Course Schedule
Classes Found
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 397W
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
Description
No description text available.Clinic: Actual Innocence
- TUE 1:15 – 3:15 pm CCJ 3.306
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Prof. keeps own waitlist
Description
ACTUAL INNOCENCE CLINIC IS A 6-HR. CLINIC. Students screen and investigate claims by inmates that they are actually innocent of the offenses for which they are incarcerated. While investigating cases, students typically interview witnesses, research cases, review trial transcripts, and occasionally visit inmates in prison. The weekly clinic class addresses topics relevant to actual innocence law and procedure.
APPLY ONLINE: https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/application-information/
Clinic: Capital Punishment
- WED 2:15 – 4:05 pm JON 6.207/8
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 497C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 4 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Prof. keeps own waitlist
Description
This clinic provides students with the opportunity to assist in the representation of indigent criminal defendants charged with or convicted of capital offenses. Students work under the supervision of attorneys on death penalty cases at the trial, appellate, and post-conviction stages of the legal process. Students perform various tasks that are integral to death penalty representation, including visiting clients on death row; interviewing witnesses and conducting field investigations; drafting motions, appellate briefs, and habeas petitions; and assisting attorneys in the preparation for trials, evidentiary hearings, and appellate arguments.
Clinic students are expected to devote an average of 10 hours of work per week to their clinical responsibilities during the semester, though the workload in any given week will vary, depending on the needs of the case to which the student is assigned. Investigative work on some cases may require out-of-town travel. The Clinic meets once a week as a class (two hours) for training and practical skills sessions related to death penalty representation. Attendance at these sessions is mandatory.
As a prerequisite to enrolling in the Clinic, students are required to take concurrently, or to have taken previously, the Capital Punishment course (Law 278R / 378R). First-semester second-year students are welcome to enroll in both the Clinic and the Capital Punishment course, which takes as its subject the substantive and procedural law governing death penalty trials and appeals. A background in Texas and federal constitutional criminal procedure is also extremely helpful, but not required, to enroll in the Clinic. Grading is pass/fail. There is no paper or examination.
To enroll, Students must fill out a short application.
Clinic: Children's Rights
- THU 1:15 – 3:45 pm TNH 3.127
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Prof. keeps own waitlist
Description
Students in the Children's Rights Clinic represent allegedly abused or neglected children in Travis County as their attorney ad litem. The cases are brought by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). The state may intervene in a family in a variety of ways, including seeking temporary or permanent custody of a child or termination of parental rights and adoption.
Two very experienced attorneys, Clinical Professors Lori Duke and Leslie Strauch, supervise the representation of clients by the student attorney. The supervising attorneys sign pleadings drafted by the students and accompany them at every court hearing, deposition, and trial on the merits. However, within a week or two, a student can expect to "sit first chair" at hearings, and also is expected to research and prepare the case.
Each student attorney will be assigned a mix of newly filed cases and other cases in various stages of development. If the case goes to final hearing, student participation in the trial will vary from partial to extensive. Each student will have multiple opportunities to appear in court during the semester. Some students will have the opportunity to participate in a bench trial. Occasionally students will participate in a jury trial. Students are likely to participate in mediation. In representing clients, students meet with a wide variety of persons, including medical and mental health professionals, teachers, foster parents, caseworkers and social workers, attorneys, layperson CASA volunteers who may serve as guardians, and police officers.
Court is generally Tuesday morning. The class meets once a week to focus on substantive law, procedure, and ethics, as well as child welfare policy. In addition to the classroom component, each student should expect to average about 9 hours per week on clinic fieldwork (for a total of 135 hours). The weekly workload varies. Students are required to visit their child clients. Sometimes these client visits require travel outside of Travis County (with travel reimbursed).
There are no prerequisites for the course. Students, however, must meet Texas requirements for the participation of qualified law students in the trial of cases under rules promulgated by the Texas Supreme Court. The course is pass/fail. There is no paper or final exam. The course counts toward the ABA Experiential Learning Requirement. APPLY ONLINE: https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/application-information/
Clinic: Criminal Defense
- C. Roberts
- K. Dyer
- THU 2:15 – 4:05 pm TNH 3.140
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Prof. keeps own waitlist
Description
Students, working pursuant to the clinical practice rule and under the supervision of CDC faculty, represent people charged with misdemeanors in Travis County. Students function as lead counsel, working directly with clients to identify goals for the representation and to develop strategies in an effort to achieve the best possible outcome. Students maintain a primary role at all court appearances, whether those appearances involve negotiations, discussions with a judge, evidentiary hearings, or trial. Depending on the stage of assigned cases, other responsibilities often include investigation, discovery practice, and drafting of motions.
Prerequisites: Students may not be enrolled in another clinic. APPLY ONLINE: https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/application-information/
Clinic: Domestic Violence
- TUE 2:15 – 4:45 pm JON 5.208
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Prof. keeps own waitlist
Description
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CLINIC IS A 6-HR. CLINIC. Grading is Pass/Fail. The clinical component of this course will involve student representation of domestic violence survivors in a myriad of legal problems, including custody, divorce, visitation, housing, protective orders, parole advocacy and occasionally in consumer and public assistance matters. The class sessions will cover the matters relevant in civil domestic violence cases: safety planning, comprehensive intake, case analysis and handling, investigation, negotiation, trial preparation, discovery, and temporary and permanent orders, including protective orders. Further, students will perform parole advocacy on behalf of survivors of domestic violence who are in prison due to their victimization. Prerequisites: Students enrolling should not be on scholastic probation. No other clinics may be taken at the same time as this clinic. APPLY ONLINE: https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/application-information/
Clinic: Entrepreneurship/Community Development
- MON 2:15 – 4:15 pm CCJ 3.306
- THU 9:10 – 10:00 am CCJ 3.306
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Prof. keeps own waitlist
Description
Taught by Heather K. Way and Frances Leos Martinez. The Clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters. 6 credits (pass/fail) — offered in the Fall and Spring. Students must register for Law 697C.
The Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic provides students with a unique opportunity to develop business law and problem-solving skills while representing entrepreneurs, nonprofit organizations, and community groups.
Students learn how to represent their clients on a broad variety of transactional business law matters. Typical legal matters include:
- assisting businesses with choice of entity decisions
- forming for-profit and nonprofit entities
- applying to the IRS for tax-exempt status
- drafting and negotiating contracts
- providing legal advice to nonprofit boards of directors and staff
- drafting lending and real estate documents
- assisting with intellectual property matters
The Clinic also provides interested students with the opportunity to represent clients on public policy issues impacting small businesses and community organizations. Prior projects have included drafting state legislative reforms to assist low-income homeowners access property tax exemptions, testifying before local and state legislative bodies, and advising clients on regulatory barriers.
Clinic students learn how to represent their clients through clinic classes, weekly team meetings with their clinic supervisor, and independent research and initiative. The Clinic classes emphasize the applicable substantive law; the larger social and theoretical context of the Clinic’s work; and the development of practical lawyering skills including interviewing, counseling, negotiating, contract drafting, and public speaking.
The Clinic class meets on Monday afternoons from 2:15-4:15 pm (a few classes run until 5:15 pm), and also on Thursday mornings from 9:10 to 10:00 am for case rounds. There is a mandatory orientation class on the first Friday of the semester, from 9:00 am – 1:30 pm. In addition to class and case rounds, students are required to keep a weekly schedule of eight in-clinic office hours. The Clinic is a significant time commitment. Students are expected to devote an average of 17-20 hours a week to the Clinic, including class time and in-clinic office hours. There are no prerequisites for this clinic, although a background in business law (such as business associations, real estate, or tax law) or policy work will come in handy.
Enrollment is by application only. Students are encouraged to apply for the Clinic during early registration, as the Clinic fills up quickly. The deadline for applications and early registration is April 9th at 12 noon. Students may request to be placed on a waiting list if space is unavailable during registration. Grading is on a pass/fail basis for this six-credit hour clinic.
Please note: Students may not enroll in both the Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic and the Texas Venture Labs at McCombs School of Business concurrently.
To apply for the Clinic, please submit the online application, available on the UT Law Clinical Education homepage (https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/application-information/). For additional information, please contact Clinic Director Heather K. Way (hway@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-1210), or the Clinic Administrator Sarah Beach (sbeach@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-1564).
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Prof. keeps own waitlist
Description
ENVIRONMENTAL CLINIC – 6 credits, pass/fail (application required)
Students in the Environmental Clinic work with non governmental organizations and underserved communities throughout Texas to advocate for solutions to today’s pressing environmental problems, including environmental injustice and climate change. Students in the Clinic learn to think creatively about how to use the law to protect and improve environmental quality and public health.
Students work on cases in teams, under the supervision of clinic faculty, and should expect to spend 10-12 hours per week working on clinic cases. Recent clinic projects have included:
- civil rights complaints,
- environmental enforcement in federal courts,
- permitting and rulemaking proceedings before courts and administrative agencies,
- nuisance actions,
- community education,
- pollution monitoring, and
- environmental policy research.
Through their work on cases, students in the Clinic have gained practical experience with factual investigation and analysis, community education, administrative research and advocacy before regulatory agencies, and legal drafting and litigation support.
Students also participate in a weekly two-hour seminar in which you will gain practice navigating enviormental statutes and rules and discuss environmental laws, environmental justice, the role of lawyes in social movements, and the efficacy of current laws for protecting health and the environment.
The Clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters. There is no prerequisite for the clinic.
To apply for the Clinic, please submit the online application.
For additional information regarding the clinic, contact Clinic Director Kelly Haragan (kharagan@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-2654) or Clinic Administrator Sarah Beach (sbeach@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-2454).
Clinic: Human Rights
- MON, WED 2:15 – 3:30 pm JON 6.257
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Prof. keeps own waitlist
Description
The Human Rights Clinic works to promote and protect human rights in Texas and around the world. Through supervised practice, students learn the responsibilities and skills of human rights lawyering and advocacy. Mirroring the approach of practicing advocates, students work in small project teams, developing lawyering, advocacy and ethical skills and receiving intensive mentoring and feedback. The Human Rights Clinic’s practice spans a wide range of issues, including sexual and reproductive rights; human rights and the environment; U.N. treaty bodies and special procedures; and many more. All the cases and projects involve research, writing, and an opportunity to discuss the strategies used by human rights advocates. The cases and projects provide the students an opportunity to gain practical skills in partnering with other students, institutions, and organizations, thus forming a team of advocates. Finally, all the projects and cases allow a multidisciplinary approach and permit working across disciplines and use the perspectives of different fields to enhance the overall theoretical framework. Routinely the Clinic admits non-Law students. The Clinic employs a variety of lawyering methods that are tailored to the needs of each project. These include: Documentation and Reporting; International Litigation; Advocacy. The Clinic meets two times per week for an hour and a half. Classroom lectures and discussion focus on substantive human rights law, client interviewing, case and project preparation and strategy and review of ongoing cases and projects. In addition to the classroom component, students should expect to spend 15–20 hours per week on Clinic work. The weekly workload varies substantially, depending upon the stage of each project or case. Clinic work may include some travel. Preference is given to students who have taken a human rights course or who have other human rights or public interest experience. APPLY ONLINE: https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/application-information/
Clinic: Immigration
- TUE, THU 3:45 – 5:15 pm TNH 3.129
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Prof. keeps own waitlist
Description
Students in the Immigration Clinic represent vulnerable low-income immigrants from around the world before the immigration and federal courts and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Students gain hands-on experience by taking on the primary responsibility and decision-making authority for their cases under the mentorship of the clinic faculty. The clinic’s caseload varies each semester focused primarily on detention and deportation defense and asylum cases. The clinic has handled cases for clients from, among other countries, Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Eritrea, Guinea, Burma and Uzbekistan. Students provide assistance and direct legal representation to women and families held in immigration detention centers. Students also engage in national and international human rights advocacy projects and collaborate with organizations to reform and improve the rights of immigrants in the United States. Through client representation and advocacy as well as the classroom component of the clinic, students learn substantive immigration law. Students also develop client relationship skills and practice a variety of legal advocacy techniques. The clinic allows students to explore different models for effective and collaborative lawyering.
The Immigration Clinic meets for class two times per week for an hour and a half. Grading is on a pass/fail basis for this six-credit hour clinic. There is no final exam or paper. Students should expect to spend 10-20 hours per week on clinic work, including class time and office hours. Students will occasionally travel to area detention facilities and to San Antonio where the Immigration Court and DHS offices are located. Students are encouraged to apply for the clinic during early registration as enrollment is limited and faculty permission is required to register. Students should submit an electronic application, available at https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/application-information/, by the end of the early registration period. For more information about the Immigration Clinic, contact Denise Gilman (dgilman@law.utexas.edu) or Elissa Steglich (esteglich@law.utexas.edu).
Clinic: Law and Religion
- MON, WED 1:15 – 2:30 pm TNH 3.114
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Prof. keeps own waitlist
Description
Students in the Law & Religion Clinic represent vulnerable individuals and groups of all faiths who face challenges to their religious liberty. This will involve a diverse array of clients, including, among others: prisoners, mosques, students, employees, churches, teachers, faith-based schools, sanctuary churches, synogogues, and immigrants. Students can expect to work on cases involving the Free Exercise Clause, the Establishment Clause, similar state constitutional provisions, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, its state equivalents, antidiscrimination statutes, Title VII, and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Under the direction of clinic faculty, students will have the opportunity to be first chair on some matters or serve as co-counsel with various civil rights organizations and law firms on others.
Through that work, they will develop lawyering skills they can apply in nearly any type of legal practice they pursue, including analyzing potential cases, client interviewing, fact investigation, representing and advising organizations, negotiation, drafting pleadings, dealing with opposing counsel, discovery and depositions, trial advocacy, and appellate work.
Students will work on cases in teams and will meet with Professor Collis as a group twice a week: once to discuss their cases and once in a classroom seminar where they will learn the substance and complexities of religion law (this will include some readings from a packet of key material). They will also have one-on-one sessions with Professor Collis to discuss how their lawyering skills are progressing and to counsel on other issues.
The clinic is offered in the fall and spring, for six (6) credits, pass/fail. The Clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters. You can find a broader description of the clinic and the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center here.
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS There are no prerequisites for this clinic, but an application is required. You can find the instructions here: https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/application-information/
Clinic: Supreme Court
- TUE 4:15 – 6:05 pm JON 6.257
- FRI 10:30 am – 12:20 pm JON 6.257
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Prof. keeps own waitlist
Description
SUPREME COURT CLINIC IS A 6-HR. This clinic provides students the opportunity to work on cases pending before the United States Supreme Court. Students will be assigned to represent actual clients that are before the Court as petitioners (those seeking review of adverse lower court decisions), respondents (those defending favorable lower court decisions), or amici curiae (those participating in other parties' cases because their interests could be affected by the Court's decision). Cases may be at either the certiorari or the merits stage and may be in almost any substantive area of law. Clinic cases most often involve federal statutory issues, but some will raise constitutional issues. As part of their clinic work, students will participate in identifying potential cases for the clinic to handle. Students will evaluate their clients' substantive positions, research the relevant issues, participate in strategic planning, and help draft the briefs or other documents to be filed with the Court. Students will work closely with other students, and under the supervision of experienced members of the Supreme Court bar (who will assume final responsibility for all documents filed with the Court). The clinic includes some traditional classroom sessions to introduce students to Supreme Court procedures and the strategic considerations relevant in Supreme Court practice. In addition to selecting the Clinic during Early Registration, students must fill out a short application. APPLY ONLINE: https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/application-information/
Clinic: Transnational Worker Rights
- WED 3:45 – 5:35 pm JON 5.257
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 697C
- Experiential learning credit:
- 6 hours
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Prof. keeps own waitlist
Description
For students participating in the spring semester, this clinic and its robust litigation practice will be conducted remotely online - using Zoom and other innovative electronic law practice methods. (See more below).
TRANSNATIONAL WORKER RIGHTS CLINIC IS A 6-HR. CLINIC. Students in this clinic will represent low-income transnational migrant workers mainly in Central Texas in legal action to recover unpaid wages for work they have performed and to enforce other basic employment rights. Students may also engage in related advocacy projects asserting the rights of low-wage workers – especially their right to access the U.S. justice system to fully enforce their employment rights, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. The Clinic gives students hands-on experience with civil litigation, basic employment law, public interest practice, and the evolving fields of immigrant employment rights and transnational migrant worker rights. The Clinic seeks to enforce and understand employment rights of transnational workers laboring in Texas as an example of advocacy for the labor and human rights of immigrants and low-wage working people around the globe. Clinic students will serve as primary legal counsel representing immigrant and low-wage working people in federal and state employment litigation and administrative actions. Students will get the experience of working inside an independent public interest law firm and will be supervised and mentored by several of the nation's leading low-wage employment lawyers.
Depending on the requirements and current stage of each case, students will: interview and advise clients; investigate cases and develop legal action strategies; negotiate with opposing parties and their lawyers; initiate and manage active litigation; prepare legal documents in the student's cases including pleadings, motions, and briefs; conduct discovery in the student's cases including written discovery and the taking of depositions; research legal issues; represent clients in hearings, court proceedings, and mediation; and negotiate and manage the final legal settlement or recovery of damages in the case. The clinic's legal advocacy is based on a community-lawyering model which seeks to accomplish more than just winning individual cases; the clinic also aims to promote systemic reforms that make the justice system more fair for transnational workers and to empower clients with the knowledge, skills, and collective capacity through which they can advance their own employment rights. In addition, the clinic seeks to ground each student's particular casework within the dynamic, emerging field of transnational labor rights advocacy.
Bill Beardall, the clinic director, is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Executive Director of the Equal Justice Center, the former Director of the Migrant Worker Division of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and a nationally recognized expert on low-wage employment rights. He has more than four decades of experience representing migrant workers and mentoring young employment litigation lawyers.
The Clinic is conducted in partnership with the Equal Justice Center (EJC), a non-profit public-interest law firm, based in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. The EJC is the leading law firm in Texas specialized in advocating for the rights of low-wage workers. Clinic students get the opportunity to work closely with a variety of EJC lawyers, who are among Texas' leading employment attorneys. The clinic requires students to devote a substantial amount of time each week to handling active cases for real clients, including scheduled office hours at the nearby Equal Justice Center office; regular case review with supervising attorneys; and frequent conferences with clients. During the first week of the course, before starting their casework assignments, students will receive an intensive classroom orientation on low-wage employment litigation practice. The classroom component of the clinic will meet once a week for two hours. The classroom sessions will explore various deeper aspects of employment law, rights of immigrant workers, and effective litigation practice.
Normally the law practice of this Clinic occurs off-campus in the law offices of the Equal Justice Center. However, like most law offices, the EJC is currently closed to in-person staff and public operations, due to the pandemic. Nevertheless the EJC law practice and the TWR Clinic law practice are proceeding dynamically and successfully through innovative electronic means. One salutary effect of this adaptation is that TWR Clinic law students are getting an opportunity to learn - along with the rest of the legal profession - the novel art of remote law practice. The full spring semester clinic will be taught and conducted remotely online. Any decision to re-open the Equal Justice Center office and TWR Clinic to some optional in-person operations will be based on careful monitoring of public health conditions throughout the spring. Nonetheless, any student who enrolls in the Clinic for the spring semester will be able to participate remotely and fully for the entire semester, even if optional in-person participation opportunities should become available for those students who are in Austin.
Classroom instruction will address the challenges of adapting U.S. law and legal practice to our increasingly transnational labor market. Subtopics include: U.S. labor and immigration policy; wage laws, employment laws, and contract law as they affect transnational workers; the tension between immigration laws and labor rights; rights of transnational "guest workers"; civil litigation and representation skills specific to transnational worker cases; ethical issues in employment rights representation; community-based legal strategies and civic participation rights; and evolving mechanisms for the enforcement of worker rights, regardless of immigration status.
The clinic is open to students who have completed the first year of law school. While there are no prerequisites, students will benefit from previous course work or experience relating to contract law, civil procedure, labor and employment law, immigration law, international law, human rights law, low-wage working people, migrant workers or immigrant communities, and experience related to Latin American communities.
While Clinic clients include U.S. citizens and immigrants from a wide array of continents and countries, a majority of clients are Spanish-speakers from a variety of Latin American countries. Spanish proficiency accordingly is very useful, but is not in any way required. APPLY ONLINE: https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/application-information/
Questions about the clinic may be directed to Bill Beardall at bbeardall@law.utexas.edu. Please put "Worker Rights Clinic" in the subject line of any communication. APPLY ONLINE: https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/application-information
Const Law II: Amendments 1 & 2
- MON, TUE, WED, THU 9:10 – 10:00 am JON 6.207/8
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 481C
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Reverse-priority registration
- Will not use floating mean GPA
Description
The course will focus on constitutional interpretation involving the Religion Clauses, the Expression Clauses, and the Right to Bear Arms. Both interpretive and substantive issues will be addressed to question what the scope of each constitutional provision should be and whether that scope should be interrelated with the scope of other provisions. Specific topics will include: gun control, dollars to religion, school, prayer, criminal advocacy, pornography, hate speech, and new communications technologies.
Const Law II: Constitutional History
- MON 2:15 – 3:30 pm TNH 2.138
- TUE 2:15 – 3:30 pm TNH 3.142
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 381C
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Reverse-priority registration
- Will not use floating mean GPA
Description
Constitutions are about power, what it is to be used for, by whom, and according to what understandings and justifications. Constitutional conflicts concern the reach and limits of government power: state and local power versus federal power; legislative versus judicial power; public governmental power versus private liberty. Constitutional conflicts, at the same time, concern questions of interpretive authority. Who has the right to say what the Constitution means and demands? The courts? The federal or state lawmakers? The people themselves? Constitutions, also, are about political community. Who belongs, in the U.S. Constitution's words, to "We, the People"? Who counts as a full, rights-bearing citizen? And what are his or her rights?
These are the main issues of constitutional history; no wonder its currents and conflicts have involved more than the courts. This course will weave together U.S. constitutional history in the courts with the history of constitutional conflicts in American politics, culture and society. At the same time, we will explore the uses of history in constitutional interpretation. What kind of authority should past generations’ constitutional understandings and commitments enjoy in today’s constitutional contests? What does it mean to be “faithful” to the Constitution as a centuries-old text and a centuries-long experiment in self-government? In what ways are we bound by the words and deeds of the past? In what we ways are we free to construct new constitutional meanings and principles? And what can we learn from the ways that past generations addressed these questions?
This year, we will focus chiefly on the first century of American constitutional experience. We’ll examine the founding of the republic and the framing and Antebellum history of the Constitution as a great experiment in self-government. We’ll also study the same period as a great constitutional experiment in federalism - in creating and managing a union of states with profoundly different social orders, values and interests. One main theme will be the protracted conflicts and accommodations between North and South. The coming of the Civil War repays careful attention because it remains the most important constitutional crisis in our history. The War and its aftermath, the period known as Reconstruction, and the Civil War and Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments), constituted a Second Founding, no less significant than the first. The authority of the national government over the states was transformed, and with it, the meaning of American democracy. From a slaveholding, racially exclusive republic, America reconstituted itself into a racially inclusive republic of equal citizens. We’ll study this Second Founding, then its unraveling in the constitutional law and politics of the late 19th century, and then its revival in the Civil Rights era of the mid-20th century.
Prerequisite: U.S. Constitutional Law I.
Const Law II: Free Speech
- MON, TUE, WED 1:15 – 2:05 pm JON 5.206/7
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 381C
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Reverse-priority registration
- Will use floating mean GPA if applicable
Description
This course will cover the history and the recent judicial interpretation of the First Amendment's free speech clause. Beginning with debate over the original meaning of the First Amendment, the course will proceed chronologically through World War I. Subjects will include the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798,the suppression of abolitionist literature before the Civil War, the range of popular and legal views about the meaning of free speech between the Civil War and World War I, and the suppression of dissent during World War I. Most of the course will address the modern judicial interpretation of free speech that began in the years immediately following World War I. Coverage of modern judicial interpretation will be topical rather than chronological. Subjects will include subversive advocacy, prior restraints, tort law and the First Amendment, offensive speech, symbolic dissent, freedom not to speak, the government as employer, the government's management of public property, access to the mass media, campaign finance, obscenity, and commercial speech. Readings, particularly for the historical portion of the course, will consist of secondary sources as well as legal decisions. NO PREREQUISITES.
Const Law II: Origins of the Federal Constitution
- C. Eskridge
- B. Starr
- MON 1:15 – 3:55 pm TNH 3.140
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 381C
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Reverse-priority registration
- Prof. keeps own waitlist
- Will not use floating mean GPA
Description
Origins of the Federal Constitution presents an intensive introduction to the historical sources of the Constitution. By reference to original source documents, the class considers the common law and other influences on early American government and justice, such as Locke, Montesquieu, and Blackstone’s Commentaries; the colonial experience leading to and immediately following the American Revolution; documents and debate directly relevant to formation of individual constitutional provisions and amendments; and the initial experience and understanding of the Constitution, through to Story’s Commentaries, in addition to later amendments. The class will also consider the influence and use of this material on modern interpretation of the Constitution.
A coursepack of original documents will be provided to you at no cost. These have largely been selected and edited from The Founders’ Constitution, edited by Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner (University of Chicago Press 1987).
Const Law II: Race/Sex Discrimination
- MON, WED 11:50 am – 1:05 pm ONLINE
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 381C
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Reverse-priority registration
- Will use floating mean GPA if applicable
Description
This class will be taught online via Zoom.
This course will explore constitutional issues surrounding claims of race and sex discrimination. The course is historical, covering antebellum, Civil War, and post-Fourteenth Amendment controversies. We will examine race and sex in several contexts (e.g., segregation, military policy, education, affirmative action) and consider a broad range of theoretical approaches. The course is designed to provide a close understanding of both historical and contemporary analyses. The materials on race occupy approximately two-thirds of the overall course. Prerequisite: Con Law I.
Constitutional Law I
- MON, TUE, WED, THU 2:20 – 3:10 pm TNH 2.139
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 434
Registration Information
- 1L-only required
Description
Distribution of powers between federal and state governments; constitutional limitations on and judicial review of governmental action.
Constitutional Law I
- TUE, WED, THU 9:10 – 10:17 am TNH 2.123
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 534
Registration Information
- 1L-only required
Description
The course is an examination of the Consitution as a document of law, political theory, and politics. Focus is primarily on federalism, separation of powers, and some aspects of due process and equal protection. Much effort is put into helping students learn how to think about constitutional law as future lawyers and as citizens. It is taught largely with by the Socratic Method.
Constitutional Law I
- TUE, WED, THU 9:10 – 10:17 am TNH 3.125
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 534
Registration Information
- 1L-only required
Description
We will be studying Constitutional Law together at an extraordinary and difficult moment. Our constitutional arrangements have been put under considerable stress, and little seems happily settled. We will have just emerged from a difficult election, and our national electoral arrangements are creaky at best and democratically questionable at worst. The Supreme Court, which will be the object of much of our attention, is itself shrouded in controversy, with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg followed by a politically-fraught appointment to the Court and questions of court-packing hanging in the air. The reasons we have a Constitution, how we should interpret the Constitution, and how it can be amended are suddenly especially prominent issues. Dusty questions of federalism and separation of powers are now vividly and concretely important, with some state governments and the President at war over immigration, the environment, and social justice, on the one hand, and Congress and the President at odds on the other. In the domain of social justice, controversy over the meaning of equality is far from new, but so too is it far from settled. Affirmative action, abortion and same sex intimacy and marriage are all objects of recent or current sharp contention.
Our project will be to consider and try to understand the role of the Constitution, the courts and our political community in addressing the questions that presently swirl around us. I do not expect or hope that we will all agree. I do hope that we will all deepen our understanding of how best to think about these matters, and I will insist that our conversations be conducted in an environment of mutual respect.
I said at the outset that this is an extraordinary and difficult moment to study constitutional law.. It is also an exciting moment to do so, and I am looking forward to seeing you all.
--Larry Sager
Constitutional Law I
- TUE, WED, THU 9:10 – 10:17 am TNH 3.124
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 534
Registration Information
- 1L-only required
Description
Distribution of powers between federal and state governments; constitutional limitations on and judicial review of governmental action.
Construction Litigation
- MON 3:45 – 5:35 pm TNH 3.124
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 285W
Registration Information
- Upperclass-only elective
- Will use floating mean GPA if applicable
Description
Same as LAW 264T, Construction Litigation.
This course will analyze theories of liability and defenses in the area of construction dispute resolution, with particular emphasis on Texas law. It involves participation in several case studies, which will include extensive discussion of the practical aspects of resolving construction disputes through litigation and arbitration. The class participants will study case materials involving property damage, personal injury, and claims for delay and payment. The semester will conclude with a mediation exercise with one of the leading construction mediators in Texas. The teaching goal is to furnish students with the basic tools to evaluate and handle a variety of construction related disputes.
Contracts
- MON, TUE, WED, THU 1:15 – 2:05 pm TNH 2.137
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 421
Registration Information
- 1L-only required
Description
Methods by which rights and duties of promissory and quasi-promissory origin are created, transferred, limited, discharged, breached, and enforced.
Contracts
- MON, TUE, WED 1:00 – 2:07 pm TNH 2.139
Course Information
- Course ID:
- 521
Registration Information
- 1L-only required
Description
Methods by which rights and duties of promissory and quasi-promissory origin are created, transferred, limited, discharged, breached, and enforced.