involved in weekly in-class simulations. Judges and practicing attorneys will attend classes frequently and speak on different aspects of trials, and will help to critique the students as they do the class exercises.

Advocacy in International Law

Credits: 2
The course will focus on the sources of international law and their application in addressing world order problems.  In particular, we will explore legal research methods, legal writing and oral advocacy skills in the area of public international law, such as preparation of written petitions and memorials, presentation of oral arguments, and 

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Credits: 3 
This course introduces law students to the range of dispute resolution processes increasingly in use both within and outside of the courts. These techniques – including negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and so-called hybrid processes such as early neutral evaluation, summary jury trials, and mini-trials — have been incorporated into both state and federal court programs and may be available through private providers. Under a recently-adopted New Jersey Court Rule, lawyers are urged to “become familiar with available CDR (Complementary Dispute Resolution) programs and inform their clients of them.”

Anatomy of a Civil Case

Credits: 2
This skills seminar will utilize a semester-long simulation to take the class through all of the practical and strategic aspects of a relatively simple personal injury action.  The class will be divided into teams representing the plaintiffs or defendants throughout the semester.  In these capacities, students will interview their respective clients; draft a complaint or answer; engage in fact investigation, including an inspection of the scene of the accident; work with experts to develop a theory of the case and produce expert reports; conduct and defend a deposition; argue or defend against a motion for summary judgment; engage in settlement negotiations; and conduct an abbreviated trial.

Antitrust Practicum

Credits: 1
Co-requisite: Antitrust.
This is a one credit skills add-on to the Antitrust course in which students engage in mock counseling and negotiation exercises involving antitrust issues in a business context. This course must be taken concurrently with Antitrust taught by Professor Rossner.

Appellate Advocacy

Credits: 3 
A study of appellate practice and procedure, brief writing, and oral advocacy through both lectures and practical experiences. Each student is given the record of an actual case and is required to prepare a full brief and present an oral argument.

Appellate Advocacy Strategies

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Appellate Advocacy.
This course is an advanced course in appellate advocacy open to second and third year students and those selected for the National Appellate Team. Students will have an opportunity to improve appellate advocacy skills by working on a brief in a mock appellate case, with individual tutorial oversight, and then presenting the oral argument in a mock setting. Aside from the individualized feedback on the brief and oral arguments, an instructional component will address advances strategies for advocacy in the appellate setting, including analyzing the substantive and procedural issues raised by the case and the most effective strategy for advancing your client’s cause, both in writing and at argument.

Assisted Reproduction

Credits: 2
This course will explore the emerging and evolving law of Assisted and Third-Party Reproduction. Through case law, statutory law and other resources, the course will examine Gestational and Traditional/Genetic Surrogacy; Donor Contracts; and Parentage issues arising out of ART. Cutting edge issues such as postmortem donation; disposition of genetic material in divorce; ethical issues in emerging ART technologies and the rights of donor conceived children will be discussed. The class will also become acquainted with the medicine and science of assisted and third-party reproduction necessary to represent clients in these matters. In-class exercises will include contract drafting for a variety of ART matters.

Business Immigration Law and Skills

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Immigration Law.
This course provides analysis of the laws and regulations governing temporary and permanent immigration to the United States, based upon employment and business relationships. Particular attention will be paid to the practical application of successful immigration strategies utilized by employers and business owners, in this current immigration climate. While the course will cover the full panoply of employment-based immigration strategies, we will focus on H, E, L, O, P, and TN non-immigrant visas, EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, and EB-5 immigrant visas, and the Permanent Labor Certification process. Students will learn how to counsel corporate clients pursuant to ever-evolving fact patterns – essentially simulating real world legal representation. Risks and perils of employment-based immigration will also be analyzed, specifically from the T visa employee-trafficking perspective. We will also explore relevant changes, policies and proposals affecting U.S. business immigration law. 

Child Welfare Law

Credit: 2

The child welfare law seminar will focus on the history of child welfare law in this country both at the federal and state level.  Students will read federal and state statutes and regulations, case law, and a variety of law review articles and reports concerning the current state of our child welfare systems.  The seminar will explore the leading federal legislation over the last fifty years, as well as different trends and issues with regard to child welfare systems, including the disproportionately of children and families of color involved with our child welfare systems , the special needs of older and young children in foster care, special protections for Native American children, and the intersection of immigration law and child welfare law.  When this seminar is taught as a skills course, students also will study the attorney/child client relationship, particularly an attorney's obligation under Rule 1.14, how to interview a child client, and the anatomy of either a child abuse and neglect fact-finding hearing or a termination of parental rights trial.  There will be a take-home final worth 50% of the grade.  The other 50% of a student's grade will be based upon several skills exercises, short reflection papers, and class participation.

Civil Litigation Practice and Strategy

Credit: 2
This course will focus on practical aspects of civil litigation tactics and techniques, such as the “how to” of interviewing clients and case evaluations, drafting effective pleadings, obtaining temporary restraining orders and other emergent relief, effective discovery planning, witness preparation, conducting and defending depositions, retaining and using expert witnesses, motion strategy and practice, and more. The course will integrate the study both the Federal and New Jersey Rules of Court governing civil litigation with the practical considerations of using those rules strategically in both the federal and states courts of New Jersey. Instruction will include both lecture and mock skills exercises and will include analysis of the divergence between civil practice in New Jersey Superior Court and the U.S. District Court.

Consumer Fraud Act Litigation

Credits: 2
This course will focus on the law and practice of consumer fraud litigation in New Jersey, a practice which is important to attorneys practicing at solo and small firms. Students will gain a proficiency in analyzing and initiating consumer fraud cases through a comprehensive examination of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and associated New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs regulations, as well as other consumer protection statutes, relevant case law and the practical application in the litigation context. The course will also focus on the practice aspects of consumer fraud litigation, through discussion and fact based problem solving exercises geared towards developing the skills needed for assessment and initiation of consumer fraud cases from review and analysis of transaction documents to identify viable claims through to the drafting a complaint.

Contract Drafting & Negotiation

Credits: 2 
Contract drafting and negotiation is one of the most significant and critical functions of an attorney - applicable to both litigators and transactional attorneys. This course will help students develop their contract drafting and negotiation skills. This will be accomplished by contracting drafting assignments, mock negotiations, critique sessions, and classroom lectures. Students will learn both the mechanics and the art of contract drafting and negotiation.

Corporate & Commercial Mediation

Credits: 2
This course will focus on the theory and practice of mediation and will address the legal, ethical, and practical issues that arise during the course of a mediation. It will explore the each stage of a mediation and compare and contrast a mediation with an arbitration or trial and will focus on the skills one must acquire to facilitate a successful conclusion of the mediation. This will satisfy the skills requirement.

Criminal Motion Practice

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Evidence
Criminal Motions Practice will focus on the theory, practice and strategies involving criminal practice in New Jersey. Students will study the New Jersey Rules of Criminal Procedure, prepare pleadings and litigate motions in a mock court setting. Beyond the craft of drafting and oral advocacy, students will develop the strategy of criminal motions – the “why” as well as the “how”.

Criminal Trial Practice

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Evidence
Through a case-study analysis, this experiential course provides students with an opportunity to develop skills required to be an effective advocate in criminal proceedings. From the inception of a case through the conclusion of a verdict, classes focus on topics including supporting an investigation, fact analysis, preparation and examination of witnesses, motion practice and statements/arguments to a jury. In addition, this course will also address issues related to bail hearings, jury selection, admission of evidence and responding to evidentiary objections. While classes include explanatory lectures and demonstrations, students will conduct several exercises functioning as advocates.

Criminal Trial Presentation

Credits: 2 
Prerequisite: Evidence.
Practice in preparing for and conducting criminal trials with systematic study of problems of gathering evidence, strategy in planning the trial, order of proof, empaneling a jury, openings to jury, direct and cross-examination, and summations.

Discovery & Pretrial Process

Credits: 2
This is an advanced skills course in civil litigation focused on pretrial proceedings and the strategy and use of discovery. Students will draft discovery devices such as interrogatories, requests for documents and requests for admissions, participate in oral and written exercises, including client interviews, depositions, and arguing discovery disputes, and observe court proceedings and will receive individualized feedback on the performances. In addition, the course will include lectures and readings on relevant topics. Enrollment limited to 14 students.

Domestic Violence Seminar

Credits: 2
The course examines evolving conceptions of the family, gender discrimination, the relationship of legal theory to legal practice and the interplay between social science and the law. The course also assesses the legal and educational reforms that have been developed to combat domestic violence and the role of law in advancing social change. During the course, students are challenged to take on the role of legal advocate in the context of family, civil and criminal cases. They draft motions, responses and briefs and then present their arguments before their classmates. Additionally, students are also required to draft court opinions on pleading and evidentiary issues. These case exercises allow students to begin to fully appreciate the nuances and critical considerations involved when advancing and protecting a victim’s interests in a legal forum.

Drafting Entertainment & IP Contracts

Credits: 2

This course will concentrate on contract drafting relating to both the entertainment industry and intellectual property transactions generally. We will explore the key elements of contract drafting and the relationship between the business transaction and the contract which accurately reflects the parties’ understanding. Students will learn the skills of how to draft and recognize nuances in language that change the deal, how to discern and resolve business issues and the basics of licensing, work for hire, and option agreements. By the end of this course, students should be able to identify, understand, analyze, and propose solutions to the most common issues that arise in the day-to-day practice of entertainment and IP transactional law. It would be helpful, but not essential, if the student has previously taken a course in copyright or trademark law.

Elder Law

Credits: 2
This class will cover the substantive areas of law and skill sets most needed by practitioners of Elder Law.  Topics will focus on representing clients as they age: income security and Social Security benefits;  basic asset planning and protections against spousal impoverishment; health care and long term care needs, including Medicare and Medicaid; the ethical implications of representing client’s with diminished capacity and supported decision-making options; end-of-life planning; family law issues in the context of elder law representation; and protections pertaining to financial exploitation, neglect and abuse of older adults.  The class will use a variety of simulation techniques including case studies, interviewing skills, drafting POAs and Advanced Directives, and litigation strategies in administrative fair hearings.

Electronic Discovery

Credits: 2
This course explores an essential element in modern litigation – the discovery and use of electronic information (emails, databases, and other digital data sources). Recent changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, as well as changing judicial attitudes toward best practices in this area will be examined. For litigators of the future, basic skill in this area will be critical to success.

Emerging Tools and Technologies in Legal Practice

Credits: 2
In this course, you will get hands-on experience using a cutting-edge tool like ChatGPT to assist in drafting a legal document. We will explore the ways in which ChatGPT and other emerging technologies might help lawyers conduct more efficient research, analysis, writing, and editing, and we will also identify and discuss the legal and ethical issues associated with using these tools in a legal practice setting.

Employment Litigation Skills

Credits: 2
Through the use of a hypothetical case, students will engage in the full adjudication process from commencement of a lawsuit to its resolution. At the beginning of the semester, students will be assigned a specific case to adjudicate (either employer or employee side). Students will identify the key issues, develop the case strategy, and be assessed on their ability to execute that strategy throughout the semester including negotiating a settlement if that would serve their client’s best interests. Depending on the decisions made by the lawyering teams, students may have opportunities to represent their clients in simulated negotiation, mediation, state and federal agency proceedings, and in state and federal court. The instructors, as practicing attorneys will offer instruction in practical skills directly related to the progress of the simulation (such as strategic and tactical factors, settlement negotiations, etc.). Some attention will be given to the unique considerations involved in representing public sector employees and employers. Throughout this two credit course, students will have opportunities to craft their strategies and hone their skills.

Evidentiary Issues at Trial

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Evidence. Students who are enrolled in Advanced Trial Practice Seminar may not enroll in this course.
This two and a half-day evidence advocacy program focuses on special evidence issues presented at trial with respect to the legal and presentation issues that commonly arise using business records, photographs, illustrative and demonstrative aids, and summary charts. The program includes a legal and strategy analysis of the evidence advocacy issues presented by specific problems and then participants will offer the exhibits into evidence through relevant witnesses in a simulated trial setting in small group performance workshops. The analysis and performance workshops will be supplemented by a lecture on the effective advocacy with exhibits at trial, using exhibits in the courtroom, the relevant evidentiary and presentation issues presented by the specific exhibits.

Fact Investigation

Credits: 3 
Cases are determined by applying a set of rules or laws to the particular facts of a controversy. In the cases studied in previous courses, facts were provided by appellate courts in their opinions. As a case develops at trial, however, the facts are provided not by the court, but by the attorney. This course explores the process by which factual information is obtained, the manner in which facts shape legal claims, and, in turn, the way in which legal issues shape factual investigation and the presentation of facts at trial.

First Amendment & Free Expression 

Credits: 2 
Liberty of speech, thought, and association are the first and greatest of American fundamental rights. This seminar explores the rights of freedom of speech and freedom of association in a variety of contexts. The issues covered include political and “seditious” speech, political protest, artistic expression, associational rights (including those pertaining to personal  relationships, such as same-sex unions), political expenditures and contributions as a form of speech, defamation and press freedom, obscene speech and pornography (and more generally sexual expression in the media), hate speech, and Internet content regulation. 

Food & Drug Regulation Law

Credits: 3 
A course in the federal regulation of food, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices four of our most vital industries. The seminar is designed to provide an understanding of the statutory provisions and administrative actions that govern marketing of these critical consumer products. It deals with development of federal regulatory controls, pursuant to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, with particular focus on the response of Congress to such problems as the use of chemical additives in food, the assurance of the safety and effectiveness of drugs and medical devices, and the safety of cosmetic ingredients. A study of both case law and administrative rule-making is undertaken by examining a variety of actions taken by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in implementing the Act. The seminar is presented to reflect the concerns of the regulated industries as well as those of the FDA.

Government Affairs & Lobbying

Credits: 2

In this course, students will be exposed to the role of the lawyer-lobbyist in policymaking on the state and local level. Students will gain a core understanding of government affairs and procedures, as well as the advocacy and lobbying tools and strategies needed in order to have an impact on public policy. Students will practice advocacy and writing skills through exercises and assignments and will meet with lobbyists and elected officials.

Foreign, Comparative, & International Legal Research

Credits: 1
As the practice of law becomes increasingly influenced by extra-judicial or extra-national events and organizations, knowledge of foreign, comparative, and international legal research becomes increasingly important. This course introduces upper-class students to the research strategies and resources useful in the study of transnational legal organizations, foreign jurisdictions, and public international law. Upon completing this course, students should be able to identify and evaluate research resources for public international law, the laws of foreign jurisdictions, and legal materials from international and non-governmental organizations.

Intensive Criminal Trial Advocacy

Credits: 2 
Prerequisite: Evidence.
This intensive skills course focuses on the procedure, strategy evidence and advocacy techniques for a criminal jury trial.  Students will study trial techniques through conducting mock trial exercises with faculty critique and through lectures and demonstrations by practicing lawyers.  These lectures and workshops include developing a case theory, direct and cross examination, exhibit presentation, opening and closing statements.  Students will conduct a mock criminal jury trial at the end of the course. The course is designed for students whose primary career interest is criminal trial practice (either as a prosecutor or a defense lawyer). 

Intensive Deposition Advocacy

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Evidence is preferred, but students who have not taken evidence may be granted permission to enroll.
Students who have taken Fact Investigation may not enroll in this course.
This four day intensive deposition course focuses on effectively eliciting relevant information and obtaining admissions through depositions. Participants will enhance their deposition information gathering through frequent opportunities to conduct deposition examinations and defend depositions in a simulated deposition setting, followed by faculty commentary and critique. Strategy sessions will include legal analysis of the issues in the case, developing working theories of the case, planning deposition strategy, and effective use of documents and information previously obtained through discovery. Lectures on several topics relevant to effective depositions will supplement participant performances and faculty critique. The exercises will focus on witness preparation, dealing with preliminary matters, a technique for effectively eliciting complete information from witnesses, using exhibits, dealing with obstreperous opposing counsel, obtaining admissions and theory testing.

Intensive Trial Advocacy

Credits: 2

Prerequisite: Evidence

This skills course will focus on the procedure, strategy, and evidentiary issues involved in presenting a case to a jury, whether in the civil or criminal context. Course will include lectures, discussion workshops, and practical skills workshops in a mock trial setting.

Students who have taken Trial Presentation may not take this course.

International Alternative Dispute Resolution

Credits: 2
This course will explore the distinctive fora, processes, and law governing alternative dispute resolution in the international context by examining the entire dispute resolution process from beginning to end, i.e., from drafting alternative dispute resolution clauses to enforcement of awards or settlements. The course will focus on these issues in the commercial context. There will also be an emphasis upon different forms of dispute resolution such as mediation and arbitration and the cultural differences of which international practitioners should be aware. Students may be invited to participate in an international mediation competition in the spring semester.

International Court Advocacy

Credits: 2

The course will focus on the sources of international law and their application in addressing world order problems.  In particular, we will explore legal research methods, legal writing and oral advocacy skills in the area of public international law, such as preparation of written petitions and memorials, presentation of oral arguments, and general international lawyering skills.  These skills will be explored through various exercises (both written and oral) which will be both conducted prior to and during class.  Students participating in the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition are required to take this course.

Labor & Employment Arbitration Seminar

Credits: 2 
This seminar will consider practice and procedure in public and private sector labor arbitration, and mandatory arbitration agreements for non-union employees. The purpose of the seminar is to study the practical and legal aspects of the arbitration process, and to consider the differences between labor arbitration in a union setting, and mandatory arbitration for non-union employees. Among the topics discussed will be: sources of arbitration law, discovery techniques, submission of an issue to arbitration, conduct of the hearing, rules of evidence, burdens of proof, remedies, and the enforcement and vacation of an arbitrator’s award. Each student will be required to attend one actual arbitration and to write a post-hearing brief. Guest lecturers will include a labor arbitrator and a Superior Court Judge.

Labor Negotiations Seminar

Credits: 2 
This seminar will present an overview of the case law in the public and private sectors on negotiations practice and procedure, and a practical application of the law. Students will initially participate in a few short mock negotiations. For the remainder of the semester, students will be broken into teams and will negotiate an actual labor contract. The last day of the semester students will negotiate, as in actual labor negotiations, until a final agreement is reached. Students will each be required to write a memorandum of agreement memorializing the agreement reached. During the semester, students will be required to solve a few short problems regarding scope of negotiations issues that grow out of semester long negotiations. They will be required to research a short legal memorandum for each problem. Guest lecturers will include a mediator and a union and/or management negotiator.

Law of the Sea

Credits: 2
The law of the sea is of rising importance especially since the ocean represents 70% of our planet. This 2-credit introductory course will provide an overview of the history of the law of the sea in the lead up to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which is the main legal framework governing all activities in the ocean and seas. The course will introduce aspects of the current legal regime, including activities of coastal states, establishment of maritime boundaries and economic zones, freedom of navigation, maritime security, and marine environmental protection. Finally, the course will also look at dispute resolution options stemming from UNCLOS and at emerging issues in ocean governance including the fisheries regime. This is a skills course whereby students will be asked to actively participate in class as a major component of their grade and engage in mock debates/negotiations. They will be asked to produce two assignments (a midterm and final) advocating for a particular issue law of sea issue.

Legislative Advocacy

Credits: 2
Incorporating the law, politics, and communications, this is not your parents' course on how a bill becomes a law. Students will learn the steps, challenges and solutions to passing legislation from an insider's perspective, using a multi-faceted approach that reaches beyond a classical roadmap. Using the New Jersey legislature as a prime focus, this course will provide a hands-on experience in how to draft legislation, work with legislative leadership and committees, involve interest groups, influence public opinion, deal with opponents, and earn the support of officials and staff from across the political spectrum. Speakers will include officials, staff, and other opinion leaders. The course will include at least one visit to the State House in Trenton. The final paper will consist of a proposal for legislation and a plan to get it passed, based on skills taught in the class.

Legislative Drafting

Credits: 2
The course will focus upon the study of statutes generally, with a goal of developing facility in reading and understanding statutes as well as writing them. We will examine the sources from which statutes are often derived, the different kinds of statutes (i.e., criminal, civil, administrative, etc.), current styles in statutory writing, and the parts of a statute and their functions. Students will attempt to write a statute on a subject that presents difficult problems in order to explore the kinds of issue that must be addressed in statutory drafting.

Legislative Research

Credit: 1
Prerequisite: LAWRS I & II.
This intensive course will consist of lectures and direct research over three class days. Students will study the theory and methodology of performing legislative research and compiling legislative histories and learn to use legislative research as a tool for legal advocacy. The course will focus on federal legislative materials as well as legislative documents in New Jersey and New York. Students will gain hands-on experience utilizing the resources of the Rutgers Law Library and the library’s computer labs and examine legislative documents in both print and online formats. Each student will produce a legal memorandum that analyzes the legislative history of a particular statute. This course will be graded Pass/Fail. Enrollment in this course is limited.

Mastering Trial Advocacy Skills II

Credits: 2 Mastering Trial Advocacy I and II are advanced trial practice courses open only to members of the National Mock Trial Team. The courses focus on preparing and presentinga case at trial, including analyzing and developing legal, factual and persuasive theories of the case for trial by critically examining key evidence and facts in the context of the controlling law; advocating persuasively in the courtroom; evaluating evidential issues involved in the case by determining relevant Federal Rules of Evidence and applying them to the facts of the case, structuring the presentation of evidence at trial to use the Federal Rules of Evidence as tools of persuasion by learning to formulate and make appropriate objections and responses to objections; conducting persuasive direct and cross examinations; crafting and presenting; conducting witness preparation consistent with effective advocacy and the Rules of Professional Conduct, and conducting a full trial of a case. The course will provide participants with significant opportunities to perform in a simulated trial setting, followed by individual faculty critique. These performance exercises will be supplemented with lectures on specific issues relating to effective trial practice. Mastering Trial Ad I is a prerequisite to Mastering Trial Ad II. Evidence is co-requisite of Mastering Trial Ad I and a prerequisite of Trial Ad II.

Matrimonial Litigation

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Family Law.
This course aims at familiarizing the students with matrimonial litigation practice. Specifically, the students will learn all procedural aspects associated with the commencement of a divorce action and the related pre-trial motion practice necessary to prepare a divorce action for trial. The students will then be taught substantive law in four key areas of New Jersey family practice litigation: equitable distribution, custody, alimony and child support, and attorney’s fees. Finally, each student will be given an opportunity to draft and argue before a New Jersey Superior Court Judge three distinct motions: an application for pendente lite relief, one to enforce court ordered obligations, and an in limine application to address trial related issues.

Mediation

Credits: 2 or 3 (as designated)
Mediation, in which a neutral third party assists people in resolving their disputes, has witnessed a phenomenal growth in the last few years. Many court systems use mediation as a way to settle cases without a trial. Lawyers may urge their clients to try mediation to get better agreements less expensively, without the hostility and aggravation that often accompany litigation. The practice of mediation seems to be on its way to becoming a profession. Even if they do not act as mediators themselves, lawyers may find themselves representing parties in mediation sessions or drafting mediation clauses for contracts. But mediation raises substantial questions about fairness, accuracy, confidentiality, equity, and differences in power: Should it replace the traditional ways of resolving disputes? This course will cover the key skills that mediators should have, using simulated mediations in which students will participate. It will also cover the conceptual issues that should be understood to make sound judgments about the use of mediation. After initial skills training in the course, students may have the opportunity to act as mediators in real disputes, such as those pending in small claims courts, municipal courts, and other venues. Students should have enough flexibility in their schedules to make themselves available for this kind of work. 
 This course may be used to satisfy part of the requirements for the Certificate in Conflict Management. It is designed to follow up in a more intensive way some of the concepts introduced in Alternative Dispute Resolution, and may be of particular interest to students who have taken, or are concurrently taking, that course but Alternative Dispute Resolution is not required.

Mediation Skills Practicum

Credits: 2 credits
This skills course provides an opportunity for students to develop skills as a mediator, through both simulation-based training on the mediation process and then serving as a mediator in the Superior Court Mediation Program for small claims matters. Students will begin with lecture and simulation-based training on the role of and skills needed to be an effective mediator, the ethical and regulatory rules governing mediation, an introduction to small claims court, and the primary legal issues that students will encounter. Through a series of simulated exercises, students will develop their mediation skills. Students will then mediate cases for litigants in small claims Court, with supervision, through the Court’s Mediation Program.

National Security

National Security Credits: 4 This course will explore the ways in which terrorism has challenged the traditional legal constructs of international and domestic law designed to protect national security. It will begin with an historical discussion of the evolution of the international law of sovereignty and war, the doctrine of posse comitatus, and the type of terrorism that has led to today’s war on terror. It will proceed to examine the ways in which acts of terror were handled pre-and-post 9/11, including the passage and implementation of the Patriot Act, the designation of detained individuals as enemy combatants, the use of immigration laws and material witness statutes to detain individuals, and the respective roles of domestic lawmakers and courts, international alliances, and the United Nations in conducting the war on terror.

Negotiations

Credits: 3 
Lawyers may negotiate more than they engage in any other single task. Arranging business deals, setting the terms of employment (both union and non-union), transferring real estate, guiding divorces, setting all kinds of civil litigation, and plea bargaining are all familiar features of lawyers’ work. Good negotiating involves both skill and understanding of what one is doing. This course pays attention to both. Students participate in and critique several simulated negotiation exercises, drawn from varied aspects of legal practice. The course also surveys key modern ideas about negotiation. The last few decades have seen a substantial growth in the breadth and richness of negotiation theory, and the course will pay attention to how theory can usefully inform practice. This course is designed to follow up in a more intensive way some of the concepts introduced in Alternative Dispute Resolution, but Alternative Dispute Resolution is not a prerequisite.

New Jersey Practice Skills

Credits: 2 
To prepare students for the bar examination and in representation of clients in civil actions, the course covers the entire litigation process from initial client interview through standing to sue; personal jurisdiction and service of process; federal removal procedure; complaint, answer, affirmative defenses, counterclaims and crossclaims; venue; joinder of claims and parties; default judgment procedure; motions to dismiss on the pleadings, discovery and summary judgment motions; interrogatories, requests for documents, depositions and requests for admissions; offer of judgment and arbitration; preparation for trial; jury selection, openings, summation and jury verdicts; trial and post-trial motions; attorney fees and interest on judgments and basic appellate rules for trial lawyers.

New York Legal Research

Credits: 1
Students will gain an in-depth knowledge of New York State primary and secondary legal materials in both online and print formats. New York legal databases will be explored each week through in-class exercises. New York City legal materials will also be covered. For the final paper, students will produce a five-page annotated bibliography on a substantive area of New York law.

Patent Claim Drafting

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Patent Law.
This course focuses on the mechanics of drafting patent claims to define the protected scope of an invention. The course covers drafting and analysis of independent and dependent claims, apparatus claims, Markush groups, means-plus-function limitations, method and system claims, and other claim types. Students are given a number of claim drafting homework exercises focusing on simple inventions that persons from any technical discipline should be able to understand, and receive individualized feedback on their claims.

Personal Injury Litigation Skills

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Evidence.
This course will provide an overview of the organization of New Jersey courts, including the Supreme Court. It will examine all stages of personal injury litigation, with emphasis placed on New Jersey practice and procedural law as to pleadings; motion practice; discovery and case management; alternative dispute resolution; trials and adjournments; and dismissals, default and enforcement of judgments.

Policing the City

Credits: 1
This course will study the development, implementation, and practical effects of urban policing strategies in New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area. In August 2013, a federal judge ruled that the New York Police Department's (NYPD) use of the popular urban policing strategy "stop-and-frisk" had violated the constitutional rights of the city's residents (Floyd). In this course, we will study policing innovations, including stop-and-frisk, along with community policing, problem-oriented policing, hot spots policing, third-party policing, and evidence-based policing. The court's rulings in Floyd v. City of New York, along with the resulting remedial efforts by the City and the court-appointed independent monitor and facilitator, will form the raw material for this course. Students will develop critical and practical analytical perspectives on the problems attendant to policing urban areas and the promise of reform and court-ordered remedial efforts.

Practice Ready: Family Law

Credits: 2
This skills-based, writing intensive course focuses on the legal documents most commonly drafted by family lawyers. Topics covered include prenuptial agreements, divorce pleadings, notices of motions, supporting certifications, forms of orders, letter briefs, and property settlement agreements. Students learn about family law day-to-day practice, court rules, and governing statutes.

Redevelopment Law

Credits: 2
This course is oriented toward an understanding and analysis of the context, policy, statutory and case law structure for redevelopment of New Jersey’s urban centers as well as other types of municipalities. This is in the context of New Jersey being the most densely populated state in the country and the Smart Growth trends rendering green fields development more difficult while creating incentives and mechanisms to facilitate redevelopment utilizing existing infrastructure, systems, and resources.

Residential Landlord-Tenant/Housing Law

Credits: 2
The course will focus on current housing law in NJ as it applies to landlords and tenants. The effects the pandemic has had will be discussed as well as the future of tenancy law as it is constantly evolving. Students will gain practical lawyering skills necessary to successfully represent both landlords and tenants. The course will emphasize protecting tenants’ rights. Students will gain knowledge of dispute resolution, negotiation, and how to approach the court process when a settlement cannot be reached. Guest speakers (including former judges and experts across various local organizations) will share their expertise and experiences. Additional topics covered will be housing discrimination and the effects of housing instability on tenants and their families. .

School Law

Credits: 2
Successful School Law attorneys must have a solid and comprehensive understanding of the present and emerging legal issues impacting schools in New Jersey and across the nation. The specialized legal issues presented in School Law will address cases and concepts that ensure that the District’s policies, procedures, and practices are in conformity with local, State, and federal law and are equitable in their application. Students will receive hands-on experience addressing topics such as student safety and discipline, special education, DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the classroom), tenure and seniority, collective negotiations, and school funding. Students will be inspired to be analytical, insightful School Law attorneys, while guiding and advising clients through the lens of equity and inclusivity.

Spanish for Lawyers

The course provides students the opportunity to improve their personal and professional Spanish proficiency so that they can provide effective legal representation to their future or current Spanish-speaking clients. Throughout the course, students will acquire the skills necessary to conduct attorney-client interviews in Spanish; counsel Spanish-speaking clients living in the United States (monolingual and Spanglish speakers); and overcome the obstacles that prevent effective communication with Spanish-speaking clients in a legal setting (e.g. cultural differences, regional language usage, and legal systems variations). The course relies on extensive simulations, exercises, and discussions through which students will strengthen their speaking and comprehension abilities. After completing the course, students will be familiarized with Spanish legal terminology in a variety of practice settings such as criminal and civil procedure, immigration, domestic relations, and criminal law.

Trade Secrets

 Credits: 2

This course will examine both the theoretical underpinnings of trade secret law and the practicalities of trade secret litigation. We will survey the sources of trade secret law (including the newly-enacted federal Defend Trade Secrets Act), compare trade secrets with other forms of intellectual property, consider the contexts in which trade secret issues arise - with special focus on the employee/employer context of non-compete cases - and explore litigation strategies from both offensive and defensive standpoints.  This will be writing intensive course that provides practical litigation skills.

Transactional Competition Course

Credits: 2
The Transactional Competition Course prepares law students to counsel clients engaged in buying and selling businesses, to help clients manage transactional risks, and to structure and draft agreements. This innovative course consists of two parts. The first part will introduce the basic concepts used in structuring deals, including transaction costs, information, and incentives.  The second part is the Transactional Competition, which will be held at Rutgers Law School at the end of the semester. During the Competition, students will work in deal teams representing either a Buyer or a Seller in an asset acquisition. Each team will markup an agreement and then participate in buyer-seller negotiations. Judges and experienced practitioners will review the markups and negotiations, score student performance, and provide feedback to the student competitors. The course is offered on a pass-fail basis. The winning team will be awarded the Transactional Competition Prize.

Transactions

Credits: 3 or 4 (as designated)
This course covers a range of corporate and commercial transactions and their economic underpinnings. The major part of the course will entail students representing a start-up business and helping a fictional group of entrepreneurs develop a successful company. As attorneys for the start-up, students will work on the following issues: raising capital, selecting appropriate business association forms, entering into a variety of contractual arrangements with international customers and creditors, dealing with counterparties in default, arbitrating or renegotiating agreements, developing joint ventures, identifying potential Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, and dealing with other transactional issues. 
Each week, students will work on a specific hypothetical situation and confront a series of transactional problems. Many classes will involve negotiation exercises among attorneys representing two or three clients. Students will draft three short assignments, including concise client memoranda and contracts. The final grade will reflect in-class participation, assignments, and the results of a paper.

Trial Advocacy Strategies

Credits 2
Prerequisite: Evidence and Trial Presentation.
This course is an advanced trial advocacy course open to second and third year students and those selected for the National Appellate Team. Students will have an opportunity to improve trial advocacy skills by preparing and presenting a mock trial. Workshops and exercises will focus on analyzing the case file and developing a trial theory, theme and effective trial strategy, evaluating evidentiary issues and developing a strategic approach to addressing them most effectively to advance the legal theory and trial strategy, conducting persuasive direct and cross examinations that advance the trial strategy and theory, developing and delivering persuasive opening statements and closing arguments, as well as effective use of exhibits to advance the legal theory and trial strategy.

Trial Presentation

Credits: 2 or 3 (as designated)
Prerequisite: Evidence.
This skills course focuses on preparing for and conducting trials, including development of trial strategy, witness preparation, making and defending in limine motions, opening statements and summations, direct and cross-examination of witnesses, preparation and introduction of exhibits, and making objections.  Students will develop their trial advocacy skills through mock trial exercises with individualized feedback, culminating in full trials. 

Students who have taken Intensive Trial Advocacy may not take this course.

Child Advocacy Clinic

 Credits: 8 
Students in the CAC work on a variety of cases and projects concerning children and low-income families. In many of our cases, students act as Law Guardians (attorneys) for children who have been brought before the family court because of child abuse and/or child neglect concerns. Many of these children have been removed from the care of their parents, at least temporarily, and are residing in foster care or with relatives. In these cases, students are responsible for ensuring that the legal interests and needs of these children are being met. As part of this representation, students appear in court hearings in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Essex County, Family Part.
On other cases, students represent family members in fair hearings (like mini-trials) before administrative law judges (of the Office of Administrative Law and the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review) where children have been wrongly denied needed public benefits or incorrectly terminated from benefit programs. In these hearings, students do everything from interviewing clients to writing briefs to representing clients at hearings.
Community education and outreach also are an important part of the work of the CAC. Accordingly, in addition to individual casework, students are responsible for at least one community education project each semester. Past projects have included conducting educational workshops for youth aging out of foster care and youth detained at juvenile detention centers, planning and presenting at conferences for kinship caregivers, preparing written educational materials, and staffing information tables at various community gatherings. 
What is unique about the CAC is its holistic, collaborative, and interdisciplinary approach to addressing the needs of children and families. In all its work, the CAC collaborates closely with all of the other clinics at Rutgers School of Law and with professionals in other disciplines in addressing the multiple issues, legal and non-legal, that the children and their families may face. In addition to fundamental lawyering skills, substantive law, and professional responsibility, the CAC’s curriculum teaches law students the importance of evaluating cases in a comprehensive manner and how to work effectively with persons from other disciplines.

Civil Justice Clinic

Credits: 8
Pre- or co-requisite: Evidence. The Civil Justice Clinic is only open to 3L students.
The Civil Justice Clinic, first established as the Urban Legal Clinic in 1970, instructs law students in the representation of indigent clients and client groups in a wide variety of civil cases, primarily in the areas of housing, family, consumer law, probate, bankruptcy, unemployment compensation, social security and SSI disability benefits and other public benefits law. Students handle all aspects of proceedings including interviewing and counseling clients, negotiating with adversaries, writing pleadings, motions, and briefs, and conducting depositions and trials.
Housing cases typically involve defending eviction actions, helping tenants obtain needed repairs, litigating actions to recover tenants’ security deposits, or fighting illegal rent increases. The subject of consumer cases range from real estate, home repair, car repair or purchase scams. Family cases may deal with anything from “simple” divorces, domestic violence, or child support hearings to more complex divorces involving real estate, child support, custody, alimony, pension, or other equitable distribution issues. The social security disability cases typically involve either full evidentiary hearings before federal administrative law judges—often involving the cross-examination of medical and vocational experts—or federal court appellate advocacy involving the formal preparation of appellate briefs sometimes followed by oral argument in U.S. District Court or the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
The clinic also occasionally pursues larger scale law reform and impact advocacy on systemic issues of civil poverty law, including:

• class action litigation challenging the  mass destruction and misuse of thousands of Newark’s low-income federal public housing apartments without adequate replacement,
• investigation of systemic delays in the administration of the food stamp program in New Jersey, 
• advocacy on behalf of tenant groups in rent strikes against private landlords, and 
• analysis and comments on proposals by the Administrative Conference of the United States that would create additional procedural and substantive burdens for indigent SSI and Social Security Disability claimants.   

Clinic students perform various forms of community outreach by making presentations to veterans’ groups and by aiding pro se litigants in divorce and consumer law clinics.
The clinic will share a lawyering skills seminar with the Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic, instructing students in a full range of lawyering skills including interviewing, counseling, development of a theory of the case, cross-cultural competency, negotiation, motion practice,  and various aspects of trial practice and witness examination.

Community and Transactional Lawyering Clinic

Credits: 6 (Part-time students) or 8 (Full-time students) 
The Community and Transactional Lawyering Clinic, first established as the Community Law Clinic in 1996, provides corporate and transactional legal services to New Jersey nonprofit corporations (specifically those corporations that provide services geared to the needs of lower-income people in the City of Newark and nearby urban areas), start-up for-profit businesses and microenterprises, charter schools, and individuals such as artists and inventors.
The Clinic provides initial corporate organizational work (drafting corporate documents, certificates of incorporation, by-laws and organizational minutes), tax-exempt non-profit status filings, charity registration, real estate transactions, commercial transactions and counseling on choice of organizational form and capacity building with community groups and various associations. Student work also includes contract drafting and review; loan closings; equipment and facilities lease drafting and review; bankruptcy counseling; confidentiality agreements; preparation and revision of employee manuals; non-compete and non-disclosure agreements; board of directors guidance; and joint venture agreements.
The clinic is principally a non-litigation clinic, although it handles a limited number of matters which may involve some litigation such as adult guardianship matters and some oversight and assistance of the small legal staff of one of its largest non-profit, corporate clients, Covenant House of New Jersey. Students may perform some work on intellectual property matters related to their transactional clients.
Finally, the Clinic strives to advance justice and community empowerment by representing resident groups and community development corporations (CDCs) regarding urban redevelopment and planning.

Constitutional Rights Clinic

Credits: 8
The Constitutional Rights Clinic, first established in 1970 as the Constitutional Litigation Clinic, engages in “impact” litigation in the area of individual civil liberties and civil rights, as protected in the constitutions of the United States and the State of New Jersey. Students will be expected to research and draft briefs and other pleadings at both the trial and appellate level. Students will also engage in other professional skills, such as client interviewing, fact investigation, strategic planning, crafting legal theories, and preparing for oral arguments. Each fall on Election Day, clinic students who satisfy the third-year practice rule regularly represent in NJ Superior Court individual voters who have been denied the right to vote at the polling place.
The clinic also engages in other non-litigation projects, such as drafting proposed civil rights legislation, coordinating voter registration programs, writing detailed reports on constitutional violations, and commenting on proposed administrative regulations and governmental programs to the extent they implicate civil liberties, civil rights, and equal social justice concerns.
Topics in any particular semester will depend upon the current clinic docket, but recent major projects have included:
 

• initiating litigation to establish Election Day voter registration,
• providing legal counsel to the chair of the NJ Congressional Reapportionment Commission,
• bringing the first state law challenge to the use of electronic voting machines that do not produce a verifiable paper ballot, and 
• successfully striking down the practice of denying state higher education financial assistance to United States citizens whose parents are undocumented immigrants.  

In cooperation with the ACLU of New Jersey, the clinic regularly files 10 or more amicus curiae briefs each year in the New Jersey Supreme Court or Appellate Division on a variety of civil liberties cases. Clinic students may also work on international human rights cases in conjunction with the International Human Rights Clinic.

Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic

Credits: 8
Pre- or co-requisite: Evidence. The Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic is only open to 3L students.
The Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic, first established as a component of the Urban Legal Clinic (now known as the Civil Justice Clinic), provides legal representation to incarcerated youths and to adults in minor criminal, parole, and actual innocence matters.
Students go to court at least once each week for the purpose of interviewing and counseling new clients facing criminal charges and representing them at arraignment. Following the initial appearance, students conduct investigations, engage in discovery and motion practice, negotiate pleas, and, in many instances, prepare the case for trial. Students conduct suppression hearings and bench trials, as well as oral argument on sentencing and other issues, under close faculty supervision. In addition, students undertake a variety of work on behalf of clients who were convicted of serious offenses as juveniles, including preparation for parole hearings, appeals from denials of parole, and investigation of innocence claims. Finally, students work intensively with youth committed to New Jersey's juvenile justice system, challenging conditions of confinement, seeking parole release, appealing parole revocations, and easing the re-entry process.
Work on behalf of clients is supplemented by weekly case rounds classes, during which students conduct simulated hearings, hear from guest lecturers, and brainstorm about their cases. They also take on juvenile justice policy projects in collaboration with the New Jersey Public Defender’s office, the Rutgers-Camden Children’s Justice Clinic, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, and the ACLU of New Jersey, among other organizations.
The clinic will share a lawyering skills seminar with the Civil Justice Clinic, instructing students in a full range of lawyering skills including interviewing, counseling, development of a theory of the case, cross-cultural competency, negotiation, motion practice, and various aspects of trial practice and witness examination.

Education and Health Law Clinic

Credits: 6
Pre - Co-requisite: Special Education Seminar. 
The Education and Health Law Clinic, first established as the Special Education Clinic in 1995, provides free legal representation to indigent clients in special education, early intervention and school discipline matters. In addition, through a new medical-legal partnership (the HEAL Collaborative) with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (to become part of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences as of July 1, 2013) outpatient pediatrics department, students in law and social work partner with medical professionals to address the legal and social needs of pediatric patients with disabilities and their families in an effort to improve overall child and family health and well-being.
Representation in the clinic entails everything from interviewing clients, reviewing school and expert records, researching and drafting legal documents, appearing at meetings with school personnel, mediation, emergency and due process administrative hearings, to handling federal court proceedings either on the merits or for recovery of attorneys’ fees. Students are exposed to new areas of substantive law, learn a wide variety of lawyering skills, and experience first-hand the benefits and challenges of inter-professional collaboration in a multi-disciplinary setting. Students participate in a weekly case rounds class designed to advance the case work in a group setting and to analyze and stimulate reflection on vexing ethical, strategic, and functional issues arising in client and project work.
The clinic also engages in community and State-wide education and training projects and activities. The pre-requisite or co-requisite Special Education Law Seminar includes substantive law, simulation exercises, and guest lecturers from both the educational and legal fields and provides substantive law coverage and practice skills training for work in this clinic.

Entrepreneurship Clinic

Credits: 4
Prerequisite: Business Organizations.
The Entrepreneurship Clinic seeks to provide students with hands-on transactional law experience in representing for-profit and social entrepreneurs. It will also develop projects, in partnership with the Rutgers Business School and the Rutgers School for Public Affairs and Administration, on which J.D. students can collaborate with MBA and/or MPA students. And it will create linkages with the Greater Newark entrepreneurial community that will provide further opportunities to promote economic development and job creation.

The Clinic provides counseling and representation on such matters as: pre-venture activities; business planning; entity selection (e.g., whether to incorporate, form a partnership, create a limited liability company); negotiating, drafting, and reviewing agreements; management and transparency-in-governance issues; capital structure, valuation, and finance; intellectual property; ongoing entrepreneurial and business activities; particular issues relevant to non-profits; employee management issues; and community relations issues.

Working on teams under the supervision of a faculty member, students will be responsible for maintaining relationships with their clients and the client files; reviewing clients’ business models and developing work plans to meet the clients’ needs; recording time, undertaking research, and participating in firm and team meetings (including weekly “case rounds” in which students discuss their cases).

A weekly seminar will supplement the work representing clients. Its objective is to provide an overview of the critical concepts, perspectives, and skills necessary for the successful practice of transactional law. The seminar will cover entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship law, case management, client interactions, professional responsibility, transactional lawyering, forming a business, financing/funding a business, contract negotiation and drafting, building a business brand, and protecting intellectual property.

Priority will be given to evening students. Students are precluded from taking both the Entrepreneurship Clinic and the Community and Transactional Lawyering Clinc.

Federal Tax Law Clinic

Credits: 6 
Prerequisite: Federal Income Tax.
The Federal Tax Law Clinic represents low-income individuals in disputes with the IRS. Students represent clients at audits, negotiate with IRS appeals, and actually litigate cases in the U.S. Tax Court. Principal educational goals include developing familiarity with tax rules and procedures and ethical considerations in tax practice. Students develop skills in interviewing, counseling and negotiation through simulation exercises and then use these skills in their cases. Students argue a mock motion and participate in a mock Tax Court trial. The Federal Tax Law Clinic is open to 2L and 3L students.

Immigrant Rights Clinic

Credits: 8
Pre- or co-requisite: Refugee Law.
The Immigrant Rights Clinic, the newest of the Rutgers–Newark clinics, serves the local and national immigrant population through a combination of individual client representation and broader advocacy. 
Under faculty supervision, students enrolled in the IRC represent immigrants seeking various forms of relief from removal, including asylum for individuals fearing persecution; protection for victims of human trafficking; protection for battered immigrants; protection for victims of certain types of crimes; protection for abused, abandoned, or neglected immigrant children; and cancellation of removal. Working in teams, students are responsible for all aspects of representing their clients, including interviewing and counseling, preparing witnesses, engaging in fact investigation, conducting legal research, drafting litigation documents (such as affidavits, briefs, and evidence packets), and oral advocacy. In many cases, students represent their clients at immigration hearings at the end of the semester. Students may also have the opportunity to work on broader advocacy projects on behalf of immigrants. The weekly seminar class focuses on substantive humanitarian immigration law and live client lawyering skills. Students also participate in weekly team meetings and rounds sessions. 
Students wishing to participate in the IRC must enroll in the Fall semester for 6 credits. Students will then have the option of continuing in the spring semester, and if they do so, they will enroll for an additional 2 or 4 credits. No new students are enrolled in the IRC in the Spring semester.

Intellectual Property Law Clinic

Credits: 6 (Part-time students) or 8 (Full-time students)
Prerequisite: Copyright & Trademark or Patent Law.
Intellectual Property Law Clinic, first established as a component of the Community Law Clinic (now known as the Community Transactional Lawyering Clinic), provides intellectual property and entertainment law advice and assistance for non-profit entities, artists, inventors, start-up for-profit businesses and microenterprises, and charter schools. The clinic’s work includes intellectual property audits and licensing; copyright, trademark, trade secret and patent assistance. The Intellectual Property Law Clinic is principally a non-litigation clinic. The clinic was one of the first clinics selected to participate in the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (“USPTO”) Clinical Pilot Program. In that program clinic students are authorized to practice before the USPTO and have engaged in work such as drafting and filing trademark applications, responding to office actions, and drafting and filing briefs in appeals to the trademark trial and appeal board from final refusals.
The clinic includes a weekly seminar taught jointly with the Community and Transactional Lawyering Clinic which focuses on transactional law practice.

International Human Rights Clinic

Credits: 8
The International Human Rights Clinic, first established as a component of the Constitutional Litigation Clinic (now known as the Constitutional Rights Clinic), has pursued cases and projects in U.S. domestic courts and international tribunals to promote international human rights norms. This clinic seeks to advance the integration of international human rights norms into American domestic legal practice, as well as to train a new generation of lawyers to use human rights law to advance justice in the United States and abroad. Both applied international human rights law and American civil rights law will be taught and utilized in clinic cases and projects.

Illustrative examples of international human rights projects include:   

• litigation under the Alien Tort Claims Act, customary international human rights law, statutory civil rights and pendent tort claims, challenging inhumane conditions of confinement of aliens seeking asylum or refugee status at detention facilities; 
• a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights challenging New Jersey’s disenfranchisement of persons on probation and parole as violations of universal human rights norms; 
• an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court determining whether the Alien Tort Claims Act permits private individuals to bring suit against foreign citizens for crimes committed in other countries in violation of the law of nations; 
• amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court addressing liability for corporations under the Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victim Protection Act for international human rights violations committed overseas; and
• reports prepared for the UN Human Rights Committee evaluating enforcement by the United States of ratified human rights treaties.

Students enrolled in this clinic will also work on amicus briefs in cases pending in both New Jersey and throughout the United States to inform courts about international human rights issues related to cases pending before those courts, prepare for bi-annual meetings with the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights and the U.S. State Department on the U.S.’s implementation process of human rights treaties, and work on impact litigation and other advocacy work related to human trafficking, which has been called “modern slavery” by the U.S. government, as well as by other nations.
Students in this clinic will also be expected to also handle some domestic civil rights cases and will share a seminar with the Constitutional Rights Clinic. Students will be actively involved in all aspects of the clinic’s work including deciding which cases to take, interviewing clients, developing the facts, crafting legal theories, drafting legal briefs, and preparing for oral arguments.

Rutgers Law Review

 Credits: 1 per year
Rutgers Law Review publishes critical legal opinion, including articles on important legal problems by authorities in their respective fields, student commentary, and book reviews. Selection is based on a competition in writing, analytical, and editorial abilities, as well as academic performance.  The law school considers the Rutgers Law Review one of its most significant activities. Participation in its work affords opportunity for intellectual and professional growth. Students are invited to compete for editorial positions in an open writing competition during the summer between their first and second years. Students transferring to Rutgers after their first year may compete for membership during the fall semester of their second year.

Rutgers Computer and Technology Law Journal

 Credits: 1 per year
Rutgers Computer and Technology Law Journal is a student-run, law review-style publication. It focuses on issues arising from the interaction of computers and other technologies with the law. Emphasis in the past has been placed on three major areas: legal aspects of the computer industry, legal ramifications of the use of computers and other special technologies, and the application of computers and new technologies to the legal profession. Other recent topics include communications and environmental regulation. The journal is published semiannually, and a large part of it is written by students. Staff members are selected primarily through a writing competition, but members also may join by writing an article suitable for publication in the journal.

Women’s Rights Law Reporter

Credits: 1 per year
Women’s Rights Law Reporter is a quarterly journal of legal scholarship and feminist criticism published by students at the School of Law-Newark. Founded in 1970 by feminist activists, legal workers, and law students, and first published independently in New York City, the Women’s Rights Law Reporter moved to Rutgers in 1972 and formally affiliated with the law school in 1974. It is the oldest legal periodical in the United States focusing exclusively on the field of women’s rights law. The journal examines legislative developments, significant federal and state court cases, judicial doctrines, litigation strategies, the lives and careers of prominent women jurists, the legal profession, and other areas of law or public policy relating to women’s rights.

Rutgers Race and the Law Review

Credits: 1 per year
Rutgers Race and the Law Review provides a forum for scholarship and dialogue on race, ethnicity, and the law. Established in 1996, it is the second journal in the country to focus on the broad spectrum of multicultural issues. It addresses the concerns of people of color and covers various types of political ideologies, philosophies, and religions. Of special interests are treaties, agreements, and laws promulgated among different nations and the impact they have on people of color. Most staff members are selected through a writing competition; evaluation is based on writing and analytical skills. Interested applicants also may join by submitting an article suitable for publication.

Rutgers Law Record

Credits: 1 per year
Rutgers Law Record is a student-run academic journal committed to publishing scholarly legal work in a paperless format. The Rutgers Law Record was the first online law journal in the United States, with many other journals across the country following its lead in online publishing. The Rutgers Law Record is a general subject matter journal that focuses on articles that provide important contributions to current legal scholarship and discourse. Staff members are selected through a rigorous writing competition that evaluates writing, analytical, and editorial skills. It can be accessed at http://www.lawrecord.com/

International Moot Court Competition

Credits: 2 
This is an international moot court competition which is also known as the Jessup Competition. A team composed of five members is chosen by the International Law Society and the Moot Court Board.

Interscholastic Moot Court Competition

Credits: 1
Registration in this enterprise covers participation by students in a variety of appellate moot court competitions that are sponsored by law schools or other organizations. Most of these competitions take place in the spring semester and are limited to specific subject matter areas.

Intramural Mock Trial Competition

Credits: 1 
The Nathan Baker Mock Trial Competition is run by the Moot Court Board. Students enter the competition as a team. In order to obtain the credit for this competition, each team is required to conduct two trials, one representing each side in the case, and to submit a written analysis of the issues in the case.

Intramural Moot Court Competition

Credits: 1 
This competition, known as the David Cohn Moot Court Competition, is held during the spring semester. It is open to second-year, full-time students and third-year, part-time students.. The David Cohn Moot Court Competition is run by the Moot Court Board. Students must compete in all preliminary rounds and any round to which they advance in the competition to receive credit.

Moot Court Board

Credits: 1 or 2 per term; 6 maximum
The Moot Court Board is responsible for the organization and administration of the Intramural Mock Trial Competition and the Intramural Moot Court Competition. It consists of students who have been selected by the prior year’s Board. Students may participate in the Moot Court Board either for academic credit or as a student activity without credit.

National Mock Trial Team

Credits: 2 
Prerequisite: Intramural Mock Trial Competition. 
These credits are available only to the members of the Mock Trial Team who are selected in the Intramural Mock Trial Competition to represent the law school in the National Mock Trial Competition. The team members earn 2 credits for participation in the Regional Round of the competition and, if the National Round requires the trial of a matter different from that of the Regional Round, 1 additional credit for participation in the National Round of the competition.

National Moot Court Team

Credits: 2 
Prerequisite: Intramural Moot Court Competition.
This enterprise is limited to students who have been selected to represent the law school in national moot court competition.

Attorney General Externship

Credits: 3 
The externship emphasizes research and writing in one of five areas: civil rights, consumer protection, health law/professional regulation, securities, and transportation. Students have the opportunity to the maximum extent possible to assist deputy attorneys general with trial preparation and to observe trials and appellate arguments in cases on which they have worked.  Each extern also participates in a series of in-house training seminars. Offered for 3 credits on a 15-hour per week, 14-week basis, the externship will be graded on a Pass/D, F basis with a written evaluation at the end of the term by the coordinator in the Division of Law. In addition students must register for the Externship/Field Placement Seminar which will meet once a week.

Federal Public Defender Externship

Credits: 3
This externship with the Federal Public Defender for the District of New Jersey places students in the Newark branch of the office. The externship is designed to increase a student’s knowledge of the criminal justice system through observation of and intensive interaction with attorneys, judges, and other personnel. It is also designed to further the students’ understanding of criminal law and criminal procedure, and to assist them in developing a number of lawyering skills such as legal research and analysis, writing, interviewing, fact investigation, and the strategic use of evidence. 
The externship is offered in both the fall and spring semesters, and requires the student to spend 12-15 hours per week at the office to total 210 hours. Responsibilities include extensive research and writing on various issues relating to criminal law and criminal procedure, including preparation of pretrial motions, sentencing memoranda, and appellate briefs. At the conclusion of the externship, students must submit a minimum of 30 pages of their work for review both by the supervising attorney in the Federal Public Defender’s Office and a faculty member. Students are also required to attend a minimum of four hours of classroom instruction conducted by the staff of the Federal Public Defender’s Office during the semester in addition to meeting regularly with a faculty member. 
Students wishing to enroll in the Federal Public Defender Externship must submit a resume, a transcript, and a writing sample.

Field Placement

Credits: 2 or 3 
Placement in a governmental or non-profit legal services organization sponsored and inspected by a full-time member of the faculty. The Field Placements are offered in the fall, spring and summer semesters, and require the student to spend 140 hours (for 2 credits) or 210 hours (for 3 credits) at the Field Placement Office during the semester. The Field Placement is offered on a Pass/D, F basis. In addition students must register for the Externship/Field Placement Seminar which will meet once a week.

Immigration Law Externship

Credits: 2
The objectives of the immigration law externship program are to improve legal analysis and practice skills in the field of immigration law, through placement in either the Office of District Counsel of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), located in Newark and New York, or the Immigrant Rights Program of the American Friends Service Committee, located in Newark. The externships are offered in the fall, spring and summer semesters, and require the student to spend 140 hours (for 2 credits) at the externship office during the semester. The externship is offered on a Pass/D, F basis. In addition students must register for the Externship/Field Placement Seminar which will meet once a week.

Intellectual Property Externship

Credits: 2 
Students work in the university’s Office of Technology Commercialization, which negotiates contracts between members of the Rutgers faculty and industrial research sponsors and oversees all aspects of the protection and licensing of intellectual property or in the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)’s Intellectual Property and Patent Office. This externship is particularly intended for students interested in patent law, and will expose them to the process of evaluating invention disclosures, marketing and licensing faculty inventions and managing Rutgers patents, copyrights and other intellectual property. The externships are offered in the fall, spring and summer semesters, and require the student to spend 140 hours (for 2 credits) at the externship office during the semester. The externship is offered on a Pass/D, F basis. In addition students must register for the Externship/Field Placement Seminar which will meet once a week.

Judicial Externship

Credits: 2 or 3 
Placement in the chambers of a state or federal judge as a legal intern. The externships are offered in the fall, spring and summer semesters, and require the student to spend 140 hours (for 2 credits) or 210 hours (for 3 credits) at the externship office during the semester. The externship is offered on a Pass/D, F basis. In addition students must register for the Externship/Field Placement Seminar which will meet once a week.

National Labor Relations Board Externship

Credits: 3 
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) enforces federal statutes governing industrial relations. All NLRB externs are assigned a wide variety of tasks related to the processing and handling of “live” cases. Students assist NLRB attorneys in their day-to-day responsibilities, with a significant portion of their time devoted to researching substantive, evidentiary, and procedural issues that they document through legal memoranda. Participants also are called upon to interview witnesses and prepare affidavits, and, if possible, handle a few simple investigations on their own (under their supervisor’s close supervision). Students are invited to attend staff-training seminars that are conducted during their tenure. In addition, NLRB externs attend occasional externship seminars at the law school. Available to second- and third-year students who have successfully completed or are concurrently enrolled in Labor Law.

Independent Research

Credits: 1 to 3 
Independent study under the supervision of a member of the faculty on a discrete topic in the law, resulting in a research paper.

Research Assistant

Credits: 1 to 3 
Student assists in the scholarly research agenda of a member of the faculty.

Rutgers Teaching Associate

Credits: 3 for two-semester commitment
This enterprise provides an opportunity for students selected to participate as teaching associates for LAWRS I and II. Students may earn 0, 1, or 2 credits per semester, depending upon the workload, but no more than 2 credits for any given semester.

Teaching Assistant

Credits: 1 to 3 
Student provides teaching assistance to members of the faculty.