This page contains the course descriptions for current Legal Studies courses and classes that have been offered in the past. For all other courses, such as electives drawn from other departments, please refer to those departments' web pages.

Legal Studies 398-1,2: Advanced Research Seminar I and II

Offered each year.

Syllabi:

398-1

398-2

Legal Studies 376: Lawyering and the Legal Process

Attorney Cynthia Conlon

Fridays

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This class is designed to look at American lawyers: who they are, how they become lawyers, what work they perform, how we see them, how they see themselves, and what ethical issues they face. Whether you know a lawyer or have merely read some books by John Grisham, you undoubtedly have some opinions about lawyers; this class will help you determine whether your opinions are based on fact or myth. Students will take four field trips to meet with lawyers at a variety of practice settings including professional organizations, law firms, and the county criminal courts. Students will read books such as One L by Scott Turow as well as scholarly journal articles that examine topics such as gender differences in practice and ethical problems facing criminal defense attorneys. Regardless of whether you are interested in pursuing law as a career, you will benefit from learning about the legal profession and the roles that lawyers play in American society. Maximum of 20 students.

Legal Studies 376: Communication and Trial Advocacy

Attorneys Ari Fisz and Valerie Hays

Mondays 7-9 pm

Spring 2005

The purpose of this course is to provide practical training in the field of trial advocacy. The students will learn how to conduct a trial from opening statement to closing argument. Theories of persuasion, argumentation, and public speaking will be covered and applied in the courtroom setting. By the end of this course, students will have gained some valuable knowledge about the trial process, including what it takes for a trial lawyer to prepare a case and bring it to trial.

Legal Studies 394: Professional Linkage Seminar,
International Human Rights

William Schiller (Attorney, Davidson & Schiller)

Wednesdays 6-9 pm

Winter 2005

In recent years, international human rights law has expanded in unprecedented ways as legal practitioners strategize new approaches for addressing human rights violations. United States refugee law, the only law in the United States to embrace international human rights principles, has mirrored and resisted these progressive changes. In this course, students will be briefly introduced to fundamental tenets of international human rights law, and will focus for the remainder of the course on its domestic counterpart in U.S. asylum law.

Legal Studies 376: Convicting the Innocent

Robert Warden (Law School, Center for Wrongful Convictions)

Winter 2005

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This seminar will explore the phenomenon of wrongful convictions from the
founding of Jamestown to the present, examining actual cases and the flaws in the criminal justice system that led to them — erroneous eyewitness identifications, coerced confessions, perjury by witnesses testifying in exchange for leniency or other advantage for themselves, misleading and fraudulent forensic science, ineffective assistance of defense counsel, and police, prosecutorial, and judicial misconduct. The seminar will utilize video materials, including little-known documentaries focusing on the
system's myriad problems. The course will address how the criminal justice system might be reformed to improve its fairness and accuracy. Each student will be assigned to research and prepare reports on two wrongful convictions that occurred in major felony cases outside of Illinois.

READING: Actual Innocence, by Barry Scheck, et al.

Legal Studies 376: Environmental Law and Politics in the US

David Dana (NU Law School)

Wed 5:00 - 8:00 PM

Spring 2004

Description: This seminar explores a variety of topics in United States environmental law and politics. Our particular focus is on the interest group, institutional and other factors that shape the evolution of law in this area. Some aspects of international law, especially the intersection of environment and trade, may also be addressed. Students will be expected to attend each session, participate actively, and write a research paper.

Legal Studies 376: Communication and Trial Advocacy

Attorney Ari Fisz

Spring 2004

The purpose of this course is to provide practical training in the field of trial advocacy. The students will learn how to conduct a trial from opening statement to closing argument. Theories of persuasion, argumentation, and public speaking will be covered and applied in the courtroom setting. By the end of this course, students will have gained some valuable knowledge about the trial process, including what it takes for a trial lawyer to prepare a case and bring it to trial.

Legal Studies 376: The Politics of the Medical Malpractice Crisis

Stephen Daniels (ABF, Poli Sci)

Tuesday & Thursday 12:30 - 1:50

Winter 2004

The following appeared on the doors of many doctors’ offices in South Texas:

ATTENTION PATIENTS. Patients in the Rio Grande Valley are facing a MEDICAL CRISIS! Lawsuit abuse is threatening your access to good and affordable medical care. Your Doctor is concerned about this growing crisis and the impact it is having on Valley families. To protest junk lawsuits … this office will be closed on Monday, April 8th, 2002.

This course is about the politics of the medical malpractice crisis. It will focus on how a certain set of issues came to be defined as a “medical malpractice crisis” and who benefits from that characterization. In doing so it will draw from the literature on agenda-setting and the social construction of public policy problems as well as from the empirical literature on medical errors and other aspects of the medical malpractice system. Journalistic accounts of the political fights over malpractice reforms enacted in 2003, in Texas and Florida will be used to provide context.

Projects:
As a part of the course, all students will write a paper of at least 20 pages on some aspect of medical malpractice or the medical malpractice debate.

Teaching Method:
The course will be conducted as a seminar. Each student is expected to attend class and to come prepared to discuss the assigned materials.

Evaluation Method:
The grade will be based upon the paper (67%) and class participation (33%). There wil be no exams.

Readings: One book will be required (paper):

Bosk, Charles L. Forgive and Remember: Managing Medical Failure, 2nd Edition. (University of Chicago Press, 2003) ISBN 0-226-06678-9.

Other materials will be available either on-line or on reserve.

Legal Studies 394: Professional Linkage Seminar,
International Human Rights, Global/Comparative

William Schiller (Attorney, Davidson & Schiller)

Thursday 6-9 pm

Winter 2004

In recent years, international human rights law has expanded in unprecedented ways as legal practitioners strategize new approaches for addressing human rights violations. United States refugee law, the only law in the United States to embrace international human rights principles, has mirrored and resisted these progressive changes. In this course, students will be briefly introduced to fundamental tenets of international human rights law, and will focus for the remainder of the course on its domestic counterpart in U.S. asylum law.

Legal Studies 394: Professional Linkage Seminar, Convicting the Innocent

Rob Warden (Law School, Center for Wrongful Convictions)

Monday 9 am to 12 noon

Winter 2004

The seminar will explore the phenomenon of wrongful convictions in the United States from the early nineteenth century to the present, examining actual cases and the flaws in the criminal justice system that led to them — erroneous eyewitness identifications, coerced confessions, perjury by witnesses testifying in exchange for leniency or other advantage for themselves, misleading and fraudulent forensic science, ineffective assistance of defense counsel, and police, prosecutorial, and judicial misconduct. There will be a particular focus on how the system might be reformed to reduce wrongful convictions in the twenty-first century. Students will have an opportunity to meet and interview at least one wrongfully convicted person in depth. Readings will include case summaries, appellate opinions, legal briefs, books about specific cases, and various magazine and law review articles. Each student will be assigned to research and prepare a report on one wrongful conviction case.

Legal Studies 376: Police, Crime, and Society

Professor Wesley Skogan

Spring 2003

Legal Studies 376: Communication and Trial Advocacy

Attorney Ari Fisz

Winter 2003

The purpose of this course is to provide practical training in the field of trial advocacy. The students will learn how to conduct a trial from opening statement to closing argument. Theories of persuasion, argumentation, and public speaking will be covered and applied in the courtroom setting. By the end of this course, students will have gained some valuable knowledge about the trial process, including what it takes for a trial lawyer to prepare a case and bring it to trial.

Legal Studies 376: Free Speech and the McCarthy Era

Professor Martin Redish

Winter 2003

An intensive examination of the intersection between the theory of free expression and the modern historical analysis of the so-called “McCarthy Era,” the period from 1946 until 1960, during which both government and the private sector imposed heavy penalties on past and present members of the Communist Party of the United States, as well as those who were sympathetic to that cause. The seminar will explore the implications of the recently declassified “Verona Documents” for both historical and constitutional analysis. Specific issues to be examined include: Constitutional protection for unlawful activity, the impact of the McCarthy era on public education, the work of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and the relevance to the period of the First-Amendment right of “non-association.” Readings will include excerpts from works of First Amendment theorists, as well as works by historians.

This course is open to students from other majors, although preference will be given to Legal Studies majors.