International Law Society

• Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice
• Center for Global Energy, International Arbitration and Environmental Law (new!)
• Human Rights Law Society (HRLS)
• International Moot Court Competitions
• Master of Laws Program (LLM)
• Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law
• Texas International Law Journal (TILJ)
• US-Mexico Bar Association (USMBA)
• UT Law Career Services Office (CSO), International Careers
• UT Law International Programs home
• UT Law International Programs, Alumni in International Careers
• UT Law International Programs, International and Comparative Law Courses
• UT Law International Programs, International Internships
• UT Law International Programs, Study Abroad

Panelists:
Professor Dammann’s interests include corporate law, contracts, comparative law, and European Community law. He has published two books and various articles. His articles have appeared or are forthcoming in the Cornell Law Review, the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, the Tulane Law Review, the Yale Journal of International Law, the Journal of Corporation Law, the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, the Fordham Journal of Corporate and Financial Law, and the Rabels Zeitschrift fuer auslaendisches und internationales Privatrecht. Professor Dammann teaches corporations and contracts. He will teach Business Associations in the Fall.

Here are some photos from the International Law Society of Texas’s Rodeo outing. In the spring of 2010, 30 JD, LLM, and exchange students mixed, mingled, and enjoyed a concert by the Doobie Brothers at the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo in Austin, Texas. Yeehaw and enjoy!

March 12th Announcements
(1) The Texas Association of International Law is now officially the International Law Society of Texas.

(2) It s Rodeo Time!
On Tuesday March 23, 7pm, the International Law Society of Texas and the UT LLM Program are sponsoring a trip to the Austin Rodeo! (http://www.rodeoaustin.com/events_detail.aspx?id=104) It s ProRodeo night, so there will plenty of action, and the headliner that night is the DOOBIE BROTHERS! (Listen to the Music, Black Water, Takin it to the Streets)

Tickets will cost just $10, with the rest of the ticket price subsidized by UT Law. There are limited spots for LLM and JD students, so YOU MUST SEND AN EMAIL BY SUNDAY, MARCH 14TH AT NOON TO  texasinternationallaw@gmail.comTO RESERVE YOUR TICKET.

Only the first 65 students to reply to that email address will be guaranteed tickets. We will contact the first 65 students who respond to let them know there is a ticket reserved for them. Those student may then pick up their ticket and pay their $10 on Monday, March 22, in the International Student Program office (same area as the law school s financial aid office).

All of the tickets will be seated together in a block, and tickets are good for the whole day, so feel free to go earlier and meet us there! Again, if you are interested in going to the rodeo and in getting in on this great deal, emailtexasinternationallaw@gmail.com ASAP to reserve your spot! Only UT Law students may reserve a ticket, and they may only reserve a ticket for themselves.

We will try to arrange carpools to the rodeo, leaving from the law school at 5:00pm Tuesday March 23. If you would be available to drive, please let us know when you RSVP!

(3) The week of Monday, April 12, the International Law Society of Texas will host a panel of UT international law faculty members. Details to come.

(4) Finally, if you are interested in helping to organize events for the the International Law Society, please let us know by emailing texasinternationallaw@gmail.com.

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Other opportunities of international interest:
PRO BONO OPPORTUNITY: If you speak another kanguage and may be available in the future to volunteer as a translator or interpreter, sign up for the UT Law Pro Bono Program interpreter/translator register.  You can do this by going to http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/publicinterest/probono/translator.html.

JOB POSTING – 2010 Summer Internship with the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice. Contact: Sarah Cline scline@law.utexas.edu (512) 232 4857
How to Apply:  Please submit materials to Sarah Cline via email at scline@law.utexas.edu (Subject: Graduate Internship) or in person in TNH Room 3.269 at the Law School.
Deadline: 12:00 PM on Thursday, April 1.
Description:  Professor Karen Engle is seeking to hire two to three professional or graduate students to work at least half-time (20 hrs/week) as summer fellows at the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice.

President:
Shannon Sims, JD candidate, Class of 2011 (contact: shannongsims@gmail.com)

Academic Chairs:
Amelia Schmidt, JD candidate, Class of 2012
Eric Berelovich, JD candidate, Class of 2012

Social Chairs:
Drew Edge, JD candidate, Class of 2010
Andres Dura, JD candidate, Class of 2010

Communication Chairs:
Lindzi Timberlake, JD candidate, Class of 2011
Jayna Genti, JD candidate, Class of 2012

LLM-Mentoring Chair:
Julia Salvatore, JD candidate, Class of 2011

LLM-Mentoring Steering Committee:
LeeAnne Gao, JD candidate, Class of 2011
Christine Donlan, JD candidate, Class of 2011

The following Spring 2010 course options at UT Law may be of interest to students seeking coursework related to the fields of international, transnational, or comparative law.
Short courses
European Constitutionalism
Class Unique #: 28655 Instructor: Ferreres, V
Course #: 279M Credits: 2
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
CLASS MEETS MARCH 1-APRIL 23.
The aim of this course is to examine and assess the distinctive features of European constitutionalism. Different countries in the world have developed this abstract political idea in different ways. What are the specific characteristics of the European approach? What internal variations can one identify? What are their advantages and disadvantages?
The course will focus on different topics. Some of them are structural, such as: the European preference for parliamentary over presidential democracy; the centrality of legislation within the legal system; the option in favour of Constitutional Courts; the openness of the domestic legal systems to international and supranational law; the strength of supranational courts -in particular, the European Court of Justice, and the European Court of Human Rights.
Other topics are of a more substantive nature: How should fundamental rights be interpreted and enforced? Are private individuals bound by them? What duties must the government comply with? We will focus on particular rights, in order to distil some distinctive principles of European law. When it comes to freedom of speech, religious liberties, and the rights of criminal defendants, for example, interesting differences emerge between the European and the American approaches.
Two credits. There will be a final exam. Writing a paper is an alternative option.
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Constitutional Strategies In Latin America
Class Unique #: 28645 Instructor: Ferreres/Sager
Course #: 279M Credits: 2
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
CLASS MEETS MARCH 1-APRIL 23.
The goal of this course is to examine the different strategies that countries may pursue in order to realize constitutional ideals. We will try to draw lessons from different parts of the world, but our main focus will be Latin- America.
We will deal, first, with foundational questions: What matters should the Constitution speak to, and how specific should its provisions be? How hard should it be to amend them in the future? Are social rights

to be included? What should the Constitution say about the basic rules of the economic system? Concerning the principle of separation of powers, how should it be articulated? What, in particular, should be the relationship between the President and Congress? How does the presence of political parties affect the operation of the system?
Another question we will explore relates to the best ways to guarantee the Constitution’s status as higher law. Should the ordinary judiciary be entrusted with constitutional review of legislation, or should a special organ (whether a Constitutional Court, or a special chamber within the Supreme Court) be instituted for these purposes?
A final theme concerns the relationship between the domestic legal system and international law. What role should the Inter-American Court of Human Rights play, for example, and how should its jurisprudence be enforced by domestic courts? In the area of economic cooperation and integration, as in NAFTA and MERCOSUR, how should the international and the domestic institutions and players interact with each other?
Two credits. There will be a final exam. Writing a paper is an alternative option.
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Clinics
Human Rights Clinic
Class Unique #: 28950 Instructor: Dulitzky, A
Course #: 397C Credits: 3 – pass/fail
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
** This course meets the Professional Skills requirement for graduation.
HUMAN RIGHTS CLINIC IS A 6-HR. CLINIC. STUDENTS MUST REGISTER FOR BOTH 397C AND 397D.
In the Human Rights Clinic, an interdisciplinary group of law students and graduate students work on human rights projects and cases from the advocate’s perspective. Through working on specific projects and participation in the classroom component of the clinic, students learn substantive human rights law, practice important advocacy techniques and explore different models for ethical, responsible and effective human rights advocacy.
Students participating in the clinic take on primary responsibility for their cases and projects, with guidance and mentoring from the clinic faculty. The cases and projects handled by the Human Rights Clinic are diverse and illustrate the breadth of human rights practice, including fact finding, reporting and press and other public advocacy. The Clinic seeks to develop both theoretical and practical skills, through student involvement in activities such as supporting litigation of human rights claims in domestic and international fora; investigating and documenting human rights violations; supporting advocacy initiatives before United Nations, regional, and national human rights bodies; and engaging with global and local human rights campaigns.
The Clinic draws from the successful experience of the Advanced Human Rights Advocacy Course taught in the spring of 2008. In that course, students helped to prepare an amicus brief submitted to the
Peruvian Court trying former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for human rights abuses; analyzed and documented human rights violations taking place as a result of plans to construct a wall along the Texas/Mexico border; documented the situation of rural workers in Guatemala; supported the request of the Ecuadorean Truth Commission for the declassification of documents related to human rights abuses in that country; drafted a legal analysis supporting the reopening by a prosecutor of a criminal investigation into a 1980s forced disappearance in Honduras; prepared a study for a Colombian think tank regarding the functioning of public institutions dealing with discrimination in Latin America; and prepared a claim for protection of traditional lands to be brought by an Afro- Brazilian quilombo community before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
The Clinic employs an innovative approach. While all the projects and cases entail working in partnership with international institutions national agencies and/or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) some of those projects will be part of long-term relationships with partner organizations and community activists to advocate for the advancement of the specific rights. As part of this long term involvement, students will be offered the opportunity of continuing to work with their projects, through summer internships with our partner organizations.
All the cases and projects involve research, writing, and an opportunity to discuss the strategies used by our organizational and individual partners. The cases and projects provide the students an opportunity to gain practical skills in partnering with other students, institutions, and organizations, thus forming a team of advocates. Finally, all the projects and cases allow a multidisciplinary approach and permit working across disciplines and use the perspectives of different fields to enhance the overall theoretical framework.
In addition to selecting the Clinic during Early Registration, students must fill out a short application.
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Immigration Clinic
Class Unique #: 28955 Instructor: Hines, B/Gilman
Course #: 397C Credits: 3 – pass/fail
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
** This course meets the Professional Skills requirement for graduation.
IMMIGRATION CLINIC IS A 6-HR. CLINIC. STUDENTS MUST REGISTER FOR BOTH 397C AND 397D.
Student attorneys in the Immigration Clinic provide crucial representation to vulnerable low-income immigrants. Through legal representation of clients and participation in the classroom component of the clinic, students learn substantive immigration law, practice important legal advocacy techniques and explore models for ethical, responsible and effective lawyering. The cases handled by the Immigration Clinic are diverse and illustrate the breadth of immigration practice. The clinic has handled cases for clients from, among other countries, Colombia, El Salvador, Eritrea, Guinea, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe. The Clinic’s cases range from asylum claims based on political persecution or religious, ethnic or gender-based violence to claims of United States citizenship by individuals born abroad to U.S. citizen parents whose status has not been recognized by immigration authorities. An important component of the clinic’s caseload involves work at the T.Don Hutto Detention Center in nearby Taylor, Texas. The controversial facility previously held families and now holds women immigrants who are seeking asylum. Student attorneys seek release for detainees at Hutto and provide representation throughout their asylum cases in some circumstances.
Student attorneys in the clinic take on primary responsibility for their cases, with guidance and mentoring from the clinic faculty. Each semester, the clinic’s student attorneys conduct a range of lawyering activities including: client interviewing, development of case strategy, brief writing, preparation of witnesses, and presentation of cases before the courts and the immigration agency. Some of the clinic’s cases are handled administratively before the Department of Homeland Security and involve an interview process while other cases require full trials in the immigration courts, including document submission, witness examination and closing arguments. Yet other cases involve appellate brief writing and legal argument before the federal and immigration courts. The Immigration Clinic advocates on broader immigration issues and policy as well.
The Immigration Clinic meets for class two times per week for an hour and a half. Grading is on a pass/fail basis for this six-credit hour clinic. There is no final exam or paper. Students should expect to spend 10-20 hours per week on Clinic work, including class time and office hours. Students will occasionally travel to the Hutto facility and to San Antonio where the Immigration Court and the offices of the Department of Homeland Security are located.
Students are encouraged to apply for the clinic during early registration as enrollment is limited. Faculty permission is required to register. Students should submit an application by the end of the early registration period. The application questionnaire should be returned to the clinic’s administrator, Sonja Hartley, by e-mail at shartley@law.utexas.edu or by hand to the clinic office at CCJ 1.310. Students may request to be placed on a waiting list if space is unavailable during registration.
For more information about the Immigration Clinic, contact Barbara Hines (bhines@law.utexas.edu, 232-1310) or Denise Gilman (dgilman@law.utexas.edu, 232-7796). We also invite you to visit the Clinic offices.
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National Security Clinic
Class Unique #: 28970 Instructor: Natarajan, R
Course #: 397C Credits: 3 – pass/fail
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
** This course meets the Professional Skills requirement for graduation.
NATURAL SECURITY CLINIC IS A 6-HR. CLINIC. STUDENTS MUST REGISTER FOR BOTH 397C AND 397D.
The National Security Clinic offers students the opportunity to work directly on issues relating to the government’s counter-terrorism efforts both domestic and abroad. Students in the clinic work on a wide variety of legal issues, including: the detention, treatment, and prosecution of alleged terrorists; the designation and closing of charitable organizations on allegations of terrorism financing; military justice issues such as the jurisdiction and procedures of m
ilitary commissions; the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendment impacts of national security policies; and the scope of executive powers during wartime. In past semesters, students have participated in federal court litigation in civil, criminal, and habeas cases before district courts and appellate courts, either through direct representation of parties or through amici. Students have also worked on legislative and advocacy projects and drafted legal materials for policymakers. While honing their lawyering skills through casework, students will also explore the intersections of national security law, international humanitarian law, and human rights.
There are no prerequisite courses. Students who have taken the Rule of Law in Wartime course or the National Security Law course are encouraged to apply. First-semester second-year students are welcome to apply. Enrollment is limited.
Permission of the instructors is required to register. To apply, all interested students should send a cover letter, resume, and law school transcript to Sonja Hartley, the Administrator for the National Security Clinic, at shartley@law.utexas.edu. In the cover letter, students should include, among other things, their reasons for applying to the Clinic, any related work or academic experience or interests, and a list of all academic, work, volunteer, and other commitments for the semester. The initial application deadline for applications is the end of the early registration period. Applications submitted after early registration will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and additional students may be admitted if spots are available.
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Transnational Worker Rights Clinic
Class Unique #: 28980 Instructor: Beardall, W
Course #: 397C Credits: 3 – pass/fail
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
** This course meets the Professional Skills requirement for graduation.
TRANSNATIONAL WORKER RIGHTS CLINIC IS A 6-HR. CLINIC. STUDENTS MUST REGISTER FOR BOTH 397C AND 397D.
Students in this clinic will represent low-income transnational migrant workers mainly in the Austin area in cases recovering unpaid wages for work performed, and will engage in related advocacy projects asserting the rights of low-wage workers here and abroad. The Clinic gives students hands-on experience with civil litigation, basic employment law, public interest practice, and the emerging field of transnational migrant worker rights. The Clinic seeks to make the links between advocacy for the employment rights of transnational workers laboring in Central Texas and advocacy for the labor and human rights of low-wage working people around the globe.
Clinic students will serve as primary legal counsel representing and advising migrant worker clients in wage rights litigation, administrative actions, community- based enforcement strategies, and wage claims filed for criminal prosecution on wage theft charges. Depending on the requirements of each case, students will: interview and advise clients; investigate cases and develop case strategy; negotiate with opposing parties; initiate and manage active litigation; prepare legal documents including pleadings, motions and discovery; research legal issues; and represent clients in hearings or court proceedings. The clinic’s legal advocacy is based on a community-lawyering model which seeks to accomplish more than just winning individual cases; the clinic also aims to promote systemic reforms that make the justice system more fair for transnational workers and to empower clients with the knowledge, skills, and collective capacity through which they can advance their own employment rights. In addition the clinic seeks to ground each student’s particular casework within the dynamic, emerging field of transnational and international labor rights advocacy.
Bill Beardall, the clinical instructor, is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Executive Director of the Equal Justice Center, the former Director of the Migrant Worker Division of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and a nationally recognized expert on low-wage employment rights. He has over 30 years of experience representing migrant workers and mentoring young employment litigation lawyers.
The casework component of the Clinic is conducted in collaboration with the Equal Justice Center, a non-profit public-interest law center, based in Austin and San Antonio, which advocates for the rights of low-income workers. The clinic requires students to devote substantial time each week to handling active cases for real clients, including scheduled office hours at the Equal Justice Center office in South Austin and periodic conferences with the clients as needed. During the first week of the course, before starting their casework assignments, students will receive an intensive classroom orientation on low-wage employment litigation practice.
The classroom component of the clinic will meet once a week for two hours. The classroom work will place the employment rights of transnational workers in a broader, interdisciplinary framework of evolving national and international labor and human rights advocacy. Instruction will address the challenges of adapting U.S. and international law and legal practice to our increasingly transnational labor market. Subtopics include: U.S. and international immigration and labor policy; wage laws and contract law as they affect transnational workers; the tension between immigration laws and labor rights; rights of transnational “guest workers”; civil litigation and representation skills specific to transnational worker cases; freedom of association and the right to organize; ethical issues in employment rights representation; community-based legal strategies and civic participation rights; international labor and human rights standards; and evolving domestic and international mechanisms for the enforcement of worker rights.
The clinic is open to students who have completed the first year of law school. While there are no prerequisites, students will benefit from previous course work or experience relating to employment law, immigration law, international law, human rights law, low-wage working people, migrant workers or immigrant communities, and experience in or regarding Latin American communities. Most clinic clients are Spanish-speakers from a variety of Latin American countries. Spanish proficiency accordingly is preferred, but is not required.
Questions about the clinic may be directed to Bill Beardall at bill@equaljusticecenter.org. Please put “Worker Rights Clinic” in the subject line of any communication.
TO APPLY, DOWNLOAD AN APPLICATION.
This clinic has been established through a generous grant from the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation.
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Regular Courses.
Con Law II: Foreign Affairs & The Constitution
Class Unique #: 28800 Instructor: Frumkin, E
Course #: 381C Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
This is a course about the legal authority of the national government over foreign affairs. The course examines the constitutional origins of authority over foreign affairs, and the legal mechanisms that limit the exercise of that authority, including separation of powers, federalism, and the protection of individual rights. The course proceeds by examining the legal responses to important events in American life, including President Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus, the Vietnam, Kosovo and Iraq wars, as well as recent tensions between civil liberties and responses to the war on terrorism. The topics to be considered include the distribution of foreign affairs authority between the three branches of the federal government (including the power to initiate and regulate the use of force); the role of courts in foreign affairs (including foreign sovereign immunity, the political question and act of state doctrines); the relationship between the federal government and the states in regulating foreign affairs; the domestic status and scope of treaties and other international agreements; the status of international law in U.S. courts; and the extraterritorial application of the U.S. Constitution and federal statutes.
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Conflict Of Laws
Class Unique #: 28835 Instructor: Weintraub, R
Course #: 382 Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Every legal system has choice-of-law rules that tell a court or arbitrator what law to apply when the facts have contacts with more than one jurisdiction with laws that would produce different results. Over the past 50 years there have been important changes in these rules both in the U.S. and abroad. Transactional attorneys can do much at the planning stage to control choice of law, primarily by drafting a choice-of-law agreement without the ambiguities and omissions common in such agreements. Litigators have to master choice of law both in arguing that issue to a judge or arbitrator and deciding where to sue.
The course concentrates on choice of law with a substantial comparative component. The European Union and Japan have in the last few years-enacted choice-of-law codes.
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Emergence Of Modern European Law
Class Unique #: 28387 Instructor: Markesinis, B
Course #: 243E Credits: 2
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
The aim of the course will be to sketch the different developments of modern European law both on the Continent of Europe and in England and the U.S.A. The content of the course will be historical and cultural as it will proceed to demonstrate the impact which Roman law, political and other geographical factors have had on the emergence of modern European culture and legal science.
The course will be especially interesting to students who wish to take a break from “black letter” law courses.
A collection of photocopied materials has been assembled for the purpose of sparing students the task of looking up articles and other materials from many sources.
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International Trade
Class Unique #: 28840 Instructor: Hansen, P
Course #: 382D Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
This course examines the law of international trade in goods and services, focusing principally on the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). We will examine international rules concerning, among other things, tariff and non-tariff barriers, discrimination, dumping, government subsidies, and safeguards. We will also study the role of regional trade systems, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The course will also spend time considering the relationship between trade and other regulatory areas or social values, such as environmental protection, health and safety standards, human rights, and intellectual property protection.
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International Human Rights & Justice Workshop
Class Unique #: 28670 Instructor: Engle, K
Course #: 279M Credits: 2
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
This course is an interdisciplinary speaker-based workshop on international human rights law. We will read academic papers and hear them presented by their authors. Roughly half of the class weeks will involve outside speaker presentations. The other classes will involve discussions of background readings on international human rights and class discussions of the papers to be presented by outside speakers. Students will be expected to write critical reaction papers for several of the papers presented and to provide additional readings to facilitate increased understanding of one of the papers.
The course is open to application for all rising 2Ls and 3Ls and non-law grad students. It is limited to students who have taken courses at the undergraduate, graduate or professional level in international human rights, public international law or international relations. Appropriate experience might also substitute for the background course requirements. Students must receive the professor’s approval to enroll in the class. To apply to enroll, please send a short (300 words, one-page) statement explaining your background and interest in human rights, including any international law courses you have taken, and a on
e-page resume, to Alia Hasan at ahasan@law.utexas.edu.
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International Investor-State Arbitration
Class Unique #: 28744 Instructor: Tyler Et Al.
Course #: 379M Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Large investments in foreign countries are vulnerable to mistreatment by the host government. The recent wave of nationalizations in Venezuela and the Russian government’s treatment of oil giant Yukos are examples of the troubles encountered by foreign investors with interests in sometimes unfriendly locales. Such government actions have triggered the rise in international investor-state arbitration. Billions of dollars worth of arbitral claims against foreign governments are currently pending in arbitration proceedings worldwide.
Most of these claims arise from a network of treaties that protect investors against the political risk of improper actions by governments in countries receiving foreign investment. This network includes multilateral treaties like the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”), the Energy Charter Treaty, over 2,600 bilateral investment treaties (“BITs”), and the Washington (or ICSID) Convention. Substantive provisions protect against expropriation, unfair treatment, and discrimination. Procedural protections include arbitration by foreign, private investors directly against States, outside the host country.
The global economic crisis may contribute to the woes of foreign investors. As regimes (and commodity prices) change, host governments will sometimes seek to change the terms of the foreign investor’s deal. This has occurred in recent years with special frequency in the energy and banking sectors. Bolivia announced nationalizations of foreigners’ oil and gas interests there. Venezuela has taken over foreign companies’ oil and gas projects as well as foreign-owned banks. The front page of any international newspaper is rife with such disputes. All sectors face political perils when investing overseas, including construction, telecommunications and food processing.
Investor-state arbitration has had an obvious impact on foreign governments. Even the most hostile foreign governments are concerned because they can now be sued, directly, by foreign investors. Awards are paid from the national treasury. The course will therefore address the inevitable political, economic, and policy questions raised by this significant cession of sovereignty to private actors.
The course will introduce students to the network of treaty protection and its practical implementation. Students will be taken through the identical arbitration process as that experienced by investors in some of the most important cases in recent years. Core materials for this course include the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and arbitral awards involving claims against foreign governments. To provide the business background of energy deals, guest speakers from major international companies will clarify the real stakes of this emerging area of international arbitration.
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International Litigation & Arbitration
Class Unique #: 28850 Instructor: Weintraub, R
Course #: 382R Credits: 3
** This course meets the Professional Skills requirement for graduation.
The course considers the special problems of litigating or arbitrating a dispute that has significant connections with more than one country. Although of obvious interest to litigators, the focus is on planning and drafting to be in the best tactical position should litigation or arbitration result. A major focus is comparative–how various countries deal with the same issues. The course is open to first year students. Frequently a first year student has received the top grade. Students who have taken International Business Litigation may not take this course. Topics covered in the course are:
1. Suing foreign defendants including problems of in personam and in rem jurisdiction; agreements selecting a forum for litigation or arbitration; enjoining suit abroad; service of process on foreign defendants; obtaining evidence in foreign countries.
2. Suits in U.S, courts by foreign plaintiffs including tactics by plaintiffs and defendants to prevent or obtain forum non conveniens dismissal of such suits.
3. Recognition of domestic judgments in foreign countries.
4. The Act of State doctrine.
5. Foreign sovereign immunity from suit and attachment or execution. Many commercial enterprises are considered foreign sovereigns if they are majority owned by a foreign country.
6. Application of public law, such as antitrust and securities regulations, to persons and events in foreign countries.
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Introduction To European Union Law
Class Unique #: 28750 Instructor: Dammann, J
Course #: 379M Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
This course provides a general introduction into the law of the European Union. We will cover the European Union’s history, institutional structure, and general constitutional architecture as well as various areas of substantive law. Particular emphasis will be placed on the law governing the so-called fundamental freedoms as well as on the role, structure, and functioning of the Court of Justice of the European Communities.
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Invisible Global Marketing
Class Unique #: 28745 Instructor: Mahajan, V
Course #: 379M Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Developing markets, which are home to 86 percent of the world’s population, not only represent the future of global commerce but present rich opportunities today. These opportunities c
an be seen in growing markets for luxury goods among a newly minted luxury class, entry-level automobiles and appliances for a burgeoning middle class and low-cost products for poor and rural customers. Today about half of the estimated 1.7 billion members of the “consumer class” live in the developing world and this percentage is increasing year by year.
But companies won’t realize these opportunities through the market strategies that work in the markets of the developed world. In developing markets, there are no smooth superhighways, no distribution networks, and, in many cases, no electricity. These markets are younger, behind in technology (but rapidly catching up) and inexperienced as consumers. These characteristics, which can present obstacles, also create opportunities for companies with the right strategies.
Specifically the course objectives are:
* Provide students with an understanding of the unique market realities of the developing counties.
* Discuss creative and profitable market strategies that are being implemented by companies to leverage in 86% opportunity.
The course will be of particular value to students planning careers in management consulting, NGOs, foundations, and multinational companies.
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Legal Research, Adv: Foreign & International Law
Class Unique #: 28270 Instructor: Pratter, J
Course #: 132C Credits: 1 – pass/fail
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
** This course meets the Professional Skills requirement for graduation.
The sources and methods of research in foreign and international law are largely excluded from the first year training in legal research. Yet, both international law and the law of foreign countries are today of ever-increasing significance to American lawyers. The purpose of the course is to introduce the information sources in these fields and the ways of doing research in them, tailored to the needs of American law students and lawyers. Areas covered include: public international law, including treaty research; documentation of international organizations, including the UN and the European Union, particularly as available on the WWW; the law of other countries, with the emphasis on jurisdictions that American lawyers are likely to encounter, e.g., Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany; selected topics with an international component, e.g., commercial arbitration, intellectual property, international litigation.
The grade is based on the completion of research exercises. There is no exam. This is a one-credit, mandatory Credit/No Credit course. It is taught during the first seven weeks of the semester.
Prerequisite: A law school course with an international or comparative focus, which may be taken simultaneously. Familiarity with online legal research, including Westlaw, Lexis, and WWW.
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Mexican & Latin American Law
Class Unique #: 28675 Instructor: Munoz, M
Course #: 279M Credits: 2
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
The objective of this class is to provide you with the vocabulary and information you will need to communicate with Spanish-speaking lawyers and clients and to help you understand their different legal cultures. Spanish differs from country to country in Latin America. You will learn some of the subtleties that differentiate how legal Spanish is used throughout Latin America, and the way to communicate with Spanish-speaking lawyers and clients who do not speak any or very limited English. The class will be taught 50% in English and 50% in Spanish. Therefore, ability to read, write and converse in Spanish is required. You will learn not only to communicate with clients and lawyers from Latin America but also some differences between the common law and the civil law systems, and how to explain in Spanish some American legal terms and concepts that do not exist in Latin American legal systems. There will be guest lecturers from both the U.S. and Latin America who will bring a range of perspectives to the course.
Attendance is required and your participation will be fundamental to take the final examination.
There will be a final essay examination and three short papers, written in Spanish, that will be required during the semester. Enrollment will be limited to twenty students.
Readings will be assigned from M&P; The Civil Law Tradition (John Henry Merryman, Rogelio Perez-Perdomo, Third Edition 2007), C&L; Spanish-English Compendium of Law (Contreras & Leutwyler), and ML Mexican Law (Sthephen Zamora, Jose Ramon Cossio, Leonel Pereznieto, Jose Roldan-Xopa, David Lopez, 2004). I may distribute additional materials.
Students will be required to prepare and present in class two group presentations in Spanish on assigned problems.
STUDENTS WHO TOOK SPANISH FOR LAWYERS IN SPRING 2008 ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO TAKE THIS CLASS; DUPLICATIVE COURSE.
—
Policy Making In A Global Age
Class Unique #: 28525 Instructor: Gavin, F
Course #: 371V Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
The The United States is will likely remain the most important actor on the international stage for some time. Understanding how America engages the rest of the world — and how it develops and executes U.S. foreign policy — is of fundamental importance. One of the most effective ways to examine U.S. foreign policy development is through historical analysis. Moreover, because policymakers use their understanding of the past when developing current foreign policies (whether they realize it or not), developing sophisticated historical skills is critical for anyone involved in policy development.
Week to week, we will explore the following questions: How does the U.S. foreign policymaking process work? What forces and interests shape the policymaking and implementation process? Who and
what are the most important actors and institutions making American foreign policy, and how do they interact? What role does ideology, economics, bureaucratic politics and public opinion play? How does the influence of these forces change over time? How can we evaluate whether particular policies were successes or failures? How do policymakers use the past to understand the present? Furthermore, American foreign policy takes place within an international context. How is the American foreign policymaking process different from that of other countries? How does the US foreign policy apparatus interact with the foreign policy institutions of other states, or with international and non-governmental actors?
This course will investigate these issues by exploring how American foreign, foreign economic, and national security policy has been made and implemented in the past.
After a broad historical overview of American foreign policy during the 20th century, we will study in depth the development of American policy over time in two specific cases: U.S. policy in Southeast Asia during the Cold War and U.S. nuclear non-proliferation policy. This will allow us to examine how particular policies and processes develop and evolve over time and across administrations. It will also give us a more in-depth understanding of how the foreign policy making process works and why certain policies succeed and other fail.
—
Public International Law
Class Unique #: 28845 Instructor: Jinks, D
Course #: 382G Credits: 3
This course provides a basic introduction to public international law. It will survey the basic principles of international law including: the sources of international law; the law and interpretation of treaties; the relationship between international and domestic law; and jurisdictional competencies. It will also examine a number of specific subjects including: the use of force; human rights; humanitarian law; international criminal law; and terrorism.
—


Ancient Greek Law
Class Unique #: 29165 Instructor: Gagarin, M
Course #: 397S Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Greek law was, in certain respects, very different from modern Western legal systems. Most strikingly, it was almost entirely in the hands of amateurs. In Athens, litigants came to court themselves and pleaded their cases directly to large juries composed of ordinary citizens. There were no trained judges, lawyers or legal scholars. There were also no public prosecutors and no police (except for a few slaves who helped with crowd control at public gatherings). Legal actions were initiated by the individuals who were directly or indirectly affected. Traditionally legal historians have regarded such a legal system as a recipe for certain disaster, but more recently scholars have begun to recognize that it actually worked quite well and that it was in fact not so different from our own system as one might think.
We are particularly fortunate to have about 100 speeches preserved that were delivered in actual trials in Athens during the period 420-320 BCE. These speeches take us directly into the world of litigation, and they show that in many respects, issues, attitudes, and legal strategies have changed little over time. Most of this course will be structured around the reading of a selection of these speeches, and we will focus on the nature of law and litigation in Athens in this period. But we will also examine the historical background to Athenian law and the evidence for law in other Greek cities (especially the law code of the city of Gortyn). These will help us understand Athenian law in its proper context.
The aim of this course is to understand Greek law both in itself and for the light it can shed on the nature of our own law and law in general. To this end we will try to understand the attitudes and assumptions that lie behind the speeches, as well as the issues that are addressed explicitly. In the course of reading the speeches we will also consider legal issues relating to social class, sexual roles, slavery, rhetoric, truth, political ideology, and others. Ultimately we will be asking why these litigants are using the legal system and how well the law is serving their needs.
The course will be structured as a writing seminar. During the first few weeks students will choose topics (I will be quite flexible about the topics), and will prepare first an oral presentation in class and then a substantial seminar paper (20-30 pages) on this topic. The class will be small, and class periods will be devoted primarily to discussion, both of the reading and of the other students’ reports. There will be no exams. The final grade will depend largely on the paper, but the student’s oral report and participation in discussion during the semester will also be counted.
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Comparative Constitutional Design
Class Unique #: 29205 Instructor: Levinson/Elkins
Course #: 397S Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
“Constitutional design” is a growth industry these days, especially since 1989 and the breakdown of the USSR (not to mention the extremely important constitution drafted in South Africa in the early 1990s). There is also, of course, the example of Iraq. This course will draw on a variety of comparative materials in order to examine a variety of questions facing anyone engaging in the enterprise of designing a constitution. One question, of course, is whether any specific answers will be so context specific, depending on the culture and political situation of a particular country, that there are no useful generalities that could possibly learned about such stock issues as, for example, electoral systems; parliamentarianism v. presidentialism; bicameralism v. unicameralism within the legislative branch; authorizing presidential vetoes (and whether such vetoes such be overridable and, if so, with what percentage of votes in the legislature); structuring the judiciary; allowing the “suspension” of the Constitution during times of “emergency”; and amending the constitution itself. There are also questions surrounding the method of selecting those entrusted with designing a constitution and then what process of ratification, if any, will monitor the designers’ handiwork. Although we will certainly look at the United States Constitution along the way, the course will necessarily
be comparative, looking a constitutions, both existing and defunct, around the world. The assignments will be drawn primarily from books and articles written by political scientists (in part because legal academics, fixated as they/we are on the “litigated constitution,” have strikingly little that is useful to say about the issues that are the core of this course. Students will be expected to write research papers focusing either on a range of topics confronted in drafting a specific constitution or how a specific issue was resolved (or not) in a variety of recent constitutions.
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Con Law II: Foreign Affairs & The Constitution
Class Unique #: 28800 Instructor: Frumkin, E
Course #: 381C Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
This is a course about the legal authority of the national government over foreign affairs. The course examines the constitutional origins of authority over foreign affairs, and the legal mechanisms that limit the exercise of that authority, including separation of powers, federalism, and the protection of individual rights. The course proceeds by examining the legal responses to important events in American life, including President Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus, the Vietnam, Kosovo and Iraq wars, as well as recent tensions between civil liberties and responses to the war on terrorism. The topics to be considered include the distribution of foreign affairs authority between the three branches of the federal government (including the power to initiate and regulate the use of force); the role of courts in foreign affairs (including foreign sovereign immunity, the political question and act of state doctrines); the relationship between the federal government and the states in regulating foreign affairs; the domestic status and scope of treaties and other international agreements; the status of international law in U.S. courts; and the extraterritorial application of the U.S. Constitution and federal statutes.
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Comparative Constitutional Law
Class Unique #: 29195 Instructor: Markovits, I
Course #: 397S Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
A constitution is the idealized self-portrait of a nation: it reflects where a country stands no less than how it would like to be perceived. In this seminar, we will examine how similar constitutional issues are resolved in various countries around the world in order to gain insight both into the nature of the societies involved and of the possibilities and limits of constitutional law. Some of the topics we will deal with: constitutional points of departure (adaptations, new beginnings, utopias, constitutions as lies); constitutions as social blueprints (constitutional views of the family, of education, the welfare state); varieties of constitutional rights (political rights, social rights, constitutional goals); the impact of constitutions (judicial review, political questions, the impact of constitutions on ordinary law). Students will write and present papers that interpret and analyze a particular constitution of their choice. Xeroxed materials.
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Global Climate Change Policy
Class Unique #: 29210 Instructor: Coleman, L
Course #: 397S Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Professor Lynn R. Coleman
1440 New York Ave, NW
202-371-7600
lcoleman@skadden.com
Washington, D.C. 20005
Projected impacts of global warming are environmental problems largely caused by use of fossil fuels for energy. Proposed solutions involve major environmental measures and huge changes in the way energy is made and used. It is therefore appropriate to study the subject from the standpoints of both energy and environmental policy. The seminar will examine how the world got where it is now and how that has been influenced by previous environmental and energy law, regulation and other government policies, including national security, economic development, taxation and consumer protection. This will include characteristics of energy industries and natural gas and electric utilities and how their structure and regulation has influenced fuel choices over the last century. We will review current scientific and economic studies of future impacts of global warming and the effectiveness, economic and political feasibility of proposed solutions by states, regional organizations, the U. S. Congress and international institutions.
Each student will select, in consultation with the instructor, the topic for a research paper, prepare a short outline and make an oral presentation to seminar colleagues and the instructor for discussion and questions and then prepare and submit a final paper.
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Immigration Law & Crimes
Class Unique #: 29310 Instructor: Hines, B
Course #: 397S Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
The immigration consequences of criminal convictions have severe effects on a non-citizen’s ability to remain in the U.S. Due to the expansion of and retroactive application of criminal grounds of removal (deportation), many non-citizens, including those who have lived for many years in this country, have few avenues that allow them to remain in the U.S. Others face mandatory detention with no possibility of release while their immigration case is pending. Many criminal lawyers have no familiarity with the immigration consequences of criminal conduct and counsel their clients to accept pleas that result in deportation.
Because of increased federal and local government efforts to identify non-citizens with criminal convictions, greater numbers of non-citizens are entering the immigration
system. The government has also increasingly not only applied civil removal proceedings against non-citizens but has criminally prosecuted them. While some oppose the expansion of the deportation of non-citizens, particularly those with significant family ties, others support the immigration laws and the expanded efforts to deport this population, on grounds of public safety and differentiation between citizens and non-citizens. This seminar will focus on the intersection between criminal and immigration law. We will focus on specific grounds of deportation and inadmissibility related to criminal conduct, case law and statutory analysis relating to these provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. We will analyze the laws, policies and constitutionality of retroactive application of the immigration statutes and mandatory detention of non-citizens convicted of crimes. In addition, we will consider the recent federal and local governmental policies regarding non-citizens convicted of crimes and their effectiveness and impact on the immigrant community.
Students must have previously taken the Immigration Law survey course or have had other significant immigration law experience.
Students must receive the professor’s approval to enroll in the class. Please send a short one-page statement explaining your coursework, background and interest in immigration law to shartley@law.utexas.edu. You may include a resume if you wish.
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International & Comparative Art & Antiquities Law
Class Unique #: 29270 Instructor: Baade, H
Course #: 397S Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
We will discuss (1) international agreements for the protection of national cultural heritage, especially the UNESCO Convention; (2) national legislation for the protection of antiquities, e.g., in Mexico or in Turkey; (3) rules of bona fide purchase in the key art trading countries: England, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, the United States; (4) United States customs and stolen-property trade law; (5) conflict-of-laws aspects of the international art trade; (6) practical problems of museum administration, artists’ rights, and the like; and finally (7) actual cases in these countries in recent years. I have participated in a number of these, and have a fairly extensive collection of records: briefs, testimony, customs, documentation, etc.
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Law & Terrorism
Class Unique #: 29280 Instructor: Chesney, R
Course #: 397S Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
This seminar aims to provide students with a rich grounding in a range of areas relating to the problem of terrorism. First, we will examine the scholarly literature relating to terrorism, with a special emphasis on political violence associated with what some describe as the global jihad movement. Second, we will examine the history of U.S. counterterrorism law and policy, with particular attention paid to those topics in the years immediately prior to 9/11 and to subsequent changes. Third, we will examine a broad selection of scholarship, memoirs, and other materials examining, defending, and criticizing post-9/11 law and policy.
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Emerging Issues In National Security Law
Class Unique #: 29225 Instructor: Lashus, K
Course #: 397S Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
This seminar provides a comprehensive introduction of developing issues in national and international law relating to insuring the national security. It is a study of the separation of powers in national security matters; presidential war powers; congressional and presidential emergency powers; the domestic effect of international law; the use of military force in international relations; investigating terrorism and other national security threats; prosecuting terrorists; access to national security information in the federal courts; and restraints on disclosing and publishing national security information.
This course, for second and third year students, builds upon a strong foundation of constitutional law and goes much farther in its treatment of the fundamental tension that exists in our foreign and domestic affairs by virtue of the constitutional separation of powers between the respective branches of government.
This seminar should appeal to any student who either has an interest in national security matters, including military law, or to one who is considering possible employment with the federal government in any capacity. Assessment by: class preparation and participation (30%); the required written work is in the form of a well-crafted Circuit Court opinion or legal note of interest at least 30 double-spaced pages in length (40%); and, evaluation of small group hypothetical (30%).
* Week 1 Introduction and Overview: Historical and Legal
* Week 2 Policy and Implementation: Congress, the President, and U.S. Agencies
* Week 3 Presidential war powers
* Week 4 Congressional national security powers
* Week 5 The role of the Judiciary in national security matters
* Week 6 National Security Act, FISA, and the Joint Inquiry into the Attacks of 9/11
* Week 7 National Defense and the Persian Gulf Wars
* Week 8 Homeland Security and Law Enforcement
* Week 9 The National Intelligence community
* Week 10 Prosecuting terrorists
* Weeks 11-15 In-class hypothetical: immigration law and national security
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Maritime Law: Commercial Problems
Class Unique #: 29295 Instructor: Sturley, M
Course #: 397S Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
This seminar will examine current issues in commercial maritime law, with a focus on the rules governing the carriage of goods by sea. In the spring 2010 semester, particular attention will be paid to the U.N. Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea (the Rotterdam Rules), a new multilateral convention to modernize and unify international transport law. The U.N. Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) completed the final draft of the new convention in June 2008, the General Assembly adopted the convention in December 2008, and the United States formally signed the convention on September 23, 2009.
In the early weeks of the semester, students will be introduced to the commercial and legal background in this field, including a discussion of both domestic legislation (such as the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act and the Harter Act) and the prior international regimes (such as the Hague, Hague-Visby, and Hamburg Rules). Subsequent sessions will consist largely of discussions of ongoing student research and student presentations of the results of their original research.
A traditional seminar paper will be required and the student will be assigned a letter grade based on the quality of the paper and his/her participation in class.
Although students who have completed the Admiralty course will have some advantage, prior study of Admiralty is not a prerequisite.
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Trade, Environment & Human Rights
Class Unique #: 29360 Instructor: Hansen, P
Course #: 397S Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
This writing seminar is designed to explore the linkages between international trade law, environmental protection, and human rights. It will focus on disputes involving environmental and human rights issues in the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the European Union (EU). The first six weeks of class will be devoted to discussion of scholarly articles on specific areas of conflict. During the next four weeks, students will work on their papers and meet with me individually to discuss their progress. The last four weeks will be devoted to student presentations of their papers. Prior coursework in international, environmental or human rights law is helpful, but not required.
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Terror & Consent: Const & Intl Law
Class Unique #: 28770 Instructor: Bobbitt, P
Course #: 379M Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
The world didn’t change on September 11th, 2001; it had already changed in 1990 and 9/11 and the ensuing wars against terror were the result. Thus the Wars against Terror are the successor conflict to the Long War of the 20th century that ended in 1990, and they will drive further changes to the constitutional order beyond those that the end of the Long War brought about.
The Wars on Terror embrace the three distinct but related struggles: to prevent market state terrorism, protect against gross diminution of humane conditions, and preempt the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The outcome of these wars will determine whether the new, emerging constitutional order of the market state will be composed of states of consent or states of terror.
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Here are some photos from the International Law Society’s first “Backyard BBQ”. In reality, we got rained out, big time. We even tried to move to a covered BBQ patio but the wind was blowing the rain too hard! So, the event was quickly changed to a pizza party at Red House Pizzeria on Manor in Austin.

Despite the change in plans, the event turned out to be a great success! Approx 40-50 LLM and JD students attended, and networking and mingling was at its finest. Thank you everyone who came out, and thank you to the UT Law Student Affairs Office for providing us with the funding to make this event possible!

All UT Law JD, LLM and Exchange students are invited:

1st Annual Global Backyard BBQ
hosted by the (new!) Texas Association of International Law

Come join fellow UT Law students from around the world for a delicious grilled dinner (veggie friendly too) and international socializing at a classic backyard BBQ at sunset.

When: Next Friday, November 20th, 2009; 5-8pm.

Where: Students residence near UT Law. (For privacy reasons, please contact us for directions by sending your RSVP to texasinternationallaw@gmail.com.

RSVP requested. Please email your RSVP and any questions to texasinternationallaw@gmail.com, or on the Facebook page.

Food will be plentiful, but we ask that you bring your own choice of alcoholic beverage if you would like to drink. Alternatively, non-alcoholic drinks will be available.

Hosted by the Texas Association of International Law and sponsored by Student Affairs.

———————–November 2009———————————-
*If you would like to contribute an event to the calendar, please post a comment at the bottom of this blog post, including all event info and contacts. The moderator will review your comment and add suitable events to the calendar.
NOV. 8
2nd IEL-SEERIL International Oil and Gase Law Conference: Thriving in a Challenging Environment
Institute for Energy of the The Center for American and International Law (CAIL)
November 8-10, 2009, Waldorf Hilton Hotel, London, UK,
see website: http://www.cailaw.org/iel/IEL.SEERIL_09details.html
NOV. 10
“Lives in the Law,” Nina Perales, Southwest Regional Counsel of MALDEF
Time: 11:30 am to 1:30 pm
Location: Sheffield Room, UT Law
Audience: Students
Sponsors: William Wayne Justice Center, Career Services

UT Law JD and LLM students!
Please join us this Friday, October 23, 2009 from 2:00pm-3:00pm in TNH room 3.127 for the 3rd mtg of the new Texas Assoc. of Int’l Law. We will be discussing the following:
(1) Potential org name change
(2) LLM Mentoring Program update
(3) Website update, call for tech assistance/participation
(3) Country Ambassadors Program (org reps for each country/culture, also abroad)
(4) Plans for the Int’l Happy Hour Mixer in earlyish Nov., (feat. JDs interacting w/ LLM/exchange/visiting students)
If you’re Internationally-inclined in any way, please join us!

Also check:
http://www.austin360.com/

The Texas Association of International Law (TAIL) will be having a meeting this Wednesday, Oct. 14, 3:30-4:30pm in the Jeffers Courtroom (upstairs from the big classrooms near the CSO). This meeting is intended for students interested in taking on a leadership role within TAIL, or students who are interested in investing themselves in the development of this group.

TAIL has already generated a lot of interest among students, and so in order to reach our full potential as a student organization, this meeting will be dedicated to establishing the leadership/organization structure and brainstorming ideas for the remainder of this semester and the future. We already got off to a great start at the meeting last week, but we are still looking for students who are interested in supporting TAIL through a leadership position. TAIL will need support with several TAIL committees: Fundraising, Advertising/PR, Communications/Secretary, Networking, Website, Organizational Partnerships, and the LLM mentoring program.

Everyone’s enthusiasm and interest in TAIL is so very much appreciated and needed! Once we have the structure, timeline and goals of the group set, we’ll organize for TAIL members a general meeting followed by a mix-n-mingle event which is sure to be the social engagement of the season, so you’ll want to join. After the meeting this Wednesday, I will send out the meeting notes, along with the dates for meetings and events that we have set for the future.  And heads up, after Wednesday I’ll also send out information about dues for TAIL, which we will discuss and vote on at the meeting this Wednesday, but which shouldn’t be more than $20. Also check out the website, http://texasinternationallaw.blogspot.com, and let me know if you have any great ideas or want to help with the website, the LLM program, or TAIL in general. Looking forward to seeing you Wednesday.

Human Rights Clinic
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 29065 Instructor: Dulitzky, A
Course #: 397C Credits: 3 – pass/fail
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
** This course meets the Professional Skills requirement for graduation.


Description:
In the Human Rights Clinic, an interdisciplinary group of law students and graduate students work on human rights projects and cases from the advocate’s perspective. Through working on specific projects and participation in the classroom component of the clinic, students learn substantive human rights law, practice important advocacy techniques and explore different models for ethical, responsible and effective human rights advocacy.


Students participating in the clinic take on primary responsibility for their cases and projects, with guidance and mentoring from the clinic faculty. The cases and projects handled by the Human Rights Clinic are diverse and illustrate the breadth of human rights practice, including fact finding, reporting and press and other public advocacy. The Clinic seeks to develop both theoretical and practical skills, through student involvement in activities such as supporting litigation of human rights claims in domestic and international fora; investigating and documenting human rights violations; supporting advocacy initiatives before United Nations, regional, and national human rights bodies; and engaging with global and local human rights campaigns.


In the past, students helped to prepare an amicus brief submitted to the Peruvian Court trying former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for human rights abuses; analyzed and documented human rights violations taking place as a result of plans to construct a wall along the Texas/Mexico border; documented the situation of rural workers in Guatemala; supported the request of the Ecuadorean Truth Commission for the declassification of documents related to human rights abuses in that country; drafted a legal analysis supporting the reopening by a prosecutor of a criminal investigation into a 1980s forced disappearance in Honduras; prepared a study for a Colombian think tank regarding the functioning of public institutions dealing with discrimination in Latin America; prepared a claim for protection of traditional lands to be brought by an Afro- Brazilian quilombo community before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; worked with the United Nations Special Representative on Minorities Rights; wrote a report on the human rights situation of a community affected by a mining project; released several advocacy papers related to the drafting process of a new Inter-American Convention against Racism and other forms of Discrimination and Intolerance and supported the litigation of several land claims before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.




The Clinic employs an innovative approach. While all the projects and cases entail working in partnership with international institutions national agencies and/or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) some of those projects will be part of long-term relationships with partner organizations and community activists to advocate for the advancement of the specific rights. As part of this long term involvement, students will be offered the opportunity to work with their projects, through summer internships with our partner organizations.


All the cases and projects involve research, writing, and an opportunity to discuss the strategies used by our organizational and individual partners. The cases and projects provide the students an opportunity to gain practical skills in partnering with other students, institutions, and organizations, thus forming a team of advocates. Finally, all the projects and cases allow a multidisciplinary approach and permit working across disciplines and use the perspectives of different fields to enhance the overall theoretical framework.
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Immigration Clinic
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 29070 Instructor: Hines/Gilman
Course #: 397C Credits: 3 – pass/fail
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
** This course meets the Professional Skills requirement for graduation.
Description:
Students must register for Law 397C and 397D, for a total of six credits.
Student attorneys in the Immigration Clinic provide crucial representation to vulnerable low-income immigrants. Through legal representation of clients and participation in the classroom component of the clinic, students learn substantive immigration law, practice important legal advocacy techniques and explore models for ethical, responsible and effective lawyering.


The cases handled by the Immigration Clinic are diverse and illustrate the breadth of immigration practice. The clinic has handled cases for clients from, among other countries, Colombia, El Salvador, Eritrea, Guinea, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe. The Clinic’s cases range from asylum claims based on political persecution or religious, ethnic or gender-based violence in the client’s home country to claims of United States citizenship by individuals born abroad to U.S. citizen parents but whose status has not been recognized by immigration authorities. An important component of the clinic’s caseload involves work at the T.Don Hutto Family Detention Center in nearby Taylor, Texas. Students represent children and their parents who seek asylum and release from the controversial facility that holds immigrant families.


Student attorneys in the clinic take on primary responsibility for their cases, with guidance and mentoring from the clinic faculty. Each semester, the clinic’s student attorneys conduct a range of lawyering activities including: client interviewing, develop
ment of case strategy, brief writing, preparation of witnesses, and presentation of cases before the courts and the immigration agency. Some of the clinic’s cases are handled administratively before the Department of Homeland Security and involve an interview process while other cases require full trials in the immigration courts, including document submission, witness examination and closing arguments. Yet other cases involve appellate brief writing and legal argument before the federal and immigration courts. The Immigration Clinic advocates on broader immigration issues and policy as well.


The Immigration Clinic meets for class two times per week for an hour and a half. Grading is on a pass/fail basis for this six-credit hour clinic. There is no final exam or paper. Students should expect to spend 10-20 hours per week on Clinic work, including class time and office hours. Students will occasionally travel to the Hutto facility and to San Antonio where the Immigration Court and the offices of the Department of Homeland Security are located.


Students are encouraged to apply for the clinic during early registration as enrollment is limited. Students must fill out an application, available from the Registrar and on the Clinic’s website, and receive faculty permission to register. The application questionnaire should be returned to the clinic’s administrator, Sonja Hartley, by e-mail at shartley@law.utexas.edu or in person at CCJ 1.310. Students may request to be placed on a waiting list, if space is unavailable during registration.


For more information about the Immigration Clinic, contact Barbara Hines at 232- 1310 or Denise Gilman at 232-7796, or by e-mail at bhines@law.utexas.edu or dgilman@law.utexas.edu. We also invite you to visit the Clinic offices.


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National Security Clinic
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 29075 Instructor: Natarajan/Jinks
Course #: 397C Credits: 3 – pass/fail
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
** This course meets the Professional Skills requirement for graduation.
Description:
NOTE: To apply, all interested students should send a transcript, resume, and letter of interest to Eddie Maraboto, the Administrator for the National Security Clinic, at emaraboto@law.utexas.edu. The initial application deadline is the end of the early registration period. Applications submitted after early registration will be reviewed on a rolling basis and additional students may be admitted if spots are available.
Students must register for both 397C and 397D for a total of 6 hrs.


The National Security Clinic offers students the unique opportunity to work directly on issues relating to the government s investigation, prosecution, and detention policies in its counter-terrorism efforts both domestic and abroad. Students in the clinic will work on a wide variety of issues, including: the detention and treatment of persons alleged to be unlawful combatants; the designation and closing of charitable organizations on allegations of terrorism financing; military justice, courts-martial and the treatment of civilian contractors and soldiers during wartime; the intersections of national security and the freedoms of speech, association, and religion; the scope of executive powers during wartime; and national security justifications for warrantless searches and seizures and other invasions of privacy. In past semesters, students have engaged in direct representation, written amicus briefs, and participated in district court civil and habeas litigation. Students have also worked on legislative and regulatory projects and drafted materials for policymakers. Students will hone lawyering skills while exploring broader issues relating to the law of war, national security, and civil rights and civil liberties.


Students who have taken the Rule of Law in Wartime course are encouraged to apply but it is not required. First-semester second-year students are welcome to enroll.
Permission of the instructors is required to register.
Enrollment is limited.


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Human Rights Clinic
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 29145 Instructor: Dulitzky, A
Course #: 397D Credits: 3 – pass/fail
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
** This course meets the Professional Skills requirement for graduation.
Description:
In the Human Rights Clinic, an interdisciplinary group of law students and graduate students work on human rights projects and cases from the advocate’s perspective. Through working on specific projects and participation in the classroom component of the clinic, students learn substantive human rights law, practice important advocacy techniques and explore different models for ethical, responsible and effective human rights advocacy.


Students participating in the clinic take on primary responsibility for their cases and projects, with guidance and mentoring from the clinic faculty. The cases and projects handled by the Human Rights Clinic are diverse and illustrate the breadth of human rights practice, including fact finding, reporting and press and other public advocacy. The Clinic seeks to develop both theoretical and practical skills, through student involvement in activities such as supporting litigation of human rights claims in domestic and international fora; investigating and documenting human rights violations; supporting advocacy initiatives before United Nations, regional, and national human rights bodies; and engaging wi
th global and local human rights campaigns.


In the past, students helped to prepare an amicus brief submitted to the Peruvian Court trying former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for human rights abuses; analyzed and documented human rights violations taking place as a result of plans to construct a wall along the Texas/Mexico border; documented the situation of rural workers in Guatemala; supported the request of the Ecuadorean Truth Commission for the declassification of documents related to human rights abuses in that country; drafted a legal analysis supporting the reopening by a prosecutor of a criminal investigation into a 1980s forced disappearance in Honduras; prepared a study for a Colombian think tank regarding the functioning of public institutions dealing with discrimination in Latin America; prepared a claim for protection of traditional lands to be brought by an Afro- Brazilian quilombo community before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; worked with the United Nations Special Representative on Minorities Rights; wrote a report on the human rights situation of a community affected by a mining project; released several advocacy papers related to the drafting process of a new Inter-American Convention against Racism and other forms of Discrimination and Intolerance and supported the litigation of several land claims before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.


The Clinic employs an innovative approach. While all the projects and cases entail working in partnership with international institutions national agencies and/or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) some of those projects will be part of long-term relationships with partner organizations and community activists to advocate for the advancement of the specific rights. As part of this long term involvement, students will be offered the opportunity to work with their projects, through summer internships with our partner organizations.


All the cases and projects involve research, writing, and an opportunity to discuss the strategies used by our organizational and individual partners. The cases and projects provide the students an opportunity to gain practical skills in partnering with other students, institutions, and organizations, thus forming a team of advocates. Finally, all the projects and cases allow a multidisciplinary approach and permit working across disciplines and use the perspectives of different fields to enhance the overall theoretical framework.


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Immigration Clinic
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 29150 Instructor: Hines/Gilman
Course #: 397D Credits: 3 – pass/fail
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
** This course meets the Professional Skills requirement for graduation.
Description:
Students must register for Law 397C and 397D, for a total of six credits.
Student attorneys in the Immigration Clinic provide crucial representation to vulnerable low-income immigrants. Through legal representation of clients and participation in the classroom component of the clinic, students learn substantive immigration law, practice important legal advocacy techniques and explore models for ethical, responsible and effective lawyering.


The cases handled by the Immigration Clinic are diverse and illustrate the breadth of immigration practice. The clinic has handled cases for clients from, among other countries, Colombia, El Salvador, Eritrea, Guinea, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe. The Clinic’s cases range from asylum claims based on political persecution or religious, ethnic or gender-based violence in the client’s home country to claims of United States citizenship by individuals born abroad to U.S. citizen parents but whose status has not been recognized by immigration authorities. An important component of the clinic’s caseload involves work at the T.Don Hutto Family Detention Center in nearby Taylor, Texas. Students represent children and their parents who seek asylum and release from the controversial facility that holds immigrant families.


Student attorneys in the clinic take on primary responsibility for their cases, with guidance and mentoring from the clinic faculty. Each semester, the clinic’s student attorneys conduct a range of lawyering activities including: client interviewing, development of case strategy, brief writing, preparation of witnesses, and presentation of cases before the courts and the immigration agency. Some of the clinic’s cases are handled administratively before the Department of Homeland Security and involve an interview process while other cases require full trials in the immigration courts, including document submission, witness examination and closing arguments. Yet other cases involve appellate brief writing and legal argument before the federal and immigration courts. The Immigration Clinic advocates on broader immigration issues and policy as well.


The Immigration Clinic meets for class two times per week for an hour and a half. Grading is on a pass/fail basis for this six-credit hour clinic. There is no final exam or paper. Students should expect to spend 10-20 hours per week on Clinic work, including class time and office hours. Students will occasionally travel to the Hutto facility and to San Antonio where the Immigration Court and the offices of the Department of Homeland Security are located.


Students are encouraged to apply for the clinic during early registration as enrollment is limited. Students must fill out an application, available from the Registrar and on the Clinic’s website, and receive faculty permission to register. The application questionnaire should be returned to the clinic’s administrator, Sonja Hartley, by e-mail at shartley@law.utexas.edu or in person at CCJ 1.310. Students may request to be placed on a waiting list, if space is unavailable during registration.


For more information about the Immigration Clinic, contact Barbara Hines at 232- 1310 or Denise Gilman at 232-7796, or by e-mail at bhines@law.utexas.edu or dgilman@law.utexas.edu. We also invite you to visit the Clinic offices.


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National Security Clinic
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 29155 Instructor: Natarajan/Jinks
Course #: 397D Credits: 3 – pass/fail
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
** This course meets the Professional Skills requirement for graduation.
Description:
NOTE: To apply, all interested students should send a transcript, resume, and letter of interest to Eddie Maraboto, the Administrator for the National Security Clinic, at emaraboto@law.utexas.edu. The initial application deadline is the end of the early registration period. Applications submitted after early registration will be reviewed on a rolling basis and additional students may be admitted if spots are available.
Students must register for both 397C and 397D for a total of 6 hrs.


The National Security Clinic offers students the unique opportunity to work directly on issues relating to the government s investigation, prosecution, and detention policies in its counter-terrorism efforts both domestic and abroad. Students in the clinic will work on a wide variety of issues, including: the detention and treatment of persons alleged to be unlawful combatants; the designation and closing of charitable organizations on allegations of terrorism financing; military justice, courts-martial and the treatment of civilian contractors and soldiers during wartime; the intersections of national security and the freedoms of speech, association, and religion; the scope of executive powers during wartime; and national security justifications for warrantless searches and seizures and other invasions of privacy. In past semesters, students have engaged in direct representation, written amicus briefs, and participated in district court civil and habeas litigation. Students have also worked on legislative and regulatory projects and drafted materials for policymakers. Students will hone lawyering skills while exploring broader issues relating to the law of war, national security, and civil rights and civil liberties.


Students who have taken the Rule of Law in Wartime course are encouraged to apply but it is not required. First-semester second-year students are welcome to enroll.
Permission of the instructors is required to register.
Enrollment is limited.


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Transnational Worker Rights Clinic
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 29165 Instructor: Beardall, W
Course #: 397D Credits: 3 – pass/fail
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
** This course meets the Professional Skills requirement for graduation.
Description:
Students must register for both 397C and 397D for a total of 6 hrs).
Students in this clinic will represent low-income transnational migrant workers in the Austin area in cases recovering unpaid wages for work performed, and will engage in related advocacy projects asserting the rights of low-wage workers here and abroad. The Clinic gives students hands-on experience with civil litigation, basic employment law, public interest practice, and the emerging field of transnational migrant worker rights. The Clinic seeks to draw the links between advocacy for the employment rights of transnational workers laboring in Central Texas and advocacy for the labor and human rights of low-wage working people around the globe.


Clinic students will serve as legal counsel representing and advising migrant worker clients in wage rights litigation, administrative actions, community- based enforcement strategies, and wage claims filed for criminal prosecution on wage fraud charges. Depending on the requirements of each case, students will: interview and advise clients; investigate cases and develop case strategy; negotiate with opposing parties; initiate and manage active litigation; prepare legal documents including pleadings, motions and discovery; research legal issues; and represent clients in hearings or court proceedings. The clinic’s legal advocacy is based on a community-lawyering model which seeks to accomplish more than just winning individual cases; the clinic also aims to promote systemic reforms that make the justice system more fair for transnational workers and to empower clients with the knowledge, skills, and collective capacity through which they can advance their own employment rights. In addition the clinic seeks to ground each student’s particular casework within the larger context of contemporary transnational and international labor rights advocacy.


Bill Beardall, the clinical instructor, is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Executive Director of the Equal Justice Center, the former Director of the Migrant Worker Division of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and an expert on low-wage employment rights. He has 29 years of experience representing migrant workers and training young employment litigation lawyers.


The casework component is conducted in collaboration with the Equal Justice Center, a non-profit public-interest law center, based in Austin, which advocates for the rights of low-income workers. The clinic requires students to devote substantial time each week to handling cases, including scheduled office hours at the Equal Justice Center office in South Austin and frequent conferences with clients as needed. During the first week of the course, students will receive an intensive classroom orientation before starting their casework assignments.


The classroom component of the clinic will meet once a week for two hours. The classroom work will place the employment rights of transnational workers in a broader, interdisciplinary framework of evolving national and internat
ional labor and human rights advocacy. Instruction will address the challenges of adapting U.S. and international law and legal practice to our increasingly transnational work force. Subtopics include: U.S. and international immigration and labor policy; wage laws and contract law as they affect transnational workers; the tension between immigration laws and labor rights; rights of transnational “guest workers”; civil litigation and representation skills specific to transnational worker cases; freedom of association and the right to organize; ethical issues in employment rights representation; community-based legal strategies and civic participation rights; international labor and human rights standards; and evolving domestic and international mechanisms for the enforcement of worker rights. The clinic is open to students who have completed the first year of law school. While there are no prerequisites, students will benefit from previous course work or experience relating to employment law, immigration law, international law, human rights law, low-wage working people, migrant workers or immigrant communities, or experience in or regarding Latin American communities. Most clinic clients are Spanish-speakers from a variety of Latin American countries. Spanish proficiency accordingly is preferred, but is not required.


Questions about the clinic may be directed to Bill Beardall at bill@equaljusticecenter.org. Please put “Worker Rights Clinic” in the subject line of any communication.
TO APPLY, GET AN APPLICATION FORM FROM STUDENT AFFAIRS OR CLINIC ADMINSTRATOR, BARBARA PEREZ, bperez@law.utexas.edu; CCJ 4.302c
This clinic has been established through a generous grant from the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation.


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Transnational Worker Rights Clinic
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 29085 Instructor: Beardall, W
Course #: 397C Credits: 3 – pass/fail
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
** This course meets the Professional Skills requirement for graduation.
Description:
Students must register for both 397C and 397D for a total of 6 hrs).
Students in this clinic will represent low-income transnational migrant workers in the Austin area in cases recovering unpaid wages for work performed, and will engage in related advocacy projects asserting the rights of low-wage workers here and abroad. The Clinic gives students hands-on experience with civil litigation, basic employment law, public interest practice, and the emerging field of transnational migrant worker rights. The Clinic seeks to draw the links between advocacy for the employment rights of transnational workers laboring in Central Texas and advocacy for the labor and human rights of low-wage working people around the globe.


Clinic students will serve as legal counsel representing and advising migrant worker clients in wage rights litigation, administrative actions, community- based enforcement strategies, and wage claims filed for criminal prosecution on wage fraud charges. Depending on the requirements of each case, students will: interview and advise clients; investigate cases and develop case strategy; negotiate with opposing parties; initiate and manage active litigation; prepare legal documents including pleadings, motions and discovery; research legal issues; and represent clients in hearings or court proceedings. The clinic’s legal advocacy is based on a community-lawyering model which seeks to accomplish more than just winning individual cases; the clinic also aims to promote systemic reforms that make the justice system more fair for transnational workers and to empower clients with the knowledge, skills, and collective capacity through which they can advance their own employment rights. In addition the clinic seeks to ground each student’s particular casework within the larger context of contemporary transnational and international labor rights advocacy.


Bill Beardall, the clinical instructor, is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Executive Director of the Equal Justice Center, the former Director of the Migrant Worker Division of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and an expert on low-wage employment rights. He has 29 years of experience representing migrant workers and training young employment litigation lawyers.


The casework component is conducted in collaboration with the Equal Justice Center, a non-profit public-interest law center, based in Austin, which advocates for the rights of low-income workers. The clinic requires students to devote substantial time each week to handling cases, including scheduled office hours at the Equal Justice Center office in South Austin and frequent conferences with clients as needed. During the first week of the course, students will receive an intensive classroom orientation before starting their casework assignments.


The classroom component of the clinic will meet once a week for two hours. The classroom work will place the employment rights of transnational workers in a broader, interdisciplinary framework of evolving national and international labor and human rights advocacy. Instruction will address the challenges of adapting U.S. and international law and legal practice to our increasingly transnational work force. Subtopics include: U.S. and international immigration and labor policy; wage laws and contract law as they affect transnational workers; the tension between immigration laws and labor rights; rights of transnational “guest workers”; civil litigation and representation skills specific to transnational worker cases; freedom of association and the right to organize; ethical issues in employment rights representation; community-based legal strategies and civic participation rights; international labor and human rights standards; and evolving domestic and international mechanisms for the enforcement of worker rights. The clinic is open to students who have completed the first year of law school. While there are no prerequisites, students will benefit from previous course work or experience relating to employment law, immigration law, international law, human rights law, low-wage working people, migrant workers or immigrant communities, or experience in or regarding Latin American communities. Most clinic clients are Spanish-speakers from a variety of Latin American countries. Spanish proficiency accordingly is preferred, but is not required.

Questions about the clinic may be directed to Bill Beardall at bill@equaljusticecenter.org. Please put “Worker Rights Clinic” in the subject line of any communication.
TO APPLY, GET AN APPLICATION FORM FROM STUDENT AFFAIRS OR CLINIC ADMINSTRATOR, BARBARA PEREZ, bperez@law.utexas.edu; CCJ 4.302c
This clinic has been established through a generous grant from the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation.


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Comparative Law
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 28990 Instructor: Markovits, I
Course #: 382N Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Description:
A comparative look at Western legal traditions with emphasis on two civil law countries (France and Germany) and on the English common law. We will investigate the differences between the structures of those legal systems, the education and selection of legal staff, styles of procedure, modes of thinking, and selected issues of substantive law. The main purpose of the course is to give students an understanding for different legal cultures and thus a backdrop for a fresh look at their own legal system. There will be a three-hour final exam.


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Conflict Of Laws
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 28980 Instructor: Woolley, P
Course #: 482 Credits: 4
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Description:
Conflict of Laws addresses issues that may arise when a dispute has connections with more than one state or country. The subject is generally divided into three interrelated parts: (1) territorial jurisdiction, (2) choice of law, and (3) recognition of judgments. All three topics will be covered in the class. Conflicts law outside the United States is beyond the scope of the course.


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East European Law In Transition
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 28925 Instructor: Markovits, I
Course #: 479M Credits: 4
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Description:
This is a course on the collapse of socialist law in Eastern Europe and on the progress and problems of law reform following in its wake. We will begin with a short survey of the state of socialist legality prior to 1989, trace the first stirrings of law reform in Eastern Europe in the 1980s, and then examine the uneven attempts to establish the rule of law in post-socialist countries currently in the midst of rapid economic, political and social change. The course covers a wide range of topics such as constitutional law, privatization, judicial organization, criminal law reform, corruption, and the use of law to come to terms with a totalitarian past.
This is a four-hour class, taught in three class sessions per week. There will be a two-hour open-book mid-term and a two-hour open-book final.


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Economic-Efficiency Analysis
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 28880 Instructor: Markovits, R
Course #: 379M Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Description:
This course will examine the correct (useful) way to define the concept “the impact of a choice on economic efficiency,” the economically-efficient approach to take to predicting or postdicting the economic efficiency of any private or governmental choice, the relevance of the economic efficiency of a choice to its justness or moral desirability (rights-considerations aside), and the relevance of the economic efficiency of an interpretation or application of the law to its correctness as a matter of law. The course will also criticize canonical writings that articulate or manifest conclusions on these matters that differ from the Lecturer’s. Although several weeks of the course will be devoted to the definitional and relevance issues, the majority of the course will address the economically efficient way to predict or postdict the economic efficiency of a choice in an economy that inevitably contains large numbers of Pareto imperfections of all types and uses resources in a large number of ways. More specifically, the course will consider in detail the negative implications of The General Theory of Second Best for the way in which economists approach economic-efficiency analysis and develop and apply a so-called distortion- analysis approach to economic-efficiency analysis that the Lecturer believes responds defensibly to the interconnections whose importance Second-Best Theory highlights. No background in economics, moral philosophy, or jurisprudence will be presupposed, though students without such backgrounds will have to work harder in the sections of the course to which these fields are relevant. There will be a mid-term as well as a final examination.


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Emergence Of Modern European Law
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 28610 Instructor: Markesinis, B
Course #: 243E Credits: 2
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Description:
The aim of the course will be to sketch the different developments of modern European law both on the Continent of Europe and in England and the U.S.A. The content of the course will be historical and cultural as it will proceed to demonstrate the impact which Roman law, political and other geographical factors have had on the emergence of modern European culture and legal science. It will trace the development of the law in modern Europe from the Middle Ages to modern times and the European Union while also drawing contrasts with the law in the USA.


The course will be especially interesting to students who wish to take a break from “black letter” law courses.
A collection of photocopied materials has been assembled for the purpose of sparing students the task of looking up articles and other materials from many sources.


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Global Challenges To National Innovation Systems
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 28895 Instructor: Flamm, K
Course #: 379M Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Description:
Note: This class will be coordinated with a speaker series.
Increasingly, the technical challenges that drive major science and technology policy issues, and sustain growth in high technology industries, are global in nature. They require coordination of technology investments across corporate and national boundaries, and the creation of new international coalitions or global institutions. This class will explore the theory and practice of policies responding to these global technological challenges, in a diverse set of scientific and technical areas.


The seminar will be supported in part by the Technology, Innovation, and Global Security (TIGS) program of the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law. A series of expert speaker seminars will be sponsored by the TIGS program in coordination with the class, and serve as one of the required student activities for the class.


Students enrolled in the seminar will be required to prepare analytical briefs on selected technology policy challenges, carefully analyze and absorb the invited expert presentations in these areas, then thoughtfully critique the presentations in a follow-up session. In addition, all students will be required to undertake a team technology policy analysis project, with their analysis and conclusions briefed to the seminar at the end of the semester.


Illustrative examples of possible technology policy topic areas are:
* The International Semiconductor Technology Roadmap’s Role in Sustaining IT Innovation
* New Models for Industrial R&D; Consortia
* Hackers, Phishers, and Cyberwarfare: Preparing for the Next Net War
* Recent Developments in National Patent Systems: Implications for Corporate and National Interests
* How to Create and Sustain a High Tech Cluster: Lessons from the History of Austin
* Brazil’s Success in Aerospace: Lessons for Developing Countries?
* Public and Private Technology Transfer Policies and China’s Strategy in Semiconductors
* International Patent Policy and the Future of the Indian Pharmaceutical Sector
* Changing Patterns of R&D; and Manufacturing in the Global PC Business
* Solar Power and US Energy Policy
* Reinventing the Rules in Global High Tech: Recent Developments in Global Antitrust and Competition Policies
* The Digital Horsepower Initiative: The Potential Role of Microelectronics in Energy-Efficient Infrastructure
* The Future of Nuclear Power in the United States
* Does the U.S. Face a Broadband Gap?
* Missile Defense and National Security Policy: Lessons from a 40-Year History
* New Policy Approaches to Respond to Global Climate Change
* National Security Technology Programs with International Partners: Lessons from U.S. Joint Defense System Development Programs


# The Future of Nuclear Power in the United States
# Does the U.S. Face a Broadband Gap?
# Missile Defense and National Security Policy: Lessons from a 40-Year History
# New Policy Approaches to Respond to Global Climate Change
# National Security Technology Programs with International Partners: Lessons from U.S. Joint Defense System Development Programs


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Class Information
International Commercial Arbitration
Fall 200
9


More class information (EID secure page)
Class Unique #: 28847 Instructor: Tyler, T
Course #: 279M Credits: 2


This course is restricted to upper class students only.


Description:


The course addresses the major topics in international commercial arbitration — from the contractual nature of arbitration, choice of law, jurisdiction, arbitrator selection, procedure, advocacy, and challenges to and enforcement of arbitral awards under the New York Convention. Student performance is evaluated on class participation, amounting to up to 20% of the grade and a floating final exam accounting for the remainder.


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Class Information
Immigration & Citizenship
Fall 2009


More class information (EID secure page)
Class Unique #: 28985 Instructor: Churgin, M
Course #: 382C Credits: 3


This course is restricted to upper class students only.


Description:


This is a course in the substantive law regulating immigration to the United States and the regulation of aliens in the United States. Topics covered include the constitutional law aspects of the immigration and deportation process, entry, conduct of hearings, relief from deportation, and general regulation of non-citizens. In addition, the operation of the immigration act of 1996 and other new laws will be discussed.


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International Human Rights Law
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 28620 Instructor: Dulitzky, A
Course #: 348E Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Description:
This course will provide an overview of the evolution of international human rights law, including the contours of various rights, their differences from and similarities to domestic civil rights, and ongoing debates over the relationship between rights and culture. In addition, we will examine in the various processes for the protection of human rights, including United Nations oversight bodies and regional human rights courts in Europe and Latin America. The invocation of human rights concerns into interstate relations concerning peacekeeping, humanitarian intervention, international criminal law, and trade and investment will also be considered.


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Literature And Human Rights
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 28907 Instructor: Harlow, B
Course #: 379M Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Description:
Human rights reporting, itself a genre in the contemporary world of writing and rights, entails both documentation and intervention. A recording of facts and events, of abuses of individual lives and national histories, as well as an effort to correct an official record that has systematically obscured those abuses, the writing of human rights draws of necessity on conventions of narrative and auto/biography, of dramatic representation, and discursive practices. Indeed, the thirty articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that was proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 1948 translated the standard literary paradigm of individual versus society and the narrative practices of emplotment and closure, by mapping an identification of the individual within a specifically international construction of rights and responsibilities. The Declaration, that is, can be read as recharting, for example, the trajectory and peripeties of the classic bildungsroman. While that Declaration has, since its adoption, been as much abused as used by governments throughout the world, peoples and their representatives continue to appeal to its principles. It is those written appeals, the reports of human rights monitors, the documentation of international organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other NGOs, and the narratives of individuals recounting their efforts to reconstruct a human history, that will form the basis of our discussion of the emergence of a discourse of rights in the 19th century and the altered relationships between writing and human rights at the end of the 20th, and the place of a new body of literature, the active intersection of the cultural and the political, in the changing contemporary international order.


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National Security Law
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 28713 Instructor: Chesney, R
Course #: 471N Credits: 4

This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Description:
This survey course examines a host of legal and policy issues associated with the U.S. government’s national security activities and organizations, with a particular emphasis on legal issues associated with counterterrorism. In significant part, the course will follow a quasi-chronological approach incorporating the following topics: the legal regulation of investigations (including criminal investigative rules and guidelines, national security investigations, and intelligence collection generally); substantive criminal law relating to terrorism; jus ad bellum rules governing the resort to military force and domestic Constitutional rules governing that issue; jus in bello rules governing the use of lethal military force; international and domestic laws relating to military detention; military commissions and other vehicles for the prosecution of war crimes; the current debate regarding national security courts; and the legal regulation of interrogation.
STUDENTS WHO HAVE TAKEN PROF. SIEVERT’S U.S. LAW & NATL SECURITY COURSE ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO TAKE THIS COURSE; BOTH HAVE OVERLAPPING CONTENT AND MAY NOT BOTH BE COUNTED FOR CREDIT.


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Comparative Administrative Law
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 29236 Instructor: Cane, P
Course #: 397S Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Description:
This course will cover selected topics in administrative law by comparing the position in the US with that in the UK and Australia. A basic understanding of the principles of US constitutional and administrative law is assumed. Areas covered will include the constitutional and institutional framework of administrative law, rule-making, judicial review (standing, grounds of review, remedies and so on) and non-judicial review (by ALJs, for instance). The emphasis will be on theories and concepts rather than on the detail of the law of the various jurisdictions. Assessment will be based on short written presentations to the class and a 5,000-6,000 written assignment.


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Secured Credit Workshop
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 28945 Instructor: Westbrook, J
Course #: 180R Credits: 1
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Description:
This course covers credit transactions in which the loan is secured by an interest in personal property. These transactions are largely governed by Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. The course does not cover loans secured by mortgages on real estate.


A secured loan is one in which the debtor and lender agree that if the debtor does not pay, the lender can take specific items of property from the debtor. This property is called collateral, and the lender is said to have a security interest in the collateral. The collateral may be tangible property such as inventory, equipment, and consumer goods, or intangible property such as stocks and bonds or the debtor’s right to collect from people who owe money to him. Secured credit is a very important part of both consumer and commercial lending. This course will study both contexts, examining how secured transactions are structured and why they are structured that way.


The course examines the mechanics of making secured loans, the rules that govern repossessing the collateral if the debtor doesn’t pay, and what can happen to security interests if the debtor goes bankrupt. It also examines the priority rules that rank competing claims to the same collateral. There may be many such claims. More than one secured lender may have a security interest in the collateral; unsecured creditors may seize the collateral to collect a judgment; customers or other third parties may buy the collateral; the collateral may be affixed to real estate and become subject to the claims of people with interests in the real estate.


This is also a course in statutory construction. We will devote very careful attention to using and interpreting the Uniform Commercial Code, the Bankruptcy Code, and in some sections, the Federal Tax Lien Act. We will progress from relatively simple statutory provisions to quite difficult ones, learning the skills that can be applied to all sorts of statutes.


Westbrook sometimes offers a one-hour adjunct to the Secured Credit course. This Secured Credit workshop adjunct course is open only to those taking his regular three-hour Secured Credit course. Requirements include a small number of additional classes and a 15-20 page paper on a Secured Credit topic. A student who takes this adjunct course gets one four-hour grade based on a combination of the student’s examination in the regular course and performance in the one-hour course (especially on the paper). Enrollment is limited.


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Emerging Trends In Oil & Gas Litigation
Fall 2009
Class Unique #: 29265 Instructor: Schwartz, M
Course #: 397S Credits: 3
This course is restricted to upper class students only.
Description:
A three-hour seminar course in which you will write a term paper on a “cutting edge” issue in the oil & gas litigation area. We will study and discuss a broad range of topics within this area from analysis of express and implied leas
e obligations, marketing issues, damage analysis, pollution liability, to emerging trends available for solving problems encountered in older oil and gas fields. We may have guest lectures by specialists in this field. We will discuss various trial techniques.


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