Course Schedule

     This seminar aims to explore a clutch of topics that represent just a few of the severe and accelerating disruptions to conventional societal arrangements and institutions being instigated or worsened by climate change. Those I have chosen for this Spring’s course engage in immediate terms with fields that include-- and often multiply intersect with-- law; environmental engineering; community and regional planning; public health; public policy and private governance; and the economics of global trade. Problem analysis together with solutions-pathways will be our primary modes of address. Our main gear of operations will involve a focus on challenges that are coming to afflict not only future generations but yours.

     Specific issues for dissection may include the energy transition and next-gen fuels; risk management in the public and private sectors (droughts, floods, extreme heat, private residential insurance); environmental justice for front-line communities; the dam crisis and the re-design of fisheries and waterways; the burdensome economics of “fast” industries such as fashion and furniture; the biodiversity crisis (and why it matters); the global food crisis and its relationship to industrial agriculture and trade; and the professional ethics of lawyers.  Students who enroll in the seminar before the term begins will be invited to vote on the inclusion of one or more of these.

     Learning will be enhanced by the inter-disciplinary mix of our class’s membership, by diverse readings and other materials, by vigorous discussion, and by expert guest- participants.

     Students will write brief analytic papers and one creative one and a brief paper at the end of the term. Students may write collaboratively as pairs, groups, or teams at least once, so long as each person’s contributions are separately identified.

Entrepreneurial enterprises have been working to beneficially address the causes and effects of climate change for some time in fields such as clean energy, drug development, agricultural sciences and a wide variety of industrial fields. Many of today’s entrepreneurs hear the call for start-ups charting mitigation approaches, adaptation strategies, or perhaps even remedies, to climate change. Arguably a problem itself caused by entrepreneurs – how many tons of greenhouse gases can be traced back to innovative new businesses through history deploying the combustion engine, steam turbine and Haber method? - an argument can be made that harnessing the same forces to address it will be one of our most effective response strategies.

This course focuses on the nexus of entrepreneurialism and climate change, a scope that includes special legal, policy, technical and business issues as well as standard entrepreneur business law and practice topics. It is designed for Law students interested in supporting and working with entrepreneurs, and/or in being one him- or herself, but it also is structured to be suitable for McCombs and LBJ School students. The course covers the following subjects: 1) entrepreneurialism and climate change, in particular the historical and future relationships between the two; 2) technical, scientific and policy background on climate change (UN IPCC, National Climate Assessment, Paris Agreement etc.); 3) legal issues of climate change and business, including tort/regulatory exposure, SEC disclosures and social good vs. shareholder duties; 4) historical precedents of entrepreneurialism as a response to crises; and 5) basics of new venture creation and practice, including business plan drafting and investment pitching.

The class culminates in a final assignment in which each student writes a business plan for a venture of his or her choosing, where the plan must be designed to both present a compelling investment opportunity and also beneficially address climate change adaptation and/or mitigation. Grading is based on several short writing assignments, the final project and class participation.

The objective of this Writing Seminar is to give students the tools to produce their own publishable work in comparative constitutional law and politics. Students will be trained on how to identify and select an idea for a paper, how to write a paper, and how to make a paper presentation. Students will also have the opportunity to learn writing and research tips from, engage with the work of, and have dinner with leading scholars in the field, who will visit this Writing Seminar to present their works-in-progress. Evaluation will be based on class participation, two response papers (graded pass/fail), one class presentation, one annotated bibliography, one paper outline, and one final term paper.

Supreme Court reform is a hot topic today. But what power do Congress and the President have over the Supreme Court -- and when and how should they use that power? This seminar will examine various issues of Court reform, such as term limits and changes in the Court's size. We will also explore ways in which the political branches can and have enhanced the power of the federal judiciary. Throughout, we will consider broader themes, such as the constitutional separation of powers, the influence of partisan politics, and the importance of judicial legitimacy.

This course surveys legal and economic analyses of the criminal legal system, exploring areas related to policing, prosecution, and incarceration. The topics of this course are structured in three parts. The first part, “How Did We Get Here,” will explore pre-1960s policies and examine how laws, policies, and institutions conditioned U.S. society for mass incarceration and racial disparities in the criminal legal system. Students will learn basic statistical concepts for quantitative reasoning and evaluation of statistical evidence. The second part of the course, “Domestic Wars and Racial Disparities,” focuses on the War on Crime and the policies and legal precedents that led to the War on Drugs. This includes legal precedent related to discretionary policing, collective bargaining and police protections, as well as the change from indeterminate to determinate sentencing guidelines, all of which have been linked to racial disparities in the criminal legal system. Lastly, we will examine several current equity-focused reforms to reduce racial disparities in the criminal legal system. This includes bail reform, algorithmic risk assessment, and community-oriented policing. Students should be prepared by reading all assigned materials and be willing to engage in active class discussion. Students will be asked to write short papers in response to readings and will be required to write a policy brief or create a proposal for criminal justice reform.

This seminar focuses on different types of environmental litigation, including: permit hearings and appeals; enforcement hearings and litigation; rule-making and appeals; citizen suits; Superfund litigation; commercial litigation involving environmental issues; and toxic tort litigation. The purpose of the course is to provide practical guidance on litigation aspects of a substantive environmental practice. The course will address procedural and administrative law issues as well as substantive issues. The course will discuss the use of expert witnesses and will touch on public policy and ethical considerations. Grading will be based primarily on a 30-page term paper on a topic selected by the student in consultation with the instructor. For the first ten weeks or so, there will be weekly reading assignments and class discussions based on that reading.  From time-to-time, there will be guest speakers representing agency and public interest perspectives; in the remaining sessions, students will present their draft papers. Prior experience or class work in environmental law is helpful, but is not a prerequisite.

This seminar explore the philosophical idea of equality within the liberal tradition as applied to law. We will discuss various concepts of equality and related central debates in modern political philosophy. The discussion of the application to law will focus on non-constitutional law and in particular various  private law fields. The grade will be based primarily on seminar papers written by students. 

This seminar explores some of the most important constitutional issues around the globe today. We will start with some fundamental questions of constitutional design. Most fundamental of all may be the challenge of creating a durable framework for liberal democracy in the context of nations emerging from tyranny and/or violent ethno-racial conflict. Bills of Rights guaranteeing ethnic and racial equality and the right to vote are not the only tools in the constitution framers’ toolkit. Constitution-framers also have debated and sometimes adopted direct forms of ethno-racial group representation in national legislatures, as well as federalism arrangements that give rival ethno-racial groups their “own” territorial based states or provinces. What are the pros and cons of such devices for overcoming deep conflicts – or at least turning such conflicts away from violence and into more “civilized” form of political strife? What about constitutional provisions that outlaw political parties that preach ethno-racial hatred? Not every effort to constitutionally weld together different ethno-racial groups or “nations” succeeds. The fragility of some efforts gives rise to the recurrent problem of secession. Should constitution-framers make any provision for it? And whether they do or not, how should courts address the issue when it arises – as it has in the recent past, in Canada and in parts of Europe? Here we may also examine the United States’ experience with secession in the nineteenth century. The remainder of the semester will take up a variety of cutting-edge issues in the domain of constitutional rights and their interpretation and enforcement. Here we will examine such topics as the ways different constitutional systems treat “hate speech,” the ways they address lawmakers’ efforts to outlaw various forms of public religious observance like the wearing of the veil or burka, and the ways that courts seek to enforce so-called “positive” or “social” rights like the rights to health, housing, welfare and education. Here, we will make some extensive comparisons of experience in the U.S. and elsewhere around the globe. Note: This seminar will be taught during the first half of the Spring Semester.

This seminar will be taught by a former United States Attorney and sitting federal district judge, and will provide the opportunity to explore a variety of topics related to federal criminal law, of both perennial and current relevance.  We will examine substantive and recurring issues related to the controlled substances act, public corruption, wire and mail fraud, firearms offenses, immigration crimes and conspiracy.  In addition, we will discuss more pragmatic aspects of federal criminal practice such as grand juries, prosecutorial discretion, plea bargaining and sentencing. This seminar should be of potential interest both to students who have specific career goals in criminal law or federal judicial clerkships, as well as those who have a more general interest in this this dynamic and important area of the law.

Students will be expected to (a) participate actively in discussion of the topic of the day, (b) identify and engage in research on a topic of current relevance related to federal criminal law, (c) submit a research paper in compliance with the seminar writing requirement, and (d) share the results on their research via an informal class discussion.  Research topics will be selected in consultation with the professor, who will assist in the development of an outline.  Active student engagement is expected during each class, where questions and contributions will be an important part of the experience. Due to the importance of student participation and the limited number of meetings, strict attendance is expected.

This is a one-semester three-unit seminar about substantive federal criminal law. This seminar will detail the prosecution and defense of criminal offenses in federal court, focusing on the more frequently employed and complex areas, and on current hot topics. Class time will be devoted to mail, wire, bank, and health care fraud, public corruption, money laundering, administration of justice offenses, the Controlled Substances Act, immigration offenses, and terrorism and weapons offenses. Students will be alerted to the manner in which federal sanctions can be employed against lawyers, banks, and corporations, and the bases of federal criminal jurisdiction. If time permits, we will review the federal plea bargaining and sentencing systems. Second-year students interested in the United States Attorney’s Office, Federal Public Defender's Service, and U.S. Army internships for their third year should consider taking this class first. This cseminar does not significantly overlap with my Advanced Federal Criminal Prosecution & Defense seminar.

Your grade will be based 50% on a final paper, 20% on class participation, and 30% on an in-class group project. 

The seminar on Food Safety Law will explore evolving concepts of food safety as implemented through federal regulatory programs. During the first eight weeks, seminar participants will read and discuss books and articles on risk assessment and risk management generally and on three regulatory programs aimed at ensuring food safety. After an introductory session on concepts of risk assessment and risk management in the context of risks posed by infectious microorganisms and chemical contaminants in food, the seminar will focus upon the following regulatory programs: (1) the Department of Agriculture's food safety and inspection program for beef; (2) the Environmental Protection Agency's program for establishing pesticide tolerances in foods, with a particular focus upon the risks that pesticides pose to children; and (3) the Food and Drug Administration's program for ensuring food safety and approving food additives, with a particular focus on that agency's program for regulating genetically modified foods. During the remainder of the semester, seminar participants will present seminar papers on a wide variety of topics related to food safety. Participants may draw paper topics from a wide variety of subject matter areas, including federal regulatory programs, state regulatory programs, and tort law.

This colloquium-style writing seminar takes on legal issues at the heart of health and innovation. We’ll explore and evaluate cutting-edge research ranging from drug pricing and regulation to corporatization of healthcare to assisted reproduction. The first two classes will introduce students to the necessary background law and policy issues—health law and innovation 101. For the rest of the semester, students will engage with works-in-progress by six of the leading scholars in the field. We will discuss and evaluate the paper together and then host workshops where these scholars will present their papers.  Students are required to write concise scholarly critiques of each of the  papers, which will be provided to the speaker. Students will ask questions, deliver critiques, and make suggestions for improvement in conversation with the speakers. Professors will provide detailed comments to students on each of their papers.

This class will focus on a variety of subjects relating to the delivery of health care services, including patient safety and health care quality, regulation of health care providers, and the payment system. Readings will be of diverse types, including articles published in law reviews, medical journals, and other outlets; empirical studies; popular writings; and even news articles and blog columns. Because students are required to make in-class presentations and submit short papers, space is limited and attendance is required.

You will be required to read Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much For Health Care by Professor Silver and David Hyman, a professor at the Georgetown Law Center.  Professor Silver receives no royalties on sales of the book, the price of which is extremely low.  Americans are overcharged for health care, but students will not be overcharged for taking this course.

Disclosure:  

In this class, we will debate issues of health care policy robustly.  Students who have strong opinions on these issues, whether because of their religious faith, culture, personal experiences, or other reasons, are hereby informed that all beliefs may be challenged on all available grounds, including lack of scientific support, excessive cost, and immorality.  Examples of practices that may be discussed, criticized, and debated openly in class include female genital mutilation, male circumcision, faith-based healing of children with treatable diseases, honor killings, abortion, prohibitions on contraception and sex outside of marriage, drug laws, policies requiring rape victims to marry their abusers, and mask and vaccine mandates.  If you have strong beliefs on these or other health care matters that you do not wish to have questioned or criticized, you should not take this class.

This seminar, “Inside Texas Government: How It Really Works,” furthers the public service mission of The University of Texas School of Law by endeavoring to help law students who aspire to become lawyers who practice law in and around Texas state government, or enhancing the understanding of those students who are just interested in politics and government. The School of Law already offers courses that deal with the legislative branch of the Texas state government and how to navigate it, and virtually every class at the School of Law studies the judicial branch and decisions made by it and their impact. However, there is no course offering that specifically focuses on the executive branch and its interaction with the other two branches of Texas state government, especially the legislative branch. This seminar seeks to provide such a focus.

The course teacher, Adjunct Professor Randy Erben, possesses unique expertise, experience, and perspectives into state government. He served as Gov. Abbott’s first legislative director, has run two state agencies, was a registered lobbyist with a broad variety of clients for over 20 years, and currently serves as a commissioner on the Texas Ethics Commission.

The course will study the constitutional and statutory powers of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller, and other officials and agencies. Class topics include legislation (including legislative procedure, special sessions, emergency proclamations, and vetoes); separation of powers; the state budget; state agency regulations; appointments to boards and commissions; litigation; orders, proclamations, and opinions; and other topics.

This seminar reviews and analyzes the powers and duties of the various executive branch offices and applies them to real-life situations.

The seminar consists of fourteen classroom seminar sessions, covering the specific mechanisms the various executive branch agencies utilize to project power within the constitutional, statutory, and regulatory limitations constraining them.

This writing seminar examines resolution of disputes arising from transnational business transactions. Participants will be introduced to the development and operation of arbitration as a mechanism for resolving disputes and applicable U.S., international, and foreign laws, rules, and conventions relating to institution of arbitration, arbitration procedures, and enforcement of awards. Also considered are national jurisdiction over parties, the obtaining of evidence, and the enforcement of judgments internationally, as well as dispute resolution in dealings with foreign governments. Multiple cross-border lawsuits over the same dispute, forum shopping, and forum non conveniens are among the other subjects addressed. In addition to procedural matters, we may discuss the extraterritorial applicability of U.S. regulatory laws (antitrust, securities, RICO, etc.) and their role in transnational litigation. Students who have already taken Professor Westbrook's International Business Litigation or another International Litigation course may not take this seminar.

This seminar surveys international humanitarian law, also known as the international law of armed conflict. We will study such topics as the regulation of various means and methods of warfare, the treatment of war victims (such as POWs and civilians), the application of the law of war to non-state actors (such as terrorist organizations and corporations), and various enforcement mechanisms (such as international criminal tribunals and US military commissions).

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 10 JD students and 5 LLM students. There are no prerequisites for this seminar.

This course will be a survey of different topics in legal philosophy and constitutional theory. It will be organized around a series of six workshops each featuring a different scholar, who will present and discuss his or her work. The class will also meet during the weeks when there are no workshops. At those meetings, we will read and discuss materials on the topic of the next scheduled workshop in preparation  for its discussion, and we will also extend the discussions of the previous workshop through short presentations by the members of the class. Written coursework will consist of two papers, each of which will be a critical discussion of ideas presented in one or more of the six workshop papers and discussions.

The germline editing of the human genome will permanently alter our species biologically, in ways large and small. From the standpoint of political, legal, and human rights theory, our seminar asks: How might a liberal democratic community today — marked by value pluralism and aspiring to tolerance for different normative cultures — best regulate the confluence of rapid developments in genetic science and  biotechnology? Our seminar focuses on both the promise of gene manipulation to improve human health and reduce human suffering, and on the dangers that gene manipulation poses to various notions of human dignity and various theories of human nature. In modern secular societies such as the USA, traditional theological or metaphysical conceptions of human nature and human dignity compete with contemporary alternatives: with natural scientific accounts of what our species is, and with social scientific accounts of the individual and social importance of treating members with respect and dignity. These contemporary alternatives deploy post-metaphysical notions of human nature (for example, as a social construct) and with post-theological notions of human dignity (for example, as the decisional autonomy of future persons, held in trust by the current generation). Our seminar asks: How might the American legal system (with inputs from expert medical and bioethical opinion as well as from informed public opinion) plausibly configure decisional autonomy of future persons at the point of genetic manipulation? To answer this question, we will identify resources in in state and federal law (and perhaps in human rights theory as well), toward identifying plausible normative standards for the regulation of human gene editing, for today and in the future.

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

The student will enhance her research skills; improve her writing skills in the scholarly genre; refine her analytic skills through careful reading, analysis, and discursive argumentation in defense of an original thesis in each of her papers; and cultivate her capacity to engage in small group discussion: in developing and conducting one in-class presentation, and in classroom participation more generally. And she will learn a great deal about cutting-edge thinking on the moral and legal challenges of regulating biotechnologies in general and, in particular, the future possible germline editing of our species —— surely one of the most significant challenges for legal thought in the twenty-first century.

GRADING POLICY

Requirements: one 12-page to 16-page paper (based on directed and supervised research in the course materials, addressing one or more issues of legal regulation, either current or proposed) and one in-class power-point presentation of the student's paper-in-progress. The paper itself is due at the end of the semester; the power-point presentation is due in the course of the semester. Presentation will generate thoughtful, critical feedback from the entire class and should be useful to the student's development of her paper. During the semester, the instructor will closely review two rough-drafts of the paper (not graded) and provide written and oral suggestions for improvements in substance and style. Student will submit one final paper, for a grade, revised in light of the instructor’s comments on the first two drafts.

Course grade: 80% of course grade: evaluation of paper; 20% of course grade: one in-class power-point presentation; course grade adjusted for quality of weekly classroom participation.

This 3 credit hour seminar will focus on issues and problems associated with “decarbonizing” (reducing or eliminating fossil fuels from) the American energy system.  We will explore various plans that propose relatively rapid, deep decarbonization of the electricity sector, including those proposed by the states of California and New York,  “100% renewable” cities like Aspen, CO and Georgetown, TX, as well as academic proposals for rapid deep decarbonization. We will also look plans to decarbonize the transportation sector, including plans by European cities and nations to eliminate gasoline-powered vehicles within their borders within the next few decades.  The seminar will meet weekly, with the bulk of the student’s grade based upon an individual research paper. 

There are no prerequisites for this seminar, but, students who have taken one or more of the following classes will have an easier time with the readings:  Regulating Energy Production (Spence), Texas Energy Law (Smitherman), or Regulating Energy Markets (Spence).

How are and should corporations be run and regulated, and how do and should modern financial markets and products function? This seminar tackles timeless and timely questions.  Here are some possible examples.  What are the legal and public policy considerations in determining what a corporation’s goals should be—and what do the corporations actually do?  In this connection, what does the moniker “ESG” mean and what are the pluses and minuses of considering “ESG” factors for shareholders, other stakeholders, and society?  What should a prospective lawyer (or judge, legislator, or regulator) who was a college history major know about matters such as stock market behavior, efficient markets, portfolio diversification, derivatives, and new financial products?  How do such matters relate to corporate goals, corporate governance and the role of institutional investors, bank and securities regulation, world financial stability--and your personal finances?  No business or finance background required!  Both students with and without such backgrounds have presented and written fascinating analytical papers on a very wide variety of topics in this seminar.  It is recommended (although not required) that students either have already taken or simultaneously take Business Associations or Business Associations (Enriched).

The purpose of this course is to expose students to the evolution of information warfare, from the 1700s to current day.  The course will examine propaganda and disinformation campaigns, the psychology behind how they work and how they became central to both the Cold War and political elections.  The course will then look at the advent of social media and algorithmic optimization to facilitate and accelerate the reach and impact.  Students will explore the impact on both United States and global events such as Brexit and the French Presidential Elections.  Finally, students will discuss where this will lead in the coming years and explore potential policy solutions across intelligence tools and strengthening critical thinking, as well as the legal implications including privacy laws, internet regulations and national security implications.

Please note that this is a writing seminar, with the final project being a paper between 30-50 pages long. 

This seminar will study contemporary cases and controversies involving Remedies (i.e., what an injured person receives after liability is determined or presumed). The seminar will build on topics you likely covered in your torts and contracts classes (measuring damages, restitution) and some topics that you may not have studied in detail (rescission, injunctions) though you may have addressed in other classes. We will also explore topics you may never have viewed as being a remedy (attorney’s fees), defenses to remedies (unclear hands, mitigation), and topics you may never have studied though you likely have seen mentioned in cases you have read in other classes (contempt and declaratory judgments).

The seminar will focus on remedies that have been implicated in lawsuits involving the former President of the United States (FPOTUS) and people in his orbit. While the title of this course includes the word “politics” this will not be a partisan course and class discussions will not involve election law or political action committees. Instead, we will consider the types of remedies that plaintiffs have sought (or have been awarded) in lawsuits involving FPOTUS+ orbit.

Evaluation for the seminar will be based on a series of assessments, including class participation, Canvas postings, and a final paper (including a first draft).

Have you wondered how it is determined that some crypto-currency activities violate the securities laws?  Or what might make trading in meme stocks subject to enforcement action?  The objective of this course is to illuminate such questions by giving students a practical appreciation of both the process through which securities law enforcement decisions are made, and the way in which the reach of the securities laws has developed as a consequence.  We will cover two broad areas.  First, the mechanics of the securities enforcement process and the roles played in it by government lawyers, defense lawyers, the Commission, and the courts.  The goal is to provide an “insiders” appreciation of how enforcement decision-making occurs, and how it operates as a significant driver in the development of the substantive securities law.  The second part of the course will be a deep dive into substantive areas of the securities law that are particularly shaped by enforcement decision making, including, for example, the prohibitions on insider trading, foreign corrupt practices, financial fraud, market manipulation and the emerging regulation of crypto-currencies.   A consistent theme will be the utility and consequences of developing law through ad hoc enforcement decisions. The professor had a 35-year securities enforcement career that included positions as a senior SEC enforcement official and as a partner in a global law firm representing clients in defense of securities enforcement investigations, and has deep experience with these issues from both perspectives.  

This course will explore the legal issues raised by the business of video games and other software-based interactive entertainment. The course will consists of a series of class meetings that track the conception, development and commercialization of video game properties and focus on the way the law has developed and is evolving in each area. In addition, special issues related to virtual worlds/Metaverse, NFTs, user generated content and similar concerns will be covered.