Course Schedule

The course studies the development, interpretation, and application of the antitrust laws of the United States, specifically the Sherman Act, Clayton Act, FTC Act and other laws designed to protect consumers by ensuring competition in the marketplace. Specific topics include dominant firm behavior and exclusionary conduct, agreements among competitors, mergers, and vertical agreements (such as agreements between a supplier and a distributor). The course examines Supreme Court case law, recent and influential lower court decisions, and modern enforcement practice at the Federal Trade Commission and United States Department of Justice. Although basic economic concepts are integrated throughout the course, no background in economics is required or assumed. The class will begin with a brief primer on the most important economic concepts we will use in the course in order to make the course accessible to all interested students.

This course addresses antitrust policy as opposed to antitrust law (though many of the policy-analyses incorporate analyses of the motivations for and consequences of antirust-policy-coverable conduct that are also relevant to the legality of the conduct under U.S. antitrust law). The course has 6 components: (1) analyses of the liberal conception of justice that I argue the U.S. is constitutionally committed to instantiating and its general antitrust-policy-related corollaries; (2) analyses of the various morally-defensible egalitarian conceptions of the moral good that it is morally appropriate for the U.S. government to try to instantiate in ways that are not liberal-moral-rights-violative; (3) analyses of the definition of “the impact of a choice on economic efficiency,” the protocol for economic-efficiency prediction that is ex ante economically efficient to use, and the moral relevance of a choice’s impact on economic efficiency; (4) analyses of whether all exemplars of a particular category of antitrust-policy-coverable conduct are liberal-moral-rights-violative and the conditions under which particular exemplars of some categories of antitrust-policy-coverable conduct are liberal-moral-rights-violative; (5) analyses of the conditions under which particular exemplars of antitrust-policy-coverable conduct will serve or disserve the instantiation of the utilitarian, equal-utility, and equal-resource egalitarian conceptions of the moral good (including analyses of the impact of such conduct on economic efficiency and on the equality of the distribution of income and wealth); and (6) analyses of the allocative cost and difficulty of executing the preceding analyses and the implications of these realities for the identification of morally-desirable antitrust policies. The conduct that will be examined includes oligopolstic conduct, predatory conduct, non-vertical mergers and acquisitions, non-vertical joint ventures, non-vertical internal growth, and vertical integration and its pricing-technique, contract-clause, and sales-policy surrogates. The economic-efficiency analyses will consider a wide variety of categories of economic inefficiency that conventional analyses ignore and the reality that and the individual imperfections that would cause economic inefficiency in an economy that contains no other such imperfection can counteract as well as compound each other.

No Background in moral philosophy or economics will be presumed, but students without such backgrounds will have to work harder at the beginning. There will be a 100-minute closed-book, essay mid-term exam and a 240-minute closed book, essay final exam. The mid-term grade will count one-third if it is higher than the final-exam grade and not at all if it is lower than the final-exam grade. The grade of students whose class-participation improves the course will be increased modestly on that account.

The course begins by explaining why the American antitrust laws' critical expressions -- "restraint of trade," "monopolizes," "decreases competition" -- should be interpreted in ways that make the legality of the various types of business conduct covered by those laws depend on economic analyses of the motivations of those who engage in them or certain consequences that they have. It then analyzes the economic factors that determine the legality of the various practices that the American antitrust laws cover. Approximately three-fourths of class-time will be devoted to economic analysis. The remaining time will be devoted to explaining the positive case-law and guidelines and analyzing the respects in which the courts and antitrust enforcement agencies are analyzing the legality of the conduct in question correctly and incorrectly. No background in economics will be presupposed, though students without such a background will have to work harder, particularly at the beginning of the course. Diagrams but no more advanced type of mathematics will be used. This course can be taken instead of or in addition to the regular antitrust course.

The course begins by explaining why the American antitrust laws' critical expressions -- "restraint of trade," "monopolizes," "decreases competition" -- should be interpreted in ways that make the legality of the various types of business conduct covered by those laws depend on economic analyses of the motivations of those who engage in them or certain consequences that they have. It then analyzes the economic factors that determine the legality of the various practices that the American antitrust laws cover. Approximately three-fourths of class-time will be devoted to economic analysis. The remaining time will be devoted to explaining the positive case-law and guidelines and analyzing the respects in which the courts and antitrust enforcement agencies are analyzing the legality of the conduct in question correctly and incorrectly. No background in economics will be presupposed, though students without such a background will have to work harder, particularly at the beginning of the course. Diagrams but no more advanced type of mathematics will be used. This course can be taken instead of or in addition to the regular antitrust course.

The course begins by explaining why the American antitrust laws' critical expressions -- "restraint of trade," "monopolizes," "decreases competition" -- should be interpreted in ways that make the legality of the various types of business conduct covered by those laws depend on economic analyses of the motivations of those who engage in them or certain consequences that they have. It then analyzes the economic factors that determine the legality of the various practices that the American antitrust laws cover. Approximately three-fourths of class-time will be devoted to economic analysis. The remaining time will be devoted to explaining the positive case-law and guidelines and analyzing the respects in which the courts and antitrust enforcement agencies are analyzing the legality of the conduct in question correctly and incorrectly. No background in economics will be presupposed, though students without such a background will have to work harder, particularly at the beginning of the course. Diagrams but no more advanced type of mathematics will be used. This course can be taken instead of or in addition to the regular antitrust course.

The course begins by explaining why the American antitrust laws' critical expressions -- "restraint of trade," "monopolizes," "decreases competition" -- should be interpreted in ways that make the legality of the various types of business conduct covered by those laws depend on economic analyses of the motivations of those who engage in them or certain consequences that they have. It then analyzes the economic factors that determine the legality of the various practices that the American antitrust laws cover. Approximately three-fourths of class-time will be devoted to economic analysis. The remaining time will be devoted to explaining the positive case-law and guidelines and analyzing the respects in which the courts and antitrust enforcement agencies are analyzing the legality of the conduct in question correctly and incorrectly. No background in economics will be presupposed, though students without such a background will have to work harder, particularly at the beginning of the course. Diagrams but no more advanced type of mathematics will be used. This course can be taken instead of or in addition to the regular antitrust course.

The course begins by explaining why the American antitrust laws' critical expressions -- "restraint of trade," "monopolizes," "decreases competition" -- should be interpreted in ways that make the legality of the various types of business conduct covered by those laws depend on economic analyses of the motivations of those who engage in them or certain consequences that they have. It then analyzes the economic factors that determine the legality of the various practices that the American antitrust laws cover. Approximately three-fourths of class-time will be devoted to economic analysis. The remaining time will be devoted to explaining the positive case-law and guidelines and analyzing the respects in which the courts and antitrust enforcement agencies are analyzing the legality of the conduct in question correctly and incorrectly. No background in economics will be presupposed, though students without such a background will have to work harder, particularly at the beginning of the course. Diagrams but no more advanced type of mathematics will be used. This course can be taken instead of or in addition to the regular antitrust course.

This three-hour course teaches advanced, judge-centered, Texas Supreme Court jurisprudence-driven appellate advocacy. Students represent an assigned party in a hypothetical case that progresses from final judgment in the trial court, through the court of appeals, to the Supreme Court of Texas. The class focuses on instilling the best possible judgment in the identification, development,  and presentation of winning legal arguments via brief writing and oral argument. Lectures teach specific oral and written advocacy techniques and principles, infused with perspectives of leading appellate practitioners and members of  the appellate judiciary, using real world examples. Students are graded on their application of these techniques and principles to the hypothetical case. Students must complete all assignments to receive credit. Major assignments include a brief in a Texas court of appeals, a petition for review in the Supreme Court of Texas, and multiple oral arguments. The course also touches on appellate procedure, ethics, mandamus practice, and the identification, development, and presentation of winning legal arguments in trial courts. The class meets once each week. There is no midterm and no final exam.

This three-hour course teaches advanced, judge-centered, Texas Supreme Court   jurisprudence-driven appellate advocacy. Students represent an assigned party in a hypothetical case that progresses from final judgment in the trial court, through the court of appeals, to the Supreme Court of Texas. The class focuses on instilling the best possible judgment in the identification, development,  and presentation of winning legal arguments via brief writing and oral argument. Lectures teach specific oral and written advocacy techniques and principles, infused with perspectives of leading appellate practitioners and members of  the appellate judiciary, using real world examples. Students are graded on their application of these techniques and principles to the hypothetical case. Students must complete all assignments to receive credit. Major assignments include a brief in a Texas court of appeals, a petition for review in the Supreme Court of Texas, and multiple oral arguments. The course also touches on appellate procedure, ethics, mandamus practice, and the identification, development, and presentation of winning legal arguments in trial courts. The class meets once each week. There is no midterm and no final exam.

This course will be taught entirely online via Zoom.

This three-hour course teaches advanced, judge-centered, jurisprudence-driven appellate advocacy. Students represent an assigned party in a hypothetical case that progresses from final judgment in the trial court, through the court of appeals, to the Supreme Court of Texas. The class focuses on instilling the best possible judgment in the identification, development, and presentation of winning legal arguments via brief writing and oral argument. Lectures teach specific oral and written advocacy techniques and principles, infused with perspectives of leading appellate practitioners and the appellate judiciary, using real world examples. Students are graded on their application of these techniques and principles to the hypothetical case. Students must complete all assignments to receive credit. Major assignments include a brief in a Texas court of appeals, a petition for review in the Supreme Court of Texas, and multiple oral arguments. The course also touches on appellate procedure, ethics, mandamus practice, and the identification, development, and presentation of winning legal arguments in trial courts. The class meets once each week. There is no midterm and no final exam.

This three-hour course teaches advanced, judge-centered, jurisprudence-driven appellate advocacy. Students represent an assigned party in a hypothetical case that progresses from final judgment in the trial court, through the court of appeals, to the Supreme Court of Texas. The class focuses on instilling the best possible judgment in the identification, development, and presentation of winning legal arguments via brief writing and oral argument. Lectures teach specific oral and written advocacy techniques and principles, infused with perspectives of leading appellate practitioners and the appellate judiciary, using real world examples. Students are graded on their application of these techniques and principles to the hypothetical case. Students must complete all assignments to receive credit. Major assignments include a brief in a Texas court of appeals, a petition for review in the Supreme Court of Texas, and multiple oral arguments. The course also touches on appellate procedure, ethics, mandamus practice, and the identification, development, and presentation of winning legal arguments in trial courts. The class meets once each week. There is no midterm and no final exam.

This pass-fail course teaches students to do the work of an appellate clerk. We will analyze briefs and record excerpts, write sample bench memos, and draft and edit opinions. I expect students to attend every class unless excused. The class is limited to twelve students, but students who have accepted an appellate clerkship will have priority.

This pass-fail course teaches students to do the work of an appellate clerk. We will analyze briefs and record excerpts, write sample bench memos, and draft and edit opinions. I expect students to attend every class unless excused. The class is limited to twelve students, but students who have accepted an appellate clerkship will have priority.

This pass-fail course teaches students to do the work of an appellate clerk. We will analyze briefs and record excerpts, write sample bench memos, and draft and edit opinions. I expect students to attend every class unless excused. The class is only open to students who have accepted an appellate clerkship or who plan to apply to one.

This pass-fail course teaches students to do the work of an appellate clerk. We will analyze briefs and record excerpts, write sample bench memos, and draft and edit opinions. I expect students to attend every class unless excused. The class is only open to students who have accepted an appellate clerkship or who plan to apply to one.

This pass-fail course teaches students to do the work of an appellate clerk. We will analyze briefs and record excerpts, write sample bench memos, and draft and edit opinions. I expect students to attend every class unless excused. The class is only open to students who have accepted an appellate clerkship or who plan to apply to one.

This pass-fail course teaches students to do the work of an appellate clerk. We will analyze briefs and record excerpts, write sample bench memos, and draft and edit opinions. I expect students to attend every class unless excused. The class is only open to students who have accepted an appellate clerkship or who plan to apply to one.

This course will analyze the origins of arbitration, its use in dispute resolution, and explore tactics for navigating arbitration.  It involves active class participation designed to mimic the arbitration process: drafting and negotiating arbitration clauses; selecting the arbitrator; presenting a claim; and will conclude with a mock arbitration. The teaching goal is to prepare students for drafting clauses for arbitration, engaging in arbitration, and evaluating the decision to resolve disputes through arbitration from the perspective of practicing attorneys and arbitrators.

This course will analyze the origins of arbitration, its use in dispute resolution, and explore tactics for navigating arbitration.  It involves active class participation designed to mimic the arbitration process: drafting and negotiating arbitration clauses; selecting the arbitrator; presenting a claim; and will conclude with a mock arbitration. The teaching goal is to prepare students for drafting clauses for arbitration, engaging in arbitration, and evaluating the decision to resolve disputes through arbitration from the perspective of practicing attorneys and arbitrators.

This course will analyze the origins of arbitration, its use in dispute resolution, and the tactics for navigating arbitration.  It involves participation in the arbitration process from selection of the arbitrator, presentation of a claim and discovery, and will conclude with a mock arbitration, through the award and challenge in trial courts.  The teaching goal is to furnish students with the skills necessary to draft clauses for arbitration, engage in arbitration, and evaluate the decision to resolve disputes through arbitration.  This is a skills-oriented course that requires active participation, with the goal of understanding the choice to arbitrate.

In recent decades there has been an explosion of interest in arbitration. The aim of this course is to think deeply about this trend, and in particular about the justifications for arbitration as a method of dispute resolution, its limits, and the principles that govern its practice. We will select topics that allow us to connect the debates over arbitration with larger debates about the function and the forms of law in modern societies. To illustrate the range of questions we might address, consider the following. Is the increased interest in arbitration a response to perceived defects in the regular court system and if so, what are those defects? More generally, how do arbitration courts and the ordinary judiciary interact? Would arbitration work in a world without courts? What about criticisms of arbitration, such as that it systematically advantages the more powerful party in a contractual relationship? Are there any matters that the state should declare nonarbitrable, and on what grounds? What kind of law are arbitrators supposed to apply in rendering their awards? How does that law relate to the law courts use? How does it relate to broader notions of justice and equity? Is there a role for stare decisis, and should there be? How should arbitrators vote? Should dissents be allowed? Also, a number of very important and interesting topics arise in special forms of arbitration. For example, under the ICSID system in Washington, an individual is allowed to sue a state in its international capacity before an international arbitral body. Is a strong form of transnational law being created in these cases? Are there any structural biases in such a system? How does the law developed in these cases fit with democratic values?

In recent decades there has been an explosion of interest in arbitration. The aim of this course is to think deeply about this trend, and in particular about the justifications for arbitration as a method of dispute resolution, its limits, and the principles that govern its practice. We will select topics that allow us to connect the debates over arbitration with larger debates about the function and the forms of law in modern societies. To illustrate the range of questions we might address, consider the following. Is the increased interest in arbitration a response to perceived defects in the regular court system and if so, what are those defects? More generally, how do arbitration courts and the ordinary judiciary interact? Would arbitration work in a world without courts? What about criticisms of arbitration, such as that it systematically advantages the more powerful party in a contractual relationship? Are there any matters that the state should declare nonarbitrable, and on what grounds? What kind of law are arbitrators supposed to apply in rendering their awards? How does that law relate to the law courts use? How does it relate to broader notions of justice and equity? Is there a role for stare decisis, and should there be? How should arbitrators vote? Should dissents be allowed? Also, a number of very important and interesting topics arise in special forms of arbitration. For example, under the ICSID system in Washington, an individual is allowed to sue a state in its international capacity before an international arbitral body. Is a strong form of transnational law being created in these cases? Are there any structural biases in such a system? How does the law developed in these cases fit with democratic values?

This course covers Title 11 of the U.S. Code, the Bankruptcy Code. It includes both consumer and business bankruptcy and a modest introduction to state law collection issues. Students learn the basic concepts of "straight" bankruptcy liquidation (Chapter 7), in which a trustee is appointed to sell the debtor's assets and pay the proceeds to the creditors. For consumers, that topic includes the fresh start--the discharge of all pre-existing debt--and the identification of exempt assets. Students also study the rehabilitation provisions, under which the debtor attempts to pay all or some part of the pre- bankruptcy debt: Chapter 13 payout plans for consumers and Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings for businesses. Principal attention is given to the substance of the bankruptcy laws, including the "avoiding powers" (for example, preferences, fraudulent conveyances, and rejection of executory contracts), treatment of secured creditors (including the automatic stay against repossession or foreclosure), and priorities in asset distribution. More than half of the course is devoted to business reorganizations in Chapter 11 [cases like Sears, Hertz and Neiman Marcus], including the legal requirements for confirmation of a plan of reorganization and "cramdown" of recalcitrant creditors. Questions of jurisdiction and procedure are introduced, but are not the major focus of the course. The course attempts to give balanced attention to the practice realities of negotiation and leverage within a complex of doctrinal rules and to the social and economic consequences of the bankruptcy system in both its consumer and commercial manifestations.

Prerequisite: Secured Credit. The prerequisite may be concurrent, that is, taken during the same semester.

This course is for students who want to practice bankruptcy - and for those who simply want a fun, challenging course that covers a key legal system underlying the U.S. and global economies. It covers Title 11 of the U.S. Code, the Bankruptcy Code. The course includes both consumer and business bankruptcy and a modest introduction to state law collection issues. Students learn the basic concepts of "straight" bankruptcy liquidation (Chapter 7), in which a trustee is appointed to sell the debtor's assets and pay the proceeds to the creditors. For consumers, that topic includes the fresh start--the discharge of all pre-existing debt--and the identification of exempt assets. Students also study the rehabilitation provisions, under which the debtor attempts to pay all or some part of the pre- bankruptcy debt: Chapter 13 payout plans for consumers and Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings for businesses. Principal attention is given to the substance of the bankruptcy laws, including the "avoiding powers" (for example, preferences and fraudulent conveyances), treatment of secured creditors (including the automatic stay against repossession or foreclosure), and priorities in asset distribution. More than half of the course is devoted to business reorganizations in Chapter 11, including the legal requirements for confirmation of a plan of reorganization and "cramdown" of recalcitrant creditors. Questions of jurisdiction and procedure are introduced, but are not the major focus of the course. The course attempts to give balanced attention to the practice realities of negotiation and leverage within a complex of doctrinal rules and to the social and economic consequences of the bankruptcy system in both its consumer and commercial manifestations. Grading will be primarily based on the exam but there is a class-participation component. Prerequisite: none.

Textbook 1: The Law of Debtors and Creditors: Text, Cases, and Problems (Aspen Casebook) 8th Edition, ISBN: 9781454893516

Textbook 2: 2022 or 2023 statutory supplement Bankruptcy and Article 9.

Side Note: The least expensive way to purchase both textbooks is through the Longhorn Textbook Access Program: Bundle: The Law of Debtors and Creditors: Text, Cases, and Problems, Eighth Edition with Bankruptcy & Article 9: 2023 Statutory Supplement Access Elizabeth Warren, Jay Lawrence Westbrook, Katherine Porter, John A. E. Pottow - $189.36 – Connected eBook digital access code + 2023 Supplement digital access.

This course covers Title 11 of the U.S. Code, the Bankruptcy Code. It includes both consumer and business bankruptcy and a modest introduction to state law collection issues. Students learn the basic concepts of "straight" bankruptcy liquidation (Chapter 7), in which a trustee is appointed to sell the debtor's assets and pay the proceeds to the creditors. For consumers, that topic includes the fresh start--the discharge of all pre-existing debt--and the identification of exempt assets. Students also study the rehabilitation provisions, under which the debtor attempts to pay all or some part of the pre- bankruptcy debt: Chapter 13 payout plans for consumers and Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings for businesses. Principal attention is given to the substance of the bankruptcy laws, including the "avoiding powers" (for example, preferences, fraudulent conveyances, and rejection of executory contracts), treatment of secured creditors (including the automatic stay against repossession or foreclosure), and priorities in asset distribution. More than half of the course is devoted to business reorganizations in Chapter 11 [cases like Sears, Hertz and Neiman Marcus], including the legal requirements for confirmation of a plan of reorganization and "cramdown" of recalcitrant creditors. Questions of jurisdiction and procedure are introduced, but are not the major focus of the course. The course attempts to give balanced attention to the practice realities of negotiation and leverage within a complex of doctrinal rules and to the social and economic consequences of the bankruptcy system in both its consumer and commercial manifestations.

Prerequisite: Secured Credit. The prerequisite may be concurrent, that is, taken during the same semester.