Courses

Contextualizes criminal law by engaging in an in depth study of the legal and social characterizations of victims and perpetrators in U.S. law, politics, and popular culture. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Explores issues relating social class to such areas as labor relations, law enforcement, controls on radical movements, and the distribution of wealth and power. Considers problems defining social class.

Explores key ideas that have shaped American law and legal thought, such as Holmes' bad man, the Coase Theorem, the "Hunch" theory of law, and others. Focuses on researching and writing many short papers.

Introduces students to the laws and regulations that govern our food supply. The focus is federal law provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, with additional readings, videos and speakers. Topics to be covered include legal definitions for food, rules on food labeling, standards for food safety, biotechnology, international trade, organic and environmental regulation, hunger, farmer's markets and obesity. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Explores the various justifications that philosophers have developed to explain why we have the right to punish. Examines the historical evolution of our punishment system and focuses on the death penalty as a critical contemporary issue in the debate about the proper role of punishment in our society.

Explores issues of equity, access, and reform in American public education, particularly as it pertains to race, including desegregation, diversity, equal protection and public education, tracking and high-stakes testing, courts or the political branches, charters and vouchers. Restricted to Law students only. Recommended prereq., LAWS 7525. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Examines critically the possibility and character of ethical reasoning within the legal profession in light of its institutional structures. Explores descriptive/normative accounts of the profession's structure, "Professionalism," and individual conscience. Put simply, the seminar explores whether it is possible to be a good lawyer and ethical person.

Studies issues unique to the prosecution and defense of civil liberties lawsuits. Discusses litigation strategies with reference to lawsuits currently pending in the federal courts.

Draws upon various works of political theory, social theory, and jurisprudence to examine different conceptualizations of politics, power, law, and their relations.

Examines the legal framework that governs the political process, including such topics as the political question doctrine, the "Right to vote," the 2000 presidential election controversy, term limits, bicameralism and presentment, campaign finance, direct democracy, and the interpretation of the legislative product (i.e., statutes).

Explores the legal aspects of owning, managing, and participating in a successful family business system, including corporate structure, legal issues, succession planning and estate management, internal capital markets in private enterprise, ownership issues in private businesses, how lawyers can assist with family governance, planning for and managing family philanthropy, gender issues in family business, and conflict resolution. Recommended prereqs., LAWS 6104, 6157, 6211, and/or 7409.

Explores the policy, legal, and practical dynamics that drive the development and preservation of privately owned, government subsidized affordable housing. Investigates the nature of the market for housing, with particular emphasis on multifamily rental housing, and debates about market failure in that context and then outline and contrast the major regulatory responses to such market failure. Explores how subsidy programs work in practice, focusing on model documents to frame sample transactions.

Considers the work of Levi-Strauss, Steven Lukes, Pierre Bordieu, Alfred Schutz, Anthony Giddens, Culler, David Harvey, Denis Cosgrove, Michel Foucault, and Emily Martin with respect to social control and law. Focuses on the way in which social control is exercised through the organization of space, time, and the human body. Topics include consideration of meaning, intersubjectivity in the law, social construction of time, and the body as a real and cultural artifact.

Examines a variety of current issues related to American Indian Law. The topics will change to reflect the subjects that emerge at each time that the seminar is offered. Some examples of topics considered in this seminar include legal protections for American Indian religion and culture, cultural property, Tribal law, gaming law, and Native American natural and cultural resources law. Coreq., LAWS 7725.

Surveys critical legal theory; introduces the discipline of analytical engagement with law review literature; feminist legal theory, and critical race theory. Offers a deeper understanding of the purposes behind legal reforms, the interaction between law on the books and law in action, how different groups experience the law in different ways, and difficult yet rewarding nature of working through seemingly intractable and emotionally charged race, sex, and class issues. Restricted to Law students only. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Examines the goals, governance, norms, and ideals of American institutions of higher education, and how those policies are shaped by the legal system. Examines the legal relationship between institutions of higher education and its various constituents: faculty, presidents, governing boards, students,alumni, and staff. Spans several traditional doctrinal categories, including contract, torts, employment law, constitutional law, intellectual property, tax, and antitrust.

Examines the relationship of law and gender in criminal law, and constitutional law, using feminist theoretical perspectives as the organizing principle. Each perspective is applied to cases and materialson such topics as violence against women, prostitution, pornography, and discrimination in education and athletics. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Addresses advanced legal issues in representing physicians, long-term care institutions, hospitals, and other health providers. Issues range from economic policy, distributive justice, and bioethical questions to antitrust and regulatory issues. Recommended prereq., LAWS 7425. To be taught at Health Sciences Center.

Deals with the legal status and management of resources on federal lands, including national forests, parks, and BLM lands. Explores federal law, policy, and agency practice affecting the use of mineral, timber, range, water, wildlife, and wilderness resources on public lands. Restricted to Law students only. Prereq., LAWS 6112. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Begins with value creation by transactional lawyers, and emphasizes the opportunity for lawyers to reduce information and agency costs, and mitigate strategic behavior by using tools such as disclosure, representation and warranties, incentive compensation and earnouts. Shifts to negotiation and drafting, focusing on basic drafting principles and strategies to advance one's clients' interests. Introduces the basic framework of contracts (recitals, reps and warranties, capitalized terms, definitions, indemnifications and escrow). Restricted to Law students only. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Explores the business lawyer's role in creating value by helping clients identify, assess, and manage business risks through efficient contract design while achieving the optimal legal, tax or regulatory treatment for the deal. Includes case studies of actual transactions. Restricted to Law students only. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Covers intestate succession; family protection; execution of wills; revocation and revival; will contracts and will substitutes; creation of trusts; modification and termination; charitable trusts; fiduciary administration, including probate and contest of wills; construction problems in estate distribution. Restricted to Law students only. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Business law scholars from CU and around the country present research papers at this weekly colloquium. Topics may include contracts, corporate law, securities regulation, tax, intellectual property, venture capital and private equity, and the legal profession. No prior knowledge of law and economics is expected, although some knowledge of business organizations will be useful. Restricted to Law students only. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Provides in-depth study and analysis of current problems in natural resources law, using historical, literary, and scientific materials. Includes field-trip and requires additional field trip expenses. May be repeated up to 5 total credit hours. Restricted to Law students only. Recommended prereq., LAWS 6112 or students must have taken or be currently enrolled in any three of the following: LAWS 6002, 6112, 6302 or 7725. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Studies federal income taxation of pass-through entities such as are used by most small businesses in the U.S. Includes creation, operation, distributions, sales of interests, and liquidation. Restricted to Law students only. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.