Course Catalog

This course examines the application of legal principles as a limitation on the definition of crime; the theories underlying criminal law; and the problems of the imposition and execution of sentences. Also examined are various specific areas of substantive criminal law, including: (1) general principles applicable to all crimes, e.g., mistake, causation, legal insanity, intoxication, and rules of justification and excuse; (2) accountability for the acts of others; and (3) attempt and conspiracy.

• Type: First Year Required

This course examines the application of legal principles as a limitation on the definition of crime; the theories underlying criminal law; and the problems of the imposition and execution of sentences. Also examined are various specific areas of substantive criminal law, including: (1) general principles applicable to all crimes, e.g., mistake, causation, legal insanity, intoxication, and rules of justification and excuse; (2) accountability for the acts of others; and (3) attempt and conspiracy.

• Type: First Year Required

This course will explore emerging themes within the growing literature of Critical Race Theory. Contrary to the traditional view of racial subordination as solely a deviation from the liberal legal ideal, this body of work recasts the role of law as historically central to and complicit in upholding racial hierarchy as well as other hierarchies of gender, class and sexual orientation. In other words, CRT is interested in the ways in which the law both creates and disrupts patterns of racial inequality. We will focus on the origins of the literature and the contrasts between critical race theory and liberal/conservative analytical frameworks on race and American Law and society, as those frameworks as manifested in specific legal doctrines. We will also examine some of the questions and criticisms raised about critical race theory, mostly though not entirely from inside the genre, as well as the impact of the work on political and legal discourse.

• Type: Upper Class

This course is designed to prepare you to perform the responsibilities of a 1st year transactional attorney the day you get your key card and parking pass. Primarily platformed through the execution of a business acquisition, students will learn the fundamental skills requisite to provide legal advice and counsel in nearly every business transaction. Throughout the course you will have the opportunity to analyze, negotiate and draft major acquisition agreements and agreements ancillary thereto, including consulting agreements, licensing contracts, board and shareholder authorizations, commercial leases and more. They say mergers & acquisitions attorneys are the "quarterbacks" of the law firm because they must see the entire transaction plan, put everyone in the best position to reach the goal (of closing a deal), and initiate and execute the offense. In that regard, students will also learn transaction project management, the art of managing clients, direct reporting attorneys, supervising attorneys, as well as third-parties involved and implicated by the deal. Client interaction simulation, internal firm communications and proper record generation are key components of this course. This course is presented in a straightforward, plain-English "how to" style, and incorporates law practice management, customer service and general career success strategies. Having taken business organizations or mergers & acquisitions not required.

• Type: Practice Simulation

An exploration of the basic contours of the case law on defamation and some of the theoretical puzzles it gives rise to.

• Type: Seminar

Lawyers routinely use problem-solving skills to tackle difficult, multi-faceted issues for their clients. But lawyers often overlook the ways in which those same skills can be used to improve their own well-being -- to problem-solve their lives. The National Task Force on Lawyering Well-Being observed that the profession "is falling short when it comes to well-being" and that "the current state of lawyers' health cannot support a profession dedicated to client service and dependent on the public trust."

Central to addressing these challenges is the need for lawyers to develop a framework to design the type of life and vocation that they seek.

This course begins this process by exploring how lawyers can use the skills and innovation principles of problem solving to craft their lives and vocations in and beyond law school. We'll approach these lifelong questions with a structured classroom framework in which students can practice their problem-solving skills with their peers, facilitated by upper level students ("peer mentors") who have completed the course.

Topics include exploring views of work and life, defining success, brainstorming different paths, developing approaches to overcome barriers, and prototyping future plans. This class includes seminar-style discussions, personal written reflections, and guest speakers. The capstone assignment is the creation of a long-term plan, focusing on helping students realize the lives they want following post-graduation.

• Type: Problem Solving Initiative

Dialoguing across difference is a skill essential for successful lawyering in any specialty, in any context. We must achieve deep understanding of our clients' perspectives and be able to communicate our own. We must effectively advocate for our clients and negotiate with everyone involved with our clients' matters, such as their business partners, family members, opposing parties or counsel, etc. We are problem solvers, and often coalition builders and systemic change makers. Students in this course will practice engaging in and facilitating sustained and productive dialogue through the nuanced exploration of their own social/political identities and their perspectives on an assortment of potentially controversial topics of their choosing.

• Type: Practice Simulation

Early American Legal History

This course will introduce students to the major problems and interpretations in the field of American legal history. Through lectures as well as discussions of cases and secondary materials, the course will survey American public and private legal development from the colonial period through Reconstruction. The course employs a braided narrative, interweaving (a) the chronological story of the transformations in law from the local self-governing federalism of the early republic to the rise of a modern American state with (b) a week-to-week sampling of different historical topics, methods, and problematics. Topics to be covered this semester include: the role of law in colonialism, constitutionalism and the American founding, the relationship of law and the emergence of capitalism, legal liberalism, and the transformation of American law in the contests over slavery and civil war. The course also attempts to introduce some of the theoretical and historiographical perspectives that have fueled recent developments in the field

• Type: Upper Class

In this seminar survey course students are introduced to major areas of poverty law as well as access to justice issues facing our legal system.

Through readings and classroom discussions with experts, students will explore emerging issues in poverty law such as:

* Housing: landlord/tenant - eviction defense, subsidized housing and mortgage foreclosure defense;

* Family: domestic violence - protection orders and child custody and child support;

* Government entitlements: Food Stamps, Medicaid, Social Security Disability - SSI, Social Security Retirement, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (welfare);

* Consumer protection: fair debt collection, bankruptcy, fair credit reporting, truth in lending and unfair and deceptive acts and practices;

* Worker-side employment and Unemployment Insurance;

* Education law: expulsions and special education;

* Elder law; and

* Access to justice.

Students choose a pressing poverty law issue and write a modest length paper and present it to the class. Grades will be based on class presentation and paper.

• Type: Seminar

This course will explore the full range of employment discrimination law, focusing initially on Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." The course initially will address the basic legal framework for proving individual and class-based impact discrimination under Title VII, focusing initially on race and sex discrimination (including liability for workplace harassment, pay equity and discrimination in compensation, and sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination) as well as addressing how the courts utilize statistics in employment discrimination litigation. Remedial and procedural issues involving federal and state laws against discrimination will be covered in this context. The course will then focus on legal issues involving other forms of employment discrimination, including age discrimination, national origin, and religious discrimination. Affirmative action in employment, and the tension between equal treatment and equal results, will be studied. Disability discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act and protection against retaliation for filing discrimination claims and opposition to discrimination in the workplace will also be considered. A deeper dive into procedural and remedial issues, including the role of the EEOC and OFCCP and the role of the private bar, arbitration and mediation of statutory claims, and the use of class and collective actions in enforcing federal and state employment discrimination laws, will conclude the course.

• Type: Upper Class

Enterprise Organization introduces the law governing the organization of business entities, including agency, partnership, limited liability companies, and corporations, including closely-held corporations. It provides a general introduction to business organizations for students who intend to pursue a wide variety of careers, not just corporate law. The duties of agents to their principals, partners to their co-partners, and directors and officers to their corporations and shareholders are covered. Some sections may cover mergers and acquisitions as well. This course (or Corporate Lawyer: Law & Ethics) is either a prerequisite or provides an important foundation for a number of advanced corporate law classes. (Please check the footnotes for each class about information about pre-requisites.) Students may not take both Enterprise Organization and Corporate Lawyer: Law & Ethics for credit.

• 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

In the last two decades, federal prosecutors have brought more criminal cases against corporations for environmental crimes than for any other form of white collar crime, and criminal enforcement has become an integral part of pollution prevention efforts in the United States. This course considers the criminal provisions of federal environmental laws, including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act, and their application in selected precedent-setting prosecutions. We focus on the legal and policy issues raised by prosecution of corporations and their officers and employees, including the role of criminal enforcement in a complex statutory and regulatory scheme, the coordination of parallel criminal, civil, and administrative proceedings, and controversies surrounding the government's strategies, including obtaining corporate waiver of attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine.

• Type: Upper Class

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

What is the European Union and how does it work? The EU remains our single largest trading partner and our most important regulatory counterpart around the world. The EU is also a key benchmark against which we assess the effectiveness of international legal regimes from trade in goods and services to migration and human rights. And yet, as an institution of governance, the EU itself is often poorly understood.

This course assumes no prior knowledge of international, transnational, or European law or politics. It will introduce you to the basic structure of the European Union, and to core substantive law from free trade and the common market to citizenship, migration, and fundamental human rights. The course covers what every lawyer needs to know about the Union and its path from international organization to body politic.

• Type: Upper Class

What is the European Union and how does it work? The EU remains our single largest trading partner and our most important regulatory counterpart around the world. The EU is also a key benchmark against which we assess the effectiveness of international legal regimes from trade in goods and services to migration and human rights. And yet, as an institution of governance, the EU itself is often poorly understood.

This course assumes no prior knowledge of international, transnational, or European law or politics. It will introduce you to the basic structure of the European Union, and to core substantive law from free trade and the common market to citizenship, migration, and fundamental human rights. The course covers what every lawyer needs to know about the Union and its path from international organization to body politic.

• Type: Upper Class

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

This course simulates the real-life practice of family law. The course has two primary goals. First, you will learn the principles of drafting transactional, non-litigation documents, such as settlement proposal letters, custody agreements, and agreement addenda. You will also draft litigation pleadings, discovery documents and learn trial advocacy. The course emphasizes role play, hands-on exercises and individualized critique of student work. This course is extremely practical for aspiring litigators in any discipline. Topics covered include, but are not limited to, custody, child support, grounds of divorce, spousal support, and property distribution. Having previously taken family law is beneficial, but not required.

• Type: Practice Simulation

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.

• Type: Upper Class

In the Federal Appellate Litigation Clinic, second- and third-year law students will gain hands-on experience in various stages of federal appellate litigation. Under the supervision of their clinic instructors, students will prepare and file briefs on behalf of criminal defendants and/or habeas petitioners in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Each student will manage an appeal from its inception, and will gain hands-on experience by reviewing the district court record and identifying issues for appeal, developing a theory of the case, researching substantive law, and preparing the client's merits brief. When appropriate in view of timing and subject matter considerations, students will have an opportunity to write reply briefs and conduct oral arguments in Cincinnati before a panel of judges on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Weekly class meetings will include case discussions and instruction on how to litigate effectively a federal criminal appeal. Students will meet frequently with instructors who will provide individualized feedback as students prepare their appellate briefs and oral arguments. In addition to developing their written and oral advocacy skills, students can expect to gain an understanding of the practical aspects of federal appellate litigation. While the clinic will be relevant to all students of law, it will be particularly valuable to students who plan to pursue federal clerkships or who have an interest in criminal or appellate litigation. The Federal Appellate Litigation Clinic meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement. FALC is a 5 credit course of which all credits are graded.

The Clinic fulfills the Law School's professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.

For students who matriculated in or after May 2016, the Clinic can either fulfill the Law School's professional responsibility requirement for graduation, fulfill the upper-level writing requirement, or the credits can count toward the Experiential Learning requirement -- it cannot be used to fulfill more than one of these three particular requirements.

• 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 practice/simulation course introduces students to the major categories of federal criminal investigations -- public corruption, national security,

organized crime, economic crime, drug and firearm offenses, and child

exploitation -- to the law enforcement agencies that conduct these

investigations, to the techniques they use (e.g. electronic

surveillance, search warrants, and informants) and to the front-line

constitutional issues at stake. The course then turns to the role of the

prosecutor, focusing on the critical strategic decisions made by

assistant United States attorneys during grand jury investigations, plea

negotiations, trial, and sentencing. Caselaw and statutory materials are

supplemented by guest lectures and panel discussions that include

representatives from the principle federal law enforcement agencies --

FBI, ATF, DEA, ICE, and Secret Service -- as well as transcripts from

recent prosecutions in the Eastern District of Michigan. Students will

draft search warrants and indictments, argue from both the government

and defense perspective in mock detention and sentencing hearings,

negotiate plea agreements, calculate sentencing guidelines, and conduct

voir dire, as well as observe first-hand ongoing federal criminal cases

in Ann Arbor and Detroit.

• Type: Practice Simulation

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

The course introduces students to the legal aspects of filmmaking. Using the production cycle as a road map (from fundraising and marketing to insurance and distribution), we'll explore applicable substantive law (e.g., fair use, free speech, privacy), consider how relationships among principals are structured (e.g., producers, directors, talent, investors), analyze the main types of contracts negotiated (e.g., licensing, services, distribution, investment deals), and investigate the kind of disputes that typically arise in the film production context (e.g., credit, ownership, payment). The goal of the class is to provide students with a working knowledge of relevant doctrines as well as insight into the ways film productions are structured and managed through contracts and risk analysis.

• Type: Upper Class

The course introduces students to the legal aspects of filmmaking. Using the production cycle as a road map (from fundraising and marketing to insurance and distribution), we'll explore applicable substantive law (e.g., fair use, free speech, privacy), consider how relationships among principals are structured (e.g., producers, directors, talent, investors), analyze the main types of contracts negotiated (e.g., licensing, services, distribution, investment deals), and investigate the kind of disputes that typically arise in the film production context (e.g., credit, ownership, payment). The goal of the class is to provide students with a working knowledge of relevant doctrines as well as insight into the ways film productions are structured and managed through contracts and risk analysis.

• 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

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 by a faculty committee, EVEN IF A STUDENT DOES NOT HAVE A PLACEMENT FINALIZED, the student must apply for a Full-Time Externship by the proposal deadline, which is set every semester, and is typically 6 to 8 weeks prior to the end of classes the semester before the externship. Thus, e.g., if a student wants to extern in the fall, the proposal deadline will likely be in March the semester prior to departure. If a student's placement is not secured, the student is welcome, even encouraged, to propose a few potential placements for faculty consideration.

For more information, visit our website at https://www.law.umich.edu/curriculum/externshipsandindependentstudy/Pages/default.aspx or contact lawexternships@umich.edu. We are happy to meet with students to answer questions, give guidance on potential placements, provide information on how to apply, etc. Further, every semester we hold an informational meeting, so please watch for that announcement. 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

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 by a faculty committee, EVEN IF A STUDENT DOES NOT HAVE A PLACEMENT FINALIZED, the student must apply for a Full-Time Externship by the proposal deadline, which is set every semester, and is typically 6 to 8 weeks prior to the end of classes the semester before the externship. Thus, e.g., if a student wants to extern in the fall, the proposal deadline will likely be in March the semester prior to departure. If a student's placement is not secured, the student is welcome, even encouraged, to propose a few potential placements for faculty consideration.

For more information, visit our website at https://www.law.umich.edu/curriculum/externshipsandindependentstudy/Pages/default.aspx or contact lawexternships@umich.edu. We are happy to meet with students to answer questions, give guidance on potential placements, provide information on how to apply, etc. Further, every semester we hold an informational meeting, so please watch for that announcement. 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

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 by a faculty committee, EVEN IF A STUDENT DOES NOT HAVE A PLACEMENT FINALIZED, the student must apply for a Full-Time Externship by the proposal deadline, which is set every semester, and is typically 6 to 8 weeks prior to the end of classes the semester before the externship. Thus, e.g., if a student wants to extern in the fall, the proposal deadline will likely be in March the semester prior to departure. If a student's placement is not secured, the student is welcome, even encouraged, to propose a few potential placements for faculty consideration.

For more information, visit our website at https://www.law.umich.edu/curriculum/externshipsandindependentstudy/Pages/default.aspx or contact lawexternships@umich.edu. We are happy to meet with students to answer questions, give guidance on potential placements, provide information on how to apply, etc. Further, every semester we hold an informational meeting, so please watch for that announcement. 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

The course explores legal and policy questions relating to gender. It is organized around theories of equality, including distinctions between formal and substantive equality, nonsubordination and difference. We will cover selected cases involving employment, affirmative action, pregnancy, marriage, divorce, custody, work & family, sex-segregated schools, athletics and sexual harassment.

• Type: Upper Class

Gun control raises legal issues cutting across a host of subjects central to the US legal system: constitutional powers and rights, federalism concerns and municipal autonomy, state and local legislation and regulation, law enforcement and criminal sanctions, regulatory approaches and civil liability. Underlying these more particular issues are larger questions about the difficulty to reach political and social consensus, the unique situation in the United States (when compared with other countries), and even the relationship between political freedom and citizenship access to firearms.

• Type: Seminar

Course description coming soon . . .

• Type: Seminar

The Universal Declaration on Human Rights was pivotal in popularizing the use of "human dignity" in human rights discourse; human rights are increasingly seen as based on the concept of "human dignity." But what does the concept of "human dignity" mean? In the legal context, it has become increasingly clear that "human dignity" is a vital yet increasingly contested term. Apparently rival conceptions of the human person and the common good of society are emerging from this concept. This seminar will study the use of "human dignity" in modern constitutional and human rights law, in the U.S. and elsewhere, and consider its historical and philosophical background. We shall consider whether "human dignity" possesses a basic minimum core, and whether it provides a universalistic, principled basis for judicial decision-making in the human rights context, or whether the meaning of dignity is context specific, varying significantly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and over time within particular jurisdictions. Potential students may prepare for this class by reviewing Professor McCrudden's article "Human Dignity in Human Rights Interpretation," 19 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 655 (2008), available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1162024.

• Type: Seminar

Human Rights: Themes and Variations

The protection of human dignity is one of the principal purposes of international law. This course will provide an overview of the contemporary international human rights regime, including substantive norms and key modes of implementation. We will begin by discussing the contours of various rights and ongoing debates over cultural relativity of rights. We will then turn in detail to the various processes for the protection of human rights, including actions by individual states and NGOs, United Nations bodies, and regional human rights courts. The course will also address several compelling contemporary issues, including U.S. ratification of human rights treaties. Completion of the transnational law course (or an equivalent introduction to international law) will be very helpful, but is not required.

• Type: Upper Class

The Human Trafficking Clinic + Lab is a social justice innovation space where multidisciplinary student teams use design thinking to research, incubate, and build replicable, scalable, and disruptive solutions to reduce vulnerability to trafficking. Graduate students from across UM will work to fight exploitation at individual, organizational, and systemic levels. For over a decade, the Clinic relied solely on legal tools and direct representation to fight human trafficking. The Lab, launched in 2022, allows us to build on direct representation to change exploitative systems. It endeavors to create change at policy, service, and industry levels through collaborative partnerships across the nonprofit, corporate, and governmental sectors. We believe the law is an incomplete, imperfect solution to reducing exploitation and that interdisciplinary, cross-industry collaboration is necessary. Our vision for the Clinic + Lab partnership is that the work with individual survivors in the Clinic will help ensure the Lab is victim-centered and informed by lived-experience.

The Clinic + Lab provides a range of services, including direct representation of both U.S. citizen and foreign national trafficking victims, corporate governance compliance and advising, and grand-scale problem-solving design work centered around reducing vulnerability to trafficking. Students will collaborate with a variety of stakeholders, including survivors of human trafficking, law enforcement, government officials, corporations, and nongovernmental organizations to identify solutions to combat vulnerability to trafficking.

All law students will be enrolled in the Clinic + Lab and will engage in a combination of legal and systemic reform work. The legal work of the Clinic + Lab will be a mix of direct representation and corporate compliance and governance. Our direct service work 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. Other legal work will include how companies are assessing, preventing, and remediating the use of forced labor in their supply chains, as well as how outside groups are pressuring them to do so if they are not.

In the systems-level problem-solving and reform work of the Clinic + Lab, law students will be joined by graduate students from multiple disciplines to identify and create solutions to reduce vulnerability to exploitation. Such projects may include increasing access to expungement, combating misinformation in anti-trafficking narratives, and exploring the role of discretion in the legal process. Our focus for Fall 2023 will be reducing vulnerability to trafficking in supply chains. In November 2022, the U.S. government found that over half of the sugar produced in the Dominican Republic resulted from forced labor. Actions to address this exploitation must be taken. The Lab, along with a coalition of NGOs, is working to respond to these findings to create long-term worker-led oversight of this supply chain to reduce labor trafficking.

In the Fall 2022-Winter 2023 year, more than 50 students from 11 of UM's graduate programs joined the Lab in our fight against vulnerability to human trafficking.

This work is not done in a vacuum. The Lab is committed to connecting and engaging with stakeholders in a supportive, non-extractive, and sustainable manner that neither taxes nor burdens their resources. Our projects are not limited by the semester framework, as we pass them from student team to student team until they reach actualization and implementation. Therefore, our stakeholders can trust that their contributions and partnerships will not fall by the wayside when the semester ends.

In the Clinic + Lab students 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 Clinic + Lab.

The Clinic + Lab is a 7 credit course and meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement. Students must enroll in the 4 credit Clinic + Lab and the 3 credit seminar, taken concurrently.

• Type: Clinic

The Human Trafficking Clinic + Lab is a social justice innovation space where multidisciplinary student teams use design thinking to research, incubate, and build replicable, scalable, and disruptive solutions to reduce vulnerability to trafficking. Graduate students from across UM will work to fight exploitation at individual, organizational, and systemic levels. For over a decade, the Clinic relied solely on legal tools and direct representation to fight human trafficking. The Lab, launched in 2022, allows us to build on direct representation to change exploitative systems. It endeavors to create change at policy, service, and industry levels through collaborative partnerships across the nonprofit, corporate, and governmental sectors. We believe the law is an incomplete, imperfect solution to reducing exploitation and that interdisciplinary, cross-industry collaboration is necessary. Our vision for the Clinic + Lab partnership is that the work with individual survivors in the Clinic will help ensure the Lab is victim-centered and informed by lived-experience.

The Clinic + Lab provides a range of services, including direct representation of both U.S. citizen and foreign national trafficking victims, corporate governance compliance and advising, and grand-scale problem-solving design work centered around reducing vulnerability to trafficking. Students will collaborate with a variety of stakeholders, including survivors of human trafficking, law enforcement, government officials, corporations, and nongovernmental organizations to identify solutions to combat vulnerability to trafficking.

All law students will be enrolled in the Clinic + Lab and will engage in a combination of legal and systemic reform work. The legal work of the Clinic + Lab will be a mix of direct representation and corporate compliance and governance. Our direct service work 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. Other legal work will include how companies are assessing, preventing, and remediating the use of forced labor in their supply chains, as well as how outside groups are pressuring them to do so if they are not.

In the systems-level problem-solving and reform work of the Clinic + Lab, law students will be joined by graduate students from multiple disciplines to identify and create solutions to reduce vulnerability to exploitation. Such projects may include increasing access to expungement, combating misinformation in anti-trafficking narratives, and exploring the role of discretion in the legal process. Our focus for Fall 2023 will be reducing vulnerability to trafficking in supply chains. In November 2022, the U.S. government found that over half of the sugar produced in the Dominican Republic resulted from forced labor. Actions to address this exploitation must be taken. The Lab, along with a coalition of NGOs, is working to respond to these findings to create long-term worker-led oversight of this supply chain to reduce labor trafficking.

In the Fall 2022-Winter 2023 year, more than 50 students from 11 of UM's graduate programs joined the Lab in our fight against vulnerability to human trafficking.

This work is not done in a vacuum. The Lab is committed to connecting and engaging with stakeholders in a supportive, non-extractive, and sustainable manner that neither taxes nor burdens their resources. Our projects are not limited by the semester framework, as we pass them from student team to student team until they reach actualization and implementation. Therefore, our stakeholders can trust that their contributions and partnerships will not fall by the wayside when the semester ends.

In the Clinic + Lab students 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 Clinic + Lab.

The Clinic + Lab is a 7 credit course and meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement. Students must enroll in the 4 credit Clinic + Lab and the 3 credit seminar, taken concurrently.

• Type: Clinic

Spend a semester working with other law students and upper-level undergraduate students to support lawyers from the Michigan Immigration Rights Center on asylum cases here in Michigan. Under faculty supervision, students will learn to draft asylum briefs, summarize and translate historical texts, research effective legal arguments, and contribute to developing a national research database for use in asylum cases. Students will also deepen their understanding of immigration law and policy, develop historical and legal research skills, and explore the history of violence and migration through work on real-life asylum cases. This class is ideal for students who are eager to work conscientiously and ethically with others in teams to benefit a non-profit community partner. Instructor permission required.

• Type: Practice Simulation

Course description coming soon . . .

• Type: Upper Class

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 (bpilz@umich.edu), 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 is a survey course designed to introduce students to insurance institutions and insurance law, with the ultimate goal of understanding the role of insurance in society. Liability, health, and property insurance will receive the most attention, but we will also discuss life and disability insurance. After taking this course, students will know how to read and analyze a standard form insurance contract, how to work with insurance regulatory materials, how to spot the insurance issues in a wide variety of legal and public policy contexts, and how to think about insurance related issues using conceptual tools from a variety of disciplines. Cross-cutting themes of interest include the hidden role of insurance in shaping litigation strategy, the regulatory function of insurance contracts, and the ways in which various conceptions of justice are achieved through insurance mechanisms as well as insurance regulation.

• Type: Upper Class

Intellectual Property Practice examines contemporary issues such as social media, game platforms, entrepreneurship, licensing, publishing, creative collaboration, and cultural institutions, and how these environments are intertwined with trademark (including trade dress), copyright, right of publicity, right of privacy, the First Amendment, trade secret, data rights, politics, race, gender, cultural appropriation, and power. Students will examine real life cases and current issues in the news, learn how to avoid errors in applications to register trademarks and copyrights, understand how to help clients develop meaningful IP strategies, and prepare and negotiate IP contracts. Students will informally and regularly discuss current IP issues in the news, deliver short presentations to the class on IP issues and controversies, and prepare a variety of written workproduct. There is no final exam. Course grade is determined by class participation, presentations, written workproduct, and other substantive engagement with the material and the assigned projects.

• Type: Practice Simulation