Related Courses
Aggregate Litigation: LAW JD 977
3 credits
This course will be an introduction to the practice of aggregate litigation from a social justice perspective. Topics will include all aspects of class action practice, an introduction to multidistrict litigation, attorney general and public advocate public interest litigation, public client cases, non-class aggregate litigation, selected bankruptcy issues for individuals as creditors, and other possibilities for litigating public interest issues at scale. Much of the course will focus on consumer protection (including products liability), civil rights and regulated business activities. A sub-unit will address solutions, at scale, to gun violence.
FALL 2024: LAW JD 977 A1 , Sep 3rd to Dec 5th 2024Days | Start | End | Credits | Instructors | Bldg | Room |
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Tue,Thu | 2:30 pm | 4:00 pm | 3 | Klein | LAW | 702 |
American Indian Law: LAW JD 920
3 credits
This seminar will explore the Constitutional and statutory law related to Native Americans, Indian reservations, and tribal governments. The seminar will examine the historical foundations of Indian law and the current legal structures that govern the relationship between the United States and tribal nations. Students will spend significant time on issues surrounding tribal sovereignty, traditional cultural practices, self-determination, and social justice. Students will gain an understanding of the basis for modern Indian law and the complex legal issues facing native communities in the United States and abroad. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to satisfy the requirement. OFFERING PATTERN: This class is not offered every year. Students are advised to take this into account when planning their long-term schedule. ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar, or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
SPRG 2025: LAW JD 920 A1 , Jan 13th to Apr 23rd 2025Days | Start | End | Credits | Instructors | Bldg | Room |
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Tue | 2:10 pm | 4:10 pm | 3 |
CRITICAL CIVIL PROCEDURE: LAW JD 765
3 credits
Many of our most famous--and infamous--cases are procedural. Because procedural rules allow, or restrict, access to justice, procedure is a central pressure point in the struggle to eradicate structural inequality and oppression through the courts. This seminar will focus on the ways in which aspects of civil procedure decrease or perpetuate structural inequality for marginalized communities, especially regarding issues such as race, sex, gender, disability, nationality/immigration status, sexual orientation, and religion. We will read short, provocative essays to analyze which communities do, and do not, get a fair opportunity to have their claim or defense heard in court. From a critical perspective, we will engage in a discourse about the procedural, structural limitations on social justice. Another goal of this seminar is to explore a more complex view of our professional roles as attorneys. GRADING NOTICE: This class will not offer the CR/NC/H option. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may not be used to satisfy the requirement. **A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
DISABILITY LAW: LAW JD 749
3 credits
This seminar surveys the evolution of federal law as it relates to people with disabilities. We will cover disability discrimination in the areas of employment, education, government services, public accommodations run by private entities, and housing. In exploring these areas we will examine relevant case law and statutes (i.e. the ADA and its amendments, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the IDEA, and the Fair Housing Act) and their implementing regulations and guidance. In addition to studying legal authorities, we will engage in practical classroom exercises and hear from attorneys practicing in disability law-related settings. Readings will be provided. Grades will be based on class participation and a final paper. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to satisfy the requirement. **A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
FALL 2024: LAW JD 749 A1 , Sep 3rd to Dec 5th 2024Days | Start | End | Credits | Instructors | Bldg | Room |
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Thu | 10:40 am | 12:40 pm | 3 | Gregory Dorchak | LAW | 417 |
ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY: LAW JD 863
3 credits
Graduate Prerequisites: ADMINISTRATIVE LAW - Workers today have little say inside American companies. This course will explore worker voice in the corporation and workplaces more generally. We will investigate various methods for enhancing worker voice, such as codetermination, bicameralism, unionization, worker councils, employee ownership, and shareholder activism. We will explore how corporate law and investor law both inhibit and shape worker economic voice, and we will study various current developments including efforts to put workers on corporate boards, the human capital management movement, labor's capital activism, proposed reforms to corporate governance and corporate purpose, and expanding notions of fiduciary duty. There will be several professional and academic guest speakers. GRADING NOTICE: This class does not offer the CR/NC/H option. PREREQUISITE: Corporations. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to satisfy the requirement. ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
Employment Discrimination and Employment Law: LAW JD 865
4 credits
The course focuses on race, sex, age, and disability employment discrimination prohibitions. Affirmative action, religious discrimination, constitutional protections of public sector workers, anti‑retaliation and whistleblower laws, common law protection against arbitrary dismissals, the FMLA, and the FSLA are also covered. Important procedural issues, including arbitration, also are treated. RESTRICTION: Students who previously enrolled in Employment Discrimination (JD 853) may not register for this course. Students who previously enrolled in Employment Law (JD 834) may register for this course. GRADING NOTICE: This class does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
FEDERAL COURTS: LAW JD 847
3 credits
Federal Courts is a course about judicial power. In short, it helps students answer the question: What is the role of the federal judiciary in our constitutional democracy. We examine the statutory, constitutional, and judge-made doctrines that empower the federal courts, as well as those that limit their authority. What is a "case" to begin with? Are some disputes simply not cases amenable to resolution by federal judges? Who should be able to bring a case to the courts' attention? The simple answer is someone injured by unlawful conduct. But what constitutes an injury? And who decides what constitutes an injury? Who can be held accountable for injuries resulting from unlawful conduct? Should certain entities and people have immunity from suit in federal court altogether? We grapple with that question in our study of state sovereign immunity and official immunity doctrines. We also study the relationships between the federal courts and the other branches of government: Congress and the President. For example, does Congress have the power to abolish the federal courts, if it sees fit? Could it remove certain cases from the federal courts' jurisdiction, such as cases involving immigration or the Second Amendment? This course builds extensively on topics covered in Constitutional Law and Civil Procedure. It is strongly recommended for students who are interested in litigation of any sort (in state or federal court), civil rights, and government lawyering at any level, including clerking for a state or federal judge.
FIRST AMENDMENT: LAW JD 839
3 credits
This course will examine the free speech, free exercise and establishment clauses of the First Amendment. About two-thirds of the course will focus on speech, including such topics as political speech (including campaign finance regulation), commercial speech, and expression in the public forum. The final one-third of the course will focus on religion, including such topics as freedom of religious practice, religion in schools, and religious displays and symbols.
SPRG 2025: LAW JD 839 A1 , Jan 13th to Apr 23rd 2025Days | Start | End | Credits | Instructors | Bldg | Room |
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Mon,Wed | 9:00 am | 10:25 am | 3 | Jay D. Wexler |
GLOBAL ISLAMOPHOBIA: LAW JD 667
2 credits
Western nations are experiencing a wave of populism eroding the liberal values these nations boast as setting them apart from illiberal regimes in the Global South and East. Animated by a sense of victimhood, an increasing number of citizens from majority groups are attracted to populist rhetoric by right wing ideologues who condemn immigrants, Muslims, and racial minorities as threats to liberal democracy. The stronger the populists become, however, the more the very system they purport to protect is destabilized. As xenophobia and Islamophobia is normalized in mainstream U.S. media and among right wing politicians, the chorus of populism demands building walls, banning Muslims, ending affirmative action, and restricting religious freedom. In this course, students will learn to think critically about the social, economic, political, and legal factors that contribute toward prejudice, discrimination, and human rights violations against Muslims and Arabs in the United States, Europe, and Asia in an era of rising populism. LIMITED WRITING REQUIREMENT OPTION: A limited number of students may be permitted to satisfy the upper-class writing requirement.
HEALTH CARE DECISIONS: LAW JD 727
3 credits
This course will cover issues that arise in clinical healthcare settings, primarily involving who decides and on what basis. Topics include: informed consent and materiality; competence and capacity to give consent; surrogates, advanced directives, physicians orders, and powers of attorney; end-of-life decision making, including withholding/removing treatment, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide; clinical ethics committees; patient confidentiality and duties to disclose; human subjects research and institutional review boards; physician conflicts of interest; pre-approval access to drugs; and rationing of scarce healthcare resources.
SPRG 2025: LAW JD 727 A1 , Jan 13th to Apr 23rd 2025Days | Start | End | Credits | Instructors | Bldg | Room |
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Mon,Wed | 6:30 pm | 8:00 pm | 3 |
LAW AND REGULATION OF CANNABIS: LAW JD 969
3 credits
This seminar will examine the burgeoning field of law surrounding the use, sale, and production of cannabis. Possible topics include federal versus state power to regulate cannabis, the substantive criminal laws regarding cannabis, and a variety of other issues such as banking, tax, and environmental laws that impact the cannabis industry in the United States. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may be used to satisfy the requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This class does not offer the CR/NC/H option. ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
MASS INEQUALITY & SOCIAL TRAUMA: LAW JD 970
3 credits
This interdisciplinary seminar offers a deep exploration of large-scale forms of inequality, the social trauma they create, and the possibility of legal and political solutions. A persistent difficulty in American culture and jurisprudence is a refusal to conceive of structural and intergenerational harms against disfavored groups. The goal is to not only find conceptions of equality that might be suitable, but also to reason from injustice to justice. Special attention will be paid to connections between inequality and the political economy. Among the historical episodes to be discussed: Reconstruction as a missed opportunity at transitional justice; the expulsions of Chinese migrants and their families from the West Coast; white riots and other forms of terror visited upon freed persons and their allies; the shame and silence that surrounded the internment of Japanese Americans; the policy of separating migrant children from parents; and periodic roundups of the poor. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may not be used to satisfy the requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This class does not offer the CR/NC/H option. ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
NY PRO BONO SCHOLARS: DIRECTED STUDY: LAW JD 744
2 credits
This CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have received permission from the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office to enroll. This is the companion academic component for students enrolled in the Pro Bono Scholars Program: Fieldwork course. Students work with a faculty supervisor in designing their own reading list, writing a 15-20 page research paper, and submitting seven 4-6 page bi-weekly journals. COREQUISITE: NY Pro Bono Scholars Program: Fieldwork (JD 743).
SPRG 2025: LAW JD 744 A1 , Jan 13th to Apr 23rd 2025Days | Start | End | Credits | Instructors | Bldg | Room |
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NY PRO BONO SCHOLARS: FIELDWORK: LAW JD 743
10 credits
This CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have received permission from the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office to enroll. Through the Pro Bono Scholars Program, students spend their spring 3L semester working full-time for credit at a government agency or non-profit providing direct legal services to indigent clients. Participating students sit for the February New York bar exam, and begin their fieldwork the week after. Students passing the bar exam and completing other NY bar and BU Law graduation requirements are admitted to the NY bar in late June. NOTE: Students who enroll in this program may count the credits toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. COREQUISITE: NY Pro Bono Scholars Program: Directed Study (JD 744).
SPRG 2025: LAW JD 743 A1 , Jan 13th to Apr 23rd 2025Days | Start | End | Credits | Instructors | Bldg | Room |
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PROBLEMS IN ANTIDISCRIMINATION LAW: LAW JD 795
3 credits
Antidiscrimination law is broadly viewed as a vehicle to redress and ameliorate racial inequality across domains of social, economic, and political life. And yet, all too often, this body of law reinforces and reproduces racial hierarchy and stratification. The tension between antidiscrimination law's egalitarian aspirations and racially subordinating effects is not new. Nevertheless, our current cultural moment invites renewed attention to the forces that hinder antidiscrimination law's remedial promise and potential. To further this inquiry, the seminar will interrogate contemporary battles over racial justice through a lens that draws on critical theory, history, and social science. To further ground the seminar to current events, the class will put students into conversation with scholars, practitioners, and/or activists engaged in work "on the ground." This is a reading and writing intensive course. NOTE: This class does not satisfy the upper-class writing requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This class will not offer the CR/NC/H option. **A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
PUBLIC INTEREST LAW: LAW JD 875
3 credits
Public interest legal practice takes many forms. It can involve government agencies, non-profit organizations, private law firms doing pro bono work, public defender's office, labor unions, and inter-governmental organizations, among others. It can take the form of litigation, transactional work, policy-related work, or legislative advocacy. Also, attorneys adopt varied models of public interest lawyering, including approaches known as community lawyering, cause lawyering, and movement lawyering. This seminar engages through readings, guest speakers, and class discussion to examine the various approaches to public interest lawyering. Students will explore how to define the "public interest" and learn different models for public interest lawyering. Students also will gain familiarity with the different substantive areas of public interest law, organizational settings for public interest practice, and modes of public interest advocacy. Many class sessions will include a guest faculty member or a guest attorney who will present a sample of their public interest work in connection with class themes. There will also be time dedicated to discussing speaker presentations. Students will be required to submit short reaction papers to the readings and presentations and perform an in-class oral presentation based on class themes. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may not be used to satisfy the requirement. ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar, or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, will be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
REMEDIES: LAW JD 720
3 credits
The study of law largely involves understanding the substantive scopes of rights and of prohibitions, but, for the bar examination, for practice, and for intellectually engaging with legal topics conceptually, it is essential to understand what the potential solutions are for a wronged person or entity. Remedies is devoted to developing that latter understanding. In this course, we will explore the legal powers and limits for righting those who have been wronged and for preventing future wrongs. This course includes both public law and private law remedies with a particular focus on social justice and remedial topics that are generally not covered within the 1L curriculum or other required courses. In addition to helping to prepare students for bar examinations (which often test for remedies in civil procedure, contracts, property, and torts), examining remedial principles in this course will be useful to those encountering remedies problems in litigation across substantive fields. This course also covers historically-important and current, hot topics such as reparations, impact injunctions against governmental defendants (so-called "nationwide" or "universal" injunctions), and court-debt related remedies (such as litigation challenging drivers' license suspensions due to nonpayment of fines). UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: Class of 2024 -- This class may be used to partially satisfy the requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS: LAW JD 775
3 credits
In the United States, and around the world, many people still suffer from basic lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services. This course explores the role of law in understanding the distribution of access to SRH services and care. We will draw on various theoretical and doctrinal tools including critical legal theory, critical race theory, sociology of science, human rights, feminist theory, and a range of public health methods to understand the current state of the law and the possibilities and limitations of legal reforms. The course will foreground issues of race and reproduction as well as the politics of public health law (including the role of scientific evidence and medical expertise in courts). We will examine various sites of lawmaking including courts and legislatures and we will pay attention to the legal reforms offered by social movements both for and against greater access to services and care.
FALL 2024: LAW JD 775 A1 , Sep 3rd to Dec 5th 2024Days | Start | End | Credits | Instructors | Bldg | Room |
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Tue,Thu | 9:00 am | 10:30 am | 3 | Aziza Ahmed | LAW | 209 |
WHISTLEBLOWER LAW: LAW JD 919
3 credits
Whistleblowing has become a frequent topic in the news around law and politics. What exactly is it, and what laws govern it? Who represents whistleblowers, and what is there to know about lawyering in this space? This course will examine federal (and some state) laws that protect and incentivize whistleblowers to provide information and assist in the enforcement of laws prohibiting fraud and misfeasance in both the public and private sectors. It will cover both the substantive law as well as the practical aspects of lawyering in this field. There are two types of whistleblower laws, and the seminar will cover both: 1) laws which protect whistleblowers inside and outside of government from retaliation by their employers for having engaged in protected activity, and 2) laws which provide financial incentives to whistleblowers for reporting fraud against the government, or fraud in the securities and commodities markets. Each student will write a paper based on a whistleblower case and will be encouraged to interview one or more whistleblowers who have gone through the experience and/or whistleblower attorneys who have a substantial practice in this area. Alternatively, students who express a particular interest in an area relevant to the course may get permission to explore that topic in their paper. There is no examination in this course; the grade is based on the paper and the students' participation in the class discussions UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to satisfy the requirement. **A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
FALL 2024: LAW JD 919 A1 , Sep 3rd to Dec 5th 2024Days | Start | End | Credits | Instructors | Bldg | Room |
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Tue | 4:20 pm | 6:20 pm | 3 | Robert M. Thomas Jr. | LAW | 417 |