Class Schedule

International Petroleum Transactions is essentially a subject in international business that is taught in the context of the petroleum and energy industries. The book that will be assigned examines location of world resources, ownership of mineral rights, dispute resolution, assessing political risk, the types of contracts used in this industry (concessions, production sharing, participation, and service contracts), financial products, and environmental issues. The first four sessions of the seminar will cover parts of the book to provide some background. However, the goal of the course is to write a 25-35 page paper with over 120 footnotes and with over 30 sources in a topic related to international petroleum transactions. Students will need to find a topic within the first two weeks, prepare an outline, a first draft, and a final draft that will be due on the last day of final examinations. Students will also need to prepare a 20 minute presentation that will be delivered to the class during the last four weeks of the course. The paper will count 80%, the presentation will count 10%, and class participation (including attendance) will count 10%. The class is reserved to 7 JD students and 7 LLM students. There are no prerequisites for this seminar.

Sports, whether mere individual physical exercise, simple competitive games, or national/international competition, often intersect with human rights law. Owing to sport’s long tradition of independence and autonomy, national and international jurisdictions only intervene in a limited way in sporting affairs.  This does not mean, however, that there are not questions to be asked, particularly when it comes to protecting international human rights. In fact, sport relies on a rules-based system in all its facets, including athletes, fans, workers, volunteers and local communities, as well as governments, businesses large and small, the media and sports bodies. This seminar examines and unpacks human rights standards and legal commitments to show how human rights are impacted by sporting events or sport activity. The class will address issues such as the human rights of athletes, the basic right to participate in sport and physical activity, remedies for victims of human rights abuses tied to major global sporting events; discrimination against women, LGBT people and persons with disabilities in sport; campaigns against racism and apartheid in sports; the existence of disciplinary systems in the sports movement and the growing number of situations and cases of potential or actual clashes between the running of competitions and human rights standards (e.g. individuals rights in the context of anti-doping, corruption, and match-fixing). In particular, the seminar will discuss cases decided by human rights courts, such as the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights (ECHR), and specialized sports arbitration mechanisms, notably the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

This seminar will focus on cutting-edge research in law and economics. In most of the classes, I will host a workshop during which a leading scholar will present a paper. In the weeks in which there is no outside speaker, two groups of students will each present one to the two papers that will be presented by the outside speakers in the next two workshops. All students are required to write short critiques of most of the speakers’ papers. Your critiques will be graded and made available to the speaker.

The seminar will cover topics not usually covered in patent law courses. For the first eight weeks, the course will address advanced topics and new developments in the law. The topics will be addressed in more depth than in typical courses and will include policy considerations. There will likely be one guest speaker that will present on a special topic. For the rest of the term, the students will select topics, choose the readings, and lead the discussion. Topic selection will require instructor approval. Students will also be expected to write a term paper on the same topic as the one chosen for presentation. Prerequisites: It is recommended that the student be concurrently taking or has taken a course that includes patent law (which could be a survey course). This Seminar used to require such a course as a prerequisite. In recent years, a number of students without that prerequisite have taken the course and have participated in class discussions, and otherwise performed as well as people who had the prerequisite. Thus, the prerequisite has been removed. If you have not had patent law or a survey that covers patent law, you will need to do some extra reading to understand the topics we are talking about in class. Those in this position should contact the instructor a few weeks prior to the start of classes for some recommended treatises.

This course examines the role of two important actors in our criminal justice system- police and prosecutors.  We will explore the discretion that both these actors have, as well as the legal and professional rules that govern their behavior.  We will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these rules and critique the adequacy of these rules to hold these actors accountable to the public. This course exposes students to the underlying rationale for many of the current proposals for criminal justice reform related to the use of independent prosecutors, use of force standards for police, qualified immunity, racial profiling, municipal liabilty, civil suit, criminal prosecutions, the use of technology and law enforcement, etc.

The learning objectives for the course are below: 

• Articulate the role and responsibilities of prosecutors and police officers in the United States;
• Identify various models of policing and forms of prosecutorial and police misconduct;
• Identify legal claims that victims of such misconduct might bring against prosecutors and police officers and anticipate and evaluate defenses to the aforementioned claims.
• Identify the merits and disadvantages of discretion in the criminal justice system;
• Evaluate current mechanisms used to constrain discretion in the criminal justice system;
• Think critically about various models used to hold prosecutors and police officers accountable for their conduct.
• Apply the aforementioned principles to recent examples of alleged prosecutorial and police misconduct and develop recommendations for reform.

The paper is 75% and class participation is 25% (class participation is based on an-class presentation and weekly journal entries) 

Financial regulation is the principal tool used by the public or official sector to achieve or approach financial stability and market integrity. The events of 2020, and the impact of the financial cataclysms of 2008-10,  prove that in times of severe stress (whether or not fundamentally economic or financial) the functioning of and support by financial regulation is both objectively and subjectively central.   It's also notable that  regulation can stifle important ways in which finance can making funding available in ways that are consistent with the needs of a population and the innovation that enables  the financial system to address the needs of the real economy.  This seminar reviews the structure and operations  of financial market regulation--specifically securities, derivatives (or swaps), banking, and systems to inhibit money laundering and terrorist (or "threat") financing. We will concentrate on United States regulatory systems, but we will -- as we must-- examine the international regulatory regimes and the cross-border effects of regulation. Know it or not, or like it or not, regulation of financial markets touches and changes every aspect of our economic lives. (Paying  rent and buying groceries and obtaining cash from an ATM and obtaining funding for nonprofit organizations are parts of those economic lives, as are public and private issuances of securities, and multibillion dollar finacings.) This topic includes cryptocurrency, blockchain records, fintech, public-sector support for markets and issuers, and consumer credit regulation, all of which we will discuss during the class as time permits. This is not a substitute for a securities regulation course but, then, securities regulation is not a prerequisite for this class. A major paper will be required at the end of the course. Course grades are determined by class participation and the paper.  (Class participation may include some short, narrow quizzes that are calibrated to assess the general  achievement of learning outcomes.)  Consistently with a recognition that the topic has broad application, the course materials come from many sources (some of which may be surprising) and are in different media. That having been said, one requisite for the course--by no means a formal one, but a real requirement-- is that the students have an interest in learning about the area.  And, notwithstanding the language that precedes this sentence, the instructor is pretty casual. 

This is a new seminar designed for students who want to engage with some of the major movements being launched in support of planetary conservation through analytic and practical investigation. The movements under study will include land and water set-asides (eg, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Global Evergreening Alliance); the "new food" movement (eg, Eat Just's lab-grown chicken; Blue Nalu's lab-grown fish; and solar-powered cooking); new construction (eg, mass timber; replacements for concrete); the movement to de-commission or "trade" dams, to re-negotiate multi-state river compacts, and to "retreat"! from beaches and shorelines; and to "re-use" and "replace" pl! astics within the circular economy. We'll focus on the work of particular public and private organizations leading these charges, including Austin start-ups being fostered by ATL (the Austin Technology Lab). We'll make a pro bono contribution to the work of at least two of these organizations through group projects. Students will also write a research paper on approved topics within the whole.

In this seminar, students will explore rapidly evolving debates around government surveillance, new technologies, civil liberties, and personal privacy.  The course will cover surveillance by the U.S. intelligence community, police, and U.S. allies and adversaries abroad, examining key legal instruments and court decisions in light of broader policy debates.  The class will also examine the interbranch allocation of responsibility for authorizing, implementing, and overseeing surveillance programs.  At every stage, the course will highlight surveillance activities affecting new and emerging technologies and those technologies’ potential to shift the balance between citizen and state.  Students will be evaluated based on class participation and a research paper fulfilling the Law School writing requirement.

     This workshop will provide an opportunity for members of the seminar Saving the Planet:

Investigating the Economics, Law, and Policy of Innovation to deepen and extend their seminar endeavors by enrolling in a one-credit workshop that will orbit the 3-credit course (that is, the seminar itself.)

     The orbital design will be created by the Workshop participants, with my guidance, at two planning sessions. One will directly follow the second seminar meeting of the term. The second will take place at the same time one week later, with informal communications between and among us in between. The group will decide on the Workshop’s specific goals and content at the second planning session. After the design has been shaped, with input from all participants, the Workshop will meet for five concurrent weeks that will begin on Wednesday, October 6th and end on Wednesday, November 10th.

    Possible designs include—without limitation and in no-priority order:   

• (1) Doing a collaborative research and writing project on a topic chosen by all participants.
• (2) Researching, writing, and submitting for publication opinion-editorials, after reading and discussing examples I will provide of this platform for knowledge-transfer and opinion-propagation in clear popular terms.
• (3) Attending an innovations-presentation and cash awards competition and conference, which includes a college-level competition in Ft Lauderdale, Florida on October 24-26th, either live, if the group chooses to crowd-fund its cost, or possibly via a live feed, and writing about the presentations. (This is the annual conference of The Ocean Exchange: See oceanexchange.org.) (This would likely be combined with a second Workshop project.)
• (4) Volunteering analytic support for an organization that is working to provide inter-generational protection for one or more features of the Texas environment. A small portfolio of organizations that have agreed to participate will be made available from which to choose.

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The obvious question is: Do all participants have to agree on the same project? The answer is: no. But some collaboration among participants is among my goals.

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With enrollment limited to seminar participants, there are no questionnaires, interviews, or other special qualifications necessary for Workshop enrollment. I welcome all seminarians who would like to participate in this innovation in course-design!         

This course covers credit transactions in which the loan is secured by an interest in personal property. Secured credit is a very important part of both consumer and commercial lending. This course will study both contexts, examining how secured transactions are structured and why they are structured that way. These transactions are largely governed by Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. The course does not cover loans secured by mortgages on real estate. A secured loan is one in which the debtor and lender agree that if the debtor does not pay, the lender can take specific items of property from the debtor. This property is called collateral, and the lender is said to have a security interest in the collateral. The collateral may be tangible property such as inventory, equipment, and consumer goods, or intangible property such as stocks and bonds or the debtor's right to collect from people who owe money to him. The course examines the mechanics of making secured loans, the rules that govern repossessing the collateral if the debtor doesn't pay, and what can happen to security interests if the debtor goes bankrupt. It also examines the priority rules that rank competing claims to the same collateral. There may be many such claims. More than one secured lender may have a security interest in the collateral; unsecured creditors may seize the collateral to collect a judgment; customers or other third parties may buy the collateral; the collateral may be affixed to real estate and become subject to the claims of people with interests in the real estate. This is also a course in statutory construction. We will devote very careful attention to using and interpreting the Uniform Commercial Code and the Bankruptcy Code. We will progress from relatively simple statutory provisions to quite difficult ones, learning the skills that can be applied to all sorts of statutes. Westbrook sometimes offers a one-hour adjunct to the Secured Credit course. This Secured Credit workshop adjunct course is open only to those taking his regular three-hour Secured Credit course. Requirements include a small number of additional classes and a 15-20 page paper on a Secured Credit topic. A student who takes this adjunct course gets one four-hour grade based on a combination of the student's examination in the regular course and performance in the one-hour course (especially on the paper). Enrollment is limited. Taking the workshop is not required to take the main three hour course. Students who choose the Workshop have included those who want to study advanced commercial law topics and theory, but also those who have no business background and want a cushion rather than putting the whole grade on a final exam.  While the course is not remedial or tutorial, philosophy or art history majors usually find it makes them more comfortable and confident in the main course.

Westbrook often offers this one-hour adjunct to the Secured Credit course. This Secured Credit workshop adjunct course is open only to those taking his regularthree-hour Secured Credit course. It covers the same subject matter. The course has two main purposes: offering especially interested students a look at cutting edge issues beyond what is covered in the basic course; and giving students a chance to be evaluated in part by a paper rather than just an examination. It also provides a small class experience. Requirements include a small number of additional classes and a 15-20 page paper on a Secured Credit topic. A student who takes this adjunct course gets one four-hour grade based on a combination of the student's examination in the regular course and performance in the one-hour course (especially on the paper). Enrollment is limited. Although the workshop is limited to students taking the main, three-hour course, taking the workshop is not required to take the main three hour course. Students who choose the Workshop have included those who want to study advanced commercial law topics and theory, but also those who have no business background and want a cushion rather than putting the whole grade on a final exam.  While the course is not remedial or tutorial, philosophy majors or art hisotry majors usually find it makes them more comfortable and confident in the main course.

Virtually any raising of capital implicates the securities laws. The goal of this course, then, is for students to learn the mechanics of public and private offerings of securities, and to understand the reporting and disclosure requirements that issuing securities entails. This course is particularly important for students who expect to work either in business litigation or transactional law. Topics include public offerings, exempt (i.e., private) offerings, public company regulation and exemption, and, to the extent time permits, secondary market issues such as securities fraud, insider trading, and the regulation of financial intermediaries (such as broker-dealers and investment advisers). Please be aware that this course makes use of economics and math (this is not an arbitrary imposition: courts deciding securities cases make use of economics and math, such as net present valuation and the Efficient Capital Markets Hypothesis). No prior background, beyond a reasonable high school education, in these areas is required -- concepts will be introduced as needed -- although a willingness to engage economics and math is absolutely necessary. Absent special circumstances, students are strongly encouraged to have completed “Business Associations” or “Business Associations (Enriched)” before taking this course.

This class will examine the operations of commercial space companies from the perspective of in-house counsel. We will cover both general concerns and space industry specific concerns designed to give students a broad understanding of the legal issues face by commercial space comapanies to prepare students for commercial space law practice. The course will be focused on problem solving and risk management from a legal standpoint. We will cover four broad areas: Commercial Licensing, International Trade and Investment, Commercial Space Transactions, and Government Contracting. Each week will have a lecture and practium component. The lecture will cover material designed to help students participate in the practicum component of the class. Practicums will be group problem solving activities and discussions designed to help familiarize students with how the concepts and law we cover are applied in the real-world commercial context.

This course will cover various legal and business aspects of professional sports, the Olympics and amateur sports (i.e., intercollegiate athletics).   Although we will focus primarily on domestic sports organizations, prominent international sports entities will be covered as well.  Business and legal topics covered include league ownership and structure, antitrust law, labor law and collective bargaining, torts, contracts, agency, media issues and intellectual property, NCAA and conference alignment, and gender equity (Title IX). Class lecture and discussion may include speakers from the sports industry.   Sports legal issues that are then-currently in the news will be examined in class as well.   A general knowledge of sports is recommended but certainly not required.

When we speak of "government" in the law school curriculum, we too often forget that public governments in the United States include those of the 50 states and their more than 90,000 political subdivisions: 3,000 counties, 19,500 municipal corporations, 16,000 townships, 12,800 school districts, and 38,000 special districts. This offering focuses on America's sub-national governments in discussing questions such as: How should our local "communities" be defined in practice, and who should decide? What is and should be the relationship that states and localities have with the federal government, their citizens, and other states and localities? Which level of government (if any) should provide a particular good or service or regulate activity in a particular area? How should the goods and services provided by states and localities be paid for, and who should decide? In addition to traditional legal materials such as cases, statutes, ordinances, constitutional provisions, and law review articles, we will draw upon materials from a wide range of other disciplines: political theory, public choice theory, public finance, and political economy. Aspiring governors, senators, mayors, city council members, state attorneys general, and school board members welcome! Written requirements: One short paper (4-5 pages) and a 2.5 hour, in class, essay examination. Casebook: L. Baker, C. Gillette & D. Schleicher, Local Government Law: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press; 5th edition 2015). Prerequisite: None; 3 hours credit.

This course is restricted to upper class students who have completed a course in taxation of corporations or who otherwise obtain the permission of the instructor. The class covers various tax issues affecting both taxable and tax-free mergers and acquisitions, including the principal §368 transactions, §351-type acquisitions, net operating loss carryovers, compensation issues, and international acquisitions. The course material consists of readings in Bittker & Eustice, Federal Taxation of Corporations and Shareholders (available online), plus cases, regulations and rulings, photocopied and available in the course packet available at the McCombs Copy Center. There are no examinations; instead you are asked to prepare at least three written assignments in the form which you, as professionals, would prepare for clients or employers. Grades are based on written assignments (70%) and participation in our discussions during class (30%).

Taxation of Real Estate Investments covers the federal tax effects on those persons who invest in real estate.  It includes an overview of how real estate is treated for tax purposes differently from other types of businesses.  Then we cover the principal investment vehicles (including syndicated partnerships and LLCs used by investors to acquire, hold and dispose of real estate. Next we cover some of the more complex types of real estate transactions, including like-kind exchanges, real estate investment trusts (REITs), real estate mortgage investment conduits (REMICs), and syndicated tenancies-in-common (TICs). Finally, we discuss real estate investments by non-US persons.

Although study of some of the investment structures are daunting, there is no prerequisite of any tax course to register for this class.

This course is an introduction to the technical aspects of cybersecurity. No background is assumed. If you want to learn how this stuff works, this course was made for you.

The course is intended for graduate students in law, public affairs, and other non-technical disciplines. We will explore topics like cryptography, authentication, malware, and social engineering. Note that this course does not address legal or policy questions, as those are the subject of the separate Cybersecurity Foundations course taught by Professor Chesney. Both courses are part of the larger Strauss Center program promoting cross-disciplinary training related to cybersecurity across the graduate school community at UT.

This course will be taught entirely in the classroom

Taught by former Texas legislator, Senator J.E. "Buster" Brown, and supplemented by guest lecturers, this two-credit course focuses on the ways in which the Texas Legislature functions - both officially and otherwise. A wide range of procedural and substantive topics will be discussed to enable law students to gain an understanding of the process of legislation, the procedural requirements, and the forces at work which all contribute to the criteria for enactment or rejection of a bill. In this regard, the formal structure of the legislature will be analyzed in depth, including the Legislative Council (drafting bills), the Budget Board, the leadership and committee structure, scheduling votes on proposals, etc. The informal structure will not be ignored, with an eye to the role of special interest groups, lobbyists, and House-Senate interaction behind the scenes. Emphasis centers on the way ideas work their way through the Legislature and become policy for the State of Texas, including Constitution, statutes, rules of the House and Senate, and political realities that influence the process.

Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs (JBTVL) is a university-wide initiative to accelerate startups in taking their innovations to market while transforming graduate students into entrepreneurs and business leaders.

The JBTVL Practicum is a cross-disciplinary networking and learning program that connects graduate students interested in entrepreneurship with Texas-based startup companies. Students participate in semester-long consulting projects solving important problems alongside the company’s founders in a hands-on approach using the academic foundations of entrepreneurship and business modeling. Students learn valuable skills such as project management, client relations, team collaboration, market validation, competitive research, price modeling and business analysis.

This course is for students who have completed the interview process and have been selected to participate in the JBTVL Practicum. The interview process is mandatory and instructor permission is required to take this course. Full course requirements and qualifications will be reviewed with students during information sessions prior to the interview process 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 the interview process for this course, visit the website (https://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/Centers/Texas-Venture-Labs/Students).

Limits of liability and methods of establishing liability for intentional and unintentional injuries to persons or property.

Limits of liability and methods of establishing liability for intentional and unintentional injuries to persons or property.

Transactional Practice Skills: Doing Deals introduces students to the skills that lawyers—in particular, junior lawyers—will need in transactional practice in a modern “biglaw” firm. In this course, students will experience critical aspects of what it is like to be a junior associate on a transactional “deal team” as well as get a “behind the curtain” view on life as a transactional biglaw associate. Throughout the course, students will gain experience as both buy-side and sell-side counsel using various assignments and exercises as part of a mock semester-long transaction. Students will represent their client(s) from the transaction’s earliest stages through signing. Through the lens of the transaction, we will focus on understanding and manifesting the client’s business objectives, performing and communicating the findings of due diligence, drafting and revising documents and honing the soft skills (such as internal and external client communication and appropriate time and deadline management) that are necessary for a student to become a successful junior associate. During the semester, students will interact with practicing attorneys and mock clients in-person and via teleconference to walk through documents and receive feedback, which they will use to revise documents or modify their approach to various issues, much as associates do every day in firms.

This course is about real contracts with real risks and how to mitigate those risks.  We will study agreements related to financing, including a guaranty, a note, and a deed of trust.  We will also study a merger agreement, a joint venture agreement and perhaps a purchase agreement.  Finally, we will also study major cases related to contract formation.  Time permitting, we may also study material taken from current articles in the media.  

 Prerequisite: first year torts and contracts.