Master Course List
Civil Procedure
Credits: 4 or 5
The 4-credit course is offered in the evening for part-time students; the 5-credit course is offered during the day for full-time students.
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 or 5
The 4-credit course is offered in the evening for part-time students; the 5-credit course is offered during the day for full-time students.
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: 3
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.
Legal Research and Writing I & II
Credits: 3
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.
UPPER-CLASS ELECTIVE COURSES
Applicants should understand that the curriculum frequently undergoes revision. By the time that they enter the second or third year at the law school, it is likely that the curriculum may have changed somewhat from that set forth below.
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: 2
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 Contracts
Credits: 2
Supplements the required course in Contracts. Depending upon the interests and prior experience of the class, topics may include justifications for nonperformance, conditions, contract interpretation, the parol evidence rule, third-party beneficiaries, assignment and delegation, and techniques of contracts drafting and risk planning. Some treatment also may be given to the related tort of interference with contractual relations.
Advanced Intellectual Property
Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Copyright & Trademark, or Business Torts & 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 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.
Adversarial Negotiations
Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Negotiation or Introduction to Alternative Dispute Resolution.
Negotiation is driven by several factors: the personalities of the participants, the relationship between the parties, the nature of the dispute, and the desired outcome, among others. Those factors dictate the choice of negotiation strategies and tactics employed by lawyers/participants. This course will explore the differences between cooperative and competitive negotiation. Using the philosophy of the martial arts, particularly Eastern, it will focus on identifying techniques and tactics that may be employed defensively or offensively in those situations where the players believe winning is everything.
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.”
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.
Antitrust
Credits: 3
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.
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.
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 Associations
Credits: 3 or 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 & 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.
Civil Commercial Trials
Credits: 2
This course examines the development of fact and law issues for and at trial as well as trial tactics and strategies from jury selection to closing argument in a variety of cases such as libel, unfair competition, trade secrets, and contracts. Teaching materials include actual trial transcript excerpts. Students also participate in mock trial exercises (e.g., opening statements and direct and cross-examinations). Written work includes short memoranda on evidentiary and trial motion issues.
Civil Liberties
Credits: 3
Course not open to students who have taken Constitutional Law II.
This course examines cases, materials, and issues in First Amendment law, exploring the changing parameters of rights of political and other expression; religious freedom; freedom of the press; privacy; and access to information about government activities. If class size permits, the course is organized around contemporary problems, both real and hypothetical, for which the reading materials provide information and an analytical framework.
Civil Rights
Credits: 3
Course not open to students who have taken Constitutional Law II.
Discusses both the substantive and procedural Constitution and statutory problems involved in the efforts from the end of the Civil War until the present to enforce the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. Legislative, executive, and judicial areas of action considered.
Civil Rights-Section 1983
Credits: 3
Originally enacted immediately following the Civil War, the 1866 and 1872 Civil Rights Acts, now codified as 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 and related statutes, have become the major statutory provisions through which the federal courts protect constitutional rights. Section 1983 has developed into a substantial body of jurisprudence, governing who may sue, who may be sued, when governments and their employees are immune from suit, and availability of remedies. This course explores these developments, and considers the ways in which Section 1983 assists or restricts the use of the law to control government abuses and to facilitate movements for social change.
Commercial Law
Credits: 4
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).
Comparative Law
Credits: 3
Course opens with a discussion of what is comparative law, partly by studying comparative literature and partly through a traditional study of European civil and common law, using commercial (contract) law concepts as the vehicle. After looking at anthropological perspectives on law, the course considers other sources of social influence, first comparing European canon law to the Shari’a, and then looking at how civil and common law systems have been received in selected former European colonies. A brief study of certain business aspects of Japanese and post-Communist Chinese law rounds out the course.
Complex Litigation
Credits: 2
This course explores procedural and jurisdictional issues as well as strategic considerations that lawyers are likely to encounter in actual federal and state court litigation. The perspective of plaintiffs’ and defendants’ counsel is considered with emphasis on multi-district and class action litigation. The initial focus is on forum selection, the Judicial Panel on Multi-district Litigation, removal to federal court and remand, misjoinder, and forum non conveniens. The course then examines in depth the prosecution and defense of class actions, including class certification for litigation or settlement purposes in consumer fraud, mass disaster, product liability, civil rights and antitrust litigation. Following the progress of litigation as it approaches trial, the course examines Daubert and Frye hearings to exclude expert testimony and other motions in limine. Exercises in preparing briefs and arguing motions based upon the subjects of the course will enable students to improve their advocacy abilities. Legislative reform proposals for this kind of litigation will also be analyzed.
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: 4
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law. Course not open to students who have taken Civil Rights or Civil Liberties.
Course includes topics not covered in the basic Constitutional Law course, but covered in the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties courses. Emphasis on First Amendment issues of freedom of speech and religion and federal civil rights legislation implementing the Fourteenth Amendment.
Constitutional Theory
Credits: 3
This course will focus on the use of constitutional theory in appellate advocacy and judicial opinion writing. The goal is to develop the student’s ability to make effective use of political intuitions, values, and concepts in legal argument. Topics will include textualism, original intent, natural law, and political theory (including feminist theory). Among the readings will be selections from Bruce Ackerman, Derrick Bell, Robert Bork, John Hart Ely, Catharine MacKinnon, Martha Minnow, and Suzanna Sherry. In addition to reading and discussing the theories themselves, we will critically examine their use in briefs and judicial opinions.
Consumer Finance
Credits: 2
The study of the statutory and common law regulation of consumer finance transactions. The course explores the law of usury, rate regulation, disclosure of credit terms, credit discrimination, predatory lending, consumer privacy, and credit reporting. Students will examine the origin and operation of the primary federal statutory schemes governing consumer finance transactions, including the National Bank Act, the Truth-in-Lending Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, and interpretative case law. The course also will cover certain state statutes, federal preemption doctrines, and the interaction of federal and state law, as well as the role and effect of governmental enforcement actions and private litigation.
Copyright & Fictional Heroes
Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Copyright & Trademark or Business Torts & Intellectual Property
While fictional characters and superheroes may claim the “superpower” of copyright protection, they do not always prevail in their battles with new media and new distribution technologies. This course will explore the way in which literary characters such as Spider-Man, James Bond, and other famous creations have fared in copyright conflicts as others attempt to exploit them in emerging media, on the Internet, and in new entertainment sectors such as games. The course will analyze the fundamental concepts of copyright law that apply to the protection of characters and fictional works, the nature of a derivative work, and the principles of “fair use” and free speech that are implicated in such cases. The course will also cover those trademark and right of publicity principles that apply to character cases.
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 Negotiations
Credits: 2
The vast majority of disputes are settled out of court, through negotiation. Accordingly, negotiation is among the most important skills of a lawyer. It is also the skill that lawyers spend much of their time practicing and developing. This course explores the art, science, theory, and strategy of negotiation. The negotiation topics include process, conceptual model, psychological facts, bargaining, conflict style, and ethics. The course also covers alternative dispute resolution, including mediation. It will analyze negotiations not only in litigation, but also a variety of corporate settings, including mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations of corporations experiencing financial difficulties, and business deals.
Corporate Reorganization
Credits: 2
Prerequisite: This course is open only to students who either have previously taken or are concurrently taking Business Associations.
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.
Criminal 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
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.
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.
Debtor-Creditor Law
Credits: 4
Course not open to students who have taken Bankruptcy or Secured Transactions.
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.
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: 3
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.
Electronic Discovery
Credits: 2
The 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.
Employee Benefits
Credits: 2
Labor Law or Employment Law recommended but not required.
This course is an introduction to ERISA, with a focus on the law’s protection of the rights of employees who participate in pension and health plans. The content of the course will give an overview of the law of employee benefit plans under ERISA. Emphasis on issues of interest to labor and management counsel of Taft-Hartley funds, including fiduciary responsibility of plan trustees, investment issues, reporting and disclosure requirements, benefit claims, plan termination, and withdrawal liability. Selected issues concerning benefit rights and discrimination including downsizing, interference with protected rights, and age and disability discrimination; selected issues involving medical benefits, including retiree health, exclusions from coverage, and managed care.
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 and the Environment
Credits: 2
This course explores the legal and economic basis for the regulation of the energy markets. It will provide a brief overview of the history of the regulation of electricity, gas, generation and transmission. The course will describe the role of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Regional Transmission Organizations and state public utility commissions on regulating energy costs. The materials will explore the policy issues associated with deregulation of the energy industry and specifically review New Jersey’s experience with deregulation. The materials will cover such issues as rate regulation, siting of liquid natural gas facilities, pipelines and new transmission lines, physical and financial hedging and policies that encourage new generation and renewable energy. The course will discuss the impact of CO2 emission reduction laws on energy costs. The course will cover such topics as mergers and acquisitions in the energy industry and financing of new energy initiatives. The course will discuss manipulation in the energy markets and its impact on the cost of energy to the consumer.
Entertainment Contract Drafting & Negotiation
Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Either Entertainment Law & Business or Law of the Entertainment Industry.
Contract drafting and negotiation is one of the most significant and critical functions of an attorney in the entertainment industry. This course will help students develop their knowledge of the entertainment industry and 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 dynamics and deal points of importance in the music, motion picture, literary publishing, personal management, and related industries.
Entertainment Law and 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 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.
Estate Planning
Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Federal Income Tax. Trust & Estates is highly recommended.
The estate tax is on track to end in 2009. Although there is some thought that it will return in 2011, that result is far from assured. Even if it remains, the portion of the population subject to it will be minuscule – far less than one percent. 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 New Jersey and 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.
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.
Family Law
Credits: 3 or 4
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.
Federal Courts
Credits: 4 and
Federal Jurisdiction
Credits: 3
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 Taxation
Credits: 4
Basic course in the structure and operation of the federal income tax and its application to individuals and business organizations.
Federal Income Tax — Corporations & Shareholders
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Federal Income Taxation. Business Associations is preferred but not required.
A study of federal income tax laws relating to the conduct of business in corporate form. 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. Primary emphasis on matters of interest in closely held corporations, although many of the principles are also of concern to public companies.
First Amendment and 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.
Foreign, Comparative, and 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.
Global Climate Change: Science, Law, and 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 very likely the worst human problem of all time. Professor Latin is now writing a book or long law review article on current climate change policy mistakes and more effective strategies, which will be organized around four vital issues:
(1) Can we reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough using conventional pollution control strategies similar to programs used for other pollutants?
(2) Can we rely mainly on voluntary or legally-mandated lifestyle changes by billions of people to reduce greenhouse gases to the extent necessary?
(3) Can we rely on international negotiations to produce commitments obligating polluting nations to reduce greenhouse gases by a sufficient amount to resolve climate problems; and
(4) Can we develop and deploy enough feasible “clean” technologies to replace the “dirty” technologies and processes that have been causing climate change dangers? The course will focus primarily on these central climate-policy issues.
Health Care Law I
Credits: 2
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: 2
Health law is a specialized and complex field of law that is constantly evolving. Health Care Law II will focus more in depth on the fraud and abuse statutes by examining cases involving the False Claims Act, Civil Monetary Penalties, and the anti-kickback statute. Additionally, a review of some of the Office of Inspector General’s advisory opinions and the process involved therewith will be examined. The course will also focus on health care compliance, including a review of the United States Sentencing Guidelines and health care organizations that have been subject to corporate integrity agreements or deferred prosecution agreements for compliance program failures. Students will gain a heightened sensitivity to the interplay between compliance and fraud/abuse issues and learn how effective compliance serves to combat fraud and abuse in the health care industry. Collectively, the topics Health Care Law II will cover will enable the students to recognize potential issues that may raise a red flag in the health care industry and how to counsel health care clients effectively in the area of fraud and abuse. Today, in part, because of the dramatic changes in the delivery and regulation of health care services, the practice of health law embraces broader and more complicated legal subject matter.
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.
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 & Policy
Credits: 3
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.
Immigration & Naturalization Law
Credits: 2
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.
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.
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 Business Law: Trade, Labor and 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 Criminal Law
Credits: 3
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 Environmental Law & Sustainable Development
Credits: 3
An interdepartmental course offered by the law school and the business school that examines combining business and legal measures to make nature conservation more profitable and effective in developing nations and to make environmentally destructive practices comparatively less profitable. Focuses on topics raised by economic incentive strategies for promoting international environmental protection. These include the integration of sustainable development and conservation programs, creation of start-up businesses in poor countries linked to new conservation commitments, intensive eco-marketing of the resulting products and services in wealthy developed nations, and using information disclosure mandates and other legal mechanisms in consumer nations to reduce the value of goods produced in an ecologically harmful manner. Also, overcoming legal and political barriers to international trade in conservation-compatible goods.
International Finance
Credits: 3
This course will explore how the law operates in global financial markets and how financial globalization is transforming the law. In 1970, 90% of international transactions represented trade in goods and services. Today, up to 90% of international transactions reflect movement of capital unrelated to trade. The course will review national and international legal regimes that make up the infrastructure for international financial transactions, and will examine the adequacy of this regime to meet the challenge of financial globalization. Topics include international banking and securities markets, international financial institutions, currency regimes, risk management, financial crises, and financing for development.
International Law & a Just World Order
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 Tax
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Federal Income Taxation.
This course deals with U.S. taxation of income from international transactions. U.S. income taxation of foreign persons and of foreign-source income derived by U.S. persons is examined. Topics to be addressed include: operation of the foreign tax credit and of U.S. income tax treaties; the new definitions of U.S. residency under the Tax Reform Act of 1984; U.S. taxation of foreign investment in U.S. real estate; deferral of U.S. tax on income derived by foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies; and U.S. tax consequences of differing methods of conducting international business transactions.
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.
Internet Law
Credits: 2
The explosive growth of the Internet as a medium for commerce and communications poses novel legal challenges. Addresses issues that must be considered when transacting business, offering services, or merely using the Internet. Covers electronic commerce, intellectual property protection, state process and regulations, contracts, privacy, torts, taxation, speech, crime, security regulations, advertising, and jurisdiction, among other issues.
Internet Legal Policy – Emerging Law and Policy
Credits: 2
This course will examine the claim that the Internet is different from matter addressed by traditional law and the statutory policy implications of this claim. Focusing on Internet communication, entertainment, and commerce, the class will address the following legal questions: Is Internet something so substantially new that it requires changing traditional laws or legal procedures? Can existing telecommunications laws, publishing laws, and broadcasting laws properly govern Internet transactions? What legal policy and procedures should be alternated to facilitate the governance of Internet transactions and yield acceptable results when Internet difficulties arise? Which special Internet legal difficulties might be best addressed through reforms in statutes? This course will cover novel legal and legislative policy issues associated with the news media and entertainment businesses, wrought by the Internet. Key doctrinal areas of inquiry include intellectual property, the First Amendment, defamation, and privacy.
Neither Internet Law or E-Commerce are prerequisites for this course. However, taking one or the other before taking this course is recommended. Needless to say, this course does not duplicate either Internet Law or e-Commerce.
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.
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.
Jurisprudence
Credits: 3
The topics covered include: natural law, positivism, legal realism, law and economics, critical legal studies, law and literature, critical race theory, gay rights, postmodern legal theories, lawyering, and jurisprudence.
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.
Law & Economics
Credits: 3
An introduction to the central concepts of “law and economics,” including alternative notions of efficiency, rational choice and public choice theory, the Coase theorem, transaction and administrative costs, the impact of public and private regulation on individual behavioral choice, and the application of these concepts to various aspects of the legal system, including: the choices between statutory and common law, rules and standards, property and liability rules, and strict liability and negligence; the determination of damages for breach of contract; and the rules of legal procedure. Some attention will also be paid to the moral, ethical, and philosophical criticisms often made of the economic approach to law. A prior acquaintance with economics is neither assumed nor required.
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 and 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.
(The) Law of Democracy: Elections and the Political Process
Credits: 3
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.
Law of Military Service and Armed Conflict
Credits: 2
An introductory overview of a broad range of military legal issues, beginning with constitutional and statutory issues affecting the individual soldier or civilian, and progressing through international conventions and customs regulating the use of force. The course begins with a review of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and related judicial and adjudicatory issues, and concludes with a study of international conventions and procedures, with a particular view of their application to recent world events.
Law of the Entertainment Industry
Credits: 3
Course not open to students who have taken Entertainment Law and Business.
This course will review and discuss the relevant law and business structures in the entertainment industry. The study will encompass case law, statutory law, rules, regulations, and business practices specific to the fields of music, motion picture, print publication, television, and live theater. The topics discussed will range from First Amendment, privacy and publicity rights, to contract issues, new technologies, and the role of labor unions and intellectual property laws. With entertainment serving as the number one export of the U.S., global implications and applicable laws of other countries will also be reviewed and discussed.
Legal Accounting
Credits: 2
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.
Legal Profession
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.
Legislation
Credits: 3
An introduction to the laws governing the legislative process and the approaches to and principles of statutory interpretation. Among other topics the course will examine interpretive canons focusing on statutory text, the role of legislative history, legislative intent, and legislative purpose, “plain statement” rules, the effect of the construction of statutes by administrative agencies, and resolving conflict between statutes. Depending on the professor, the course may cover topics such as lobbying restrictions and the law relating to the election of legislators.
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.
Leiden Study Abroad
Credits: 11
This registration is for students enrolled in the cooperative study abroad program at Leiden University, the Netherlands.
Mass Tort Litigation
Credits: 2
This course on Aggregate Litigation will provide an overview of the unique issues associated with Mass Tort Litigation. Matters to be addressed include procedural and substantive laws affecting such cases, including class certification, federalism, bankruptcy, evidence, and civil procedure. Materials used in the course will include scholarly articles and other background materials as well as both Federal and state decisions in high profile cases involving: Medical Devices and Pharmaceuticals (Fen-Phen, Vioxx, and hip replacements); Consumer Products (tobacco, credit cards, and baby strollers); Environmental Harms (Ayers, Paoli, Mejckrech); and Financial Fraud (Lincoln Savings, Enron, and First Jersey Securities).
We will reflect upon the societal forces which motivated Congress and many state legislatures to act and/or react to Aggregate Litigation within the last 20 years. Finally, the course will tackle the difficult ethical duties involved in Aggregate Litigation involving the courts, lawyers, dispute resolvers, litigants, objectors, public interest and trade groups, politicians and the press.
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
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.
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 & Acquisitions
Credits: 2
This course will examine various issues that arise in the merger and acquisition context. Focus is on public companies. Considers the legal responsibilities of directors with respect to takeover proposals. Looks at various types of takeover defenses, including staggered boards and “poison pills,” as well as the tactical and legal considerations behind their use. Analyzes the key components of acquisition agreements against the background of relevant case law, including “no shop” clauses, lockups, and material adverse change provisions. Reviews alternative forms of business combinations and different kinds of consideration, and considers the implication of these options on the structure of the deal.
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. Principal decisions of the U.S. 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 will be considered.
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.
Negotiating & Structuring Complex Corporate Transactions
Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Business Associations. Corporate Finance and Mergers and Acquisitions will be helpful but neither is required.
This course will provide an in depth analysis of the various legal facets of large, complex transactions, such as a merger or a joint venture, and how those facets relate to the underlying agreement and the lawyer's role in the transaction. Students will learn to understand (1) the core provisions of the relevant agreements, (2) what the legal and business underpinnings of these provisions are and (3) how those provisions are negotiated in "real life" transactions to create value for and balance risks between the parties. Emphasis will be placed on thinking thoroughly through the multi-faceted issues involved, relating legal issues to business issues, understanding the design of the agreement and how its elements interrelate and finding solutions that are (creatively) tailored to the circumstances. Much of the class will be devoted to experiential learning through drafting and simulation exercises. Accordingly, active class participation is required.
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
Credits: 3
This course examines New Jersey Civil Procedure, covering organization and jurisdiction of the courts, venue, civil actions, process, joinder of parties and claims, discovery, pretrial motions including discovery motions and motions for summary judgment, pretrial conferences, motions during trial, appeals, and satisfaction of judgments.
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.
Patent Claim Drafting
Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Patent Law. Course limited to 12 students.
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.
Patent Law
Credits: 3 or 4
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.
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 Clinton-era Whitewater and impeachment investigations; the ethics inquiries of Senator Robert Torricelli and Representative Tom DeLay. 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.
Products Liability
Credits: 3
This course examines and analyzes the origins and current role of products liability law in American society. 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 Responsibility
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.
Race and the Law
Credits: 2
This course will examine American structures, conceptions, and legal issues involving race and racism. It will review how the law has been used to apportion power among groups in American society. The first half of the course will review how that power has been used to privilege some and marginalize and/or oppress others (and will include examination of the unique experiences of African-Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans, and Arab-Americans). The second will focus on how the law has been used to alter this distribution of power and protect those who are marginalized and/or oppressed (by surveying legal doctrine regarding equality of educational opportunities, voting rights, language rights, employment and housing discrimination, and hate speech and hate crimes, among other issues). The course will conclude with a consideration of future and emerging issues.
Real Estate Transactions
Credits: 3
A survey course encompassing typical residential and commercial transactions, title assurances, and financing techniques.
Rutgers Teaching Associate
Credits: 2 or 3
This enterprise provides an opportunity for students selected to participate as teaching associates for Legal Research & Writing I and II. Students receive 2 credits for assisting with Legal Research & Writing I and 3 credits for Legal Research & Writing II.
Secured Transactions
Credits: 3
Course not open to students who have taken Debtor-Creditor Law.
We will examine legal and commercial relationships in secured financing, focusing on the interests of borrowers, lenders, and others in personal property used as collateral. We will cover topics including creation and perfections of security interests, priority among conflicting interests, and enforcement of contract rights under Uniform Commercial Code Article 9.
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 & Market Regulation
Credits: 4
Prerequisite: Business Associations.
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.
Sexual Orientation and 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 sexual conduct; the right to equal protection and the permissibility of government-sponsored distinctions on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity; the right to free speech and association of sexual minorities (and of those who do not want to associate with them); issues of employment discrimination in the private, civilian, and military contexts; and, finally, the intersecting issues of same-sex marriage and parenting by lesbians, gay men, and transgendered individuals.
Social Security Law
Credits: 2
Online course. All instruction, including course discussions, will take place via the Internet in cooperation with Cornell Law School.
This course covers issues of entitlement and benefit calculation arising out of the set of programs popularly referred to as Social Security. The law of these programs touches the lives of well over 90 percent of all persons living or working in the United States and provides critical income to those who have retired or ceased working due to severe physical or mental disability and members of their families. Both individual and collectively the amounts are very large. For a majority of those receiving Social Security, the benefits represent at least half their total income. Total payments amount to more than $380 billion a year. The law directing these payments and setting their amount is complex. Questions about proper application of this law are raised in thousands of administrative hearings and federal court proceedings each year. Learning about that law is important, however, not only to those who must resolve questions of Social Security law as judges or who represent individuals and families seeking social Security benefits, but to all individuals, family members, and organizations seeking a clearer understanding of how this program affects their lives and plans. Since these benefits are so important to individuals at critical points in their lives, knowing under what circumstances Social Security benefits are available and how much they will be is essential for effective financial planning. Decisions about when to retire, how much to save and in what form, and even whether to marry or divorce should in many cases involve consideration of Social Security.
All course materials will be on the web. Background and introductory material, points about the readings, problems, and the opening portion of class discussion will all be presented using web-linked streaming audio. Web-based tutorials and exercises tightly integrated with the readings and presentations will provide a regular means for each student to gauge the level of his or her understanding of each topic in preparation for class discussion. Class discussions will take place using written exchange within a web conference environment.
State and 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.
State Constitutional Law
Credits: 2
A basic introduction to state constitutional law in the United States – a subject of increasing importance under current federalism jurisprudence – with some special attention paid to the constitutional law of New Jersey.
Tax Policy
Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Federal Income Taxation.
In this course, we will explore the fundamental 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 be, and maybe even, should be. Specific topics we will discuss include theories of distributive justice, progressivity, tax compliance and enforcement, consumption tax as an alternative to an income tax, corporate tax shelters, estate tax repeal and the role of “sunset” provisions in the tax code.
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.
Transnational Litigation and Dispute Resolution
Credits: 2 or 3
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.
Treaty Regimes: Negotiation and Implementation
Credits: 2
Examines negotiation and implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and related instruments like the Kyoto Protocol, the Additional Protocol to Safeguards Agreements, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and nuclear arms reduction agreements. Topics include what makes treaty regimes work or fail; compliance and enforcement; the nature of the obligation to negotiate further agreements under the UNFCCC and the NPT; the dynamics of negotiations; and the efficacy of treaty regimes compared to other approaches. Some comparison to other treaty regimes like those on ozone depletion and chemical weapons.
Trial Presentation
Credits: 2 or 3
Prerequisite: Evidence.
Practice in preparing for and conducting trials, including development of trial strategy, opening statements and summations, the making of a trial record, direct and cross-examination of witnesses, and preparation and introduction of exhibits. Intensive classroom exercises will culminate in simulated bench trials, in which students will participate as members of trial teams. In connection with these trials, participant trial teams will be expected to submit trial memoranda of approximately 10-20 pages in length. Each case can be tried in approximately 4-5 hours and each is conducted in one trial day, thereby simulating an actual trial schedule.
Trusts and 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.
UPPER-CLASS SEMINARS
Seminars listed are those that have been offered in the past few years and are likely to be offered again. Seminar offerings change frequently in response to the research activity of individual faculty members and student interest. Prerequisites for individual seminars may be announced by the instructor at the time of registration.
Advanced Legal Research Seminar
Credits: 2
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 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.
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.
Animal Rights & the Law Seminar
Credits: 2
This seminar will focus on four areas. First, we will survey philosophical and historical materials concerning the status of nonhuman animals. Second, we will consider the legal status of animals as property. Third, we will consider the differences between the concepts of “animal rights” and “animal welfare.” Fourth, we will discuss the relationship between the animal rights movement and other social justice movements. Students will be required to do a paper on a topic of their choice (in consultation with the instructors).
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.
Using the occasion of the Law School’s Centennial, this seminar will explore the history of Rutgers School of Law–Newark and its impact on the law, legal education, and the legal profession. Some of the topics covered will include: (1) the role the school’s students, faculty, and alumni have played in the development of legal doctrine (including at least five seminal cases that have had a national impact); (2) the Law School’s pioneering role in clinical legal education and the introduction of a number of other significant curricular innovations, (3) the Law School’s promotion of racial, ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic diversity within the legal profession, and (4) the future of the Law School.
Centennial Seminar I
Credits: 2
Centennial Seminar II
Credits: 1
The seminar (Centennial Seminar I) will be offered in the fall semester for two credits. It also will be offered in the spring semester (Centennial Seminar II) for one credit for those who wish to continue, mainly to complete a collaborative work product that could, for example, consist of an anthology of essays focusing on the significance of the Law School and its faculty, students, and graduates. At least three times per semester, seminar sessions will have special guests celebrating particular aspects and accomplishments of the law school, and those sessions will be open to the public. Seminar students will have prominent roles in those public sessions as moderators, introducers, rapporteurs, and possibly discussants.
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: 2
This seminar will examine the constitutional and public framework for allocating power and responsibility among children, parents, and the State. It will explore selected legal topics relevant to this central theme, including child custody and child support; child abuse, neglect and inadequate parenting; medical and psychiatric treatment; and educational rights. The seminar will consider the changing nature of childhood and the family and emphasize sociological and psychological issues raised by the current legal structure.
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.
Corporate Governance 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.
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.
Critical Race Theory Seminar
Credits: 2
In the mid-1980’s, a new scholarly movement developed in legal academe, Critical Race Theory (“CRT”). Early advocates of CRT – including Derrick Bell, Mari Matsuda, Charles Lawrence, Richard Delgado, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Patricia Williams – challenged both the substance and style of conventional legal scholarship. Contrary to the traditional notion that racial subordination represents a deviation from the liberal legal ideal, this body of work recasts the role of law as historically central to and complicit in upholding racial hierarchy as well as other hierarchies of gender, class and sexual orientation. The goal of this seminar is to examine the genesis of CRT and, in light of its theoretical commitments, to explore CRT’s possibilities and limitations.
Current Issues in 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.
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 & Political Process Seminar
Credits: 2
A practicum in politics and the electoral process. We will examine federal and state constraints on political campaigning, with emphasis on the Federal Election Campaign Act. Among topics to be considered are presidential campaigning and the Electoral College; fund-raising and reporting in federal elections; political activity by business and labor organizations; operation of political action committees; grass-roots organizing and campaigning; the Federal Voting Rights Act and voter registration; broadcast regulation; election law reform; ballot access; the right to vote; election day operations; counting the votes and challenging the results; political patronage.
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.
Free Speech Seminar
Credits: 2
This seminar examines the doctrinal treatment of the freedom of speech by the Supreme Court. Topics include incorporation, subversive advocacy, sexually explicit expression, commercial speech, time, place and manner regulations, hate speech, speech in public schools, compelled speech, campaign finance reform, freedom of the press, and freedom of association.
Gender and the Law Seminar
Credits: 2
This seminar will explore the intersections of law, gender, and sexuality through the frameworks of constitutional law, antidiscrimination 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, Work & Public Policy Seminar
Credits: 2
This seminar will focus on the legal and public policy aspects of gender and work affecting the lives of 21st century American women. Building on a review and analysis of the historical and cultural background, the seminar will consider the impact of the labor movement and the protectionist laws of the early 20th century, followed by an examination of the effects on women of the equal employment opportunity laws of the latter part of the century, as well as public policy efforts such as the Glass Ceiling Initiative.
Hedge Funds Seminar
Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Business Associations
This seminar will focus on the private investment entities commonly referred to as “hedge funds” as well as other pooled investment vehicles. 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 the federal and state regulatory framework governing hedge funds and the investment management industry generally. The seminar will also explore the process of forming a hedge fund and the operation of a hedge fund, including a review of the legal and business issues and associated documents. Seminar members will, individually and in teams, participate in negotiations and presentations 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.
Inmate Advocacy Seminar
Credits: 2
This seminar will explore basic substantive rights that individuals retain while detained and imprisoned by the government. It will begin by identifying the constitutional and statutory basis for inmate rights, and the hurdles to enforcement of such rights from the 1996 Prisoner Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). Topics will include theoretical and practical differences, if any, between rights retained by two categories of inmates: the rights of detainees who are held in municipal or county jails on charges before trial, conviction and sentencing, and the rights of prisoners confined in county jails or state prisons after conviction and sentencing. Various types of rights and their sources will be analyzed, from minimum constitutional standards to rights based on corrections regulations and public health codes. Specifically, topics explored will include health care, methods of communication such as mail and visits, the scope of religious freedom, body searches, excessive force, and overcrowding.
Inner-City Economic Development Seminar
Credits: 2
Economic Discrimination and Community-wide Planning in the Urban Context: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Problem Solving. Why has the economic plight of inner-city neighborhoods remained so intractable? How can legal approaches work to combat redlining while stimulating growth? This seminar examines the myths, realities and conventional interventions applicable to the inner-city landscape. Drawing upon multiple areas of the law, including civil rights models, land use, local government, and consumer law, students will develop and defend workable approaches to planning and legal advocacy.
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 Court of Justice
Credits: 2
Prerequisite: International Law and a Just World Order
The International Court of Justice is the judicial branch of the United Nations. Applying international law, the Court adjudicates legal disputes submitted by states and gives advisory opinions on legal questions referred by UN bodies. This seminar examines the Court's jurisprudence on use of force, nuclear weapons, and other substantive topics, as well as issues of procedure. Also considered is the role of the Court in the international system
International Labor Law Seminar
Credits: 2
Labor rights and standards applicable across national boundaries and administered by transnational authorities. International organizations that deal (or fail to deal) with labor rights (ILO, WTO, IMF, World Bank); worker rights clauses in U.S. trade laws and agreements; labor rights and standards under the NAFTA labor side agreement and Mercosur; codes of conduct developed by private companies and their enforcement; problems litigating international labor disputes in U.S. courts.
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 Protection of Human Rights Seminar
Credits: 2
This seminar 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 difficult theoretical issues in the field as well as assessing the practical strengths and weaknesses of human rights law.
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.
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.
Juvenile Justice Seminar
Credits: 2
This seminar will examine the state’s treatment of children and adolescents accused of unlawful behavior. Students will study the creation and evolution of the juvenile justice system in historical context. That exploration begins by assessing the legal, social, and historical underpinnings of the juvenile justice system at its creation in 1899, as well as the turn of the century assumptions about childhood, punishment, and the judiciary’s parens patriae responsibilities. Ultimately the historical exploration focuses on the late 20th century ideological and institutional evolution of the juvenile court. Students will consider the United States Supreme Court’s recognition of certain due process rights for juveniles, its subsequent rejection of others, and the ongoing effort to reconcile the often competing goals of rehabilitation, punishment, and procedural protection. The course would then turn to current issues and challenges facing the juvenile justice system, including: 1) the criminalization of youthful offending (e.g., waiver and transfer, erosion of confidentiality, and sentencing), 2) the unique obligations of juvenile defense counsel, 3) institutional reform litigation, 4) disproportionate representation of minority youth in the juvenile justice system, and 5) efforts to integrate social sciences and medical adolescent development research with juvenile justice policy and practice. The course will include student participation in one or two simulation exercises (for example, a juvenile court detention hearing).
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.
Literature of Law & Markets Seminar
Credits: 2
This is a readings and research seminar. We will read two kinds of works − works of literature or literary quality works about law and the market in American history. The works will range from Charles Francis Adams’ Chapters of Erie about the railroad scandals of the 19th century to Liar’s Poker about the investment banking world of the 1980’s. We will explore how these works either captured the public imagination and helped change law or how they describe situations in which legal reform followed.
Moral Puzzles of Criminal Law Seminar
Credits: 2
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.
Police Interrogation and Miranda v. Arizona Seminar
Credits: 2
This seminar will examine the history of the self-incrimination principle, the doctrinal basis for Miranda’s holding, the policy choices manifested in Miranda’s approach to police interrogation, and the effect that Miranda has had on police interrogation and the rate of confessions.
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 Interest Advocacy Seminar
Credits: 2
The seminar will involve a survey of major areas of public interest advocacy, with a number of guest speakers from areas ranging from international human rights to gay rights, women’s rights, terrorism and civil liberties, and racism. Speakers will discuss current issues in their fields, need for reform and employment opportunities. The seminar will also handle the law school’s annual Voter Assistance Project, in which students each spend several hours at the Essex County Courthouse on Election Day in November representing citizens who need a Court order in order to vote. Accountability will be to prepare a report on some aspect of public interest law which you would like to influence during your first five years out of law school, including a plan for accomplishing the proposed reform, e.g., preparing a grant application or convincing a law firm to allow you to do this as a pro bono project.
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
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.
Race, Literature & Critical Thinking Seminar
Credits: 2
This seminar examines law and human experience through a variety of texts, many non-legal and most literary, in a broad intellectual effort analyzing the dynamics of voice and power as they are transmitted by and filtered through legal conventions. The works of classical authors, such as Tolstoy and Melville, will be read along with contemporary writers, such as Sapphire and Hisaye Yamamoto. The human conflicts presented in their fictional narratives will be compared to non-fictional texts as well as case law for the modes of argument and application of rules employed in different formats. Our explorations will be aided by an introduction to critical theory – primarily post-modern and critical race theory – in order to facilitate alternative readings of how the law and lawyering may operate in different contexts within American culture.
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.
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 Urban Legal Clinic II (Special Education). All students who are taking the Urban Legal Clinic II (Special Education) for the first time must take this course simultaneously, if they have not taken the class previously.
Street Law Seminar
Credits: 2
This seminar will examine the significance of legal education to the community. In addition, it exposes students to methodologies for communicating legal concepts to non-lawyers, while also helping students to hone their knowledge of basic legal principles and learn how they apply in practical legal settings. The Street Law Program involves going into schools, juvenile detention centers, group homes and other programs for youth and teaching them legal concepts as they impact in practical ways upon their lives. For a more complete description of the Street Law Program, please visit http://law.newark.rutgers.edu/public-service/street-law. The seminar is designed to be taken in conjunction with teaching in the Street Law Program (though some students may participate in the Program without taking the course). The seminar focuses on teaching students to communicate legal concepts that engage young people.
Supreme Court Term Seminar
Credits: 2
This seminar will follow the work of the current term of the U.S. Supreme Court. The week to week assignments are largely determined by what the Court is actually doing, but from time to time we will: review the docket of pending cases; recapitulate and analyze what the Court has done since the opening of the Term in October; review petitions for certiorari pending before the Court and vote on which ones should be granted; read briefs in and discuss pending, undecided cases (you will be asked to predict the outcome, voting alignments, and likely theories of decision); and read and critique new decisions as they are issued. The on line version of U.S. Law Week will be used as the basic text for each week’s assignment.
Transnational Labor Standards Seminar
Credits: 2
Numerous public and private institutions attempt to regulate basic labor conditions in countries with low labor standards. The seminar will examine these institutions critically, examining for each the law, the actual achievements, and the theoretical potential in light of economics of trade. We will start with a brief introduction to the economics of trade, critically examining such concepts as comparative advantage, the race to the bottom, and game-theory models of trade. We will then examine the following public and private institutions that attempt to regulate labor standards: the International Labor Organization and its standards; U.S. employment laws with extraterritorial effects; health and safety standards enforced in U.S. tort suits (such as the banana pesticide litigation); labor standards enforced under the Alien Tort Statute; labor standards in U.S. trade laws, such as antidumping laws and the Generalized System of Preferences; labor standards in trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and U.S.-Cambodia Textile Agreement; proposals to add labor standards to the trade rules enforced by the World Trade Organization; labor standards enforced by international lending institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund; restrictions on human trafficking; transnational union cooperation and the resulting labor standards; and corporate codes of conduct and other labor standards unilaterally maintained by corporations, often in response to consumer pressure by activists.
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 in The 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.
White Collar Crime Seminar
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.
Child Advocacy Clinic
Credits: 6
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.
Community Law Clinic (Urban Legal Clinic – Section 3)
Credits: 8
The Community Law Clinic focuses on assistance to poor clients and poor communities other than through traditional litigation. Tasks can include providing legal information and legal counseling for individuals and groups, and representation of individuals and groups in transactional work, such as not-for-profit incorporation, microenterprises, real estate improvement and development, and other matters important for improving conditions in poor communities. Students are expected to spend substantial time meeting and working with clients and prospective clients in the field.
Constitutional Litigation Clinic
Credits: 6
The Constitutional Litigation Clinic, since its founding in 1970, has worked on cutting-edge constitutional reform. Through the clinic, students not only learn the law, they make the law. Constitutional Litigation Clinic students have litigated a remarkable array of landmark civil rights and international human rights cases. The clinic’s extensive docket has included the nation’s first suits against police surveillance of political activists; a successful challenge before the U.S. Supreme Court of Congress’ authority to refuse to seat a duly elected member; a successful defense of the right of non-profit advocates to distribute leaflets to voters door-to-door and in shopping malls; lawsuits to implement affirmative action programs and to enforce affordable housing laws; protection of immigrants’ rights; protection of the rights of alternative political parties; a successful challenge to municipal ordinances barring use of public parks by non-residents; suits against the state police for unreasonable searches of motorists on New Jersey highways; and a successful challenge to the use of electronic voting machines that don’t produce a verifiable paper ballot. In the past few years, the Constitutional Litigation Clinic has expanded its docket by litigating international human rights issues both in the United States and in international tribunals. Clinic suits have developed new law to protect political asylum seekers, including the first decision from a federal court that U.S. officials can be sued for violations of international human rights. Students are 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.
Environmental Law Clinic (not operating Spring 2009)
Credits: 6
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.
Special Education Clinic (Urban Legal Clinic – Section 2)
Credits: 6
Students who take this clinic for the first time also must take, or have taken previously, the Special Education Law Seminar for an additional 2 credits.
The Special Education Clinic provides legal representation to indigent parents of children with disabilities, typically in the urban areas of Essex County, seeking special education programs and services. Representation 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, and handling federal court proceedings either on the merits or for attorneys’ fees. The clinic is open to both second and third-year students, because all students are eligible to appear in mediation and due process hearings under the applicable rules. The clinic also engages in community education projects and activities. The Special Education Law Seminar includes substantive law, simulation exercises, and guest lecturers from both the educational and legal fields. All seminar students are required to write a paper on a designated topic related to the education of children with disabilities or draft a brief based upon a specific fact pattern.
Credits: 8
Prerequisite: Evidence and status as third-year student.
The Urban Legal Clinic represents individuals and groups in a variety of cases arising from, or exacerbated by, urban poverty. These include landlord-tenant, family (divorce, child support, domestic violence, adoption), consumer (consumer fraud, debt collection defense, legal malpractice), social security disability, criminal (non-indictable offenses), and juvenile delinquency matters. Students regularly appear at hearings or in court on behalf of clinic clients. Principal educational goals include developing skills in interviewing, counseling, negotiating, fact investigation, and all phases of trial practice.
SUMMER COURSES
Advanced Contracts (Rothman)
Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Contracts
This course is designed to supplement the first year course in Contracts. Depending on the interests and prior experience of the class, topics may include: justifications for non-performance, conditions, order of performance, contract interpretation, third party beneficiaries, assignment and delegation, and techniques of contracts drafting and risk planning. Some treatment may also be given to the related tort of interference with contractual relations.
Alternative Dispute Resolution (A.S. Cohen)
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Civil Procedure
Introduction to the range of dispute resolution techniques increasingly in use within and outside the courts, including mediation, arbitration, early neutral evaluation, and minitrials. Students are exposed to the theory and practice of these dispute resolution techniques, as well as to some of the essential building block skills, such as client counseling and negotiation.
Appellate Advocacy (Mandel)
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Legal Research and Writing I & II. This course will satisfy the upperclass writing requirement. Enrollment in this course is limited.
Students will be expected to research, brief and argue a current appellate issue arising out of New Jersey’s law using case and source materials not only from New Jersey but from other jurisdictions. New Jersey Rules of Appellate Procedure will apply to both written and oral presentations. Briefs must be of adequate quality. Students will be provided with a moot court record of the case below (as presented, the issue will be pending before the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division), will be assigned at random to represent one party or the other and will present oral arguments in opposing pairs as a final exercise. Because class sessions will focus on developing research and oral presentation skills, class attendance is mandatory. The instructor will be available during both day and evening hours for individual consultations and review.
Copyright & Trademark (Kettle)
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: Contracts, Torts, and Constitutional Law
A comparative survey of the law that governs the creation and regulation of intellectual property with an emphasis on copyright and trademark law. The course will survey in detail the applicable federal statutes, state law, common law and constitutional framework that protects, promotes, and balances the varying interests of creators and inventors, manufacturers and investors, and the public at large. Class discussions will be based on cases and statutory materials that pertain to the protection of ideas and trade secrets, rights of publicity, trademarks, trade dress and service marks, copyrightable expresssion, patentable subject matter and related unfair competition.
Entertainment Law and Business (Kettle)
Credits: 2
Prerequisites: Contracts, Property and Torts
N.B. NOT open to students who have taken Entertainment Law.
This course will review and discuss the relevant law and business structures in the entertainment industry. The study will encompass case law, statutory law, rules, regulations, and business practices specific to the fields of music, motion picture, print publication, television, and live theater. The topics discussed will range from first amendment, privacy and publicity rights, to contract issues, new technologies, and the role of labor unions and intellectual property laws. With entertainment serving as the number one export of the United States, global implications and applicable laws of other countries will also be reviewed and discussed.
Legislative Research (Roehrenbeck)
Credit: 1
Prerequisite: Legal Research & Writing I & II. This course does not satisfy the residence credit requirement.
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.
New York Legal Research (Lyons and Young)
Credits: 1
Prerequisite: Legal Research & Writing I & II
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.
New York Practice (de Leeuw and Goddard)
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.
Professional Responsibility (Rothman)
Credits: 3
The legal profession is essentially self-regulating; lawyers have created the rules of professional conduct, and the means to enforce those rules. This course will explore what it means to be an ethical lawyer, and the responsibilities that practice of law imposes.
Special Education Seminar (Canty-Barnes and Valverde)
Credits: 2
The seminar 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 Urban Legal Clinic II (Special Education Clinic). All students who are taking the Urban Legal Clinic-Section (2) (Special Education) for the first time must take this course simultaneously, if they have not taken the class previously.
Transnational Litigation & Dispute Resolution (Schroeder)
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Civil Procedure
This course will cover 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. Some of the topics to be 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.
Urban Legal Clinic – Section (2) (Special Education Clinic) (Canty-Barnes and Valverde)
Credits: 4
(Open to Rutgers–Newark students only)
N.B. Students who participate in this clinic must have 12 hours during regular business hours available to devote each week to the clinic.
NON-SCHEDULED COURSES (Open to Rutgers–Newark students only)
Independent Research
A student who wishes to do an Independent Research project during the Summer Session 2008 must prepare an outline of the project on the Application for Independent Research Form (White). It must then be submitted to the law school professor who will be supervising the work for approval. (The professor must be a full-time member of the faculty.) After the law school professor has signed the document, it must be given to Dean Rothman, Room 175, for final approval. The signed approval slip must then be submitted to Dean Garbaccio’s office, Room 170. Permission must be secured at the time of registration. Be sure the approval slip includes the number of credits the project will be worth — 1, 2 or 3 credits are permitted for each project. Open to Rutgers–Newark students only.
Research Assistant
A student who is going to be a Research Assistant for a faculty member during the Summer Session 2009 must complete a Research Assistant form (Green).You are to write a short description of the research project on which you will be working. The form must be signed by the faculty member for whom you will be working and by Dean Rothman, Room 175. (The professor must be a full-time member of the faculty.) The signed approval slip must be submitted with your registration material to Dean Garbaccio’s office, Room 170. Be sure the approval slip includes the number of credits the project will be worth — 1, or 2 or 3 credits are permitted for this work. Open to Rutgers–Newark students only.
The school, subject, course and registration index numbers for Independent Research, Judicial Externship and Research Assistant can be found on the Summer 2009 Course Offerings List included in these instructions.
Rutgers Teaching Associate
This enterprise is open only to the teaching associates for Legal Research and Writing II to be held this summer.
General Requirements for Externships
Externships for 3 credits require about 15 hours of work per week during the semester, for a total of about 210 hours in all over 14 weeks. Externships for 2 credits require about 10 hours of work per week, for a total of about 140 hours over 14 weeks. Externship students are generally required to have a grade point average of at least 2.67. Students with a lower grade point average need special permission from Assistant Dean Yvette Bravo-Weber, the supervisor of the extern program, to enroll.
Students are also required to complete evaluation forms on the completion of the externship. At the completion of the externship, students must also submit to the Program Supervisor two examples of writing that they did during the externship. (Portions of the writing may be redacted if that is needed to preserve confidentiality.)
All students who register for a Judicial Externship during the 2009 Summer Session will be required to attend regular seminars at the Law School during the summer session.
Students who extern at the Attorney General’s office and the Office of Corporate Liaison will be required to attend in-house seminars offered by the Attorney General’s office and the Tech Transfer Office, respectively.
Judicial Externships
Students who wish to do a Judicial Externship must, on their own, find a judge willing to supervise them. Any student who has secured a Judicial Externship and is registering for it during the Summer Session 2009 must complete a Judicial Externship Form (Yellow). Please indicate on the form the name of the Judge and in which court he or she presides. This form must be signed by Dean Yvette Bravo-Weber. Be sure the form includes the number of credits the externship is worth — 2 or 3 credits are permitted. The signed approval form must be returned to Dean Garbaccio’s office, Room 170, with your registration material.
Students enrolled in the judicial externship program will be required to complete 140 hours of externship work for 2 credits or 210 hours of externship work for 3 credits. Students are responsible for arranging their own externship placements, but all placements are subject to the prior approval of Dean Bravo-Weber. Students enrolled in the externship program must attend a regular seminar which will meet for nine (9) sessions as follows: May 12, May 19, May 21, May 26, May 28, June 2, June 4, June 9 and June 11. The seminar will meet at the law school from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Rutgers–Newark students enrolled in the summer externship program who wish to attend the seminar sessions offered in the fall semester, rather than those offered in the summer, need the prior approval of Dean Bravo-Weber. Open to Rutgers–Newark students only.
Our standards provide that judicial externship students should be assigned a progression of challenging, varied and increasingly complex legal projects associated with ongoing work in chambers. We prefer that a substantial portion of the student's work includes legal research and legal writing, but other judicial-related work, such as participation in settlement conferences, attendance at trials, and the introduction of new management techniques in the courts, can also be included in the time spent. Students should make sure that their work assignments will generate the writing examples that they need.
Attorney General Externships
Credits: 3
The Division of Law’s Newark Office offers an externship in governmental practice. The externship will offer students an opportunity to integrate classroom course work with the practical application of concepts learned in law school. Students may not enroll in the externship program until they have been selected. Students wishing to enroll in the Attorney General Externship Program for the 2009 Summer Session must submit a cover letter, resume, transcript and writing sample to Dean Bravo-Weber no later than April 10, 2009. Dean Bravo-Weber will review these materials and forward them to the Attorney General’s Office. That office will interview and select the students.
The externship earns three academic credits and requires a minimum of 210 hours over the course of the summer. Students wishing to apply for the externship should leave a resume and writing sample with Dean Bravo-Weber no later than April 10. The Attorney General will conduct interviews and select those students invited to participate in the program by mid-May. Open to Rutgers–Newark students only.
Field Placement
Placement in a governmental or non-profit legal services organization sponsored and supervised by a full-time member of the faculty. For more information see Dean Rothman. Open to Rutgers–Newark students only.
Immigration & Naturalization 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 the Immigrants Rights Program of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), located in Newark, or in the Office of the Chief Counsel for the Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Students wishing to do the Immigration & Naturalization Externship for the 2009 Summer Session must submit a cover letter, resume, transcript and writing sample to Dean Bravo-Weber by April 10, 2009. These materials will be forwarded to the AFSC or the ICE who will make the final selections. Open to Rutgers–Newark students only.
Intellectual Property Externship
Credits: 2
Internships are available with the Tech Transfer Office in New Brunswick or the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark. Students may not enroll in the externship program until they have been selected. If selected for an externship, they will enroll through the procedure for adding a course. Students wishing to enroll in the Intellectual Property Externship Program must submit a cover letter, resume, transcript, and writing sample to Dean Bravo-Weber no later than April 10, 2009. Materials will be forwarded to TTO or NJIT and students may be asked to come in for an interview. Open to Rutgers–Newark students only.
Interdisciplinary Courses
Any Rutgers Law School–Newark student may take up to six credits (and occasionally nine credits) of graduate-level courses at other Rutgers divisions for credit toward a J.D. degree. Interdisciplinary credit is intended to permit students to relate law to some other field of inquiry, not to acquire instruction in legal subjects outside the environment of the law school. Therefore, courses must meet two criteria to be approved: (1) the course must be reasonably related to the law; and (2) the course may not duplicate a course offered in the law school curriculum. See Dean Rothman prior to registering for information and advance approval.
Students may also take courses at other Rutgers divisions on a not-for-credit basis. Note that the course-load limitation (up to 6 credits unless special permission has been obtained) applies as well to interdisciplinary courses, regardless of whether they are taken for credit. Advance approval is required.
Rutgers Law Review
Credits: 1 or 2 per term; 6 maximum
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.
Rutgers Computer and Technology Law Journal
Credits: 1 or 2 per term; 6 maximum
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 or 2 per term; 6 maximum
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 or 2 per term; 6 maximum
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 or 2 per term; 6 maximum
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 purpose of the David Cohn Moot Court Competition is to select the team that will represent the law school in the National Moot Court Competition sponsored by the Young Lawyers Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. The regional round of that competition is held during the fall semester of the following academic year and the national round is held in the spring. The David Cohn Moot Court Competition is run by the Moot Court Board. The competition problem is written by the Moot Court Board Packet Committee. In order to obtain the credit for this competition, each student must write a brief and argue both sides of the case in the first round of argument.
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.
EXTERNSHIP AND FIELD PLACEMENTS
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.
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.
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 Citizenship & Immigration Services (formerly the INS) or the Immigrants Rights Program of the American Friends Service Committee, located in Newark. The externship is supplemented by seminars conducted by the law school’s director of externships that will address subjects such as asylum, cancellation of removal, adjustment of status, 212(c) relief, the different types of visas, and immigration court procedure.
Intellectual Property Externship
Credits: 2
Students work in the university’s Office of Corporate Liaison and Technology Transfer, 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. 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.
Judicial Externship
Credits: 2 or 3
Placement in the chambers of a state or federal judge as a legal intern.
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 AND ASSISTANTSHIPS
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.
Teaching Assistant
Credits: 1 to 3
Student provides teaching assistance to members of the faculty.