Course Schedule

This seminar will be divided into courts of nine students each.  Each court will take up the same selection of important and interesting cases pending before the Supreme Court in this term. You will act as a justice of the Supreme Court, deliberate with your fellow justices on the basis of the actual briefs and records before the Court, and decide each case. In the course of the semester, you will be expected to write at least two major opinions (for the court, concurring, or dissenting), and two brief opinions (concurring or dissenting separately). You and your colleagues on your court will be the center of conversation and judgment. My role will be secondary, as a sounding board, gadfly and consultant on your work. This is an exciting and demanding seminar, at a moment of great stress within, and attention to, the Supreme Court and its cases.

PREREQUISITE: Federal Income Tax (354J or 454J or 393Q or 493Q). This seminar will examine some fundamental features of the U.S. federal income tax system and will focus on various tax policy considerations including fairness, efficiency, complexity/simplicity, the Executive Branch and legislative processes, and taxpayer behavior. The assigned readings and class discussions will focus on several key topics, including the proper timing for taxing income, progressive versus flat tax rates, taxing the family unit, the income tax treatment of property transferred at death or by gift, tax expenditures, the taxation of corporate income, and capital gains and losses. You and I will need to agree on your paper topic during the first month of class or so, and thereafter you must complete an outline of your paper that you submit to me for review and comment, then you must do a substantial draft of the paper that you will present in class and that I will give you comments on, and, finally, you must submit your final paper to me approximately two or three days before the deadline for spring grades (the precise deadline for the final paper will be given to you during or before the first week of classes in the spring semester). Your grade will be based on the final paper submitted (approximately 85 percent of the final grade) and class participation (approximately 15 percent of the final grade), including discussion of the assigned readings for 6 or 7 weeks of the seminar class sessions, the PowerPoint presentation of your draft paper in class, and your discussion of other students' draft papers during their PowerPoint presentations of them.

Because of its lopsided outcome, the Election of 1864 gets short shrift in popular and scholarly discussions of the most important elections in American history. Compared to 1800, 1876, or 2000, it barely makes a dent. Insofar as most people know anything about the election, they probably know only that Lincoln won—and maybe that it wasn’t especially close. The assumption baked into that desultory treatment is that there’s nothing for us to learn from the proceedings. This seminar is premised on the idea that that’s a mistake. A compelling case can be made not only that the Election of 1864 was the most important election in American history, but that, 160 years later, it still has some remarkably important lessons to teach us today. First, the election quite literally saved the Union. Had Lincoln lost (as he thought he would as late as the end of August), the odds are exceptionally high that the war would have been lost alongside the election—with Confederate independence as the inevitable, if not inexorable, result. But the Election of 1864 also brought with it a confluence of remarkable (and underappreciated) historical, political, and legal developments that helped to move the needle from Lincoln’s expected defeat in August to his landslide victory in November—and that we’ll study in this class.

It was in 1864 that northern states first adopted absentee voting on a widespread basis—an effort on the part of Republican-controlled state legislatures, in particular, to make it possible for soldiers fighting away from home to vote. That precedent had immediate short-term implications, as well: as many as 70% of the soldiers who voted in 1864 would vote for Lincoln. And it inaugurated a practice that has become a lightning rod in contemporary American politics—in a context that illuminates, and largely responds to, present-day objections to remote voting. 1864 also saw the only mixed presidential ticket in American history, with Lincoln unceremoniously dumping incumbent Vice President Hannibal Hamlin in favor of the Democratic military governor of Tennessee, Andrew Johnson—a move that would have profound political and historical ramifications of its own following Lincoln’s assassination and Johnson’s succession to the presidency, and from which contemporary political parties have taken all of the wrong lessons about cross-party tickets. Relatedly, 1864 saw one of the largest national unity votes in American history, with countless War Democrats voting for the Republican Lincoln on the “National Union” ticket—literally opting for their country over their party. That ticket included a commitment not just to an unconditional Confederate surrender (the central point of contention between War Democrats and Peace Democrats), but to adoption of a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery—which would pass both chambers of Congress in January 1865, and be ratified by the states 11 months later. And all of this happened while the Union army and navy continued to advance against their Confederate foes—one of the more remarkable alignments of political and military decisionmaking during wartime, with consequences for the division of civil and military governmental functions that persist to the present.

But the most remarkable thing about the Election of 1864 is that it happened at all. It remains the only example in recorded history of a democracy holding a national election during a civil war. Despite calls from some members of his party to consider postponement, Lincoln never wavered from his conviction that holding the election on schedule was absolutely essential—even, if not especially, when he became convinced that he was going to lose. Lincoln desperately wanted to win the war, but only to save the very democracy that he was willing to let vote him out of office to stop him. The Election of 1864 thus is not just a story about the election that saved the Union; it is a story about presidential leadership; it is a story about adapting the franchise to the circumstances of the moment; it is a story about elevating country over party; and it is, at its core, a story about the simultaneous fragility and resiliency of our democracy—one that ought to be shouted from the rooftops, especially today. Our goal in this seminar is to learn—and figure out how to tell—that story.

SMNR: Transnational Class Actions and Smnr: Aggreg Lit Glob Context may not both be counted.

For more than seventy years, the United States has been in the forefront of developing means for resolving injuries to large numbers of people on an aggregate basis. In our modern industrial era, the problem of harm or injury to large numbers of people is not unique to the United States. In addition, civil wars and despotic regimes worldwide have resulted in mass human rights violations and widespread injuries and harms. This course examines the problems related to redress for mass harms in a comparative context. The course begins with an overview of the problem of aggregate harms and approaches to remediating large-scale injuries, including jurisprudential debates centered on litigant claim autonomy. The course then examines American substantive and procedural approaches to resolving mass claims, including critiques of these models. After examining American approaches to mass aggregate claim resolution, the course surveys the similarities and differences between civil law and common law systems, to provide some basis for discussion whether civil law systems are able to support mass resolution of injury claims. The first part of the seminar will examine whether American approaches to large-scale aggregate litigation have migrated to other legal systems, and the embrace of, or resistance to, American style-complex dispute resolution techniques.

Topics explored in the first half of the course include a survey of class action and other aggregate dispute resolution mechanisms that have now been adopted or are being considered in the European Union countries, the U.K., Canada, Australia, Latin America, and Asia. The materials explore whether the United States is gradually moving away from being the center of gravity for class or aggregate litigation. This portion of the course considers problems relating to the enforcement of class action judgments transnationally, as well as problems with the application of res judicata principles. The course also addresses the divergent views of different legal systems regarding so-called “opt-out” and “opt-in” regimes with regard to aggregate resolution of claims.

The course next considers recent developments globally with regard to resolution of transnational securities claims, again discussing the trend in the United States to limit the extraterritorial reach of American courts. We discuss how other countries have become the locus for such litigation by default. Transnational securities litigation provides an archetype for exploring the problems and issues related to the resolution of aggregate claims extending beyond nation-state borders.

The second half of the seminar focuses on the transnational resolution of mass torts and human rights claims affecting large numbers of victims. This portion of the course investigates various international institutions that might provide auspices for aggregate claim resolution, including the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In addition, the course will examine the American Alien Torts Claim Act, the Torture Victims Protection Act, and the American class action rule, posing the question whether implementation of these statutes in the United States provides a working model for redress of mass injuries. The seminar focuses on a series of case studies to illuminate both the possibilities and limitations of aggregate claim resolution in a global context. These case studies include the Marcos Philippine human rights litigation, the Bosnia-Herzegovina genocide claims, the Austrian ski fire litigation, and the Holocaust victims’ asset litigation. This segment of the course includes examination of the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., in which the Court substantially limited the extraterritorial scope of the American Alien Tort Statute.

The seminar ends with a discussion of the recent development in the European Union in its 2012 Resolution, “Towards a Coherent Approach to Collective Redress.” An examination of the EU Resolution raises the question whether the EU has formulated a type of regulatory litigation that provides an interesting analogue to the American class action procedure. In contrast to the EU recommendations, these materials consider the argument that the EU ought to have adopted an opt-out (rather than an opt-in) approach to aggregate litigation.

There is no textbook for this seminar. The materials for each class ession will be posted in advance on the CANVAS website for the seminar.

This is a writing seminar. Each student in the seminar will be required to complete four short papers of approximately five pages, singled-spaced text during the course of the semester. Students will choose the weeks in which they wish to submit papers. Each paper will analytically present and discuss issues or debates relating to the weekly reading assignments. Each student, at the beginning of the semester, chooses the paper topics and timing of the papers.

This two credit hour course provides an overview of practical school law (Kindergarten-Grade 12) with a focus on school district policy and governance, student and employee rights, and current issues facing public schools. Taught by a practicing school attorney, the course has no formal prerequisites, but will build on principles of federal civil procedure and constitutional law. School law cases frequently rely on these principles as courts strike a balance between the federal and state policy priorities, civil rights, and personal liberties colliding dailing in our public schools. Students will read leading education-related precedents from the U.S. Supreme Court and federal circuit courts, focusing on a different topic each week. At the start of each class session, a subset of students will prepare a briefing and lead the class in discussion of an assigned current event related to the week's topic. Our class discussions will most certainly be "ripped from the headlines." Grading will be a mix of class participation, current event briefings (written and oral), and a short, predictable traditional final exam. 

Secured Credit is a key class for many types of students. It's essential for student heading into transactional careers or those in litigation in commercial law. It is also crucial for litigators, including public-interest attorneys, who win cases and want their clients to actually collect the money they've won. It is important for other students as well because credit is one of the major systems underlying the U.S. and global economies. Top legal professionals - as Texas Law graduates will be - must have a familiarity with it. This course covers a breadth of credit systems: consumer, business, secured, and unsecured – with a significant emphasis on commercial secured lending. This course also covers a fundamental question not addressed elsewhere in law school curriculum: once you win that big court case, how do you collect money from the other side? (Or, once you lose that big court case, how do you avoid paying?) Students will engage with real-world-based problems, financial current events, and practical strategies for addressing financial problems in consumer, small business and corporate contexts. The course's primary body of law is Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, but it also touches on bankruptcy topics and real estate law.

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 her. This Secured Credit course examines how secured transactions are structured and why they are structured that way. It covers 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. Through the problem method, students will learn skills that can be applied to a variety of statutes in law school and many types of legal careers.

Securities law is important, not only for litigators and transactional lawyers at law firms and in in-house positions, but also for policy-makers, enforcement lawyers, and others in government service. Corporations, be they small start-ups or long-established entities, raise capital in public and private offerings of securities. The offerings are subject to securities statutes and Securities and Exchange Commission rules and policies. Moreover, whether or not they are raising capital, all publicly held companies must observe a variety of disclosure and related requirements flowing in large part from securities statutes, rules, and policies. Failures to comply can result in highly consequential private litigation and public enforcement. Broadly speaking, federal securities regulation is displacing state corporate law as the primary legal influence on how publicly held corporations function and is also a focal point for the governance of financial markets. Topics will include the preparation of disclosure documents, exemptions from disclosure requirements, and liability under anti-fraud rules. This course will also consider such related matters as how market forces influence corporate governance and how financial advances (such as the efficient markets hypothesis) and financial innovation are affecting corporations, investors, and capital markets. No prior business or financial background whatsoever is required. The only prerequisite is: Business Associations or Business Associations (Enriched).

Come explore emerging space-related issues currently under discussion internationally and domestically! The course will blend lecture, discussion, and group work in a seminar-like format. We will examine the following topics:

Module 1: Lecture, Introduction to the course and the basics of space law

Norms Development: Bottom up, top down, and points in the middle

Bilaterals, Multilaterals, and the role of consensus  

Module 2: Discussion of readings and lectures

Module 3: Application to Emerging Issues

teams to pick from a list of topics and prepare a mixed media presentation.

Possible topics:

The Yin & Yang of Space: Peaceful Purposes and National Security issues

Can we get there from here? Orbital Debris, Space Situational Awareness, and Space Traffic Management

Micro -> Macro: very small sats and very large constellations

In Situ Resource Utilization  

Students will be graded on group presentations and an exam in Canvas.

This course will take a deep dive into several aspects of in-house:  In 2023 the principle topics will be:  1) the role of the modern general counsel, 2) corporate governance and 3) the intersection of whistleblowing, internal investigations, and media crises.  We will also examine an ethical challenge pertinent to in-house counsel.

This course will be highly interactive with frequent breakout groups.  There will be very little duplicative material with Exploring In-House Practice, also offered this semester.

This course will concentrate primarily on the legal regulation of major professional team sports in the United States. Topics will include contract enforcement, player movement and restraints, team movements and restraints, the powers of the commissioner, and the (limited) regulation of agents. To a much lesser extent the course will deal with NCAA regulation (especially eligibility and gender equity) and individual sports. Labor Law and Antitrust are helpful, but not required. This is a course best taken in the student's third year. A knowledge of (and enthusiasm for) sports will be assumed.

This course focuses on practical skills, information, and strategies for students who may someday open their own solo or small law firm. We take a logical approach starting with the pros and cons of venturing out on your own followed by the steps needed to make it happen. The class covers a wide variety of topics including law firm entities, marketing, management, client interaction, work-life balance, and technology. The professor took this class himself years ago and opened his own law practice focusing on Internet legal cases and social media defamation. Lectures will be supplemented with guest speakers on specific topics and selected reading assignments. This class is pass/fail. Active participation in class and completion of assignments are required to pass. Students may only have one unexcused absence.

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 3-hour, in class, essay examination. Casebook: L. Baker, C. Gillette & D. Schleicher, Local Government Law: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press; 6th edition 2021). Prerequisite: None; 4 hours credit.

This course introduces the basic statistical concepts economists and social scientists use to analyze data to provide statistical evidence. The course is intended to provide a sound foundation of introductory-level quantitative reasoning while using real-world examples to illustrate concepts and applications. With the emergence of big data and advances in algorithmic computing, lawyers are being asked more often to understand empirical methods, whether they are preparing a motion or brief, cross-examining experts in the courtroom, or evaluating the effect of a law in a legal or policy setting. In this course, students will learn how to deal with conflicting statistical evidence, use statistical evidence to evaluate the application of laws or policies, and how to deal with expert witnesses providing statistical evidence. The goal of this course is to equip future practicing lawyers with the skills necessary to be an informed consumer of statistics. The course does not require any background in math or statistics; however, students may feel better suited with a basic understanding of algebra. 

This course focuses on the problem of making the best sense of statutes and regulations. Students will practice interpreting statutes both as judges and as advocates, learning skills that will help them in practice. In addition to pragmatic questions, the course will address prominent theories of statutory interpretation and debates about which approaches to interpretation are or are not appropriate. Students will occasionally be asked to interpret statutes and defend those interpretations as part of in-class group exercises.  

Students will learn how to prepare for, take and defend depositions of lay and expert witnesses. Students will learn how to prepare expert reports, prepare and present expert witnesses in hearings, depositions and trials. This is a skills based course where students will actually take depositions and conduct hearings with their experts. This is a short course and will move quickly and have strict attendance policies. Suggested prerequisites or concurrent: Evidence, Advocacy Survey, ADR courses.

 This class will include both academic introductions to technology law and hands-on, practical exercises that will accustom students to typical work handled by (or for) in-house counsel at technology companies. Areas of focus include: (1) Intellectual property principles and clauses arising in technology transactions, (2) Types of licensing and commercial agreements common in technology, (3) Drafting and negotiating technology agreements with a focus on key terms and conditions, (4) Mergers & acquisitions (an introduction and basics), and (5) Privacy, cybersecurity, social media, and other current topics in technology law.

Class instruction will involve: (1) analysis and discussion of intellectual property and commercial case law, (2) analysis and discussion of example agreements, and (3) workshop exercises involving drafting and negotiating documents underlying technology transactions.

 A primary goal of this class is to expand the substantive business and legal knowledge of the students while providing practical deal-making skills easily transferrable to attorneys who support technology companies.

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.

Cross-Listing The course is divided into three segments. The first segment introduces the “idea” of a war against terror, a notion that is widely thought to be nonsense. This idea is examined by focusing on developments in terrorism; in warfare; and in the changing nature of what counts as victory---that is, the objective of warfare. The second segment of the course is devoted to the discussion of the relationship between law and strategy in the domestic context. This discussion includes treatments of the US constitutional issues; developments in the practice of intelligence collection and analysis; a discussion of the ends and means justly available to governments; and an discussion of various approaches by which we might meet the challenge posed by 21st century, global terrorism. The third segment of the course explores the relationship between strategy and law in the international context. This segment discusses various US strategic doctrines; the idea of sovereignty in international law; proposals for global governance; and the difficult task of waging war in the three conflicting but related theatres of terror: the struggles to prevent market state terrorism, protect against gross diminution of humane conditions, and preclude the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The outcome of these struggles---the wars against terror-- will determine whether the new, emerging constitutional order of the market state will be composed of states of consent or states of terror.

This practice-oriented course involves the preparation of a hypothetical civil case for trial in Texas State Court, from initial pleading and motion practice, through written discovery, to taking fact and expert depositions, drafting motions for summary judgment and trial preparation, among other things. Professors Incerto and Oakes will be assisted by seasoned lawyers and state court judges, most of whom have decades of trial experience. Each class will cover one or more case development topics progressing towards trial, and will offer advice, observations and suggestions on case preparation requirements and strategy. The course is taught on a pass/fail basis. There is no final examination. Class attendance is mandatory, and a satisfactory level of performance on written assignments is required to pass the course.

This course is best suited for 2nd and 3rd year students interested in state court litigation. Having completed state court procedure and evidence courses is a plus, but not a prerequisite.

Texas Civil Procedure is an advanced litigation course focusing on the Texas Rules of Civil and Appellate Procedure. The course covers pretrial, trial, and appellate procedure in Texas state courts. Unlike first-year Civil Procedure, which focuses on the federal rules and basic concepts, Texas Civil Procedure studies the distinctive Texas rules from an advanced perspective. If you are planning a litigation practice in Texas, this course is essential. The course also helps you prepare for the civil procedure portions of the Texas bar exam. Students may find it helpful to take the course during their second year, before their summer work experience and before they take advanced advocacy courses.

This course divides the semester into roughly four parts.  In the first quarter of the semester, we start by examining oil production, globally, within OPEC and OPEC+, the US, and particularly in Texas.  We will discuss the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC), its constitutional and statutory underpinnings, along with noteworthy Texas Supreme Ct. cases involving the RRC and significant oil, natural gas, and pipeline-related issues .  We finish this section by examing several interesting RRC rules and orders.  

The second quarter of the semester explores energy delivery in Texas, particularly regulated transmission and distribution of natural gas and electricity. We examine the elements of a successful rate case and review numerous cases examining Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), and RRC treatment of various elements of a rate case. We'll also examine the competitive electric market in ERCOT, and discuss several court cases arising from the events of Winter Storm Uri.

In the third quarter, we will discuss renewable energy development in Texas. We'll focus on transmission development in the context of the CREZ (competitive renewable energy zones). We'll also discuss the potential for geothermal energy development in Texas.

The final quarter of the semester will focus on federal cases related to energy and the environment.  In particular, we will examine the role of Chevron deference (Chevron v. NRDC, 467 U.S. 837, 1984),  as interpreted by past and present Supreme Courts, in federal agency (i.e. EPA) decision making.  

We will occasionally have guest lecturers from the RRC, PUCT, and ERCOT. 

Your performance in this course will be evaluated on the basis of an open book, take home, mid-term exam (administered over spring break), a closed book, take home, final exam (administered during finals weeks, with 24 hours to compete), and in-class active participation; the percentages are 30%, 60% and 10%, respectively.  There is no textbook for this class.  Reading assignments and discussion material will be posted on Canvas in advance of the pertinent class. You should assume that the reading requirement is moderate.  No more than two absences will be allowed (without express prior approval of the instructor.)  

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

The TVL 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 TVL 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).

This course is an introduction to how international law applies to hostile cyber activities by States and non-State actors during both peacetime and armed conflict.  Topics addressed range from sovereignty in cyberspace to cyber operations during armed conflict.  It also addresses the responses available to States -- such as retorsion, countermeasures, necessity, and self-defense -- when responding to hostile cyber operations.  The course draws on the Tallinn Manual 2.0 project, which resulted in a restatement of the law drafted over seven years by an international group of experts. The instructor directed that effort, to update to which will be completed in late 2026.

The final exam will be a 24-hour floating exam administered via Canvas, available between March 2 - March 8.

This get-your-hands-dirty experience provides practical training in the art and craft of identifying compound legal issues, assessing risk, formulating legal advice, solving thorny problems, and giving sage and reasoned counsel . . . all of which helps set conditions for your success in the real world. 

We will work through case studies of various flavors that involve difficult legal, organizational, and personal stakes. A few of the case studies will be drawn from military settings, offering a glimpse into some of the unique challenges that arise in such environments globally. However, the deep lessons of the course are entirely applicable to the practice of law in all other settings and beyond.

In addition to participating in highly-interactive class sessions, you will complete written analyses (actually craft legal advice) on a number of multilayered, real-world-based fact scenarios. 

The course contemplates nuanced issues involving investigations, business, ethics, criminal law, leadership, media, administrative law, the digital-age, litigation, international law, management, and more. Ultimately, during our quality time together, we will share various perspectives with each other and collectively figure out how to proceed in complex circumstances—what to say, advise, and actually do. 

We tend to bond and have a great deal of fun in this class, but expect to be challenged and stretched in ways you may not have been before as we excitingly dive headlong into all sorts of things that are not usually taught in law school.

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