Dedicated Undergraduate Law Courses

Law pervades all areas of modern life. Yet it remains mysterious to those without legal training. Do you really know what that fine print says? Or what your constitutional rights actually are? This course will equip you to better answer such questions by exploring the tools that lawyers use to interpret and apply the law. The course introduces basic components of legal reasoning and examines law as a discipline for analyzing problems. Students will learn to think like lawyers through a series of contemporary case studies that require understanding and applying legal rules.

Topics may include contracts, constitutional law, business law, criminal law, civil rights, environmental law, sports and entertainment law, education law, privacy, law and religion, and regulation of the internet.

This course surveys the laws governing the operations of a variety of types of business firms. This includes laws governing agency, partnerships, limited liability companies, limited liability partnerships, and corporations.

In addition to learning about the relevant laws, students also learn about the sources of those laws, particularly statutes and legal cases, and about the methods that lawyers use in interpreting those laws, and that law students use in learning to understand the laws. We will also consider the economic and social roles of business associations in American society, and how the law regulates those roles.

In the United States and around the world, the expectations and calls for corporate human rights engagement and accountability are intensifying. Can corporations be made responsible for human rights outcomes? Should they be responsible? For which harms and causes? What can future leaders in law, government, business, and advocacy do to intervene in the human rights impacts of businesses? 

This survey course provides a comprehensive introduction to the rapidly expanding field of "Business and Human Rights" (BHR) - as related to and distinguished from corporate social responsibility (CSR). The class will cover the relevant international regulatory frameworks, how these are operationalized by companies, and the wide range of accountability strategies. We will focus on real-world examples from a variety of issues and contexts, including cases related to LGBTQ equality, racial justice, extractive industries, food systems, finance and banking industry, armed conflict, and human trafficking. The class will benefit from guest lecturers from expert practitioners and advocates from the US and abroad.