Courses

Provides an intensive introduction to the resources available for legal research. Students also prepare written material of various kinds designed to develop research skills, legal writing style, and analysis of legal problems. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Examines the intersection of civil procedure and legal writing. Emphasizes the drafting of persuasive adversarial litigation documents, including complaints, answers, motions in limine, motions to dismiss, motions of summary judgment, and jury instructions. Intensive writing and workshop format.

Focuses on improvement of legal writing skills including organizing, drafting, and revising legal writing. Improves research and analysis skills. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Places contemporary American judicial opinion in historical and comparative context. Analyzes individual and institutional writing choices that authors of judicial opinions must make and ethical dilemmas they must confront. Builds upon the first-year legal-writing curriculum. Challenges students to develop and defend their own opinion-writing approaches and styles as well as to write from approaches and in styles that are not their own.

Requires substantial writing and reading. Begins with participants bringing to class a piece of creative writing consisting of three to five thousand words.Each session consists of one hour of discussion and critique of an assigned writing exercise that everyone has prepared for the class, and one hour of workshop critique of each participant's longer work, in turn.

Offers an in-depth look at research resources and methods. Includes sources from the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of federal and state government; research in topical areas such as environmental law, taxation, and international law; and extensive coverage of secondary and nonlaw resources. Covers both print and electronic sources. Students will have several assignments and a final project.

Surveys resources and methods to effectively research Colorado law. Covers primary and secondary resources including Colorado statutes, cases and digests, regulations, and constitution and practice materials. Covers how to research Colorado municipal law and other Colorado topics. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Approaches legal research from a practice-focused perspective using hands-on sessions in the library. Instructs: how to find and use resources specific to a particular practice area; how to evaluate and weigh strengths and weaknesses of the various legal resources available; and, how to use legal resources efficiently. Includes research strategies and methods, primary and secondary resources, and research using library catalogs and Westlaw, Lexis, and other vendors. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Develops students' ability to think critically about and solve current legal problems. Evaluates the benefits and detriments of both print and on-line legal resources, and how to create an efficient research plan. Formulates and applies research strategies to real-world legal problems, and uses legal analysis to refine and improve research results. Note: students who have taken LAWS 6856 Advanced Legal Research course may not enroll in this course. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Involves independent study and preparation of a research paper under faculty supervision. Students produce a research paper equivalent to a seminar research paper. a draft is submitted, subjected to critique by the faculty member, and redrafted. Available during or after the fifth semester of law school. Prereq., instructor consent. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Gives students the opportunity to participate in the research, writing, and editing activities involved in publishing the University of Colorado Law Review. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Gives students the opportunity to participate in the research, writing, and editing activities involved in publishing the University of Colorado Law Review. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Gives students the opportunity to participate in the research, writing, and editing activities involved in publishing the Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Gives students the opportunity to participate in the research, writing, and editing activities involved in publishing the Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Gives students the opportunity to participate in the research, writing, and editing activities involved in publishing the Journal of Telecommunications and High Technology Law. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Gives students the opportunity to participate in the research, writing, and editing activities involved in publishing the Journal of Telecommunications and High Technology Law. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Focuses on the question of what literature can teach lawyers through a variety of literary works and films. Covers traditional works by Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Camus, Kafka, and Melville, as well as more contemporary works by Toni Morrison and Norman Mailer. Several short reflection papers, a journal, and a final paper will be required.

LLM students study academic legal writing in this 1-credit per semester yearlong course. Topics covered will include: the purpose of academic legal writing; how academic legal writing differs from other forms of legal writing; topic selection; legal research (methods and ethics); first drafts; editing; academic workshops; and publishing. In addition, guest speakers will talk to LLM students about career planning and job seeking. International LLM students will learn about the American legal system. Restricted to Law students only. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

LL.M students are required to write a thesis in order to graduate. Requires significant work of original research on a topic chosen in close consultation with advisors and other law school faculty, and assignments include due dates for topic selection, drafts, and workshop delivery. Thesis is worth two credits. In exceptional circumstances and only after pre-approval, an LL.M student may enroll for a third or fourth credit. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.