Courses
Description: Basic principles governing the creation, interpretation and enforcement of private agreements. Offer and acceptance, consideration, the effect of changed or unforeseen circumstances, conditions and remedies.
Description: Legal protection afforded in civil proceedings against interference with the security of one's person, property, relations, and other intangible interests. Substantive principles that govern tort claims (ranging from claims for intentional wrongdoing, to negligence claims, to claims that the defendant is strictly liable for harms caused to the plaintiff), and the theoretical bases and practical implications of such claims.
Description: Problems in possession, gifts of personal property, bona fide purchasers of personal property, estates in land, landlord and tenant, the modern land transaction, controlling the use of land, easements, licenses and equitable servitudes and constitutional limitations on the power of government to restrict individual economic liberties.
Description: Substantive criminal law, focusing on the theoretical foundations, general principles, and doctrines that govern the rules of liability and defenses, both in the common law tradition and under the Model Penal Code.
Students must also take Law 514/G (3 cr hr) which is offered in the spring semester only.
Description: The emphasis of this course is on the development of legal research and writing skills; writing is the lawyer's most commonly used skill, and effective writing rests on effective research. Communicating like a lawyer, however, means not only communicating professionally but also conducting oneself ethically. In addition to providing sustained and intensive instruction on legal research and writing, this course introduces students to many facets of professionalism and to the skills necessary to make ethical and professional choices.
This course is a continuation of Law 513/G, which is a fall semester course only.
Description: The emphasis of this course is on the development of legal research and writing skills; writing is the lawyer's most commonly used skill, and effective writing rests on effective research. Communicating like a lawyer, however, means not only communicating professionally but also conducting oneself ethically. In addition to providing sustained and intensive instruction on legal research and writing, this course introduces students to many facets of professionalism and to the skills necessary to make ethical and professional choices.
Description: Introduction to federal and state court organization, jurisdiction, and procedure. Emphasis on pre-trial, trial, and post-trial procedures, including pleading, enforcement of judgements, motion practice, appellate review, and the effects of res judicata and collateral estoppel.
Description: Prepare for legal practice in a global legal environment, including an understanding of how to handle the treaty and foreign law issues that can arise in the practice of virtually every area of law. The sources of international law and the relationship of international law (particularly treaties) to the U.S. legal system. An overview of conflict of law rules, a survey of differences in the major legal systems of the world, and comparative examination of how foreign legal systems regulate other areas of law studied in the first year, such as torts, contracts, property, and civil procedure.
Description: This course will introduce you to trademark, copyright, and entrepreneurship (including social media) for entrepreneurs in general, and also more specifically those engaged in quilting, crafts, art and small hustles, like podcasts, Etsy shops, and other digital spaces. No pre-req is required but previous business and intellectual property courses are encouraged. You will be working to understand real world topics taught in traditional courses, and how we then translate complex legal concepts to our clients and the general public. We will also be working with the International Quilt Museum, which is located on the UNL campus to get a hands-on view of arts and crafts, and also doing a workshop for quilters, artists, crafters and general microentrepreneurs both in person and virtually as part of the course. The thesis is simple: whatever your business, the steps in a digital age are the same, and we'll be exploring those in this course.
Not limited to patent-specific students; technical background is not required. Appropriate for students seeking careers in intellectual property, transactional, mergers/acquisitions, litigation, and business law as well as those seeking careers in business and technical fields. Open to law students, graduate-level engineering and science majors, MBA students, and graduate-level entrepreneur majors.
Description: Simulated skills-based course focused on the lifecycle of patent-protected innovation (i.e., pre-patent strategy, patent searching, patent preparation and prosecution, post allowance activities, and general portfolio management). Interact with real or simulated inventors and examiners. Provide an understanding of the nature and operation of patents, hands on experience with patent searching, drafting and prosecution, and an understanding of the strategic use of patents.
Prerequisites: Law 632 Business Associations
Description: This seminar focuses on business decisionmaking, including the roles of market regulation and private ordering on how shareholders, boards, executives, and outside professionals interact. We will read and discuss scholarship on core and current topics in this area, including theories of the corporation, governance, small business financing, and the like. Students will select paper topics within the broad area of corporate governance-including business transactions or litigation, corporate finance, or securities law-whether or not listed above. After initial readings, we will meet in groups to workshop student ideas for seminar papers.
Prerequisites: LAW 775 TECHNOLOGY LAW: CONCEPTS, CO-REQUISITE - LAW 775 TECHNOLOGY LAW: CONCEPTS
Description: Introduction to various legal frameworks relating to data- and cybersecurity, such as data breach notification laws regulatory data security requirements such as contained in HIPPA and GLBA, and the patchwork of statute and common law tools available for addressing cybersecurity concerns. Prepares students to interact with professionals in other fields relevant to cybersecurity practice, and broader policy discussions about cybersecurity law and policy.
Description: Focuses on the framework underlying the recent surge in compliance programs and an overview of the relationship between corporate governance, risk and compliance. Identify common features of a compliance program and examine specific regulations affecting corporate compliance, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC investigations, anti-money laundering, data protection, consumer finance, anti-corruption laws (such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) and health care. Discuss the role of a compliance officer and the coordination and integration of counsel and other experts, such as accountants. Exploration of ethical considerations of a compliance program, such as privilege and confidentiality and the role of legal counsel versus the compliance officer, and will emphasize building a culture of compliance in an organization.
Prerequisites: LAW 620 or Co-requisite
Students will be required to register for two semesters - 1 credit hour each time.
Description: The Nonprofit Board Field Placement (Externship) Program Course is the classroom component for Nebraska Law students in externships serving on nonprofit boards. In the course students will learn about the role of attorneys on boards and professional skills attorneys need to serve in their community and through non-profit board leadership.
Description: Public Interest Legal Internship. By Invitation Only.
Description: Privacy law, already a field of longstanding attention, has grown significantly in importance in our modern information era. Introduction to the laws and regulations that govern information privacy in the United States and around the world and the struggles of protecting individual privacy in the modern era. Considers the Constitutional, common law, and statutory mechanisms that control access to and use of information about individuals; the broad and often conflicting definitions of and principles behind these mechanisms; from self-regulation to criminal law, from states and localities to international treaty. Evaluation by exam or other written assignments.
Description: Addresses the legal concerns and issues facing the rapidly growing subpopulation of older adults. Topics covered in the course will include the legal and social science aspects of: ethical issues related to client legal capacity, health care decision making, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, long-term informal and formal care (including guardianship), financial aspects of aging, ageism, and elder maltreatment.
Subject to limited enrollment; priority given to third year law students.
Description: This course provides students with a comprehensive overview of the information and resources needed to establish and operate a law practice. Students will apply business and entrepreneurship concepts to their own strengths, values, and desired practice areas, equipping them with tools to build a successful and sustainable practice. Topics include business ideation; mission, vision, and values; marketing and client acquisition; fee structures and billing methods; insurance; law practice technology; operational matters; and ethics and professionalism. Students are assessed primarily on a comprehensive written business plan and in-class business presentation.
Description: Assisting Law professor as a TA
Description: Field placement program expanding a full semester which may only be taken with prior approval and under the direction of the Director of Externships at the College of Law.
Description: Focus primarily on structure - judicial power, legislative power; executive power, justiciability; federalism and state sovereignty; separation of powers. May include discussion of electoral federalism and the 17th Amendment.
Description: Appellate Practice & Procedure. Explores federal and Nebraska appellate practice, including the mechanics and timing of appeals, with an emphasis on written and oral advocacy. Draft appellate briefs, prepare other appeal-related documents and participate in an oral argument.
Description: Covers day-to-day challenges faced by attorneys general and their staff; their relationship with Governors, state legislatures and agencies, the federal government and other organizations. Focus on both day to day responsibilities as well as on some of the most controversial legal issues affecting society today.
Description: Focused on the legal and policy issues in digital transactions and the various problems with legal advice for the business owner on a variety of topics, including: choice of business model; protecting digital assets; digital contracts; electronic payments; financing intellectual property and other digital assets, consumer protection.
Description: Examines legal doctrine and policy as it relates to the democratic political process. Focuses on the text of the Constitution and of federal legislation that governs voting and the political process, the decisions of the United States Supreme Court interpreting the Constitution and federal statutes, and the federal regulations that impact our democracy. Topics will include: campaign finance, the Voting Rights Act, one person, one vote, racial and partisan gerrymandering, direct democracy, the regulation of political parties, and the Help America Vote Act. Develops an understanding of where the law of our democracy has been, where it is today, and where it might be headed. Grade based on exam.
Students previously enrolled in Seminar (707G) may not enroll in this course.
Description: Historical, political, religious and philosophical roots of international human rights law, its development over the course of the last century and its contemporary role in international affairs. May include: current attempts to strengthen U.N. fact-finding and implementation mechanisms; the relationship between U.N. peacekeeping and peacemaking and international humanitarian law; the activities of regional human rights systems; the effect of the United States' recent signature and ratification of U.N. human rights conventions and the role of such conventions and international human rights law through the criminal process; and military intervention to protect human rights victims, including NATO's intervention in Kosovo.
Description: In-depth study of the construction process as an example of the initiation, administration, and handling of disputes in a relational contract. Topics covered include practice in the art of drafting contracts, analysis of the performance of the contracting parties, and the resolution of disputes between parties.
Prerequisites: LAW 637G
Student grade is based primarily on final examination with a small amount of graded work during the semester.
Description: A selection of substantial income tax, estate tax and other tax-related problems and issues affecting farmers and ranchers.
Description: American constitutional history with a focus on "transformative" moments at which the Constitution and the nature of American politics and government changed. American Revolution and the framing of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, Civil War and Reconstruction, and the New Deal. Exploration of the courts and how they stood on history and original intent when they interpret the Constitution.
Prerequisites: Pre- or Co-requisite - Law 632 Business Associations
Description: Advanced course in business law, focusing on the law of not-for-profit businesses. Cover doctrine; learn practice concepts relevant to working as lawyers for nonprofit organizations, and advising nonprofit business clients as outside counsel and inside advisers; become familiar with organization, private governance, and public relations of these entities. Expose students to statutes, case law, regulation and nonprofit entity organization documents. Topics include formation and entity choice; the activities nonprofits can and cannot undertake, including commercial, lobbying, and political activities; fiduciary duties and governance in these entities; forms of fundraising; the investment and use of these entities' funds; and related issues.
This course is a prerequisite for: LAW 592
Prerequisites: Law 637 Individual Income Tax
Law 632 Business Associations is recommended, but not required, as a pre-requisite
Description: Provides an overview of the U.S. federal taxation of operations that occur within business entities, including within corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, and S corporations. Topics covered will include entity selection and formation, the taxation of income from operations, and liquidating and non-liquidating distributions.
Description: This course provides students with a substantial opportunity to develop their professional identity as they reflect on and consider who they are, how they will interact with their stakeholders, build consensus, influence outcomes, and lead others in a variety of circumstances in which they will routinely find themselves as lawyers.
Description: History of immigration to the United States, federal authority to regulate immigration, immigrant visas, nonimmigrant visas, deportation, political asylum, citizenship, rights of aliens in the United States, and ethical issues for immigration lawyers.
Cannot have already taken Law 711
Description: The protection of literary, artistic, musical, and audiovisual works under the laws of copyright and unfair competition. Rights in computer programs, characters, titles, and useful articles. Home recording, photocopying, computer uses/Internet, and public performance.
Description: Negotiable instruments, bank collections, negotiable documents, selected aspects of sales, and products liability.
Description: Control of business activities through the federal antitrust laws. Emphasis on monopolies, joint ventures, pricefixing, boycotts, resale price maintenance, exclusive dealing and tying arrangements, territorial restrictions, and mergers.
Description: Basic problems of criminal procedure with emphasis on the fourth, fifth, and sixth amendments to the United States Constitution and their impact on the criminal justice system.
Description: Introduction to the law of business associations. Examines the relationships among the various participants in business entities and, to a lesser extent, the relationships between business entities and outsiders.
Description: Origin and growth of the administrative process, the development of administrative law and its impact upon traditional legal institutions, analysis of the types of federal and state administrative tribunals, their powers and functions, and problems of administrative procedure, judicial and other controls upon the administrative process.
Prerequisites: LAW 632/G
Description: Corporate mergers and acquisitions, including tender offers. The history of corporate acquisitions, their rationales, the legal duties of the officers and directors involved, different ways to structure a corporate acquisition, issues in negotiation and contracting, and securities law issues.
Description: The structure and content of the federal income tax system, focusing on taxation of individuals. Income, deductions, income splitting, capital gains, and tax accounting. Technical proficiency in solving tax problems and an understanding of the tax policy decisions implicit in the technical rules.
Description: Intestate succession and related matters, execution of wills, revocation of wills, problems created by the time gap in wills, limitations on the power to devise, construction of wills (mistake and ambiguity), "living wills", durable powers of attorney, health care directives, the elements of trust, formalities in the creation of a trust, the interest of the beneficiary, charitable trusts and problems of trust administration.
This course is available to online LL.M. students.
Description: This course is intended to build upon and expand students understanding of international and transnational law garnered in the mandatory 1L course. It first examines applicable law for real-world international and transnational problems faced by governments, businesses, human rights and environmental non-governmental organizations, and even individuals by looking at national (including federal and state), international (including treaty and customary international law), and private (e.g. corporate codes of conduct) rules and how such rules are made and how they interact. It next examines methods of resolving transnational disputes both at the national and international levels and how decisions can be enforced at both the national and international levels. Students learn the US domestic legal system rules and international legal system rules for the two major sources of international law: treaties and customary international law, with a focus on treaties given their greater usage in legal practice. Throughout the course at various points, recent decisions of the US Supreme Court touching on international law matters are critically examined.
Students who have taken Law 640 International Law, are not able to enroll in Law 640R International Law Seminar.
Description: This course is intended to build upon and expand students understanding of international and transnational law garnered in the mandatory 1L course. It first examines applicable law for real-world international and transnational problems faced by governments, businesses, human rights and environmental non-governmental organizations, and even individuals by looking at national (including federal and state), international (including treaty and customary international law), and private (e.g. corporate codes of conduct) rules and how such rules are made and how they interact. It next examines methods of resolving transnational disputes both at the national and international levels and how decisions can be enforced at both the national and international levels. Students learn the US domestic legal system rules and international legal system rules for the two major sources of international law: treaties and customary international law, with a focus on treaties given their greater usage in legal practice. Throughout the course at various points, recent decisions of the US Supreme Court touching on international law matters are critically examined.
Description: Examines the theoretical and scientific underpinnings of environmental policy as well as specific federal laws designed to control water and air pollution or assign liability for toxic cleanups. Issues are viewed from several perspectives, including those of regulated businesses, environmental activists, and government agencies.
Description: Introduction to Environmental Law. Examines the theoretical and scientific underpinnings of environmental policy as well as specific federal laws designed to control water and air pollution or assign liability for toxic cleanups. Issues are viewed from several perspectives, including those of regulated businesses, environmental activists, and government agencies. No prior experience with environmental issues is required. All scientific and regulatory concepts will be presented in a straightforward, understandable manner. Economic and policy options will be identified and related to legislation.
Description: Legal and constitutional concepts involved in choosing the applicable law when the essential facts of a case are not confined to one state or national sovereignty.
Description: Selected topics in tort law. Advanced class in tort law, considering the general legal theory of tort, as well as specific topics not studied in detail during the required first-year torts class. May include tort claims other than the intentional torts, negligence, and products liability--i.e., defamation, nuisance, privacy, abuse of legal process, interference with advantageous relationships, tort claims implied from statutes, the prima facie tort, and others. May also include topics relating to the functioning of tort law in social context--e.g., the efficiency with which tort litigation accomplishes its apparent purpose, alternative legal mechanisms to reduce risk or promote safety, alternative systems of compensating for harms, legislative tort reform initiatives, and others.
Description: Overview of the rights and obligations of an unsecured creditor under state law. Focuses on the rights and obligations of a secured creditor under Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. Study the relationship between the debtor and the secured creditor and examine the requirements of the taking of a security interest in personal property and the rights of the secured creditor upon default by the debtor. Study of the filing system for perfection of a security interest and the priority rules for resolving conflicts between the secured creditor and a variety of other creditors, including the bankruptcy trustee.
Description: An overview of the rights and obligations of an unsecured creditor under state law with focus on the rights and obligations of a secured creditor under Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. Consider relationship between debtor and secured creditor by examining statutory requirements for granting a security interest in personal property and the rights of the secured creditor when the debtor defaults on its obligations. Learn how relationship between debtor and creditor impacts other creditors of the debtor. Study of the filing system used for perfection of security interest and the priority rules for resolving conflicts between the various creditors of a debtor. Learn the fundamental bankruptcy concepts.
Description: Study of the federal and state statutes and common law doctrines restricting unfair methods of competition in business. Topics include false advertising, trademark law, misappropriation, trade secret law and the right of publicity.
Description: Analysis of the employment relationship as it has developed outside of the collective bargaining context. The course will cover the history of employment-at-will and modern limits on it, employee free speech and privacy protections, employment references, employee duties and promises, regulation of wages and hours, leave time, unemployment compensation, enforcement of employment rights, and, if time, worker health and safety.
Prerequisites: Law 632 - Business Planning, Law 637 - Individual Income Tax, and Law 622 - Taxation of Business Entities
Description: Process of planning business transactions that take into account many relevant bodies of law as well as the needs of clients. Learn about the goals and methods of business planning, the role of ethics in providing legal advice, factors that influence the choice of business entity for a venture, legal rules applying to partnerships and limited liability companies ("LLCs"), relevant laws dealing with corporations and securities regulation, laws that pertain to corporate restructurings, and laws applying to the purchase, sale, or merger of corporate businesses.
Description: Covers fundamental constitutional liberties enumerated by the First Amendment. These are freedom of speech, as well as the constitutional principles set forth in the First Amendment's command that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." We will spend roughly equal time on the Establishment Clause, the Free Exercise Clause, and the Free Speech Clause. We will particularly consider recent developments increasing constitutional protection of free speech and religious liberty against laws restricting those fundamental rights.
Prerequisites: LAW 637/G
Description: Introduction to the U.S. federal income tax rules that apply to U.S. persons who live or do business abroad, or receive income from foreign sources, and to foreign persons who live or do business in the U.S., or receive income from U.S. sources. Includes a study of the role and effect of U.S. tax treaties. Introduction to the US federal income tax rules that apply to US persons (including corporations, partnerships and individuals) living or doing business abroad or receiving income from foreign sources, and to foreign persons living or doing business in the US or receiving income from US sources. Effect of US tax treaties on these rules.
Description: This course introduces the relationship between state and federal anti-poverty measures and state and federal tax laws and procedures. Significant emphasis is placed on the substantive anti-poverty measures provided through the federal tax code, including the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit, but attention will also be given to other federal programs, state credits, and structural issues under state and federal law that promote or prevent anti-poverty spending. The class will introduce students to the current design of those programs and to the existing literature evaluating their efficacy and potential reform options. The course will also provide information on free tax-preparation services that are available to low-income clients to help them obtain the assistance to which they are entitled without paying service providers.
Description: Examination of refugee issues in the context of domestic and international political environments. Topics will include asylum reform, gender-based persecution, persecution of lesbians and gays, deficiencies in international and domestic refugee law and firm resettlement of displaced persons. Study of the interplay among political, social, economic, cultural and psychological phenomena as refugees, governments of host countries and international and nongovernmental organizations interact in the context of ongoing crises around the world. Participate in simulations designed to teach practical skills necessary to an asylum and refugee law practice, including working with translators, interviewing and case advocacy. Asylum cases will serve as the foundation for role play exercises.
Description: Study of the different legal systems of the world and how they relate to one another. Develop a general understanding of the major foreign legal systems and their impact on U.S. law, lawyers and clients. Substantive topics for comparative study may include torts, contracts, civil procedure, criminal procedure, and the protection of human rights. Investigate the potential for identifying general principles of law and ethics common to most legal systems. Acquire skills in thinking critically about comparative law and what light it can shed on the American legal system and possible reforms of it
Description: Introduction to major families of legal systems outside the common law orbit. Emphasis is on Western European and Socialist (Marxist) legal systems; others treated less intensively.
Description: A study of the law governing the sale and lease of goods with primary emphasis on Article 2 and 2A of the Uniform Commercial Code. Among the topics included are: contract formation and modifications; acceptance and rejection of goods; warranties; risk of loss; and remedies for breach of contract, including breach of warranty remedies and some non-UCC remedies in consumer transactions. On selected issues, the Convention on the International Sale of Goods will be examined. Develop contract drafting skills. Enhance ability to read and analyze a statue.
Description: Provides an overview of basic banking issues with a focus on the regulatory environment. We will discuss the structure of the financial services industry, including the charter choice, capital structure, and market structure of banks, financial holding companies and the nonbank or fintech firms. We will discuss selected consumer financial products and services related to mortgages, loans and payments with a focus of the consumer protection models utilized by the regulators. Time will also be devoted to the regulation of systemic risk through the regulatory tools for supervision, enforcement and the toolkit for bank failures. The focus is on federal regulation of banking, although there is an opportunity to compare the state regulation of banking during a conversation with local bankers and a Nebraska banking regulator.
Prerequisites: Pre-requisite: Law 632/632G; 790/790G
Students with Senior Standing only. Limited enrollment pursuant to a written application process that occurs during the preceding Spring semester.
Description: Under close faculty supervision advise and represent startup business clients in a variety of early-stage legal matters, including entity formation, contract drafting and review, intellectual property protection, real estate, financing, regulatory, compliance and other transactional matters.
Prerequisites: At least two from the following courses: Law 681/G Cyberlaw, Law 582/G Cybersecurity, Sectoral Data Regulation, Law 726 Platforms: Networks & Infrastructure, Law 787 Platforms: Speech & Media
Students must have completed at least two of the core Governance and Technology curriculum classes (Cyberlaw, Privacy, Cybersecurity, Networks and Infrastructure, and Platforms and Speech) or at least one of these classes and receive instructor permission prior to taking this class.
Description: Class will cover advanced and contemporary issues in technology governance and regulation. Students read, discuss, and analyze recent scholarship, proposed regulations and legislation, and similar materials relating to contemporary topics; will engage in faculty led discussion of current regulatory and legislative topics relating to technology governance and also learn how to critically read and produce research in these fields.
Students must have completed at least two of the core Governance and Technology curriculum classes (Cyberlaw, Privacy, Cybersecurity, Networks and Infrastructure, and Platforms and Speech) or at least one of these classes and receive instructor permission prior to taking this class.
Description: Class will cover advanced and contemporary issues in technology governance and regulation. Students read, discuss, and analyze recent scholarship, proposed regulations and legislation, and similar materials relating to contemporary topics; engage in faculty led discussion of current regulatory and legislative topics relating to technology governance and also learn how to critically read and produce research in these fields.
Description: Analysis of the role of science in the law. This class will explore issues such as biotechnology, computers, scientific evidence, regulatory approval, antitrust, and environmental law to explore the intersection of science, technology, and the effect on the law and legal decision making.
Description: Overview of the United States laws of copyright, patent, trade secret and trademark for students of all backgrounds and discussions of the laws and mechanisms to protect intellectual property rights abroad including analysis of all major international treaties and conventions. Covers not only the legal and regulatory schemes but also the policy implications.
Description: An examination of the roles of gender, race, and class in shaping socio-legal relationships and policies. The class will study and analyze legal history and contemporary procedural and substantive areas of law that affect and are affected by gender, race, and/or class. Topics may include, but are not limited to, employment, civil rights, criminal law, property, torts, constitutional law, and contractual relationships.
Description: Seminar examining the intersection of race and the law and, specifically, the role that law has played and continues to play in the oppression, subordination, and promotion of people and groups based on race. We will anchor our studies with a look at the historical periods involving slavery, the Civil War, the First Reconstruction, the Jim Crow era, and the Civil Rights Movement and Second Reconstruction, before examining contemporary issues of race in areas of the law such as land use, education, employment, policing, punishment, and elections
Description: General concepts and legal principles relating to construction contracts, including some basic foundation principles such as communication, risk allocation, problem solving, loss and profit sharing, mutual objectives, and dispute resolution. Taught against backdrop of construction law, includes study of legal and equitable issues resulting from the construction relationship and disputes relating to that relationship. May be applicable for employment contracts, interfirm agreements, supply-chain relationships, informal credit contracts, and other settings where contracting is focused on the continued relationship between the parties as opposed to a discrete transaction.
Description: Examination of the principles of regulation and about whether and how regulatory intervention is beneficial to society; the myriad of tensions and contradictions often inherent in regulation; provide critical analytical tools needed in today's legal, political, and business environment.
Before registering for this course, a student must (1) obtain the approval of the faculty member involved and (2) submit the Research in a Selected Field form to the College of Law registrar. Absent the prior approval of the dean, no student may take more than 6 hours of Research in a Selected Field and/or Psycholegal Research.
Description: Individual study under the supervision of a faculty member.
Before registering for this course, a student must (1) obtain the approval of the faculty member involved and (2) submit the Research in a Selected Field form to the College of Law registrar. Absent the prior approval of the dean, no student may take more than 6 hours of Research in a Selected Field and/or Psycholegal Research.
Description: Individual study under the supervision of a faculty member.
This course is available to online LLM students. Students who have taken LAW 668G may not enroll in this course.
Description: Explores government regulation of international trade and the interaction between national and international rules governing trade. Specific topics covered include regulations regarding the importation of goods into the United States (e.g. classifying, valuing and determining the origin of imported goods), rules governing non-tariff barriers including food safety standards, dispute settlement and institutional rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), major US free trade agreements and other bilateral and regional trade agreements, unilateral preferences for developing countries under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), trade agreement rules limiting protectionist procurement policies, U.S. trade remedy laws, export controls, foreign-policy-related trade sanctions, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and trade in counterfeit goods. The coursebook used is a problem-oriented one presenting students with practical problems in international business for students to solve, or to manage risks, for hypothetical clients. Students are assigned to write short client e-mails (in lieu of a final exam) at the end of most weekly problems, allowing development of this practical skill throughout the course.
Description: Examines central jurisprudential questions that arise in the criminal law. The following topics will be considered: (1) the purpose and justification of punishment, especially the legitimate role, if any, for retribution and the expressive function of punishment; (2) the relationship between retribution and revenge; (3) the justification of capital punishment; (4) the relationship among the state, defendants, and victims in the criminal process, including the proper role, if any, of victim impact statements.
Available to online LLM students. Students who have taken LAW 668G may not enroll in this course.
Description: This course covers both private (contractual) and public (government regulation) aspects of international business transactions. Specific topics covered include international sales contracts and the Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG), regulation of foreign investment and expropriation, private international dispute resolution (including choice of forum and choice of law clauses, international commercial arbitration, and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards), US customs law, grey market goods, international franchising, trade remedy laws with a focus on anti-subsidies disciplines, and international bribery and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The coursebook used is a problem-oriented one presenting students with practical problems in international business for students to solve, or to manage risks, for hypothetical clients. Students are assigned to write short client e-mails (in lieu of a final exam) at the end of most problems, allowing development of this practical skill throughout the course.
Description: Juvenile Law examines the intersection of the child, parent, and the state in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Topics will include: the state's role in protecting children from maltreatment, the rights of parents and children, the child's experience, the child-parent relationship, the impact of trauma on outcomes for children and families, restorative and procedural justice in juvenile law, and systematic racism, disproportionality, and educational disparities for children and youth. This course includes observing Lancaster County Juvenile Court hearings and interacting with attorneys, professionals, and individuals with lived juvenile court experience. A culmination of the course includes a simulated juvenile court hearing where students are assigned the role of county attorney, parent's attorney, guardian ad litem or youth attorney. To prepare for the simulation, students will research the legal issues and proposed arguments for their client. The actual simulation will take place at the Lancaster County Juvenile courthouse where students will argue their position to the judge. Students will also analyze and reflect on their peers' simulated cases.
Description: This will be a survey class, discussing historical and current status of this developing area of law, primarily in the US, but also around the world. Encompassing aspects of property, contracts, torts, ethics, and more, the course discusses concepts and arguments related to animal rights and animal welfare, as well as ethical justifications for various arguments. The course also looks at real examples and cases, including at least one practice-based assignment to give students a feel for the work that occurs in this area. Students will engage in civil debate to ensure that multiple points of view are considered, particularly considering legal issues associated with animal agriculture and dog breeding. A number of experts will guest lecture and share knowledge and experiences with the class.
Students will engage in a simulation of a condensed commercial space business transaction ¿ from business plan to launch. This course is available to online LLM students.
Description: Review and examination of the history of Presidential space policies regarding space commercialization. Exploration of the work of all key federal agencies charged with licensing and regulating the commercial space transportation and satellite industries and the statutes that give these agencies this authority and the rules that the agencies administer and enforce. Students will engage in a simulation of a condensed commercial space business transaction - from business plan to launch.
Description: This course examines the principles of employment discrimination law, including theories of violation, methods of proof, administrative and judicial procedures, remedies, and litigation strategies. The course will cover Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as other federal and state statutes dealing with workplace discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, and other protected statuses.
Available to online LLM students.
Description: Covers civil and criminal procedure issues as applied in the online context, along with a range of specific substantive issues such as online contract formation, basic regulation of encryption, the operation and history of Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act, the Electronic Communications Protection Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act as well as the various challenges relating to international jurisdictional disputes and the application of domestic laws to a global internet. Similar courses at other institutions might be titled "Internet Law".
Description: Competition based on a hypothetical space law dispute before the International Court of Justice. Time-intensive competition. Teams write briefs/memorials for both sides and must be prepared to argue both sides.
Description: Role of law in controlling, shaping, and responding to scientific and technological developments in the field of medicine and the biological sciences. May include contraception, abortion, sterilization, artificial conception, genetic engineering, the right to refuse treatment, euthanasia, the right to treatment of defective newborns, organ transplantation, and experimentation with human subjects.
Description: Issues in bioethics arise when developments in medicine and the life sciences (the "bio-"in bioethics) have difficult moral implications (the "-ethics" in bioethics). In this course we will touch on several areas of bioethics. Our principal focus will be on issues in death and dying, but we will also take up issues arising in human reproduction.
Differs significantly from LAW 672G. LAW 672G directs primary attention to jurisprudential arguments regarding the justification of capital punishment in principle and in practice, with only secondary attention to a few of the central court cases. This course directs primary attention to the court cases and legal doctrine and policy issues arising out of those court cases. Thus, the two courses are complimentary with relatively little overlap, and neither presupposes the other. Those who wish to enroll in both courses are free to do so.
Description: Examines legal doctrine and policy regarding capital punishment in the United States. Draws heavily but not exclusively on decisions by the US Supreme Court. Topics addressed include: various Constitutional challenges and limitations according to Supreme Court decisions; aggravating and mitigating circumstances; jury selection and qualification; discriminatory application; the use of clinical testimony; and the role of counsel.
Description: Examine legal doctrine and policy regarding capital punishment in the United States, drawing heavily but not exclusively on decisions by the United States Supreme Court. Topics addressed include: various Constitutional challenges and limitations according to Supreme Court decisions; aggravating and mitigating circumstances; jury selection and qualification; discriminatory application; the use of clinical testimony; and the role of counsel. Direct primary attention to the court cases and to the legal doctrine and policy issues arising out of those court cases.
Prerequisites: LAW 630/G
Description: Critical review of the role of gender in shaping socio-legal relationships and policies. Examines selected procedural and substantive areas of the law that affect and are affected by gender. Includes, but are not limited to, employment, property, torts, the Constitution and contractual relationships. Emphasis on the complex relationship between gender, race and class.
Description: Study of public health as an independent field, with emphasis on the law's involvement in implementing public health initiatives, and in setting limits on them.
Description: Study of public health as an independent field, with emphasis on the law's involvement in implementing public health initiatives, and in setting limits on them.
This course is closed to first year students.
Description: Supplement students' understanding of tort principles and to acquire a better understanding of how work-place injuries and occupational diseases are handled within the legal system, with particular emphasis on Nebraska law, practice, and procedure. For graduates that might enter into a litigation practice, and for graduates who undertake to provide advice to business clients about insurance coverage and employment law. Obtain a better understanding of the interrelationships between tort law situations and work-place injuries/occupational diseases, including the interplay paid by private health insurers or government insurers such as Medicare, Medicaid, and the Veterans Administration. A brief overview of other work-place injury systems such as the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) and the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act will be provided. Some practical application related to Nebraska workers' compensation law and suggested pleadings, trial, and settlement practice will be presented.
Description: Examination of the typical provisions found in the legal documents that govern the transfer and financing of real estate and related legal issues with an emphasis on transactional drafting. Covers listing agreements, real estate sales contracts, deeds and deed covenants, title examination and title insurance, mortgage substitutes such as installment sale contracts, and mortgage agreements and deeds of trust. Concludes with an examination of the foreclosure process and alternatives to foreclosure. As part of a realistic real estate transaction simulation exercise represent either the buyer or the seller and negotiate and draft a real estate sales contract and related transactional document.
Description: Varying topics in International Trade
For students interested in public policy, state and local government, or issues of federalism. No previous tax course to enroll or succeed in this course.
Description: Covers how state and local governments raise revenues and how the U.S. Constitution limits their choices. Look at how the evolution of interstate commerce (and specifically electronic commerce) has impacted state and local governments and how those governments are seeking new ways to finance themselves as well as the structure of state income, sales, and property taxes.
Description: Covers how state and local governments raise revenues and how the U.S. Constitution limits their choices. Look specifically at how the evolution of interstate commerce (and specifically electronic commerce) has impacted state and local governments and how those governments are seeking new ways to finance themselves. Also look at the structure of state income, sales, and property taxes. Focus on interest in public policy, state and local government, or issues of federalism.
Description: Address the impact of law, legal frameworks, and institutions (LFIs) on social and economic development which have significant impacts on development, particularly economic development. Explore the theories and practices pertaining to law and development. Explain how LFIs affect economic development in key areas such as property rights, political governance, regulatory framework for business transactions, industrial promotion, banking and financing, labor, corruption, and international legal frameworks (international economic law and international development law). Examine law and development issues in developing countries as well as developed countries, such as the United States. Knowledge in economics or development study is helpful but NOT required to take this course.
Description: Selected legal issues affecting amateur, collegiate, and professional sports. Topics will include antitrust and labor and employment law; the extra-governmental regulation of amateur sports; the ethical and professional aspects of player representation, among others. As a skills class, we will apply the law of sport to exercises and activities, including negotiation, mediation, and arbitration.
Prerequisites: Law 790 - Legal Profession; Law 674 - Juvenile Law
Two semester course: students receive 4-6 credit hours each semester (fall & spring only).
Description: Clinic in which third year law students, under the direct supervision of clinic director, serve as guardian ad litem (GAL) for children involved in child welfare system. Goals: provide students with knowledge, skills and ethical underpinnings necessary to function as effective advocates in a setting involving the legal needs of young children; allow student to obtain certification as approved GALs in the Nebraska court system, making them "practice ready" upon graduation.
Description: Introduction to the basics of legal interviewing (lawyer interaction with a client for the purpose of identifying the client's problem and gathering information on which the solution to that problem can be based) and counseling (a process in which lawyers help clients reach decisions). Course work includes class discussion, reading materials, demonstrations, and role play exercises and interviews.
Description: Introduction to the basic principles of the law of patents in the United States including the history, utility and function of the patent system; statutory and procedural requirements for patentability; recent case law; and patent enforcement mechanisms, remedies and defenses. Foundation in patent law for general legal practice that crosscuts all potential business client interests from individual inventors to small and large companies.
Description: Addresses the conservation and use of public lands (including National Parks, Forests and other federal and state lands), wildlife, cultural and historic properties, and mineral resources. Focused primarily on federal law and its implications for state, tribal and private interests, as played out in the federal courts.
Description: Addresses the conservation and use of public lands (including National Parks, Forests and other federal and state lands), wildlife, cultural and historic properties, and mineral resources. Focused primarily on federal law and its implications for state, tribal and private interests, as played out in the federal courts.
Description: Legal and administrative aspects of the regulation of land use and development, the problems and techniques of urban planning at the various levels of government, and the relationship of private owners and builders to the government policies involved in shaping the physical environment.
Description: The International Mediation Competition involves students competing in teams of three and role playing as mediators, clients, and attorneys in a variety of hypothetical cases. In preparation of the competition, students engage in an eight-week program to learn or refresh the skills associated with the roles of mediator and advocate, applying them to different types of factual disputes. The students are expected to travel to the competition location and compete in the three preliminary rounds, and any additional rounds for which the team qualifies.
Enrollment in this course is limited to international students enrolled in the Global Legal Practice LL.M. program.
Description: Introduction of international students to the foundations of the United States legal system, including the federal system; the separation of powers; the functions of the three branches; and the role of the common law. An overview of legal education in the United States, and an introduction to legal research and writing and case analysis.
Description: Survey of major topics at the intersection of law and medicine in America today. Topics will relate to the legal implications of health-care quality and cost, to the legal implications of access to health care, or to issues in the areas of bioethics. Particular focus on the rights of access to health care; to the financing of health care; to the legal implications of the quality of health care; to the laws relating to medical personnel and institutions; to the individual rights of patients; and to the medicolegal issues surrounding morally controversial developments in medicine and the life sciences, such as organ transplantation.
Description: Legal problems and issues of unique importance to lawyers serving the agricultural sector. Representative topics include economic and environmental regulation of agriculture; organizing the farm business; financing agricultural production; marketing agricultural products; and managing agricultural risk.
Description: Agricultural Law addresses two general subjects: (1) the business and economic regulation aspects of the industry and (2) environmental regulation. As for the first general subject, the course deals with the Farm Bill and its administration, restrictions on business entities in farming, land leases and purchases, commercial regulation like Articles 2, 7 and 9 of the UCC, and other subjects that are unique to the agricultural industry. As for the second general subject, the course covers the Clean Water Act and the Conservation Title of the Farm Bill. This course serves as a good introduction to the more general subjects it implicates. You could also use it as a "capstone" to see how the more general subjects you have covered apply in the agricultural industry.
Description: Focus on writing for law practice. Draft and revise several documents; engage in editing, workshopping, and peer critique with intensive feedback from the instructor. Beginnings of a document portfolio to take into first years of law practice.
Description: This course will cover specific laws and regulations, as well as business and policy considerations, that inform efforts to develop rural infrastructure, stimulate jobs, establish community-based financial and non-profit institutions, and encourage rural entrepreneurship. Particular emphasis will be placed on how energy law and policy may be shaping the rural future. This course will also include a comparative element, with literature from the Law and Development movement, international development, and the affordable housing and urban renewal contexts considered in conjunction with current rural development concerns.
Description: Examines the historical, political and philosophical roots of international human rights law, its development over the course of the last century and its contemporary role in international affairs. Specific topics may include the relevance of international human rights law for a practicing U.S. lawyer; the effect of the United States' recent signature and ratification of U.N. human rights conventions; the U.S.'s interaction with international human rights bodies, such as the U.N. Human Rights Committee; customary international human rights law; the rights of women; economic and social rights; religion and human rights; the prohibition of torture and its relationship to efforts to combat terrorism; contemporary measures to enforce international human rights law through the criminal process; the activities of regional human rights systems and their organs, such as the European Court of Human Rights; and the debate on whether there is a global "responsibility to protect" victims of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, including through the use of military intervention.
Description: Being a lawyer involves more skills than just knowing the law. Lawyers ¿ litigators, transactional attorneys, and government attorneys alike ¿ must take a critical look at the issues before making any number of decisions that are not based on substantive law. This ADR class is an introduction to negotiation, mediation, arbitration, collaborative law, facilitation, among other topics. Class discussion will resolve around applying skills learned to hypothetical problems. Students also have an opportunity to practice the skills learned in a number of class simulations.
Description: Offers an in-depth look at the legal and practical issues involved in domestic arbitration, as well as an examination of the skills necessary to be a successful advocate in the arbitral forum. Examines the use of arbitration in a number of different areas, including commercial, consumer, labor, employment, securities, construction, and international disputes.
Description: Study of the process in which a trained neutral third party assists others in resolving a dispute or planning a transaction. Training in basic mediation skills through readings, demonstrations, simulations, and the keeping of a mediation notebook. Topics include the nature of mediation and its relationship to other forms of dispute resolution, the nature of conflict, models and styles of mediation, negotiation theory, communication skills, the interest-based mediation process, the representation of clients in mediation, special issues relating to attorney mediators, and mediators standards and ethics.
Description: Protection of literary, musical, artistic, and audiovisual works under copyright. Topics include the standards for copyright protection; procedural issues including copyright notice, registration, and duration; rules governing copyright infringement and fair use; and issues arising from digital technologies, including the distribution of copyrighted works over the Internet and the use of technological measures to protect copyrighted works.
Description: Study the law-in-literature and the law-as-literature. Novelists, poets, and playwrights dramatize the law and legal events in ways that the bare fact patterns of case law cannot. Read literature that examines "the law" as an object of fascination and revulsion. Examine the law-as-literature by reading legal texts using the tools of literary analysis and explore the literary aspects of the law.
Description: Study the various causes of poor legal writing-legal writing that is unnecessarily difficult to read-and attempt to understand what constitutes good legal writing, and what makes it work. Practice writing to develop the characteristics of good writing. Focus on developing clarity, coherence, and concision in legal writing. Develop a better understanding of the linguistic causes of good and bad legal writing, and a set of concrete writing tools for the improvement of their own writing.
Description: Selected problems of international and comparative gender issues in foreign legal systems and their impact on US law. Specific documents that may be discussed include the United States Constitution; US Refugee Law; Violence Against Women Act; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Universal Declaration of Human Rights; United Nations Charter; International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Convention on the Rights of the Child; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; and the Declaration of the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
Description: This course examines the legal framework for the application of transnational and international law to ensure that the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole - such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes - do not go unpunished. The course reviews relevant human rights law and the work of international criminal tribunals, including the Nuremberg Tribunal, the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the International Criminal Court, as well as hybrid tribunals and national courts. Specific topics include the challenges posed by state sovereignty; the extraterritorial jurisdiction of states; extradition; and the varied criminal law approaches adopted by international criminal tribunals. Current challenges posed by countries such as Myanmar and Russia are also examined, in addition to the effectiveness and limitations of action by the United Nations.
Description: Selected problems of international and comparative gender issues in foreign legal systems and their impact on U.S. law. Documents for discussion include the U.S. Constitution; U.S. Refugee Law; Violence Against Women Act; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Universal Declaration of Human Rights; United National Charter; International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Convention of the Rights of the Child; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
Description: The role that law plays in education in the United States. The rights of students and teachers, special education and disability, school finance, school searches, student discipline, privacy of records, liability of school officials and discrimination based on gender and race. The emerging case law on state constitutional claims of education equity and adequacy.
Description: An in-depth study of selected current national and state legal issues pertaining to education.
Students who have previously taken Refugee and Asylum Law and Practice (Law 653) may not enroll in this course.
Description: Examination of refugee issues in the context of domestic and international political environments. Topics include asylum reform, gender-based persecution, persecution of gays and lesbians, deficiencies in international and domestic refugee law, and firm resettlement of displaced persons. Interdisciplinary focus: considers the interplay among political, social, economic, cultural and psychological phenomena as refugees, governments of host countries, and international and non-governmental organizations interact in the context of ongoing crises around the world.
Description: Examines international and U.S. law relevant to the handling of national security matters. Studies the allocation of power under the Constitution between Congress and the President with respect to war powers and assess the role of the courts as a check on the political branches in this area, particularly as it relates to ongoing efforts to fight terrorism. Analyzes the military detention of suspected terrorists and their trial by military commissions. Focuses on international law governing the use of force, conflict management and collective security arrangements. Special attention will be given to the U.N. Charter, the doctrine of self-defense, arguments setting forth justifications for the unilateral use of force, intervention in internal conflicts, and the institutional framework for collective efforts to maintain international peace and security, including peacekeeping operations and peace enforcement actions.
Description: Considers the differing roles of the neutral and the advocate in mediation, focusing on representing clients in all aspects of the mediation process. Represent clients in drafting agreements to mediate, preparing for mediation, attending mediation sessions, and drafting mediation settlements. Covers issues such as confidentiality and ethics. Employs role-play and drafting exercises, in addition to class discussions.
Description: Environmental law in agriculture, the Clean Water Act as it applies to agriculture, the environmental and conservative provisions of the farm program, pesticide regulation and liability, and other areas where environmental concerns and the agriculture industry intersect.
This course is available to online LL.M. students.
Description: Provides an overview of the law and policy governing spectrum management in the United States. Broad coverage includes spectrum allocation and domestic assignment, the FCC/NITA jurisdictional split, and Title III of the Communications Act. Specific coverage includes spectrum auctions, the debate over licensed and unlicensed spectrum use, and issues related to licensing satellite spectrum for use in the U.S.
Available to online LLM students.
Description: Provide students with a broad understanding of the national, regional, and global legal regimes that regulate wireless communications ("telecommunications"), both terrestrial and space-based. Students will study the history of how regulations and policies intertwine economics and the law in an attempt to keep pace alongside ever-evolving technology, and how that is handled differently around the world. A comparison of national regimes will be studied, with an emphasis on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.N.'s International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Nations grapple with common policy issues (such as competition, universal access, and national security), but they respond differently - and every nation must fit their domestic regime to the wider regional and global frameworks. Classes will be open and active discussions of the issues surrounding these topics and provide a comparative look at the ways different countries develop telecommunications policy and regulations.
Prerequisites: LAW 775 Technology Law: Concepts
Description: Focus on the network and infrastructure layers of the Internet, including the role of the FCC, the Communications and Telecommunications Acts, and specific topics such as robocalls, structural media regulation, net neutrality, and universal service.
Description: Focuses on the tools lawyers utilize when they interpret statutes. Examines various theories and canons of statutory interpretation and to issues of statutory interpretation involving administrative agencies. Provides a comprehensive approach to wrestling with the problems that arise during statutory interpretation.
Prerequisites: LAW 516/G, 517/G
Description: Major substantive and procedural issues in litigation to protect civil rights. Established theories of liability and defenses, possible new developments in legal doctrine, and pending statutory changes.
Description: Designed to provide a basis understanding of the impact of technology on the practice of law and the benefits and risks associated with using technology in client representation.
LAW 609/G, Constitutional Law I, is not a prerequisite for this course.
Description: This course is an introduction to constitutional liberties with special attention to the rights protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The course will spend significant time on equal protection and substantive due process (including cases involving contraception, abortion, economic liberties, and the right to die), as well as the incorporation of the Bill of Rights against the states. The course will also examine state action doctrine and Congress's authority to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment. It may also cover other individual liberties, such as the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Note that Constitution Law I is not a prerequisite for this course, so students are permitted to take Constitutional Law II before, during, or after they take Constitutional Law I.
Description: Following Constitutional Law I's emphasis on the structure of government, Constitutional Law II emphasizes the U.S. Constitution's protections for individual rights and equality. Topics include equal protection; substantive and due process; gun rights; incorporation of the Bill of Rights against states and "reverse incorporation" of equal protection against the federal government. First Amendment rights concerning speech and religion are also appropriate for seminar papers. Constitutional rights involving the criminal process are left to courses such as Criminal Procedure, Criminal Adjudication, and Capital Punishment and are not appropriate for seminar papers.
Description: Provides a deeper, more intimate exposure to the material of legal research. Emphasis will be on practical skills and the nature and philosophies of the organization and production of the materials themselves. Gain the ability to analyze any research problem in terms of the types of materials that may be of use in answering the question.
This course is available to online LL.M. students.
Description: Provides an extensive examination of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the Export Administration Act, U.S. economic embargos and related Executive Orders, as well as discussion of the foreign policy and national security interests influencing US laws, regulations and policy. Particular emphasis will be given to the ongoing efforts to reform the US export control system with regard to spacecraft.
Prerequisites: Pre-requisite: Law 790 or Law 790G Legal Profession; Law 741 or Law 741G Pretrial Litigation
Open only to students with senior standing.
Description: Students, under close faculty supervision, represent tenants in eviction matters and other legal matters related to housing. The course includes a classroom component which focuses on the development of knowledge and skills necessary to represent clients in the areas of eviction defense, enforcement of tenant rights, and housing discrimination, among other housing-related legal issues.
This is a survey course.
Description: Provides an overview of the relationship between debtors and creditors outside of bankruptcy under state law. Includes an examination of the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act and of consumer and business bankruptcy law. Specifically, Chapter 7, 11, 12 and 13 proceedings are discussed. Engage in a client counseling exercise designed to evaluate the client's eligibility for a Chapter 7 proceeding and prepare for electronic filing a Chapter 13 petition for bankruptcy. Prepare a short, client-counseling memorandum for the unit on business bankruptcies related to a motion for relief from the automatic stay. Current policy issues in bankruptcy will be addressed as time permits.
Students may also enroll in LAW 713G Style and Composition in Legal Writing for an additional hour of Law College credit.
Description: Covers a limited but central topic in the larger field of health-care law - the law bearing on the relationship between a health-care provider and a patient. Survey the legal rights and obligations of patients and their health care providers, individual and institutional. Cover qualification as a health care provider (institutional and individual licensure); the legal doctrines relating to the formation of provider-patient relationship; the locus of decisional authority in the relationship; the provider's fiduciary duties to the patient (to deliver care of professionally acceptable quality [including traditional malpractice law], to avoid conflicts of interest, to respect the patient's privacy and to protect the confidentiality of medical information about the patient); the reciprocal obligation of the patient to take reasonable steps to assure payment and to comply with medical directives; and the legal doctrines relating to the termination of provider-patient relationships. Explore the way provider-patient obligations are affected when the patient also becomes the subject of medical or scientific research.
Description: This course will introduce students to the unique legal issues of the poor and how the legal system deals with access to justice and indigency. We will review historical and contemporary challenges facing public interest lawyers, legal problems and policy choices regarding poverty, and effective advocacy strategies. These themes are traced through numerous areas of substantive discussion, including government benefit programs, housing law and homelessness, family law and immigration.
Description: Scope and content of federal crimes. Fraud and political corruption, drug trafficking, money laundering, organized crime, false statement, obstruction of justice and federal sentencing guidelines.
Description: Examines a variety of negotiation styles and applies these styles in a series of increasingly complex negotiation problems. Negotiation problems will include plea bargains, personal injury cases, commercial negotiations and labor management disputes. Strategic and psychological factors present in negotiation styles will be examined. Improve negotiation performance and broaden the repertoire of strategic and stylistic choices available.
Description: Concentrates on the application of procedural rules to the bringing and defending of civil law suits and on considering the tactical and strategic aspects of litigation. Perform weekly exercises on pleading, motion practice and discovery.
Description: Learn contract drafting and negotiation for transactions
Description: Examination of the basic remedies available to redress legal wrongs: injunctions, damages, and restitution. Among the topics covered are permanent injunctions (including specific performance), provisional injunctions, contempt, contract damages, tort damages (primarily personal injury and property damages), proof requirements, present value adjustments, legal restitution, equitable restitution, equitable defenses, election of remedies, and declaratory relief.
Prerequisites: LAW 632/G
Description: How do businesses finance operations and growth? How do investors and creditors provide that financing? What is the role of lawyers in facilitating these deals? Students will become familiar with principles that recur in corporate, securities, and bankruptcy litigation. The first half of class focuses on finance for lawyers, and may cover concepts such as basic accounting principles, fundamental and market value, the time value of money and discounting. The second half looks closely at doctrine and transactional private ordering in a firm's capital structure, including various forms of equity and debt financing.
This course is available to online LL.M. students.
Description: This course addresses the national security aspects of space law and covers the application of international law to military activities during peacetime, during times of crisis and tension, and during armed conflict. It examines legal issues related to new and emerging military space technologies; key space arms control issues; U.S. national security space strategy; the role of space in nuclear deterrence; and efforts to prevent an arms race in outer space.
Description: Provides a basic overview of international space law with primary emphasis on the civilian and commercial dimensions of space law and policy, including civilian government space, satellite launch, satellite navigation, and satellite remote sensing. Topics will include the five major international treaties dealing directly with space and the application of these Cold-War era treaties to modern space activities, as well as the consequences for national legal systems.
Prerequisites: Previous enrollment in an international law course recommended
Previous enrollment in an international law course recommended. Available to online LL.M. students.
Description: Explores structural/organizational issues (e.g., separation of powers, federalism) related to U.S. foreign policy-making as well as U.S. foreign policy in a number of substantive areas. Areas of foreign policy examined include the war on terrorism, international economy policy, and current foreign policy crises.
Description: Study of the federal laws that govern retirement, health care, and other benefit plans sponsored by private employers for their employees. Topics include: employer compliance requirements under the Internal Revenue Code, the Employee Retirement income Security Act of 1974, and the Affordable Care Act; the responsibilities of plan fiduciaries; federal claims and remedies available to plan participants; and federal preemption of state laws. Uses an applied problem method of learning and is designed for students who plan to practice in the areas of corporate law, employment litigation, insurance litigation, family law, or estate planning.
Description: Legislative and judicial patterns of the modern labor movement; the objectives of labor combinations; the forms of pressure employed for their realization and prevention; strikes, boycotts, picketing, and lockouts; the legal devices utilized in carving out the permissible bounds of damage suits involving labor activity; the labor injunction; the National Labor Relations Board; the nature of collective bargaining agreements; extra legal procedure for settling labor disputes-the techniques of mediation, conciliation, and arbitration.
Description: Advanced study of United States constitutional law in the litigational context and focused on the power, history, and development of the federal judicial system and the distribution of power between the federal and state systems.
This course is available to online LLM students.
Description: Examines international legal issues related to emerging conflicts in cyberspace and explores threats to international cyber security posed by a wide range of hostile cyber acts, from damaging cyber mischief and crime to cyber warfare. The primary focus is on the legal frameworks that may apply to hostile acts in cyber space, including the domestic criminal laws of states, international law, and particularly the law of armed conflict. Compares various forms of cybercrime with state-sponsored efforts to disrupt, deny, degrade or destroy information in computer networks and systems, explores private and governmental roles in cyberspace, and assesses the appropriate legal responses to increasingly diverse state-sponsored military and intelligence operations in cyberspace, including those related to data exploitation, espionage and sabotage.
Absent the prior approval of the Dean, only those students enrolled in the Law/Psychology Joint Degree Program may register for this course. Absent the prior approval of the Dean, no student may take more than six hours of Research in a Selected Field and/or Psycholegal Research.
Description: A substantial research and writing project on a psycholegal topic. The research is supervised and approved by a faculty member in the Law/Psychology program.
Absent the prior approval of the Dean, only those students enrolled in the Law/Psychology Joint Degree Program may register for this course. Absent the prior approval of the Dean, no student may take more than six hours of Research in a Selected Field and/or Psycholegal Research.
Description: A substantial research and writing project on a psycholegal topic. The research is supervised and approved by a faculty member in the Law/Psychology program.
Description: Selected current national and state legal issues pertaining to private and public employment.
Prerequisites: LAW 646/G
Description: This is a "learning by doing" skills course where students learn and practice the basic, foundational skills necessary to try a civil or criminal case to a judge or jury. Students analyze case files, prepare for trial and perform each of the various portions of a trial - opening statements, direct examination, cross examination and closing arguments. During the practical application portion of each class, every student performs the skill being taught in the role of an advocate, witness, and opposing counsel. Student weekly performances are videotaped for further review and critiqued by an experienced litigator. The course culminates with a 4-hour simulated trial. The primary goal of the course is to prepare our students to competently conduct a bench or jury trial.
Description: Examines actual and potential uses of social scientific research findings and theories in the law and the methods for evaluating the quality and application of social scientific evidence. The uses of social scientific evidence to determine facts, to make law, to provide contextual background for legal decisions, to plan litigation and to assess the functioning of the legal system are examined in a variety of substantive areas. Topical coverage includes: establishing community standards in obscenity cases, the death penalty, research ethics, explaining and predicting behavior, jury decision making, eyewitness reliability and pretrial publicity.
Description: Actual and potential uses of science in the law. The course primarily focuses on social science but considers general principles that apply to all types of science in the law. Specifically, we will look at the use of social science as fact in litigation (e.g., consumer confusion and civil damages) and as context in litigation (e.g., syndromes and criminal defenses). A secondary objective is to look at how social science can be used to understand the more general function and purpose of the courts and more specifically the application of various legal practices and policies to social problems. Third, the course examines the concept of junk science in the law including the misuse of science in litigation and legislation. Throughout the course, we will consider how empirical research can shed light on matters of importance to the legal system.
Credit may only be earned in either LAW 763G or LAW 772G. Students who have previously taken, or are currently enrolled in, Mental Health Law Seminar (Law 772/G) may not enroll in this course.
Description: Addresses both civil and criminal issues that are likely to arise in practice. These include: civil competence for a variety of purposes; civil guardianship and conservatorship; civil commitment; confidentiality and privilege; health care provider liability in the context of mental health care; competence to proceed at several stages of the criminal process; criminal responsibility; and criminal sentencing. Critical review of the mental health laws throughout the nation and their psychological foundations. Emphasis on the research that illuminates the problems facing mental health law, system, and processes and the available solutions. Includes the insanity defense, competency to stand trial, guardianship, conservatorship, and civil commitment.
Description: Addresses both civil and criminal issues that are likely to arise in practice. These include: civil competence for a variety of purposes; civil guardianship and conservatorship; civil commitment; confidentiality and privilege; health care provider liability in the context of mental health care; competence to proceed at several stages of the criminal process; criminal responsibility; and criminal sentencing. Critical review of the mental health laws throughout the nation and their psychological foundations. Emphasis on the research that illuminates the problems facing mental health law, system, and processes and the available solutions. Includes the insanity defense, competency to stand trial, guardianship, conservatorship, and civil commitment.
Description: In-depth analysis of specific psycholegal topics. Previous course titles have included Aging and the Law, Eyewitness Testimony, Privacy, Mental Health Policy, Legal Decision Making, Jurors/Jury Decision Making, Institutional Reform and Deinstitutionalization, Legal Policy and Child Development, Domestic Violence, Psychological Testimony in Criminal Cases: Battered Women's Cases, Expert Evidence, Children and the Law, and Psychology and Family Law.
This course available to online LLM students.
Description: This course explores the structure and institutional rules of the United Nations (including an examination of the UN Charter, membership rules, law-making powers, and financing), the major powers and responsibilities of the institution (including development, peace operations, sanctions, and humanitarian assistance), its privileges and immunities, and current major controversies connected with the United Nations. The course concludes with a look at possible reforms to the United Nations System.
Prerequisites: Law 790 Legal Profession
Description: Students, under close faculty supervision, will represent clients in the provision of estate planning services, including the disbursing of legal advice and the drafting of basic estate planning documents, including a simple will, a power of attorney instrument, advance directives, and title documents. In addition to the direct client work, there is a classroom component (substantive seminars), and students will meet at least weekly with their faculty supervisor for case review.
Prerequisites: LAW 767/G
Description: Problems of planning and implementing estate plans for clients of substantial wealth with special emphasis upon skills of drafting the various legal instruments usually required for comprehensive estate planning.
Description: Policies of federal income taxation with emphasis on current legislative proposals and alternatives.
The readings for this discussion will be from an interdisciplinary perspective. List of topics will be narrowed during the first week of class based on the interest of the enrolled students. Frequent written briefings (1-2 pages) will be required.
Description: Examination of the relationship of legal rules to the distribution of wealth. Exploration of whether the current income and wealth ¿gap¿ differs from historical accounts about this ¿gap.¿ Discussion of a range of materials that present and critique the economic theory underlying various approaches to law and economics. Mock legislative hearings, simulated conferences/presentations and small group discussions on current topics in economic justice (e.g., worker supports, access to credit, access to housing, and others).
Description: A social justice critique of free markets. The relationship of legal rules to the distribution of wealth. Introduction of a range of materials and critique the economic theory underlying various approaches to law and economics. Readings will include an interdisciplinary perspective Current topics in economic inequality, e.g., access to credit, housing and others.
Description: Critical review of gender role in shaping socio-legal relationships and policies. Procedural and substantive areas of the law that affect and are affected by gender. Employment, property, torts, Constitutional law, and contractual relationships. Complex relationship between gender, race and class.
Description: Criminal sanction with attention to conceptual and justificatory problems. Issues relating to the just administration of punishment, including the death penalty, as well as legal doctrines and defenses negating or mitigating criminal responsibility. Sentencing process considered with attention to the legal rights of offenders from conviction to final release.
Prerequisites: Permission
Description: This seminar is designed for law students who have taken a course in water law, environmental law, or natural resources law. Students will be expected to choose and pursue a research topic related to those legal subjects, culminating in a presentation and 10,000-12,000 word paper. At times, it is offered as an interdisciplinary effort with the Department of Civil Engineering.
Description: Judicial, legislative and administrative problems in water resource development, allocation and control. Representative topics include: the acquisition, maintenance and transfer of private rights to use surface water and groundwater; public rights and environmental protection; interstate allocation; and federal rights and powers.
Description: Water law covers judicial, legislative, and administrative issues in water resources development, allocation, control, and conservation. Representative topics include: the acquisition, maintenance, and transfer of private rights to use surface water and groundwater; interstate allocation; public access rights; environmental protection; tribal water rights; and federal rights and powers.
Description: Development of further skills in drafting and interpreting statutes, understanding legislative processes and decision making, and evaluating the role of legislation in governmental regulation. Opportunity for in-depth study of subjects pertaining to or involving legislation, centering on subjects considered by the Nebraska Legislature and the Nebraska legislative process.
Description: Agriculture, Race, and Connections to Place - Explore how our collective choices about property law-and agricultural land tenure more specifically-shape the social and ecological contours of rural landscapes. Students will read and engage with sophisticated, interdisciplinary texts that explore, from numerous perspectives, how agricultural land policies have influenced not only the trajectory of our modern American food system but also helped create many of the challenges facing rural communities. Topics will include the history of U.S. land settlement, the role of local property regulations in global agricultural systems, and the particular property-law experiences of racialized and other marginalized groups in American society. Other seminar topics may include farmland inheritance, right-to-farm legislation, absentee farmland ownership, farm financialization and concentration, co-ownership and partition reforms, minority land loss, property rights on American Indian trust lands, public grazing rights, issues of access and exclusion specific to farmworkers, and a series of international land reform examples. The seminar will be discussion based and collaborative. No prior agricultural experience or knowledge is required. Students must complete both a final writing and presentation assignment.
This is a non-credit course designed exclusively for students with foreign law degrees who are enrolled in the Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications LL.M. program or foreign students visiting at the Law College. It is taught in August prior to the start of classes. This course is available to online Space, Cyber and Telecommunication LLM students.
Description: The basics of the U.S. legal system, focusing primarily on the constitutional structure and institutions of the United States, including separation of powers and federalism issues and including an introduction to the common law and case analysis.
Description: Selected constitutional issues of current importance.
Description: Focuses on the features of common insurance contracts, legislative and administrative restrictions on insurance contracts and judicial techniques for interpreting, construing and regulating insurance contracts.
Description: Focus on property and liability insurance, in both a personal and commercial context. Insurance is one of the primary ways individuals and businesses protect themselves against risk and so it becomes relevant in most commercial transactions and in our personal and professional lives. Not only focuses on how courts resolve the most prominent issues associated with these insurance policies, but how to read insurance contracts and what is contained in the most common form of policies. The purpose is to position you to not only advise clients but also to have more comfort in knowing what is in your own personal policies.
Description: Deals with the law and practice of content governance in both online and more traditional media. Begins with an overview of basic First Amendment principles, and then proceeds to more specific doctrines concerning the regulation of various types of sensitive subject matter including incitement, hate speech, pornography, and misinformation. Examines the content governance practices of privately-owned online platforms. Examines the First Amendment and statutory doctrines that shield and protect the editorial and content governance practices of various types of intermediaries-newspapers, broadcasters, cable providers, search engines, social platforms, and online platforms more generally. Discusses various levers of state influence over platforms' handline of third-party content.
Description: Deals with the law and practice of content governance in both online and more traditional media. Begins with an overview of basic First Amendment principles, and then proceeds to more specific doctrines concerning the regulation of various types of sensitive subject matter including incitement, hate speech, pornography, and misinformation. Examines the content governance practices of privately-owned online platforms. Examines the First Amendment and statutory doctrines that shield and protect the editorial and content governance practices of various types of intermediaries-newspapers, broadcasters, cable providers, search engines, social platforms, and online platforms more generally. Discusses various levers of state influence over platforms' handline of third-party content.
Description: Law of local government units, including their relationship with state government. Topics include vertical distribution of governmental powers, theories of allocating governmental power, and recent problems in the operation and administration of local government. State constitutional law issues arise throughout our consideration of these topics.
Prerequisites: LAW 632/G
Description: This course is a survey of the federal securities laws that govern how securities like corporate stocks are issued, distributed, and traded. Topics include what securities are, the mandatory disclosure system, securities fraud, what investors find important, insider trading, public and private offerings of securities, resale transactions, liability, and enforcement. Primary focus is on the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, with limited attention to state "blue sky" securities legislation.
This course meets the faculty's requirement for a course in professional responsibility.
Description: A systematic study of the principles of professional responsibility governing the practice of law in the United States.
Applicant must hold a JD or LLM from an ABA-accredited American Law School; Four semesters required.
Description: Research-focused and dissertation-based, students, working over a 2-3 year period, are required to write a book-length thesis about an aspect of space law.
A student may participate in more than one externship, but the total number of credits for all externships shall not exceed six credit hours. Non-joint degree students may not take more than 12 total credit hours of Externship, Research in a Selected Field and non-law school courses.
Description: The Field Placement (Externship) Class is the classroom components for Nebraska Law students completing field work and is required when registering for externship hours. The general course is designed to complement fieldwork, offering opportunities for thoughtful reflection about student experiences and to enhance and improve student skills. Students must also be mindful of the hours required for work and how to plan for each semester or session. Most academic year semesters are 16 weeks. The course will account for 1 credit hour, and students may determine how many additional credits they plan to work in their placement. Students who are registering for a second or third externships should select the corresponding section (002, 003, etc). These sections will have separate assignments and alternate in class activities.
Prerequisites: Law 790 Legal Profession
Description: Students in the First Amendment Clinic may engage in the types of litigation-related activities in which students in other litigation-focused clinics at the College of Law engage: client counseling, factual investigation and development, litigation planning, drafting of pleadings, conducting informal and formal discovery, negotiation, mediation, memo and brief writing, trial work and, if necessary, appellate work.
Prerequisites: Law 790 Legal Profession
By faculty invitation only. Eight students per year are permitted to enroll. Students may not take Immigration Clinic and another clinic.
Description: The Immigration Clinic is a course in which two students are permitted to enroll for an entire calendar year (May-May) and six additional students are permitted to enroll in each of the fall and spring semesters. Students selected to be in the Immigration Clinic for the entire calendar year must register for Immigration Clinic during the summer, fall and spring semesters (unless otherwise approved by the instructor), and are subject to the 12 hour cap on Immigration Clinic credit hours. Students enrolling in the Immigration Clinic represent low-income clients with immigration problems under close faculty supervision. Most of the work is in the areas of deportation defense, family-based immigrant visas, domestic violence-related petitions, Special Immigration Juvenile cases, naturalization applications, and asylum applications, although other types of immigration cases may be assigned to students from time to time at the discretion of the supervising faculty member. Students in Immigration Clinic can expect to engage in the following types of activities: factual development and analysis, frequent client interviewing and counseling, preparation of immigration applications and supporting documentation, attendance with clients at immigration interviews, appearing in Immigration Court on behalf of clients, state and federal court appearances (as dictated by clients' legal needs), legal analysis and planning, frequent creation of written work product (including but not limited to legal memoranda, briefs, letters, and so forth), analysis and resolution of professional ethics issues, and other skills necessary to function effectively as lead counsel on a variety of immigration cases.
Available to online LLM students.
Description: Required Independent Study for LLM students in which they are required to participate in bi-weekly brown bag lunch sessions of space, cyber, and telecom law topics throughout the year and produce a 5,000 -7,000 word article of publishable quality. In the second half of spring semester students will present the paper written for the class.
Prerequisites: Law 609 Constitutional Law I or Co-requisite
Description: Investigation of the federal statutory, decisional, and constitutional law that shapes the interactions of Indian tribes, the states, and the federal government. Includes an overview of the history of federal Indian policy and emphasizes the unique legal principles that inform the modern federal trust responsibility, tribal sovereignty, and complex civil and criminal jurisdictional issues that arise in Indian Country. Current topics including tribal water rights, tribal justice systems, reservation economic development, and tribal religious rights will also be addressed.
Prerequisites: Law 609 Constitutional Law I or Co-Req
Students who have previously taken Native American Law (Law 796) may not enroll in this course.
Description: Legal concepts historically used to fit Native American nations into the legal structure of the United States are examined. The legal power or jurisdiction of the federal government, the states and the tribes is explored in cases, legislation and practice.
Prerequisites: Law 790 Legal Profession, Law 741 Pretrial Litigation
Description: The Debtor Defense Clinic is a semester-long, three-credit hour clinic in which two third-year students and two second-year students are eligible to participate. Students who have participated in the Clinic as second-year students are eligible to apply to participate as third-year students. The third-year students selected for the Clinic will engage in the types of activities permitted by the Nebraska Supreme Court's senior practice rule, including appearing in court on behalf of clients if necessary. Second-year students will function as paralegals who operate under the supervision of the supervising faculty member, and will interacts with clients, provide general information, work on legal issues, engage in outreach, and otherwise perform case-related tasks that do not require senior standing. The focus of the Clinic is to provide outreach, information, and representation to those involved in debt collection cases. Most of the clients with whom Clinic students will interact have already had judgments entered against them. Students will help such clients navigate their legal options post-judgment. Students may also file Chapter 7 bankruptcies on behalf of clients in appropriate cases, and perform any other activities assigned by the supervising faculty member. There is a weekly classroom component, which focuses on general matters regarding client representation, including motion practice, ethical issues inherent in 2L involvement and in 3L limited scope and extended representation of clients, substantive issues regarding the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Nebraska debt collection law, and bankruptcy practice, among others.
Prerequisites: Pre-Requisite: Law 790 or Law 790G Legal Profession; Pre-Requisite: Law 741 or Law 741G Pretrial Litigation
Senior standing only. Preference will be given to students participating in the Litigation Skills Program of Concentrated Study.
Description: Students, under close faculty supervision, represent clients in a variety of civil legal matters, including full-service representation in the areas of estate planning, clean slate relief, and eviction defense. Students may also represent low-income clients in a limited-scope capacity in the areas of family law (divorce, custody, visitation), consumer protection, landlord-tenant, name changes, and other general civil matters. Students may also have the option of leading and/or participating in one of the Clinic's outreach projects (Project descriptions are available at https://law.unl.edu/civil-clinic-outreach/). In addition, each semester at least five Clinic students will have the opportunity to participate in an Advance Directive Clinic (https://law.unl.edu/civil-clinic-outreach/advance-directive-clinic/), an off-site program where students work with senior citizens in out-state Nebraska in drafting their estate planning documents. In addition to the client and project work, there is a classroom component where student meet several times per week for the first three or four weeks, and then at least weekly thereafter. These class sessions will be scheduled for a day/time that is mutually convenient for students and faculty.
Prerequisites: Law 761 - Trial Advocacy, Law 790 - Legal Profession
Cases are prosecuted through the Lancaster County Attorney¿s Office and the practice component is conducted out of that office. Participation in a seminar concentrating on the development of skills necessary to the prosecution of criminal cases is required.
Description: Prosecute a variety of misdemeanor offenses under the close supervision of a faculty member.