Course Schedule

This course deals with the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices - Consumer Protection Act (DTPA), which is the primary consumer protection statute in Texas. We will also examine statutory and common law warranties and the interplay between the DTPA and other relevant consumer protection statutes. The last three weeks of the course will be spent on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (the primary federal statute protecting consumers from abusive collection practices), the Texas Debt Collection Act, and their interplay with the DTPA.

An introductory course on the law of contracts. This course takes up basic questions about the common law principles governing the formation, interpretation, performance, and enforcement of contracts, as well as the basic remedies for their breach.

Methods by which rights and duties of promissory and quasi-promissory origin are created, transferred, limited, discharged, breached, and enforced.

This course will introduce foreign lawyers in the LLM and exchange program to the common law of Contracts. It will cover the methods by which rights and duties of promissory and quasi-promissory origin are created, transferred, limited, discharged, breached, and enforced.

The first objective of the course will be to help prepare future corporate and non-profit Directors to fulfill their fiduciary duties of care and loyalty to the organizations that they will serve. We will do this by examining a wide variety of issues that Directors must deal with on a regular basis. These include balancing efforts between establishing quarterly and yearly performance targets and building strong companies that can sustain above-market financial performance in the future. Directors must also manage business and political relationships, initiate and integrate acquisitions, create/change corporate culture, continually align the organization structure to the business strategy, allocate resources for a variety of corporate initiatives, deal with issues of corporate governance, succession planning, executive compensation, and learn to navigate through potential public relations disasters. We will examine as many of these topics as time permits.

The second objective of this course will be to understand the nature and scope of corporate Boards from the perspective of society, social and economic interest and what can be done to prevent some of the more publicized corporate governance failures. We will examine several of the more highly publicized corporate failures as well as what action Congress has taken to address corporate malfeasance, and the recommendations that have been made by social critics. The course is directed primarily at graduate business students and law students who expect to serve either as advisors to Boards of Directors or on Boards of Directors of public companies or non-profit organizations. While most of the course will focus on established public companies, much of the course content will be useful to those individuals who are primarily interested in entrepreneurial organizations, family corporations, or public sector non-profit entities. This course will have three distinct instructional formats. Professor Cunningham will lecture to the class to help provide all of the students with a fundamental knowledge of how Boards of Directors function in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. He will also focus on the different roles the Boards play in both large and small organizations.

The third format of the class will be to invite guest speakers to address the students who are involved in a wide variety of real world governance issues. The guests will be encouraged to provide ample opportunity for questions during their presentations. The individuals that will be invited to speak to the class will include a mix of entrepreneurs, senior executives from major corporations, directors of public and private entities, politicians, leaders of non-profit entities, corporate lawyers and partners of major accounting firms.

Promulgation, interpretation, and administration of substantive laws of crime; constitutional limitations and relevant philosophical, sociological, and behavioral science materials.

Promulgation, interpretation, and administration of substantive laws of crime; constitutional limitations and relevant philosophical, sociological, and behavioral science materials.

Promulgation, interpretation, and administration of substantive laws of crime; constitutional limitations and relevant philosophical, sociological, and behavioral science materials.

Promulgation, interpretation, and administration of substantive laws of crime; constitutional limitations and relevant philosophical, sociological, and behavioral science materials.

This course explores constitutional limitations upon the investigation of crime. Its focus is on the law governing searches, seizures, and police interrogation. Topics include the nature of a fourth amendment search; arrest and investigative detention; warrants and exceptions to the warrant requirement; confessions; and the application of the exclusionary rule. Grades will be based upon a three-hour final examination.

Institute for Justice Senior Attorney Jeff Rowes will teach students how public-interest lawyers devise and litigate strategic cases designed to set precedent. The class will examine major cases from the perspective of the lawyers who fought the battles, and consider questions like how do you select the right client, identify the right claims, and file in the right jurisdiction. The class will also talk about the right moment in history to bring suit. Students will learn how to use the media effectively. There will be particular emphasis on teaching real-world litigation skills and professional judgment. Each student will write an appellate brief as the final assignment. But to make the brief writing more collaborative, as it is in actual legal practice, students will be asked to submit draft sections throughout the semester and incorporate feedback from the instructor. Although the instructor is an attorney at the Institute for Justice, which has a libertarian orientation, he strongly encourages students of all perspectives to join the class. We will look at cases across the ideological spectrum (and discuss how good constitutional lawyers build alliances across ideological boundaries). There is no exam. Pass/fail allowed.

This course is a deep dive into a broad range of legal and policy issues associated with cybersecurity. It is intended as a comprehensive introduction to the nature and functions of the various government and private-sector actors associated with cybersecurity in the United States, the policy goals they pursue, the issues and challenges they face, and the legal environment in which all of this takes place.

The course is the cornerstone of the Strauss Center's "Integrated Cybersecurity Studies" program, which is a Hewlett Foundation-funded project to increase interdisciplinary education relating to cybersecurity. Anyone interested in the course might also be interested in the Center's "Cyber Fellows" program, which you can explore here. The course also counts as the cornerstone for the LLM program's cybersecurity concentration, as well as for a planned graduate portfolio in cybersecurity studies. 

No technical background is required or assumed. Graduate students from across the campus are encouraged to enroll, too, as you do not have to have prior legal or policy knowledge.  In recent years, the class has drawn a substantial number of law students and LBJ students, as well as cohorts from computer science, engineering, the iSchool, and McCombs.

To get a full sense of the course, check out the free course eBook, which Prof. Chesney wrote specifically for the course. You can find it here (an updated version will be available before the course begins). These materials have been shared and adopted widely around the nation.

This class is designed to give students a basic understanding of elder law and its increasingly important role in our society. Students will learn how to manage legal issues and family dynamics around care of the elderly, understand the oversized role of financing care, and explore the interplay of elder law with estate planning and governmental benefits programs. Fundamental to the practice of elder law is understanding how to pay for care as well as spotting and addressing abuse of the elderly.

It will be helpful but not necessary to have taken Wills and Estates.

Textbook information: Elder Law: Practice, Policy, and Problems by Nina Cohn from Aspen Publishing ISBN 978-1-4548-9098-0  

This three credit survey course focuses on the legal issues that pervade the conservation and regulation of public lands, wildlife, fisheries, and wetlands. These issues include, among others, competing claims of the "public interest" versus private property rights; the roles of administrative agencies and the judiciary in environmental decision making; tensions presented by the multiple use/sustainable yield standard in federal law; conflicts among and between local, state, and federal approaches to natural resource regulation; and the opposing goals of resource management espoused by fishermen, farmers, developers, environmentalists, and recreational users. These issues will be developed in the context of the regulatory schemes embodied in the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Clean Water Act and the various statutes that govern federal public lands, such as the Wilderness Act and Federal Land Policy Management Act. The focus of the course is primarily U.S. law; however, it will touch on international law relevant to natural resources and, where appropriate, compare U.S. law to the laws of other countries.

This course will explore the rules and principles governing the proof of facts in the courtroom, with special focus upon the Federal Rules of Evidence. Planned topics include relevance, hearsay, the Confrontation Clause, character evidence, impeachment and rehabilitation of witnesses, the best evidence rule, lay and expert opinion, and objections practice.

This course provides an overview of the legal regulation of intimate relationships. Substantial time is devoted to the incidents of divorce (including property division, spousal support, child support, and custody), and the regulation of prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. The course will also cover issues related parenthood, alternative reproductive technologies, and same-sex marriage.

Federal Courts is an essential practical tool for future litigators, future government attorneys (at the federal, state, or local level), and future judicial law clerks. It is also a genuinely exciting field of academic study for any law student. 

This course investigates one of the most fascinating and often misunderstood features of American law: how our legal system distributes power within the federal government and between the federal government and the states.  The course also explores whether (and how) individual litigants can turn to the judiciary to enforce rights created by constitutional or statutory law. These fundamental questions are related.  Principles that shape and limit the power of federal courts determine not just how but whether those courts (rather than other participants in our system of government) can resolve disputes, ranging from the relatively mundane to the gravest allegations of injustice.  

These issues raise questions about the role that the federal courts play in our constitutional democracy.  Such issues are of utmost importance today.  Many pressing questions—from the scope of presidential power to the conduct of local police—wind up in federal court.  And these disputes often turn on legal issues that we will explore in this course.

The assigned case book is the tenth edition of Low & Jeffries' The Federal Courts and the Law of Federal-State Relations (2022).   

Federal Income Taxation (FIT) presents an overview of the federal income tax, mostly as it applies to individuals. The aim of the course is to present the fundamental principles and policies underlying the federal income tax and to convey the style and flavor of tax law thinking. As a survey, FIT will touch on all the major issues, such as what is gross income, what expenditures are deductible, what is the appropriate taxable unit, what is the function of "basis," and what is the appropriate timing of income and deductions. Specific topics that will be covered in reasonable depth include: the definition of gross income, including the specific inclusion and specific exclusion provisions, business and investment expense deductions, the exclusions for gifts, bequests, and recoveries for personal injuries, income attribution, the taxation of the family (including divorce taxation), the tax treatment of loans, capital expenditures, methods of capital recovery, capital gains and losses, tax-free exchanges, and various tax policy issues (including horizontal and vertical equity, economic efficiency, optimal tax theory, the tax expenditure concept, and a comparison of an income tax base with a cash flow consumption tax base). The grade for this course will be based entirely on a final, open book examination.

Required Textbooks:

(1) Joseph M. Dodge, J. Clifton Fleming, Jr., Francine J. Lipman & Robert J. Peroni, Federal Income Tax: Doctrine, Structure, and Policy (Carolina Academic Press 5th ed. 2019)—ISBN 978-1-5310-1311-0

(2) Federal Income Tax—Code & Regulations—Selected Sections, Robert J. Peroni, Coordinating Editor (Wolters Kluwer/CCH 2023-2024 ed.)

Recommended Textbooks (Optional):

(1) Marvin A. Chirelstein & Lawrence Zelenak, Federal Income Taxation (West Academic/Foundation Press) (Concepts and Insights Series)

(2) Donald B. Tobin & Samuel A. Donaldson, Principles of Federal Income Taxation (West Academic) (Concise Hornbook Series)

The class is designed for law students of all interests, including those who are undecided and those who are focused on a particular area such as litigation, public interest law, family law, regulatory work, criminal law, or business law. Financial Methods for Lawyers covers time value of money, expected value decision making, and investment in enterprises. It also covers the basic financial statement components: balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements. The class is only available on a pass/fail basis. It is designated as a skills course. Students earn points toward a passing grade through online quizzes, Excel spreadsheet and other exercises, and regular attendance.

This is a survey course covering legal issues in health care delivery, health insurance financing, and the responsibilities of health care professionals to patients. Students will be introduced to the legal and policy considerations that have shaped the relationships between providers (physicians and hospitals), payers (public and private), and patients and how different areas of law have developed when applied to the healthcare industry.  We will consider implications of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and ongoing reform efforts for healthcare law and policy. In addition to presenting essential material for those intending to represent health care providers and payers, serve as health care regulators and policymakers, or advocate on behalf of individuals, the course offers students of all backgrounds an introduction to the legal governance of one-sixth of the U.S. economy. 

This is a course in the substantive law regulating immigration to the United States and the regulation of non-citizens in the United States. Topics covered include the constitutional basis for regulating immigration, the roles of federal agencies in immigration adjudication, the immigration and removal (deportation) process, entry, relief from removal, general regulation of non-citizens, the refugee and asylum processes, and new developments. Students should expect to participate in in-class discussions and exercises. The final exam will be open book. LLM students will be required to take the exam; there will be no paper option.

TEXTBOOKS:

Immigration and Nationality Laws of the United States : Selected Statutes, Regulations and Forms 2022 *    Aleinikoff, T., Martin, David, Motomura, Hiroshi, Fullerton, Maryellen, and Stumpf, Juliet    West Academic , edition: 2022    ISBN: 978-1-63659-890-1    

Immigration and Refugee Law and Policy *    Legomsky, Stephen, Thronson, David, Legomsky, Stephen H., and Thronson, David B.    West Academic , edition: 7    ISBN: 978-1-64020-734-9

America incarcerates people at a rate higher than most countries in the world and those incarcerated are disproportionately low-income and from communities that have been historically neglected and oppressed. Course materials will examine how the socio-economic and racial disparities in the population of people incarcerated in America reflects this country’s history of poverty, slavery, and segregation.  The course will cover several theories about the drivers of mass incarceration and the legal and philosophical foundations of public defense.  

This course will explore theoretical, philosophical, and practical elements of indigent criminal defense, exploring questions such as: How do criminal justice theory and practice interact? What can an individual lawyer do to further her client's interests within this context? What is the role of the public defender in criminal justice reform? How does a public defender maintain the long view on mass incarceration and socio-economic and racial inequalities in the criminal justice system while advocating for her individual clients? What roles and tools are available, besides line public defense, for future lawyers to fill and utilize in enacting the promise of Gideon? 

Weekly reading assignments will explore these topics and students will be required to discuss their reflections during class discussions.