Fall 2007

Sources and structure of law; history of Bill of Rights emphasizing effect on criminal justice system; limits of law in solving problems in American society. Not available for major credit.

Explores issues of responsibility and credibility. Intentional and unintentional behavior. Clinical biases. Topics include witness credibility, confessions, cults, hostages, battered persons, and repressed memories.

Off campus coursework; title of course taken at host institution appears as a section title.

Consideration of the participants in litigation; private and public plaintiffs, defendants, and courts; information exchange, process, outcomes, and costs of law suits.

The interpretation and enforcement of promises and agreements.

Individual's obligation not to harm others; bases for compensating persons who are harmed, either by holding responsible whoever is at fault, or by invoking other principles of liability, including the efficiency of resource allocation and the spreading of losses.

Examination of the basic sources of law for federal and California jurisdictions; utilizing a vast array of sources from books to computer-assisted research and analyzes methodology and techniques. Graded CR/D/F.

Two-semester course focusing on developing analytic and communication skills. Lawyers will analyze legal principles and incisively apply them to facts. Graded CR/D/F.

Law as the mind's attempt to define, direct, and administer human experience. Examination of theories of knowledge, language, meaning, mental process, social organization, personal responsibility and freedom, which underlies legal thought and judicial decision-making.

Development of legal research, writing, and advocacy skills. Emphasis on objective legal writing, including memoranda, and researching case law through primary and secondary sources. Registration restricted to Law students.

The basic structure of government in the U.S., including the constitutionally mandated division of power in the federal government and the federal system of power sharing between state and federal systems. A comparative perspective on selected substantive and procedural matters, such as common law reasoning, jury trials, adversary process, and various aspects of civil procedure. Open to incoming LL.M. students only.

This course will provide LL.M. and M.C.L. students with a survey of various topics in American law including criminal law, evidence, family law, constitutional law, torts, wills and trusts, administrative law and property law. Open to LL.M. and M.C.L. students only.

Federal tax statutes, technical issues and social problems involved in tax planning, tax litigation, and reform of the tax laws.

Criminal procedure in the courts, and the regulation of law enforcement by the courts through rules of evidence and interpretation of the Bill of Rights.

Organization of economic activity especially the modern corporation as institutions of social power. The roles of managers, owners, and regulatory agencies in shaping processes of decision making.

Selected problems to supplement LAW 605.

The land transfer process: arrangements between buyers and sellers, brokers, escrows, recorders, title companies. Real estate financing through mortgages and other land security devices.

Gratuitous transfer of wealth, especially the transmission of wealth from one generation to the next as a settlement of family affairs. Comparative analysis of the legal mechanisms of gifts, wills, and trusts. Introduction to problems of fiduciary administration.

The purpose and character of trial. Problems of adversary presentation and the nature of proof. The basis for admission and exclusion of evidence in judicial proceedings.

The lawyer's skills needed to understand the financial affairs of a business client.

Examination of the evolving role of work in our society and the nature and scope of legal regulation of the employment relationship.

Comparison of the remedial goals of contracts, torts, and property and the impact of procedural devices in law and equity. Damages, injunctions, specific performance and restitution. Remedial theory and transactional application.

This course introduces law students to the tools, concept, and language of business. It is premised on the belief that to excel as a business lawyer, one must understand the business world from the perspective of the clients one counsels and assists. The course will cover, in compressed form, the basic subjects from the MBA program which are most useful to lawyers. Open only to law students.

Legal analysis of the rules of Evidence using problems designed to improve analytic skills and problem-solving. Taken in conjunction with Evidence. Open to Law students only. Graded CR/NC.

The interrelation of labor, business, and government in collective bargaining, federal regulation of union and management practices and pressures, especially through the Taft-Hartley Act.

Examination of the institutions and laws that regulate international economic relations. Students will be introduced to the major international agreements and national laws that regulate international trade goods, services and capital.

Examines selected topics in negotiation, mediation, or alternative dispute resolution. May be repeated with permission of the instructor as topics vary. Graded CR/D/F/. Enrollment restricted to law students.

Commercial transactions involving secured financing (other than land). Government regulation of such sales and borrowing through Article 9 of the Uniform Consumer Commercial Code and other recent legislation.

This course will examine the laws governing fraud in securities markets. The course will focus on several sections of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 including fraudulent statements and insider trading, fraud in th;e takeover context, fraud in proxies, and controlling personal liability.

Bankruptcy of the poor, imprudent or unlucky, and of unsuccessful business. The mechanisms of our law for distributing the debtor's property and discharging his obligations.

The pooling of risks and distributing of losses. Actuarial foundation and contract problems of insurance.

Supervised internship for students enrolled in LAW 650. Graded CR/D/F.

Analysis and development of persuasive arguments using principles of persuasion; translation of the arguments into visual presentations using presentation models; persuasive presentation of visuals.

Introduction of the EU legal system and an understanding of the functioning EU, constitutive treaties, and evolving judicial and regulatory system being established within Europe. Open to law students only.

Preparation of briefs and presentation of oral arguments in the Hale Court competition. Graded CR/NC.

Evaluation and supervision of the preparation of briefs and oral arguments in the Hale Moot Court honors competition. Graded CR/69/65.

Students prepare for competition by writing a brief on the issues in a problem that is the basis for the Jessup International Moot Court Competition. Participation is by faculty selection only.

Writing, source-checking, and preliminary editing of articles and comments for publication in the Review of Law and Social Justice. For second year students serving as staff members on the Review. Open to law students only. Graded CR/D/F.

Writing, source-checking, and preliminary editing of articles and comments for publication in the Review of Law and Social Justice. For second year students serving as staff members on the Review. Open to law students only. Graded IP to Numerical.

Supervision of research and writing, and final editing of articles and comments for publication in the Review of Law and Social Justice. For officers of the Review. Open to law students only. Graded IP to CR/D/F.

This course will examine the statutory, constitutional, and international legal structures that form the base of American diplomacy.

Students will work on cases in the following areas: 1) dependent and neglected children: All children who are wards of the court must have legal counsel. 2) Children with AIDS: Legal implications of such issues as health care and custody. 3) Guardianships or other temporary arrangements for children whose parents are terminally ill or are otherwise unable to care for them. Graded CR/69/65.

An introduction to the problem of poverty in the United States and to the response of government and the legal system to the problems of the poor.

The law of community property, including disposition of property on dissolution of the marriage and questions of conflict of laws. May be offered as a reading course.

Covers the fundamentals of reviewing and analyzing business contracts and strategies for negotiating business issues with an emphasis on developing practical skills. Open to Law students only.

Contract drafting and negotiating will teach students the mechanics of drafting and negotiating sophisticated contracts from a variety of legal disciplines including entertainment law, real estate law and general corporate law.

Legal and tax considerations important to the lawyer advising his or her client on the transmission of wealth from one generation to the next.

Study and evaluation of the municipal and regional legal institutions. Emphasis on the crises in financing and governing the urban society.

Students provide legal assistance to small businesses, entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations that cannot pay market rates for legal services. Graded CR/NC. Open to Law students only.

This seminar will discuss religious views about the meaning and nature of human existence and address contested contemporary issues of constitutional law.

Source-checking and preliminary editing of articles and comments for publication in the Interdisciplinary Law Journal. For third year students serving as staff members on the Journal. Graded IP/CR/NC.

Writing of an article for the Interdisciplinary Law Journal. For second year students serving as staff members on the Journal. Graded IP to numberic.

Supervision and final editing of articles and comments for publication in the Interdisciplinary Law Journal. Graded IP to CR/69/65.

Writing, source- checking, and preliminary editing of articles and comments for publication in the Southern California Law Review. For second year students serving as staff members on the Review. Graded IZ..

Preparation of a second note of publishable quality. For third year students serving as staff members on the Review.

Supervision of research and writing, and final editing of articles and comments for publication in the Southern California Law Review. For officers of the Review. Graded IP to CR/69/65.

Provides law students with the ability to represent clients (under the supervision of the professor) in cutting-edge issues of intellectual property and technology law. Open to law students only. Graded CR/NC.

The protection of intellectual property and encouragement of creativity. Explores copyright, trademarks, patents, and selected state law theories.

Integration of cyberspace and the Internet into existing legal structures. Topics include: 1st Amendment issues; intellectual property, privacy and child protection; criminal activity and governance and jurisdictional issues. Open to Law students only.

Explores the place of groups (such as racial and ethnic groups, labor unions, family, neighborhood, class and religious groups), in the legal order governed and protected by the Constitution. Asks whether groups have rights comparable in stature to the rights of persons, and if they do, how conflicts between the group rights and individual rights should be adjudicated.

Development of immigration law to its present state.

Students represent clients before the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Immigration Court, and certain law enforcement agencies in cases including applications for relief under the Violence Against Women Act, for asylum, and for relief from deportation. Graded CR/D/F.

A clinical internship or judicial externship allows a student to gain hands-on legal experience in legal settings. Students will be assigned to a legal services program, government agency, state or federal judges, under faculty supervision. Graded CR/NC.

Advanced clinical training/externship. Graded CR/NC

Students should register for 2-4 units of dissertation to engage in supervised research and writing which is expected to result in a paper of publishable quality. Any regular, full-time member of the faculty (including full-time visitors) may supervise students in this course upon agreement by the faculty member and the student. Other persons who teach in the JD program may supervise dissertation only upon the approval of the Administrative Board. A 1 unit registration for dissertation will be available only where the unit is to be added to a course where a paper is already required, in recognition that the student's paper will require substantially more work than that expected of other students in the course. Students may take a total of 4 units of dissertation during their educational experience at the Law Center.

Examination of the best scholarly work currently done by legal, moral and political philosophers in the country. Open only to Law students.

Examines conceptual and practical aspects of interviewing, counseling, negotiation, settlement, drafting and formal advocacy in the handling of legal cases.

Examines decicion-making by counsel in the litigation of cases. Emphasis is given to decisions involving tactics, strategies, and their implications for the functioning of legal institutions and substantive doctrine. Extensive use of simulated trial practice exercises.

Role of the attorney in startup firms: business plan, employment agreements, lease, stock option plan, financing documents and distribution and strategic partnership arrangements. Enrollment restricted to law students.

Taught in honor of James Ackerman, USC Law graduate of 1948, this class examines selected topics in Maritime and Admiralty Law. May be repeated with permission of the instructor as topics vary.

Introduction to negotiation and mediation from an international perspective. Development of essential skills for effective client representation in negotiation and mediation. Open only to Law students.

Assist in teaching writing and advocacy. Responsibilities include helping prepare lesson plans and draft writing assignments and sample answers; leading class exercises; and judging first-year moot court practice rounds. Graded CR/D/F.

The First Amendment, freedom of expression (political speech, symbolic expression, obscenity, commercial speech, defamation), rights of access to the media of expression. The protection of religion and the prohibition of the establishment of religion.

Directed research may be taken only with the approval of the Administrative Board. This course is intended for substantial independent research and study that does not result in a paper of publishable quality. It includes, but is not limited to, preparation of research memoranda for faculty research projects, empirical research for such projects and supervised independent study. Directed research is to be supervised by a regular, full-time faculty member (including full-time visiting faculty). Students may take a maximum of 4 units of Directed Research during their educational experience at the Law Center.

Examines the substantive rights of federal prisoners with respect to parole, sentencing, validity of conviction and conditions of confinement and the procedural mechanisms by which to enforce those rights. Under faculty supervision, students provide legal assistance to federal inmates in administrative and judicial proceedings. Graded CR/69/65.

For third-year students who wish to continue their clinical training.