Course Schedule

This course examines the gender dimensions of health, illness, and the medical care industry in the United States and other developed nations.  It is motivated by the fact that health, disease, and medical care have important gender-specific dimensions that are affected by economics, politics, and culture. In the past the medical care system often ignored gender, as well as race-based differences in health care needs. These gaps in knowledge concerning risks and appropriate treatments have very specific consequences that we will investigate.  The collection of readings will allow us to examine the social institutions that shape men’s and women’s health and health care.  Specific topics will include reproductive health, single motherhood and the stress of raising children alone, welfare and health care, divorce and changes in health, certain illnesses that women experience including breast and ovarian cancer, drug and alcohol abuse, and the forces that influence research into women’s health problems. In addition, we examine the role of women as major actors in changing the health care system, reducing health risks for themselves and their families, and their roles as health care providers, public administrators, and leaders in the health care establishment. We will also touch upon the role of local, state and federal agencies in health policy formulation and implementation, the politics of the medicalization of women’s issues including childbirth, refugee and immigrant women's health, and more. The course will also examine the role of different levels and branches of government, including the presidency, Congress, the courts, and the bureaucracy, in the formation of public policy.  Alternative political ideologies regarding state and private responsibility for women’s health will be compared and contrasted.  Similarly, we will assess the relative power of key non-governmental actors, such as interest groups, health care NGOs, researchers, and the media in the definition and framing of our health agenda. The course deals with rapidly evolving issues and readings will be assigned as current events warrant. 

EVALUATION

Assignments include a policy issue brief (50%), point-counterpoint exchange (20%), and mid-term assessment (10%). Attendance and participation are integral parts of the course and will count towards the final grade (20%).

REQUIRED TEXT AND SELECTED READINGS TO BE ASSIGNED

Bird, C.E. and P.P. Rieker. 2008. Gender and Health: The Effects of Constrained Choices and Social Policies. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Stone, D.  2001.  Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making. New York:  W.W.Norton and Company.

The purpose of the course is to expose students to contemporary policy challenges in the national security arena and, in doing so, provide the student a framework for making future decisions across the entire public policy spectrum.   You will be exposed to a variety of geopolitical scenarios and working in conjunction with a “national security team” you will develop a list of options for government leaders. The course goes beyond the theoretical and analytical to understanding exactly how national security policy is made in the most complex and politically sensitive environments.  In the scenarios, you will be confronted with the challenges of whether to conduct a drone strike in a denied area, what to do about Russian aggression in an allied country, how to address China’s build-up in the South China Sea, whether to conduct a large scale missile strike or a special operations raid and several other current international problems.  You will learn to understand the implications of U.S. actions on both international and domestic policy.  Throughout the course we will also examine the role of leadership in policy making.

During the course you will develop an understanding of the following:

• The roles and responsibilities of the national security policy makers.
• Current threats facing the United States.
• How to develop options for dealing with these threats.
• How to make decisions in a complex, high risk, high threat environment.
• The impact of your decisions on international and domestic policy.
• The fundamentals of leadership under pressure.
• Briefing techniques used in the White House Situation Room and the Pentagon Tank.

Through the two-week seminar we will have several guest speakers either in person or by videoconference that have extensive experience in policy making and can provide a further understanding of the complex nature of the process.In addition to the weekly scenario discussions, the class will also discuss the role of leadership; from small teams to large highly complex organizations.

Student Assessment

There will be five short briefing papers on contemporary geopolitical threats that must be read prior to the start of class.Student assessment will be based on classroom participation (60%), a two-page policy paper (20%) and a team paper/briefing (20%).

Class Schedule

Class is scheduled for 5:30pm-8:30pm, M-F, January 18-21, January 26-27, January 31, February 1-4, and February 14-18.

This course is for 3Ls who will be clerking for a federal district or magistrate judge. It is taught by an active and a recently-retired federal magistrate judge, both of whom also clerked for a federal district judge.    

On your first day in your new clerkship, you will inherit the responsibility of overseeing a docket of 100 or more cases, all of which have ongoing motion practice, upcoming trial dates, and a lot for a law clerk to do.  And most of the things you will need to do are things you have never done before, like preparing a bench memo for a hearing, or an order denying a 12(b)(6) motion.  The first few months in a clerkship can be pretty overwhelming. This class is intended to provide you with enough knowledge and insight into the nuts and bolts of a district or magistrate judge clerkship to allow you to hit the ground running on your first day.  It covers everything from how to read a docket sheet and find the pleadings in your cases, to drafting a memorandum opinion.  It is a  two-credit, pass/fail, small and collaborative class.  

Permission to enroll must be acquired prior to registration. Students must have a verified federal district clerkship. Before the registration period begins, email Andrea Stanfill: clerk-admin@law.utexas.edu to request verification and departmental access to register online.

This course addresses the law of privacy and personal data protection under two dominant, but quite different, legal regimes. In this course, we will review privacy fundamentals – principles, risks, and harms - within the U.S. legal framework, including federal consumer, financial, and health privacy laws, and historical and emerging state laws. We will discuss and evaluate important aspects of the evolving U.S. legal framework and the EU GDPR, taking into account the unique challenges posed by the evolution of digital data technology, including data aggregation, analytics, biometrics, breach response, and artificial intelligence.

This course approaches the subject of professional responsibility as a study of how society regulates the legal profession and the conduct of lawyers. First, we study the organized regulation of the profession, which includes the following topics: (1) the admission of lawyers, (2) the establishment of the legal services monopoly through unauthorized practice of law statutes, (3) the state and federal systems for disciplining lawyers, and (4) the clients. Second, we study the regulation of the conduct of individual lawyers through the transactional perspectives: (1) formation of the attorney- client relationship, (2) performance of the representation, and (3) termination of the relationship. We also spend significant time examining the three contexts of regulating lawyers' conduct: (1) the disciplinary committee, (2) the private malpractice action, and (3) judicial regulation as part of the lawyer's representation of a client. Although we discuss the Model Code and the Model Rules, this course does not focus on the rules of professional responsibility as the sole source of ethical guidelines. The course should prepare you for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam; however, it is more useful as an introduction to identifying and resolving ethical problems in practice. In addition, it is your first introduction to the practice of law as a profession.

Student grades are assessed through an in class exam with objective questions and essay questions; a 5 page outside paper, and completing the multiple choice questions in the Casebook Plus online module.

Professional Responsibility is about the law that governs lawyers.  We will explore the relationship between lawyers and clients; the protection of client confidences;representing organizational clients; conflicts of interest; duties to courts; and duties to adversaries and third persons.  We will also discuss the provision of legal services and the evolving business of law. The course fulfills the professional responsibility requirement for graduation and helps you prepare for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE).  

A survey of interests in land and limited topics involving chattels: estates, cotenancy, landlord and tenant issues, conveyancing, private and public control of land use.

A survey of interests in land and limited topics involving chattels: estates, cotenancy, landlord and tenant issues, conveyancing, private and public control of land use.

Real Estate Financing is for students with some knowledge or experience in the industry, those who have completed either Law 331K in Fall 2020 (Real Estate Transactions and Practice) or Law 385T in Fall 2021 (Introduction to Real Estate Law and Practice), or with permission from the Professor. Completion of or concurrent enrollment in Secured Credit (Law 380D) is recommended, but not required. The course will begin with an introduction to the real estate finance industry, including vocabulary and law. From there, the course will focus on key loan documents customarily found in real estate financings, and the statutory and case law underlying the contents of those documents. Relative interests of borrowers, lenders and other parties will be discussed throughout the course. While this is not a drafting course per se, drafting opportunities will be provided. This course is intended to be a fairly intensive examination of the legal aspects of real estate financing, with emphasis on typical documents and laws underlying them. Materials to be used will be supplied by the Professor in PDF format. Also, students will be responsible for obtaining copies of the cases discussed in the supplied materials.

If class enrollment is more than 9 students but fewer than 21 students, the grade for the course will be based 50 percent on a final examination and 50 percent on a loan documentation paper, and the curve will not apply. If class enrollment is under 10 students, the grade will be based entirely on a final examination and the curve will not apply.

This is an exciting time to study the law of Religious Liberty.  The Supreme Court in recent years has taken multiple cases to clarify the scope of the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment, and there is no indication that this trend will stop.  Regardless of one’s underlying perspective or position, studying Religious Liberty is a way to understand not just that area of constitutional law, but also to examine the Supreme Court as an institution and to trace the development of an important body of law alongside developments in American and world history.

This class is an introduction to the law of Religious Liberty, and accordingly will begin with the historical and jurisprudential foundations of the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause.  We will then turn to the development of the doctrine in the United States, examining how and asking why the Supreme Court's analysis has evolved from beginnings of its jurisprudence until today.  We will pause to consider in depth how Employment Division v. Smith has been applied in the decades since the Supreme Court decided it.  We will also discuss the intersection of the Free Exercise Clause, the Establishment Clause, the Free Speech Clause, and the Free Association Clause.  Our course will conclude with analysis of the cutting-edge issues being litigated in the courts, and in particular in the Supreme Court, and we will provide some examples where students can dig more deeply into a record to develop the best arguments on both sides of actual cases.  

This is a course open to students who have already taken a Constitutional Law class.  No other prerequisite is required.  We plan on meet roughly every other week for two hours at a time.  The course is graded, but students are welcome to exercise their pass-fail option if they wish.  Grades will turn on (1) participation, including reliable attendance, and (2) the student's choice of a short exam or a short paper.

"Restitution" means the law of unjust enrichment. As a basis of liability, it is as fundamental as contract or tort. "You are liable to me, not because you promised to do anything, and not because you necessarily caused me any injury, but because (if the law did nothing) you would be unjustly enriched at my expense." Claims on this basis arise across the whole range of private law. This gives restitution as much variety as any other subject and makes it an essential part—frequently overlooked—of the analysis of many legal problems. Course materials will consist of the casebook edited by Dean Farnsworth and Professor Kull.  (Anyone who is curious is welcome to come by Professor Kull's office and have a look.)

Restorative justice is a social movement and set of practices that aims to redirect society’s retributive response to crime. Crime, in the context of restorative justice, is not considered just an offense against the state but rather is viewed as a wrong against another person and indicative of a broken relationship between the offender, victim, and community. Accordingly, restorative justice seeks to elevate the role of crime victims and community members; hold offenders directly accountable to the people they have violated; and restore, to the extent possible, the emotional and material losses of victims by providing a range of opportunities for dialogue, negotiation, and problem solving. This course provides an introduction and exposure to the principles of restorative justice and its application to the treatment of human suffering from crime and related social problems. It explores the needs and roles for key stakeholders (victims, offenders, communities, justice systems), examines the values and assumptions of the movement, including its spiritual and religious roots, and introduces students to some of the current programs at community, state and international levels. The framework of the course is, in part, based on social work values and the ethical decision-making process. Besides discussing its policy implications, students will evaluate the potential of restorative justice to address social problems marked by human conflict, oppression, power and harm, e.g. partner abuse, hate crimes. Finally, students will examine the empirical evidence for restorative justice, identify critical issues including gaps in theory or practice, and critique its integrity and overall direction.

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 writing seminar considers advanced topics in professional responsibility, meaning the law governing lawyers such as lawyer disciplinary rules and procedures as well as other topics regarding lawyer conduct and liability.    Completing a writing seminar is required for graduation.  A writing seminar serves several purposes. First, a writing seminar develops your advanced research and analytical writing skills. Second, when you present your paper for discussion and discuss other student’s papers, a writing seminar strengthens your oral presentation skills. Third, a writing seminar allows you to work closely with a faculty member and in a small student group. Half your grade will be based on your research paper and half on your oral presentation and class participation.  For class, a copy of Martyn, Fox, & Wendel, The Law Governing Lawyers (2021-2022 Edition), will be useful.   

Professor McCown will help each student pick a topic and develop a thesis; the student will make an oral presentation of their draft paper; then the student will prepare a final draft based on feedback.  Having already taken PR will be helpful. 

Alternative asset classes, particularly hedge funds and private equity funds, play an increasingly central role in the global economy. Total alternative assets under management surpassed $10 trillion in 2020, a more than threefold increase from 2008, and are expected to surpass $14 trillion by 2023. Hedge funds and private equity funds represent approximately 75% of these assets. This explosive growth has been accompanied by an increased institutionalization of the industry, an advanced regulatory environment and a significant rise in public scrutiny.

This course will provide a comprehensive review of the legal and regulatory framework related to hedge fund and private funds, particularly in relation to structuring, documentation, disclosures, tax considerations and compliance.  Areas of focus will include relevant federal securities, tax and pension plan laws, case history and agency actions. This course also will include a critical analysis of related policy issues and topics, including insider trading, environmental/social/governance (ESG) investing, preferential tax treatment, the rise of cryptocurrencies and the economic and societal impacts associated with the alternative investment industry. In addition, the course will analyze the various roles lawyers play throughout the industry.

Economic theory has had a large impact on legal thinking. Behavioral Economics seeks to identify predictable patterns of behavior that do not fit into the rational-choice paradigm; its ultimate goal is to improve the predictive capacities of social science. This seminar will explore Behavioral research on framing effects, loss aversion, risk compensation, mental accounting, time-inconsistent preferences, self-serving biases, perceptions of fairness, and happiness. Several of these behavioral patterns can be used to suggest that, in certain situations, peoples' autonomous choices may not result in outcomes that are best for them even under their own theories of "best." Accordingly, we will also discuss potential policy responses and the appropriate limits of paternalism.

This workshop seminar will focus on cutting-edge research in business law and economics. Most weeks will feature a leading outside scholar presenting a work-in-progress relating to current issues in business law. 

The range of subject matter includes economically-oriented work on business law, securities regulation, tax, or commercial law.  Many of the papers presented will likely deal with normative questions of private ordering versus public regulation, and will examine problems that arise in both the private and public law spheres.  Similarly, it is expected that many of the papers will consider social welfare effects, such as the effect of law and regulation on entrepreneurship, innovation, capital formation, and financial markets.   

Students will be responsible for written assessments of the paper being presented, and will be evaluated based on their writings and their participation in the workshop. Students' critiques may be made available to the speaker.

This writing seminar will focus on the substantive and procedural legal issues which relate to the protection of children. The first six classes of the seminar will provide an overview of child protection issues. The first class will include a presentation on child abuse and neglect cases; what it is and what it is not. The distinction between criminal child abuse cases and civil child protection (CPS) cases will be discussed.  The next five classes will cover the duty to report child abuse, the removal of children from their homes, termination of parental rights, systemic problems within the foster care system, the rights of children and their parents in child protection proceedings, and the criminal prosecution of child abuse. The readings for the first six classes are posted on canvas or cites for the internet link and Westlaw are provided in the syllabus and on canvas. Students are expected to read and be prepared to discuss the assigned readings in class. Any changes in the class schedule will be posted on canvas. (Occasionally, the order of topics will alter from the initial outline due to availability of guest speakers. Additional readings and discussion may be supplemented which will include the interplay of the protection of children with other areas of the law such as immigration, education law, and family law. Grades will be based on the 1) outline, 2) first draft of paper, 3) feedback to the class regarding mandatory observation of CPS docket, 4) class participation, 5) in-class presentation of paper, 6) critique of another student's paper, and 7) 25-30 page final paper.

The class sessions of the seminar will be devoted to various aspects of acquiring and maintaining United States citizenship. Subjects such as derivative citizenship, denaturalization, expatriation, so-called "anchor babies," and other subjects will be explored. Papers can be on any topic agreed upon between the student and faculty member.

The proliferation of new constitutions in recent years has sharpened interest in a subject that has been around since Aristotle but has not always figured prominently in legal studies.  The comparative analysis of constitutions (and related interpretive and structural issues) is now embraced as an essential component of the public law curriculum.  This course will explore alternative traditions of constitutionalism, connecting them to the broader political cultures from which they have emerged.  It will examine the various shades of meaning underlying political values and moral theories that inform concepts -- for example, liberty, autonomy, equality, and community -- within various constitutional traditions.  It will seek to account for the similarities and differences within the constitutional ideas and arrangements in contrasting systems.  It will explore the role of constitutional courts in polities with varying conceptions of judicial review and its significance.  It will consider alternative approaches to the study of constitutional maintenance and change.  It will attempt to clarify the elusive concepts of constitutional identity and revolution.  It will look closely at the ways in which foreign experience might illuminate and possibly enrich American constitutional understandings. And it will consider how the comparative approach might contribute to contemporary debates among constitutional theorists.

No prerequisites

Requirements: class participation (20% of grade); a short reflective paper (20% of grade); and a 25-page research paper (60% of grade)

This seminar explores modern legal structures – legislative and judicial – of the Middle East. It introduces students to the process by which traditional Islamic law was transformed into state law in the 19th and 20th centuries CE, by investigating debates on codification, legal modernity and legal borrowing. With the emergence of the modern nation-states across the Muslim World, many countries accorded constitutional status to Islamic law as “a source” or “the source” of law and some states purport to base their entire systems on particular versions of Islamic law. The formation of the modern legal regimes in the Middle East was a hybrid product of Islamic and western legal traditions, which raises questions about legal authority, legality, and the creation of modern legal and judicial institutions. The course aims to encourage comparative legal analysis to assess generalizations about law typically formulated with respect to Western legal traditions. The course discusses cases and codes from Egypt, Malaysia, Northern Nigeria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. The topics covered in this course are constitutional law, judicial review, administrative law, obligations, commercial law, family law, human rights and criminal law.

Music, film, television, digital online media, social media, streaming, radio, publishing, branding, celebrity rights of publicity and privacy, and cyber law - that's entertainment! This writing seminar provides an introduction to the legal aspects of the entertainment industry through the analysis and discussion of commonly used business models, contracts, relevant statutes, judicial opinions, and current events. An emphasis of the course will be to understand the underlying intellectual property assets and historical positions of the parties to entertainment related transactions to prepare students to use the knowledge acquired to not only fulfill the course requirements, but to actively participate in, and demonstrate leadership in, any facet of the entertainment industry as a lawyer. This seminar will also directly examine specific terms and provisions commonly included in most entertainment industry contracts as well as terms and provisions applicable to specific genres within entertainment industry. In addition, articles relating to current industry developments, recent legal decisions, and live pleadings will be regularly assigned for class analysis and discussion. Students in this writing seminar will: (a) select and engage in research on an approved topic relevant to the legal aspects of the entertainment industry; (b) submit a substantial research paper in compliance with the writing requirement; and, (c) give an oral presentation to the seminar class on their chosen topic. Questions and lively discussions of entertainment industry legal issues are welcomed and encouraged!

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, with 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.

SEMINAR: EXPLORATIONS IN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW & POLITICS AROUND THE GLOBE Victor Ferreres. 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.