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  School of Law-Camden 2012-2014 Course Listing Seminars  

Seminars

The law school offers a diverse range of subjects in a seminar format. All seminars require the completion of a substantial writing assignment by the participants, in a form designated by the seminar instructor. All seminars are limited to 14 students.

601:706 Seminar: American Legal History-Special Topics (2) An introduction to research and historiography in American legal history. Current issues in American legal history and historiography. Each student prepares a paper based on original research in legal history.

Lawyer-Presidents in American History
Including Barack Obama, our current president, 26 men who served as president of the United States have been lawyers. That means that nearly one-third of the men who served in the White House were lawyers (exactly 59.09 percent). The American Legal History Special Topics Seminar will look at how the vocation of lawyering may have had an impact on the highest office in the land and the way the lawyers who served in that office had an impact on our country's history. How well did lawyers do in the role of president? Did their legal training have an observable impact on the way they performed in office? Can we credit the legal profession with our country's success? We will also look at the "also-rans"--candidates who lost the presidential prize; how many of them were lawyers? In particular, we will look at the quintessential lawyer-president: Abraham Lincoln. Self-taught but famously effective in court, how much of his reputation as a lawyer is myth? Who was the better lawyer: Lincoln or his 1861 presidential (and 1858 senatorial) opponent Stephen Douglas? How did Lincoln's lawyer's perspective impact his defense of the Union and his views on slave emancipation?

Two general books on the backgrounds and biographies of the presidents and the losing presidential candidates will be assigned as an introduction to the topic. We will also read a biography of Abraham Lincoln as a lawyer. Class discussions for the first several weeks will focus on these books. We will also discuss the process of researching and writing a seminar paper and its applicability to the practice of law. Students will research and write a seminar paper on one lawyer-president or one of the lawyer-presidential candidates who failed to win the office. They will also give a class presentation about their topic.

Hull
601:718 Seminar: Animal Law (2) Relevant legal doctrine includes constitutional law (e.g., standing), environmental law (e.g., Endangered Species Act), food and drug law (e.g., the regulation of organic animal products), state statutory law (e.g., anticruelty statutes), and state common law (e.g., property rights in animals). The course will begin with philosophical, literary, and scientific texts dealing with the relationship between animals and humans. We will explore rights-based, utilitarian, religious, and other traditions that inform how we might approach the question of animal rights and welfare in relation to human interests. Moving from first principles to the law, we shall focus on federal practice, including standing doctrine, the administrative law related to farmed animals and laboratory animals, the relationship between animal and environmental law, and the economics of animal protection. The course will emphasize how legal reasoning takes shape in emerging fields, the interplay between law and social movements, and the role of information as a regulatory tool. Readings will include works by Cass Sunstein, Martha Nussbaum, and Richard Epstein. Goodman, Rodriguez.
601:735 Seminar: Citizenship and the Constitution (2) Through readings in constitutional law and theory, as well as relevant statutory provisions, the seminar examines questions concerning the acquisition and loss of citizenship, and citizenship's significance more generally. Focuses on the institution of citizenship in the United States, but also considers certain citizenship questions that have recently arisen in Europe. Topics include birthright citizenship, citizenship by descent, naturalization, dual citizenship, denaturalization, expatriation, voting and citizenship, and citizenship prerequisites for other rights and benefits. Prerequisite: Constitutional Law. Bosniak
601:712 Seminar: Constitutional Theory (2) What is a constitution?  What reasons are there for having a constitution?  Who should have the power to interpret a constitution?  And how should a constitution be interpreted?  In this seminar, we will consider these questions, among others, with a special emphasis on the role that substantive moral judgment plays in their answers. Prerequisite: Constitutional Law or permission of instructor. Vildostegui
601:709 Seminar: Control of Organized Crime (2) Considers law as a tool for control of organized crime. Specific topics addressed include structures and methods of criminal organizations; legal limits on electronic surveillance, physical searches, and grand jury investigations (including witness immunity, contempt of court, and perjury prosecutions); aspects of substantive criminal law and of the law of criminal procedure, evidence, and sentencing that present special problems in organized crime cases; and a brief introduction to statutes particularly aimed at organized crime, such as the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act.
Coombs
601:806 Seminar: Copyright and User-Generated Content (2) This seminar will examine the legal issues that are arising today at the intersection of copyright law and the public use of computer networking technologies. The primary subject of the course will be the emerging law of user-generated content, meaning forms of popular creativity enabled by social networking platforms such as Facebook, Google, and other content-sharing sites.  We will investigate how these new authorship and distribution technologies are being used, monetized, and regulated. Students will complete research papers on topics related to the themes of the course. Prior courses in intellectual property, such as Introduction to IP or Entertainment Law, will be helpful but not required. Lastowka
601:798 Seminar: Corporate Governance (2) The past decade witnessed waves of major corporate scandals and misunderstood financial risk, culminating in the economic "meltdown" of 2008. The upshot has been a revolution in the law of corporate governance and regarding the personal accountability of officers and directors of public companies and other large organizations. The lawyer who advises public companies or nonprofit organizations stands on the ramparts of that revolution. This seminar will seek to equip that lawyer to counsel effectively as the "architect" of structures and processes that balance principles of accountability with organizational effectiveness. We will examine the rules, agencies, institutions, and processes that seek to deter self-dealing and undue risk and to hold the society's largest organizations and their officers accountable to their owners and public stakeholders. Topics will include lessons drawn from the scandals; the role of institutional investors, gatekeepers, and other intermediaries in publicly held companies; the philosophical basis for the law of corporate governance; institutions and mechanisms of corporate governance; boards of directors as fiduciaries; the "market for corporate control" (mergers, acquisitions, and takeovers); the revolution in division of roles between state and federal law; the parallel revolution in rules governing directors and officers of nonprofit organizations; regulating disclosures versus regulating conduct; executive compensation as "ground zero"; and the globalization of principles of good governance. Prerequisite: Business Organizations. Coleman
601:711 Seminar: Corporations and Constitutional Personhood (2) This seminar will explore the historical development and current status of the corporation as a fictitious but legal person embodied with rights and privileges granted by federal and state law, with special emphasis on the rights and privileges granted to corporations by the U.S. Constitution. Particular emphasis will be placed on corporate First, Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights and cases such as Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and FCC v. AT&T, Inc. Prerequisite: Constitutional Law. Moffa
601:764 Seminar: Criminal Law Theory (2) This seminar will explore the theoretical underpinnings of the criminal law. Topics may include criminalization, the structure of offenses and defenses, strict liability, and the citizen's relationship with the state. Ferzan
601:726 Seminar: Current Issues in Civil Rights Litigation (2) Selected issues in civil rights litigation, including substantive and procedural due process standards, Fourth and Eighth Amendment standards, doctrines of absolute and qualified immunity, municipal liability, and aspects of 43 U.S.C. Section 1983. Focus is on both Supreme Court decisions and further development of doctrine in the federal courts. Ricks
601:775 Seminar: Current Issues in Constitutional Law (2) Students enrolling in this seminar are required to brief and argue selected cases from the current docket of the United States Supreme Court.
Maltz
601:745 Seminar: Diversity in the Law (2) This seminar will explore the intersections of law with diversity, race, equal protection, civil rights, and pluralism/multiculturalism. Through an examination of judicial opinions, legislation, legal scholarship, social science research, and case studies, students will evaluate and critique diversity as an established and evolving legal, social, and political construct in our "post-racial" American democracy. Hawkins
601:719 Seminar: Duty and Fairness in Corporate Law (3) Development of seminal doctrines of corporate law, including fiduciary duties of loyalty, care, good faith and disclosure, as well as the fairness doctrine, through examination of select cases, especially from the transactional context, and readings from the theoretical literature. Prerequisite: Business Organizations. Beckerman
601:720 Seminar: Elder Law Special Topics (2) This seminar will focus on different topics in the field of elder law. The topics covered will vary each semester. Currently, the seminar focuses on an Introduction to the Law of Employee Pension and Welfare Benefits (ERISA).

As Colleen Medill points out: "Once upon a time, employee benefits law was the domain of a select group of pension tax lawyers. Today, employee benefits law issues are part of the everyday life of the corporate lawyer, the litigation lawyer, the estate planning lawyer, the lawyer who specializes in family law, and the general practitioner." The primary law covering employee pension and benefits plans is the much amended federal Employee Income Retirement Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). In conjunction with the Internal Revenue Code, ERISA regulates the retirement pension and health (as well as other) benefits plans offered by employers to their employees. How plans are marketed to employees, how they are administered in the interest of employees, and how employees' and retirees' expected benefits are protected when a plan is bankrupt or discontinued falls under the purview of these federal statutes. This seminar will provide an introduction to the major provisions of employee benefits law. The primary text will be a casebook that offers a narrative text along with problems and discussion questions. There is no exam. Students will be required to participate in seminar discussions and write a supervised seminar paper on a specific provision, case, or aspect of employee benefits law.

This seminar qualifies for intensive writing credit. Hull
601:746 Seminar: European Union: History, Politics, and Prospects (2) The European Union (EU) has become an important economic and political power in the world today. Its development up to its present stage was a rather complex process that may appear somewhat surprising against the background of historical experience, since it emerged in a fully peaceful way from a series of international treaties by which its member states have voluntarily submitted. So the EU represents a pretty new type of international community whose political character and legal structure raise many questions. Of course, it is also subject to considerable controversies as to its policies and politics. While large parts of Europe are still in favor of the EU and support its further strengthening, others think that it has already become too mighty or developed in the wrong direction. Because of these controversies, the EU presently faces a considerable crisis that makes its future prospects uncertain. The seminar aims at illuminating the history, politics, and prospects of the EU with particular attention to its driving forces, political decision-making procedures, and legal structure. Furthermore, special consideration shall be paid to the relationships between the EU and the United States. These topics will be dealt with in successive steps on the basis of selected texts, which should not only offer sufficient information on the most significant features of the EU, but also provide a proper basis for its understanding and critical evaluation. Peter Koller, Visiting Professor from University of Graz, Austria.
601:717 Seminar: International Human Rights Advocacy (2) After an introduction to international law and human rights norms, the seminar will focus on international and domestic mechanisms to enforce international human rights. Students will engage in critical analysis of the methods and strategies for human rights advocacy at the local, national, regional, and international levels and will examine the work of United Nations and regional human rights bodies and domestic enforcement options. The seminar makes use of simulated exercises such as the conduct of human rights investigations, planning and design of advocacy and educational campaigns, client representation, and oral arguments. Students will draft and revise three human rights complaints, each directed to a different domestic or international tribunal. 
Stephens
601:753 Seminar: Judging (2) Judges are the keystone of the legal system, yet we rarely focus on how they actually make decisions. In real life, how do judges balance precedent and legislative language to bring justice to litigants in both "big" cases and small ones? In this course a judge of the superior court, assisted by speakers from inside and outside the judiciary, will explore such diverse subjects as what goes into drafting an opinion, how courts are affected by good (or bad) lawyers, and how law clerks help judges do their jobs. The course will examine writings of judges, justices, and legal philosophers describing the real-life experience of judges and debating the role of a judge's personal or religious beliefs in numerous settings, from family court to the Supreme Court. The seminar will range into some surprising topics, such as do judges ever desire to be reversed, and some very practical ones, like docket management, the role of the appointment process, and relations with lawyers. The culmination of the seminar will be students' preparation and presentation of research papers, with comments from our speakers and seminar participants. Buchsbaum
601:803 Seminar: Law and Neuroscience (1) Neurolaw--advocacy for increased use of neuroscience in legal proceeding--is the fastest-growing interdisciplinary focus of legal, scholarly, and policy attention. From blogs, books, journals, and conferences, the message is clear: developments in neuroscience have potentially transformative applications in law both at the theoretical level and in institutional contexts. Scholars, scientists, and journalists alike all proclaim the great promise of neuroscience for law. Research into the neural workings of the human brain--with the aid of sophisticated brain-imaging techniques such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)--will, some predict, probably completely change nearly every area of law. Some believe that, in time, neuroscience will dominate the entire legal system. Current proposals for the confluence of law and neuroscience have focused widely from specific doctrinal (i.e., legal) matters and areas of law to general evidentiary issues, philosophical questions involving justice, morality, freedom, rationality, and general jurisprudence. This course will require students to attend a short series of seminar-style class meetings followed by the  Law and Neuroscience: State of the Art Conference hosted by Rutgers School of Law-Camden on September 7 and 8, 2012.  Students will write a paper for submission after the conference.
Patterson
601:733 Seminar: Law and Urban Problems (2) Focuses on the role of government and law in solving housing, development, poverty, and other urban problems. Individual study of topics that are important and relevant to urban life and government, such as municipal financing, housing, mass transportation, homelessness, racial issues, group homes, historic preservation, urban environmental issues, and urban economic development. Washburn
601:786 Seminar: Law, Politics, and Democracy (2) Drawing upon case law, legislative sources, and nonlegal writings, the course explores: the origins and character of American democratic institutions; the concepts of representative government, majority rule, citizen rights, and universal suffrage; the principles of the sovereignty of the people, equality and individualism; the role of mediate institutions in the political process (like political parties, voluntary associations, and special interest groups); and alternative models to the traditional Anglo-American forms of representation. The course is not a survey of the American political system; nor is the focus on the mechanics of the electoral process. Rather, while the course considers both process and mechanics, the emphasis is on the identification of principles susceptible to universal application and the study of American democracy as a normative ideal.
Robreno
601:732 Seminar: Legalism (2) Commentators and ordinary citizens often criticize attorneys, judges, political leaders, and even their fellow citizens for being legalistic or resorting to legal hairsplitting. These attacks, and their occasional vehemence, should trouble us as lawyers and law students.  For if the worst examples of rhetorical weaseling and even absurdity can honestly be described as forms of legalism, then our profession has some explaining or soul-searching to do.  And even if genuine legalism is something else entirely, then we need to try to understand, and communicate, the difference. When critics assail someone or other for being legalistic, they sometimes mean that he or she is hiding behind overly technical distinctions that defy common sense. But the relationship between legal thinking and common sense is necessarily complex. On the one hand, we have learned from the first day of law school that the law is a special place, with its own language, logic, and concerns. Legal meanings, legal rules, and legal results often violate everyday intuition, and that,s sometimes a good thing. Arguably, legalism, in at least some form, is a necessary aspect of the rule of law itself. On the other hand, when law diverges too sharply from ordinary thinking, it risks its moral and intellectual legitimacy.

This seminar will ask what legalism is, and whether there are good and bad forms of it. It will also try to make moral and legal sense of legalistic thinking, in a variety of settings.  For example, we will try to unravel the law,s relationship to testimonial truth. How does the law treat evasive, misleading, and half-true statements?  What does it take to commit perjury? Does the law enforce different standards of truth-telling for different legal purposes? If so, why?  Is legalistic evasion ever morally justified? The seminar will also look at legalism in other contexts, including, for example, the interpretation of statutes, wills, and other legal instruments. When does the law follow the ordinary reading of language, and when does it go its own way? Does legalism always mean hairsplitting?  Might there be instances in which outlandish lawyerly interpretations make more sense than ordinary reading? Most importantly, the seminar will try to provide a larger historical and theoretical perspective on the problem of legalism.  Is criticism of legalism bound up with criticism of law itself? And are there circumstances, such as some that we've witnessed during the war on terror in the past few years, in which forms of legalism can become a tool to subvert the rule of law?

Course requirements include active class participation and paper-writing. The seminar will also provide opportunities for in-class oral presentations and student-led discussions.
Dane
601:765 Seminar: Litigation, Insurance, Torts  (2) Selected topics in the litigation process, insurance law and practice, and tort law and the civil justice system. A particular emphasis will be on empirical research and theoretical approaches to litigation, with special reference to tort and insurance issues. Topics will vary from year to year but may include settlement; characteristics of and influences on plaintiff and defendant personal injury practice; the role of insurance and insurance companies in the tort system and litigation process; and the landscape of disputes and dispute processing.The seminar is directed at students with a strong interest in civil litigation, particularly in the areas listed. Students should have relevant experience or interest, such as participation in an intensive litigation course. Feinman
601:782, 784 Seminar: Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Fellowship Program (2) The Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Fellowship Program enlists law students in an effort to increase civic literacy and participation in American democracy. Talented second- and third-year law students prepare and teach a course in constitutional law to Camden high school students. The aim is to make the  U.S. Constitution come alive for young people in Camden, while simultaneously improving law students' ability to translate and explain complicated legal concepts into lay terms. Marshall-Brennan is a sequential two-semester course. In the fall semester, meeting weekly in a two-hour seminar, the fellows will study constitutional law with a focus on cases and concepts concerning young people and schools. They will draft and execute lesson plans relating to these topics and will discuss pedagogy. Fellows also will research and write a paper on a relevant topic. The fall seminar provides two course credits and qualifies as writing intensive. In the spring, teams of two fellows each will teach constitutional law courses at Camden high schools, typically conducting four, 45-minute class sessions each week. Fellows will be entirely responsible for their courses. They will interact with high school teachers, design lesson plans, lead classes, and evaluate students. With a continuing focus on issues of law, the spring seminar sessions also will explore teaching strategies and classroom dynamics and will provide general support for fellows. The spring course provides 3 noncourse credits and no writing credits.

Fellows are chosen through a competitive process during the spring semester of each year. All interested students are encouraged to apply. A faculty selection committee will choose applicants based on their academic preparation, motivation, maturity, and intellectual interest in constitutional issues. Interested students should attend the informational session(s) held during the spring semester. Note: While every effort will be made to accommodate the convenience of the fellows, teaching in the spring is a significant time commitment that may require significant flexibility. In particular, students may be required to teach during all or part of the law school's spring break.
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law. Friedman, McLaughlin.
601:700 Seminar: Philosophy of Law: The Limits of Responsibility (3) This course, offered as a graduate seminar in philosophy in New Brunswick and cross-listed as a law course, will examine philosophical issues revolving around legal and moral responsibility and its limits. Issues to be addressed may include the justifiability of strict liability in torts and criminal law, the importance of fault to responsibility and whether all wrongs are faults, the possibility of moral luck, as well as related topics. Taught in New Brunswick. Prerequisite: Permission required from Professor Oberdiek. Oberdiek, Husak.
601:793 Seminar: Politics, Policy, and Federal Law (3) This course examines the influence of politics upon the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the intricate relationship between policies set by the White House and the DOJ mandate to enforce federal law. The course focuses on the genesis and function of the DOJ as the nation's law firm, and the issues that arise as the DOJ, an executive agency under the direction of the president, fulfills its duty to its number-one client. We will begin by taking an in-depth look into the political appointment and function of the DOJ key management and its role in the appointment of federal prosecutors and judges. We will then take a top-down approach, focusing on the impact that policy set by the White House, and carried out by its appointees, has on the department's divisions, offices, and programs. The course then zeros in on the role of one of the most important offices within the DOJ, that of the U.S. Attorneys. We will highlight the interaction between the U.S. Attorneys and the other DOJ agencies, and ultimately focus on the tools used by Assistant U.S. Attorneys to enforce the law. The course will conclude with an examination of the revolving door between the DOJ and the private sector. This seminar is 3 credits, WI (2 meeting hours, plus 1 credit for intensive writing work). The Honorable Noel L. Hillman and John Giordano.
601:781 Seminar: Public Media Policy Reform (2) A robust system of public media is of critical importance for sustaining and enriching democratic practices and social advancement. By connecting individuals to each other and to important public discourses, public media can advance democratic capabilities, empower publics to communicate and organize, and support the production and distribution of valued media content.  Public media can be understood as operating across four dimensions: (1) Public media supplement the commercial media market with content and services designed intentionally to meet social, not market, needs; (2) Public media leverage investments in educational, cultural, and other civil society functions by linking to and supporting those functions; (3) Public media operate in a decentralized manner, emphasizing local connections, to provide access and voice to underserved populations; (4) Public media also centralize media production and distribution efforts through networks and collaboration. What exactly the goals of public media should be in the new digital communications environment, how these goals should be achieved, and how each of the four dimensions of public media should be stretched are open and pressing questions. This 2-credit research seminar will involve initial class meetings and instruction. The students will then develop ideas for public media policy reform that may be incorporated into a series of policy proposals for the FCC and Congress and present their work to the group. In addition to class meetings, students may, as the opportunities present themselves, participate in meetings with policymakers, media funders, and other stakeholders.
Goodman
601:807 Seminar: RICO-Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (2) Examines criminal and civil investigation and litigation under the federal and state statutes on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO).  Specific topics addressed include the conceptual bases of so-called enterprise liability, including relational rather than individual definitions of misconduct; the relationships among enterprise liability and related doctrines, such as conspiracy, complicity, and vicarious liability; procedural implications of enterprise liability, such as broad joinder of claims and parties, expanded admissibility of evidence, and complication of pretrial and trial proceedings; the extraordinary civil and criminal remedies provided for RICO violations; and the impact of wide use of these statutes. Coombs
601:728 Seminar: Theories of Intellectual Property (2) This seminar will explore theories of intellectual property (IP), with a particular focus on innovation. It begins by discussing the application of Locke's labor theory and Hegel's personhood rationale to IP. It then turns to the primary theory justifying IP--utilitarianism--and asks whether IP's scope and duration are justified. It examines dangers of IP protection such as diminished speech and cumulative innovation. And it explores innovation-related issues including open source software, peer-to-peer (p2p) systems, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, potential patent reforms, and the biotechnology industry. Prerequisite: Intellectual Property or permission of instructor. Carrier
601:767 Seminar: Tort Theory: Risk, Responsibility, and Rights (2) A survey of central topics in tort theory. Through contemporary philosophical readings as well as case law, the seminar analyzes the concepts of risk, responsibility, and rights, among others, as they figure in tort law. Questions to be examined include: "What constitutes carelessness?", "When can one be responsible for unintentional harm?", "How are compensatory duties related to rights?", and "Does tortious wrongdoing presuppose fault?". Oberdiek
 
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