Course Catalog

This course will explore the intersection of rights of publicity, trademark, copyright, contract, culture, technology, the “law of ideas,” Free Speech, and privacy in the entertainment industries. We will focus on music, film, literature, television, and social media. Through the lenses of negotiation and litigation, we will examine the roles of those who create, collaborate, perform, disseminate, promote, merchandise, and financially support creative properties and celebrities.

• Type: Upper Class

The Zell Entrepreneurship Clinic (ZEC) supports the University’s burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem by representing student-led entrepreneurial ventures as well as local startups and small businesses. Student attorneys in the ZEC encounter real-world transactional lawyering experiences with a focus on developing a business-oriented, client-centered mindset.
The ZEC offers transactional and counseling legal services to startups and established small companies in the following areas:
* Selecting and forming a legal entity and structuring ownership and capital
* Counseling on and prosecuting intellectual property matters (e.g., copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret)
* Drafting and negotiating contracts
* Advising on employment matters
* Assisting on corporate fundraising and finance issues
Students in the ZEC typically represent multiple clients and assume primary responsibility for all client matters under the close supervision of ZEC faculty. Student attorneys plan client matters; interview and counsel clients; draft various legal agreements, documents, correspondence and memos; prosecute patent and trademark applications; and identify and research legal issues to help their clients implement their decisions. Student attorneys also take turns offering community office hours where they provide legal information to local entrepreneurs. Furthermore, student attorneys are exposed to the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem through attendance of local events as a class. During the weekly seminar sessions, students discuss lawyering skills and values, ethical issues, client issues and some substantive law. Student attorneys review and reflect on their work and receive detailed feedback from ZEC faculty during weekly supervision meetings.
There are no prerequisites for taking the ZEC. Because much of the client work will be in corporate, tax, intellectual property, employment, and other business areas, students will likely find prior course work in those areas helpful.

• Type: Clinic

This course provides an introduction to the laws and regulations we use to address environmental harms. It focuses on the major pollution control statutes, particularly the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Recovery Act, and Toxic Substances Control Act. We will also examine the role of the courts in interpreting these statutes as well as the underlying scientific, economic, and policy rationales for environmental protection. Recurring themes will include the balance of federal and state authority, the influence of interest groups (both industry and environmental organizations) on environmental policy, and the disparate impact of pollution on vulnerable populations. The course will also cover recent developments in administrative and constitutional law that have significant implications for environmental regulation, such as the major questions and non-delegation doctrines.

• Type: Upper Class

The Clinic offers students the opportunity to learn to be effective advocates while representing the National Wildlife Federation. NWF pursues its mission to conserve wildlife in administrative, judicial, and legislative forums, and through a wide range of educational programs and publications. The course has both a clinical and a classroom component. Clinical work will teach students the mechanics of litigation, primarily in state or federal appellate venues, as well as pertinent environmental laws and administrative law. Students will also practice investigative, research, and writing skills. Class work will introduce students to principles and techniques relevant to the clinical work, and may include such subjects as drafting pleadings and motions; oral argument; and negotiation. The Clinic is a graded seven-credit-hour offering. Students must enroll in the 4 credit clinic and the 3 credit seminar, taken concurrently. Credits count toward New York’s pro bono requirement. Courses in administrative and environmental law are not prerequisites, but would be helpful.
The Clinic fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.

• Type: Clinic

The Clinic offers students the opportunity to learn to be effective advocates while representing the National Wildlife Federation. NWF pursues its mission to conserve wildlife in administrative, judicial, and legislative forums, and through a wide range of educational programs and publications. The course has both a clinical and a classroom component. Clinical work will teach students the mechanics of litigation, primarily in state or federal appellate venues, as well as pertinent environmental laws and administrative law. Students will also practice investigative, research, and writing skills. Class work will introduce students to principles and techniques relevant to the clinical work, and may include such subjects as drafting pleadings and motions; oral argument; and negotiation. The Clinic is a graded seven-credit-hour offering. Students must enroll in the 4 credit clinic and the 3 credit seminar, taken concurrently. Credits count toward New York’s pro bono requirement. Courses in administrative and environmental law are not prerequisites, but would be helpful.
The Clinic fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.

• Type: Clinic

Ethics, Justice, and International Law
Is the international legal order just? International lawyers and moral philosophers have offered a variety of approaches and answers to this fundamental question, each reflecting the methodologies and assumptions of their discipline. In this seminar, we will compare these two traditions for examining questions of international justice. After an overview of philosophical and legal approaches, we will examine a series of discrete issues such as just war theory, secession and territorial borders, transborder pollution, intellectual property and AIDS therapies, global hunger, the territorial scope of human rights protections, and reform of international institutions. No prior coursework in ethics is required; Transnational Law or an equivalent introductory course in international law is, however, a prerequisite.

• Type: Seminar

This course focuses on the procedural rules that regulate the use of evidence at trial. The rules covered include those relating to the competence of witnesses, the mode of examination, relevance, impeachment, character evidence, hearsay, expert evidence, privileges, and judicial notice. Particular attention is paid to the Federal Rules of Evidence.

• Type: Upper Class

The course will focus on the effective and strategic use of the Rules of Evidence in litigation. We will look in-depth at several critical areas of evidence, including impeachment, hearsay, expert testimony and privileges. Our study will include both drafting exercises (motions to admit or exclude various pieces of evidence) as well as courtroom based scenarios in which students will have to dissect and apply the various Rules. The goal of the course is for students to have a functional mastery of several critical (and challenging) areas of evidence, preparing them for future work as litigators.

• Type: Practice Simulation

For all full semester externship programs, students may add an optional graded paper or project for one, two, or three credits. The total credits for the semester cannot exceed 15 without special permission.

• Type: Externship

This course provides a doctrinal overview of family law, including marriage, cohabitation, divorce, private agreements, intimate partner violence, parenting, child custody and support, and the child welfare system. It is designed around two major areas of law: adult relationships and parent-child relationships. Through a socio-legal lens, this course evaluates how the state constructs, defines, limits, and regulates intimate relationships and families through law.

• Type: Upper Class

National antitrust policy under the Sherman, Federal Trade Commission, and Clayton Acts. Restraints of trade and monopoly problems including agreements among competitors (such as price-fixing, trade associations, and joint ventures), vertical relationships (such as resale price maintenance and exclusive territories), single firm exclusionary conduct (such as predatory pricing and predatory product innovation), and merger policy. Students do not need to have any prior economic training, but should be prepared to learn some basic industrial organizational theory and microeconomics. Current debates in the field at the level of both theory and policy will be explored.

• Type: Upper Class

Students who have taken Federal Appellate Litigation Clinic I are eligible to enroll in Federal Appellate Litigation Clinic II by invitation of the professors. Faculty and invited students determine the number of credits (2-5) to be awarded.

• Type: Clinic

An intensive and critical examination of the role of federal courts in maintaining a constitutional order in the United States. Among the topics considered are justiciability, the power of Congress to control the jurisdiction of federal and state courts, Supreme Court review of state court decisions, federal habeas corpus for state prisoners, and suits challenging official action.

• Type: Upper Class

The ability to give and receive quality feedback plays a major role in every lawyer’s career trajectory. Yet few of us are ever taught how to develop this important skill.
“Feedback Loops” is designed to help change that. We’ll learn better ways to deliver feedback, better ways to receive feedback, and better ways to solicit feedback. We’ll also get to practice a crucial and often overlooked kind of feedback: self-feedback.

• Type: Practice Simulation

This course explores financial regulation in the United States in the aftermath of the most systemic financial crisis in the last 70 years. The 2007-2009 financial crisis was followed by a major shift in regulatory design with the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act. We analyze and compare the current market and regulatory architecture of the U.S. financial sector, from banks, insurance companies, and broker-dealers, to asset managers and complex financial conglomerates. We explore a range of financial activities, from consumer finance and investment to payment systems, securitization, short-term wholesale funding, money markets, and derivatives. We examine a range of regulatory techniques, including supervision, enforcement, and rule-writing, as well as crisis-fighting tools such as resolution and the lender of last resort. We also note the cross-border implications of U.S. rules, and compare, where appropriate, the U.S. framework and policy choices to those in other places around the globe, especially the European Union. We also discuss amendments made to the Dodd-Frank Act in 2018 and ongoing initiatives adopted by the Trump Administration to reverse the course of regulation for parts of the U.S. financial system. We will also scan the horizon for the signs of the next global financial crisis.

• Type: Upper Class

This course examines the law made by The Supreme Court concerning the freedom of speech, and the freedom and establishment of religion.

• Type: Upper Class

This seminar is an applied constitutional law course using case studies to highlight important themes in national security and foreign relations law, with a special emphasis on the separation of powers. Topics include covert action, counterintelligence, espionage, and technology relating to these issues.

• Type: Seminar

From fingerprints to burn marks, shoe prints to bite-marks, and dozens of other disciplines, our courts certainly have a lot of forensic science thrown at them on a daily basis. But how equipped is our legal system to properly handle scientific evidence? And what about individual lawyers and judges: can they be trusted to properly vet, scrutinize—and when necessary, exclude—forensic science disciplines they scarcely understand?
This course will explore the tenuous but necessary relationship between forensic science and the law, which begins with the fundamental difference between ?truth? as defined by science and as defined by law. From that foundation, we will consider how various forensic techniques have come to be accepted, admitted—and in many cases later repudiated—by our judicial system. We will study what goes right, what goes wrong and how we as lawyers can work to improve the system of forensic science in America.

• Type: Seminar

This course examines the early history of the English Common Law and explores various approaches to legal history. We will study both medieval documents and key works of modern historical writing in order to obtain an overall picture of the chronology, processes, and causes of legal development. Following an introduction to the history of the period (no prior study of history is required) and to the use of historical sources, a combination of chronological and thematic approaches will be adopted. Key issues will be the role of royal authority in legal development; the impact of changes in literacy; changes in the nature of legal knowledge and thought; the separation of legal from other social norms; the degree to which legal change works by its own internal logic.

• Type: Upper Class

The Full-Time Externship Program offers an exciting opportunity to augment classroom study with real-world work experience. Students (under the guidance of both a Law School faculty member and a field placement site supervisor) immerse themselves full-time in legal work with local, state, and federal governmental agencies, and with nonprofit organizations located throughout the country and world. The externship is expected the complete the student’s personal agenda of study, complementing courses carefully chosen at the Law School and enabling the student to pursue sophisticated work and research in a particular field beyond our curricular offerings.

Students will receive twelve credits total, eleven for the field work portion and one for the accompanying seminar (Law 941). Since field placement proposals must be approved in advance, EVEN IF A STUDENT DOES NOT HAVE A PLACEMENT FINALIZED, the student must apply for a Full-Time Externship by the deadline, which is April 1 for a Fall Externship, and November 1 for a Winter Externship. If a student’s placement is not secured, the student is welcome, even encouraged, to propose a few potential placements for consideration.

For more information, visit our website at https://michigan.law.umich.edu/academics/experiential-learning/externships or contact [email protected]. We are happy to meet with students to answer questions, give guidance on potential placements, provide information on how to apply, etc. Please note that if students are interested in the Geneva, India, or South Africa Externship Programs, they should visit the websites for each of those programs separately, as their details and deadlines are different.

• Type: Externship

This contemporaneous, one-credit seminar is held every semester as a required companion to the Full-Time Externship (Law 940). For more information, please visit the course description for Law 940.

• Type: Externship

Spend a semester in Geneva working with leading intergovernmental and nongovernmental institutions during the winter term. Students are immersed in the work of these international institutions and closely supervised by their legal staffs to explore how international legal regimes intersect with such diverse fields as trade, human rights, intellectual property, environment, telecommunications, and health. Externs participate in a contemporaneous seminar intended to provide them substantive context for their externships.
Students apply in the Winter before the program begins the following January. For more information, visit our website at https://www.law.umich.edu/curriculum/externshipsandindependentstudy/Pages/default.aspx or contact [email protected]. We are happy to meet with students to answer questions, give guidance on potential placements, provide information on how to apply, etc. Further, every January we hold an informational meeting for all of our international externship programs, so please watch for that announcement.

• Type: Externship

This contemporaneous seminar is intended to provide substantive context for the Geneva Externship field work (Law 947). It provides an environment for students to share their work experiences and reflect on the varying approaches to international problem-solving arising at the organizations where they are placed. In addition, students will attend guest lectures with legal and policy advisors at international and nongovernmental organizations, who will discuss current issues of international law, describe the role of international organizations in various fields of international law, and describe their individual career paths.
Students apply in the Winter before the program begins the following January. For more information, visit our website at https://www.law.umich.edu/curriculum/externshipsandindependentstudy/Pages/default.aspx or contact [email protected]. We are happy to meet with students to answer questions, give guidance on potential placements, provide information on how to apply, etc. Further, every January we hold an informational meeting for all of our international externship programs, so please watch for that announcement.

• Type: Externship

This course will examine the issues and concerns that are unique to well-funded ventures with “unicorn” valuations. The course will consider the pros and cons of different late-stage investment structures, the deal dynamics arising from the ever expanding pool of capital investing in this asset class, and the implications of unit economics for the investment thesis—all against the backdrop of the ever-blurring line between private equity and venture capital.
Students will learn the primary legal mechanics involved in venture capital investing, as well as the incentives and pragmatic considerations underlying these types of transactions.
Students will be expected to participate in a simulated term-sheet negotiation exercise, become familiar with spreadsheet capitalization tables, and learn to evaluate key deal terms against the backdrop of the broader deal dynamics.
Required readings for each session will include model deal documents and case studies.

• Type: Practice Simulation

Through the course, students will explore key laws and legal concepts applicable to American institutions of higher education. Among other issues, the course will focus on how to weigh and balance the sometimes competing rights and responsibilities of institutions, faculty, staff, and students. For instance, the course will explore: the potential clash between the academic freedom rights of faculty and the rights of students to be free from racial and sexual harassment; Title IX and women’s sports; affirmative action in admissions, financial aid, and faculty hiring; and the intellectual property rights of faculty, staff and students. The goal of the course is to introduce the fundamental legal areas affecting higher education so that students can recognize when legal issues and concepts are involved in the higher education context. Additionally, the course gives the opportunity to consider the role of “in house” counsel. The course also aims to use legal issues as a catalyst for a broader discussion of the role and meaning of higher education in today’s society. Furthermore, the course offers the opportunity to consider legal and policy matters in a context in which every student will have had personal, in-depth experience. The course format will include lecture and class discussion. The course is a meet-together with the School of Education and will include both law students and graduate students in education.

• Type: Upper Class

Human trafficking encompasses all forms of compelled labor or services and it occurs around the world. The Human Trafficking Clinic (HTC) works to combat human trafficking by: (1) providing direct representation to survivors of human trafficking; and (2) developing disruptive, systemic solutions to reduce vulnerability to trafficking.
Law students enrolled in the HTC will engage in a combination of legal and systemic reform work. The legal work of HTC is best described as a poverty law practice on behalf of survivors of human trafficking and their families. It includes immigration, post-adjudication criminal relief, access to public benefits, expungement, and victim-witness advocacy. The reform work of the HTC focuses on creating change at policy, service, and industry levels through collaborative partnerships across the nonprofit, corporate, and governmental sectors. HTC students work side-by-side with students enrolled in the Business and Human Rights Lab to develop and execute their projects.
Overall, students in the HTC will learn and practice collaboration, problem solving, fact investigation, legal analysis, counseling, and advocacy skills. Students are responsible, under supervision, for all of the cases and projects within the HTC.
The HTC is a 7 credit course and meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement.

• Type: Clinic

Human trafficking encompasses all forms of compelled labor or services and it occurs around the world. The Human Trafficking Clinic (HTC) works to combat human trafficking by: (1) providing direct representation to survivors of human trafficking; and (2) developing disruptive, systemic solutions to reduce vulnerability to trafficking.
Law students enrolled in the HTC will engage in a combination of legal and systemic reform work. The legal work of HTC is best described as a poverty law practice on behalf of survivors of human trafficking and their families. It includes immigration, post-adjudication criminal relief, access to public benefits, expungement, and victim-witness advocacy. The reform work of the HTC focuses on creating change at policy, service, and industry levels through collaborative partnerships across the nonprofit, corporate, and governmental sectors. HTC students work side-by-side with students enrolled in the Business and Human Rights Lab to develop and execute their projects.
Overall, students in the HTC will learn and practice collaboration, problem solving, fact investigation, legal analysis, counseling, and advocacy skills. Students are responsible, under supervision, for all of the cases and projects within the HTC.
The HTC is a 7 credit course and meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement.

• Type: Clinic

This course will explore the legal, historical and policy perspectives that shape U.S. law governing immigration and citizenship. The course provides a general overview of the constitutional and international law foundations underlying immigration regulation, the history of immigration law in the U.S., the source and scope of congressional and executive branch power in the realm of immigration, and the role of the judiciary in making and interpreting immigration law. The course will closely examine the admission, exclusion, removal and naturalization of noncitizens in the United States.

• Type: Upper Class

The India Externship offers students the chance to spend the Winter semester working for an Indian non-profit, government agency, or court in the city of your choice. Students work with our administration and faculty to find a suitable placement. Given the depth and breadth of work available in India, it should not be difficult to find something that meets your interests. Past students report rich experiences working side-by-side with top-notch Indian lawyers on pressing legal matters and policy issues.

Students apply in the Winter before the program begins the following January. For more information, visit our website at https://michigan.law.umich.edu/resource-center/india-externship or contact [email protected]. We are happy to meet with students to answer questions, give guidance on potential placements, provide information on how to apply, etc. Further, every January we hold an informational meeting for all of our international externship programs, so please watch for that announcement.

• Type: Externship

The INHR Geneva Student Legal Advisor Program is an externship opportunity in public international law for selected LLM and JD students, with a possible “Spring Break” visit to Geneva Switzerland for the February/March UN Human Rights Council. Selected students will work with a Michigan law grad and former U.S. diplomat to serve as virtual interns for a member state to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Students will be paired with a small UN member state that lacks resources to have legal support for their delegation to the UN Human Rights Council. The students will provide legal, policy and administrative support to that government to facilitate its participation in the UN Human Rights Council and possible other UN agencies in Geneva.
During the fall semester, students will be required to join a weekly 90-minute online class with students from other law schools. The live online course will provide an overview of relevant UN and international human rights law and procedures; tradecraft skills in drafting, research and negotiation; and otherwise lay the foundation to prepare students to serve in their virtual internship. In the winter term, students will be expected to review draft resolutions, conduct research and produce interventions for their employer/member state UN delegation to use and deliver during the January Universal Periodic Review and March UN Human Rights Council (HRC) sessions and related meetings. Further details on the INHR Virtual Internship Program expectations, and the type of developing country delegations whom students may work for is available at https://inhr.org/student-legal-advisors.
Past students have traveled to Geneva for a week-long, self-funded, first-hand glimpse at providing diplomatic and legal work at the UN Human Rights Council. The HRC session each March usually aligns with Michigan Law’s spring break and the HRC Universal Periodic Review session in May often occurs immediately after Michigan Law’s exam period. Travel to Geneva and living expenses are not funded by INHR and travel cannot be guaranteed given past challenges provided by COVID-19, issues regarding receipt of a visa to Switzerland and demands of the employing delegation. Applicants interested in the Spring Break or May visit MUST be eligible for visa-free entry to Switzerland.
How to Apply:
To apply for the two-semester student legal advisor program, please complete this form (https://forms.gle/HsK79eKe8XBj2mSf7) by July 10th, 2023. Your application should include a copy of your transcript, resume, passport cover page, and a cover letter explaining your interest. Students selected for an interview will be contacted during the week of July 24th by Alissa Cammarata ([email protected]) Administrative Assistant for Experiential Education to set up a Zoom interview with INHR program director Eric Richardson for late July or early August. If you have any questions about the application process please contact Alissa ([email protected]).
Those who pass the interview will be notified of their acceptance into the program by August 14, 2023. Delegations will be assigned around the end of October and student interests in particular regions, issues, and language skills are taken into account in pairing with an employer-delegation but cannot be guaranteed.
How Credits Will Be Determined:
Student participants are enrolling in a two-semester class/externship combined experience and are expected to participate for the entire school year. One credit will be given each semester, which will cover class time and preparation/assignments for the class (including practice research projects, sample interventions, negotiations and a final project of up to 10 pages that deploys the student’s negotiation and resolution drafting skills).
Because the amount of work facing students in the second semester may vary depending on the demands of the particular delegation/Ambassador, an additional one or two credits may be authorized in the winter semester. Students seeking additional credit units will be evaluated based on a timesheet logging hours spent on behalf of their delegation to track hours over and above a baseline expectation that all students will provide at least 20 hours of work requested by their delegations in the second semester. Under the ABA standard for externships, if more than 42.5 additional hours are requested and logged (total of 62.5 hours including the baseline 20 hours), the student may receive a third credit and if more than 85 additional hours are logged (total of 105 hours), a fourth credit may be awarded (four credits is the maximum possible). Because the volume of work requested by an Ambassador/delegation depends on a range of factors and is impossible to predict, students should not count on receiving more than the baseline total of two credits for the combined two-semester seminar/virtual externship experience.

• Type: Externship

This class will be comprised of different tracks that will allow students to explore ways to work in various innovation fields. The weekly class component will examine various legal and business principles related to innovation and support the students’ field work, with the fall term focused on the intricacies of venture capital and the winter term focused on the role of institutional capital. The students will spend significant time working on their projects in the field.
Track 1 — Social Venture Fund (SVF): Students will work as a law student advisor to the Ross School of Business’s Social Venture Fund. Students will be required to attend the weekly SVF meeting (typically on Sunday afternoons) and actively participate in SVF. Once the fund selects potential companies in which to invest, students will join at least one due diligence team and be responsible for the legal due diligence on potential investments. For companies in which SVF votes to invest students will review the financing deal documents. This track is a year-long track, so students will be required to take this course both semesters.
Track 2 — Michigan Climate Venture (MCV): Students will work as law advisors to Michigan Climate Venture, a University-wide initiative. Students will be required to attend the weekly meetings and actively participate in all educational activities. Once MCV selects potential companies in which to invest, students will join at least one due diligence team and be responsible for the legal due diligence on potential investments. For companies in which MCV votes to invest, law students will review the financing deal documents. This track is a year-long track, so students will be required to take both semesters.
Track 3 — Innovation Partnerships: Students will provide legal research support to the Innovation Partnerships team. Students will immerse themselves in the legal and regulatory issues related to innovation partnerships. Enrollment in this Track is allowed only with the permission of Bryce Pilz ([email protected]), the Executive Director of Licensing & Strategic Alliances.
Track 4 — Startup or Venture Capital Immersion: Students may arrange to work for a startup company or venture capital fund and participate in this course. While some opportunities to work with startups may be announced through Professor Ohmer, students may also arrange their own startup work and propose the arrangement to Professor Ohmer.
Note: Because participating students will work with proprietary information related to their field work, as a condition of participating in this program, all students may be required to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements particular to their tracks.
Enrollment in this class is allowed only with permission of Professor Adrian Ohmer.

• Type: Practice Simulation

This course provides an introduction to the international legal regime for the regulation of foreign investment and the resolution of disputes between foreign investors and states before international arbitral tribunals. Investor-state arbitration is an ever-evolving and politically charged field, often involving high-stakes, complex, multi-million-dollar disputes. International investment law is comprised of thousands of bilateral and regional investment treaties, which typically provide investors with similar substantive protections and procedural rights to compel host states into binding international arbitration. This course will include an examination of: the history, objectives, and structure of the investment treaty regime, including the main institutional rules for dispute settlement; jurisdictional requirements of investment treaties; the main substantive investment treaty protections (including guarantees against expropriation without compensation, fair and equitable treatment (FET), non-discrimination, and others); the assessment of damages; and challenges to and enforcement of arbitral awards. This course will also consider the interactions between international investment law and other areas of international law, including human rights.
Completion of International Law or an equivalent course prior to (or concurrently with) taking this course is recommended but not required.

• Type: Upper Class

Interdisciplinary Problem Solving is a course offered at the Law School through the Problem Solving Initiative (PSI). (https://michigan.law.umich.edu/problem-solving-initiative) Through a team-based, experiential, and interdisciplinary learning model, small groups of U-M graduate and professional students work with faculty to explore and offer solutions to emerging, complex problems.

• Type: Problem Solving Initiative

This two-credit seminar will focus on the law, policy, and practice of internal investigations. Students primarily will read and do a close study of prominent internal investigation reports, including, among others, those involving Enron, Penn State, General Motors, the University of Rochester, and Ohio State. The course will depend on active and substantive class participation and discussion. Students will prepare a number of short papers; and grades will be based on the quality of papers and class participation.

• Type: Seminar

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that “[a]ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” This course provides an overview of the international legal and institutional systems to protect these rights. We will examine the material both from an academic perspective and from the point of view of the human rights practitioner, tackling difficult theoretical issues in the field as well as assessing the practical strengths and weaknesses of human rights law and implementation mechanisms. Topics covered include civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, the universality of human rights, norm regression, reservations to human rights treaties, the application of human rights norms during a global pandemic, and the United Nations system for the protection of human rights.

• Type: Upper Class

This class offers a general introduction to the international legal system. We will explore how international law is made through treaties, custom, and other processes; the roles of different actors (e.g., states, NGOs, international organizations, and corporations) in making and applying international law; how violations of international law are identified and remedied by international institutions or actors; and how international law intersects with domestic legal systems, like the one in the United States. The class will cover a range of substantive areas of law, including human rights, the use of force, economic relations, and regulation of the global commons (with some variations across sections). Each topic will be discussed through examination of a real ongoing or recent incident, controversy, or conflict. Students will be encouraged to think about how law can be made, enforced, and interpreted in an environment lacking a single legislature, executive, or judiciary. This course will prove highly useful to preparing students for more specialized courses in international law.

• Type: Upper Class

This workshop will engage with cutting edge scholarship in the field of international law, focusing in particular on current challenges to the international legal order. About half of the workshop sessions will feature a leading international legal scholar presenting a work-in-progress. For the other sessions, participants will read cases, scholarship, and other sources addressing the subject of the upcoming papers and will discuss these materials in a standard seminar format. Students will be expected to write response papers over the course of the semester and to participate actively in discussion each week. Sessions with visiting speakers will be open to the broader academic community.

• Type: Seminar

This course will address the major issues of international litigation, including jurisdiction (under domestic American law, foreign law, and international conventions), choice of law (from an American and foreign, particularly European, perspective), taking evidence abroad (under American and international rules), and enforcement of judgments (foreign judgements in the U.S. and American judgments abroad). Time permitting, it will also cover the basic issues of international arbitration and foreign sovereign immunity.

• Type: Upper Class

The seminar provides an overview and analysis of the technique of project financing in an international environment, particularly in emerging markets. The focus is on the perspectives of the various parties to the project, including output purchasers, providers of goods and services, equity holders, and especially commercial banks, international financial institutions and other lenders and will cover the following topics: (1) basic concepts of project finance and the role of the lawyer in an international project financing; (2) legal issues that typically arise at each stage of an international project finance transaction; (3) techniques that are used to structure and finance major projects, (4) renegotiation, restructuring, and dispute settlement in connection with international projects, and (5) the application of project finance techniques to the funding of infrastructure projects in various sectors, including power generation, ports, toll roads, etc.

• Type: Seminar