Course Schedule

Promulgation, interpretation, and administration of substantive laws of crime; constitutional limitations and relevant philosophical, sociological, and behavioral science materials.

Promulgation, interpretation, and administration of substantive laws of crime; constitutional limitations and relevant philosophical, sociological, and behavioral science materials.

This course deals with the judicial phase of the criminal justice process, beginning from the initial decision to bring criminal charges, through the pretrial and trial processes, and concluding with sentencing.  The major focus is opinions of the United States Supreme Court imposing federal constitutional limitations on criminal procedure.  Course coverage includes the following topics: the decision to initiate prosecution; bail and pretrial detention; the grand jury; the right to the effective assistance of counsel; the right to a speedy trial; discovery and disclosure of evidence; plea bargaining; the right to an impartial trial; the right to a jury; double jeopardy; and sentencing. Study of decisions of the United States Supreme Court is supplemented by examination of selected provisions of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, typical federal and state statutes, and opinions of the lower federal and state courts. In addition to regular class preparation and participation, students will be required to complete an experiential assignment, in which they will witness some aspect of criminal adjudication relevant to the course and reflect on that experience in writing. This course satisfies the Con Law II requirement.

This course explores constitutional limitations upon the investigation of crime. Its focus is on the law governing searches, seizures, and police interrogation. Topics include the nature of a Fourth Amendment search; arrest and investigative detention; warrants and exceptions to the warrant requirement; confessions; and the application of the exclusionary rule. Though the Fourth Amendment is the centerpiece of this course, the Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination also figures prominently. This course satisifies the Con Law II requirement. 

This class will introduce students to the intersection of blockchain technology, law, and policy. This entails a brief overview of blockchains and cryptocurrencies, as well as some of their most popular applications (DeFi, NFTs, etc) - students need not know anything about these technologies (or any technology) in advance. Students will also learn about: (1) the role of various regulators like the SEC and the Treasury Department, and how those regulators might think about cryptocurrencies; (2) the idea of code as a regulating force; and (3) the national security and foreign policy implications of cryptocurrencies. This class is designed to expose students to the breadth of issues coming out of blockchain technology, and will be focused on discussion rather than lecturing or presentations. 

Cryptocurrencies are eating the world. This course explores the evolving legal and regulatory landscape of blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and smart contracts. We will examine the potential of cryptocurrency technology to disrupt traditional financial systems and underlying regulatory regimes and legal doctrine that underpins capital markets today. The course will also weigh the considerations for new legal frameworks and policy considerations. Key topics include the decentralized nature of blockchain, the rise of cryptocurrencies as alternative stores of value, and the challenges of integrating such technologies into heavily regulated areas of payments and financial services. We will also address concerns surrounding market volatility, regulatory uncertainty, and the potential impact on traditional financial institutions and monetary policy.

Required Textbook:

Stabile, Daniel T., Kimberly A. Prior, and Andrew M. Hinkes. Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology: U.S. Law and Regulation. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020.

The past two years have highlighted the growing cyber threat to entities of all types: corporations, hospitals, government institutions and small businesses, to name a few.  The day that attack comes is nothing short of a crisis, requiring all the right teams to assemble and navigate the obstacles such an attack may present.  Cyber response was once thought as the province of the information security department, but it has grown to include leaders from key departments such as law, human resources, public relations, business teams, compliance, risk, and privacy.  Additionally, vendors, such as a technical incident response firm and a crisis communications firm must be identified and engaged to help supplement existing resources.  This is the time for legal counsel to shine, as the lawyer's role is central to many of the most critical workstreams.    This practical skills course will provide an in-depth review of incident response and counsel's role.  Students will partake in a tabletop exercise to kick off the course and identify the areas of incident response.  Subsequent sessions will review each area through group discussions in a small-class setting.   Guest speakers will include seasoned incident response experts from the FBI or Secret Service, crisis communications firms and regulators.

The derivative suit is a procedural device through which a stockholder may seek to enforce a corporate claim when those charged with deciding whether the corporation should act are unable or unwilling to do so. It has occupied a contested place in corporate law: viewed by some as an important mechanism for monitoring fiduciary conduct and by others as a source of litigation costs that can be imposed on companies and their stockholders.

Policymakers across the country are considering statutory reforms intended to limit the scope of this stockholder right. These developments raise fundamental questions about the derivative suit’s historical function, the procedural framework through which that function is carried out, and the role that courts, boards, stockholders, and markets should play in disciplining corporate conduct.

This course will examine the historical origins and doctrinal framework of derivative litigation, compare the limiting principles adopted by Delaware, Texas, and other jurisdictions, and evaluate whether the derivative suit fulfills its intended function.

This course follows a single derivative case from suspicion to fee award, and asks at each stage how the analysis would change in Delaware and Texas. Students will work through the leading Delaware decisions, and the Texas statutes written against them, at each stage of the derivative litigation lifecycle, including: identifying a suspect transaction; using inspection rights to develop facts; pleading around a motion to dismiss under both Rule 12(b)(6) and Rule 23.1; working through the substantive claims that dominate the docket — self-dealing, dilution, and Caremark oversight claims; and resolving the case, including how plaintiffs' counsel is compensated and how courts determine and police that compensation. The course is co-taught by a sitting Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery and a practicing Chancery litigator, pairing the perspective of the bench with that of the bar.

This course will provide a glimpse into the fascinating but complicated realm of jurisdiction over criminal cases in "Indian Country." The course begins by providing an historical context from colonial times to passage of the Major Crimes Act of 1885. Then we consider the Code of Indian Offenses and other developments up to passage of Public Law 280 in 1953 and the Indian Civil Rights Act. With that background, the course explores recent developments resulting from the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in McGirt v. Oklahoma, 591 U.S. 894 (2020), and Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, 597 U.S. 629 (2022), as well as the practical impact of enhancements to Indian Tribal Court criminal jurisdiction provided by amendments to the Violence Against Women Act.

This overview course will principally focus on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the most important federal law prohibiting discrimination against individuals with disabilities. We will discuss the ADA’s place in the disability-rights and disability-justice movements, and its analytical relationship with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and with the antidiscrimination provisions in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. We will also explore the Act’s definition of disability (including the subsequent ADA Amendments Act of 2008), and the provisions outlawing discrimination, and requiring accommodations, by employers (Title I), government services and programs (Title II), and private businesses (Title III). To sample the breadth of the ADA, we will discuss the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision guaranteeing community integration, as well as the ADA’s application in the contexts of, e.g., education, housing, healthcare, the criminal legal and carceral systems, immigration, and technology.

This course will provide an in-depth examination of the battered women’s movement and its impact on the legal system’s response to domestic violence. We begin with law and the social context of battering, including how the experience of abuse and the response to abuse is shaped by race, cultural identity, economic status, sexual orientation, and disabilities. Criminal law aspects are addressed within the role of protective orders, prosecution, and defense (including self-defense for victims and ethical representation of batterers). We next view how civil family law recognizes domestic violence in custody, divorce, visitation, and child protection matters. Among other topics, the course will examine specialized areas of the law, which include tort liability for batterers and third parties (police, employers, etc.) and federal remedies under the Violence Against Women Act. The class will discuss emerging issues like violence against women as a human rights violation and evolving sexual assault laws to identify the challenges of theory vs. practice. The focus of the class is to examine current gaps and barriers in the legal response to intimate partner violence and propose systemic change through a social justice lens.

This course will examine the correct (useful) way to define the concept "the impact of a choice on economic efficiency," the economically-efficient approach to take to predicting or postdicting the economic efficiency of any private or governmental choice, the relevance of the economic efficiency of a choice to its justness or moral desirability (rights-considerations aside), and the relevance of the economic efficiency of an interpretation or application of the law to its correctness as a matter of law. The course will also criticize canonical writings that articulate or manifest conclusions on these matters that differ from the Lecturer's. Although several weeks of the course will be devoted to the definitional and relevance issues, the majority of the course will address the economically efficient way to predict or postdict the economic efficiency of a choice in an economy that inevitably contains large numbers of Pareto imperfections of all types and uses resources in a large number of ways. More specifically, the course will consider in detail the negative implications of The General Theory of Second Best for the way in which economists approach economic-efficiency analysis and develop and apply a so-called distortion-analysis approach to economic-efficiency analysis that the Lecturer believes responds defensibly to the interconnections whose importance Second-Best Theory highlights. No background in economics, moral philosophy, or jurisprudence will be presupposed, though students without such backgrounds will have to work harder in the sections of the course to which these fields are relevant. There will be a mid-term as well as a final examination.

This unique 3-hour course explores the hottest topics in litigation today: electronic evidence and digital discovery (particularly emerging roles for AI). Evidence is information, and nearly all information is created, collected, communicated and stored electronically. Thus, the ability to identify, preserve, interpret, authenticate and challenge electronically stored information is a crucial litigation skill. This course seeks to reconcile the federal rules and e-discovery case law with the sources, forms and methods of information technology and computer forensics. Students will explore the roots of information technology, learn to "speak geek" see information with "new eyes" and acquire hands-on, practical training in finding electronic evidence, meeting preservation duties, guarding against spoliation, selecting forms of production, communicating and cooperating with opposing counsel and managing the volume and variety of digital evidence and metadata. You will use real world software tools and artificial intelligence applications, emerging with an understanding of the nuts and bolts of information technology and discovery, No prior background in law, computing or technology is required to succeed. Grading is based on six self-administered, timed closed-book quizzes via Canvas at roughly two week intervals and class participation. You must also submit written exercises on approximately a weekly basis. There is no midterm or final. Note: the course has been reconfigured for 2025 to scale back the workload and better accommodate competing demands on students' time, however it remains demanding in terms of weekly obligations. If you have questions about the course to decide if it's for you, I can be reached via email as craig@ball.net or by phone at 713-320-6066.

This course will explore historical and emerging issues in gender identity, sexuality, and the law. We will study and discuss the constitutional, statutory, and common law that impacts the lived experience of LGBTQ+ people and people living at the intersections of diverse LGBTQ+ identities.  We will also examine theoretical, philosophical, and practical elements of advocacy strategies employed by and/or on behalf of LGBTQ+ communities and discuss how civil rights organizations are using impact litigation, public policy, and education to secure rights and equality for LGBTQ+ people.  As part of the final evaluation, students will be required to participate in a mock litigation exercise that will also include a final paper.

Two top litigators teach practical skills and tips on everything from social media to managing massive discovery.  If it's new in litigation they know it. We will be discussing the use of technology in all aspects of litigation, including virtual trials and hearings.

Three key components of the class are;

• Cover various persuasive techniques used in contested matters, with an emphasis on real-world examples of effective advocacy;
• Using factual scenarios from actual cases, we will discuss the use of demonstratives and other methods of visual persuasion in contested matters;
• Each student will learn how to craft effective arguments and will be required to present them to the class as a whole.

This course explores the foundational pieces of employment law, including (1) Distinctions between “employees” and other types of workers, and why they matter; (2) The "default rule" of employment-at-will and the ways it can be modified; (3) The additional rights and responsibilities of government employees (e.g., free speech & due process rights, limitations on political rights); (4) Laws protecting employees from discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics (e.g., race, national origin, sex, sexual harassment, age, disability), and their enforcement schemes; (5) The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and its minimum wage & overtime premium protections; (6) A look at employees’ duties to their employers, including the duty of loyalty, duties involving trade secrets, and obligations not to compete.  It will also explore a host of contemporary employment law issues.   

This course examines in detail the federal, state and local regulatory regimes governing the production of energy in the United States, including the licensing regimes for electric generation (wind, solar, hydroelectric, nuclear and fossil-fueled) as well as the regulation of fossil fuel extraction.  Students will develop an understanding of the statutory regimes regulating coal mining, oil and gas production, fossil-fueled electricity generation, nuclear power plants, hydroelectric plants, and utility-scale wind and solar farms.  We will also address topical issues associated with the rapid technological and economic changes underway in the energy industry, including policies aimed at hastening the decarbonization of the electricity sector in an increasing number of states and municipalities, and policy conflicts associated with the growth of hydraulic fracturing to produce oil and gas.  This class will be based in the Law School, but will also be open to students in the McCombs School, the Jackson School, and the LBJ School, and will mix traditional lecture and discussion with small group work in multidisciplinary teams.  This is a companion course to (but not a prerequisite for) Energy Law:  Regulating the Sale and Delivery of Energy.  There are no prerequisites:  the course will  address the constitutional law, administrative law, technical, economic and political foundations of energy regulation as well as the content of the regulatory regimes covered.

The Energy Ventures Practicum is an opportunity for teams of law students, business students, policy students, and technologists to build up skills, capabilities and contacts to create a new venture in the energy sector. Objectives of the class are to provide a framework for commercializing innovations in the energy sector, and the tools that entrepreneurs need to frame and build businesses for this purpose.

Students must submit a complete application, attend an information session and be selected to participate in the Energy Ventures Practicum. Full course requirements and qualifications will be reviewed with students during information sessions offered before the registration period for each semester.

This is a full semester course that can only be taken for a grade. The course requires meeting during the scheduled class time and work to be conducted in between classes. For more information and details on this course, visit the website (https://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/centers-initiatives/brumley-institute/energy-ventures-practicum/).

Entertainment Law: Content Licensing is a course that explores the legal and business frameworks governing the licensing of creative works across film, television, music, publishing, gaming, and emerging digital platforms. Students will examine core contract structures, standard provisions, negotiation strategies, and risk allocation in licensing transactions, with attention to both traditional and cutting-edge issues such as evolving standards of fair use, streaming, and "open-source" licensing and content licensing in the age of AI. Through case studies, drafting exercises, and class discussion, the course emphasizes practical skills and critical thinking necessary for advising clients in an evolving entertainment marketplace.

The ETA & Search Fund Practicum is designed for graduate students interested in pursuing a path of Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA). The course will utilize a combination of lectures, in-class exercises, guest speakers, case studies, and interactive evaluation of real acquisition opportunities. Students will gain experience formulating an investment thesis, engaging in deal sourcing, conducting due diligence, and building requisite financial models. The intended goal of the course is to provide students with both the knowledge and practical experience needed to embark on a successful acquisition search following completion of the class. The course culminates in a Capstone Project, where students will pitch a real acquisition opportunity to experienced investors and get valuable feedback. 

Students must submit a complete application, attend an information session and be selected to participate in the ETA & Search Fund Practicum. Full course requirements and qualifications will be reviewed with students during information sessions offered before the registration period for each semester.

This is a full semester course that can only be taken for a grade. The course requires meeting during the scheduled class time and work to be conducted in between classes. For more information and details on this course, visit the website (https://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/centers-initiatives/brumley-institute/eta-search-fund-practicum/).

We will be offering two virtual AMA/info sessions for students who want to learn more about the course.  Times and links are below:

Monday, Oct 27th at noon: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/85450274841

Thursday, Oct 30th at noon: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/82292019602

This course will begin with an introduction to pollution control, the common law antecedents, and early statutory developments. The remainder of the course will be devoted to an intensive study of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. The student will become familiar with the substantive provisions of those statutes and will gain a knowledge of how the statutes are implemented by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the relevant state agencies. In addition, the course will expose the student to scientific and engineering concepts relevant to regulating the "conventional" air and water pollutants.  Finally, the course will examine ongoing regulatory attempts to address climate change under the Clean Air Act and the prospect for climate change legislation.

This course will explore the rules and principles governing the proof of facts in the courtroom, with special focus upon the Federal Rules of Evidence. Planned topics include relevance, hearsay, the Confrontation Clause, character evidence, impeachment and rehabilitation of witnesses, the best evidence rule, lay and expert opinion, and objections practice.