LAW-2129 Constitutional Justice in School: 3 credits
The goals of this Project and course are expansive: "to uplift constitutional understanding, advance democratic values, and promote young people's engagement in politics and government." The Marshall-Brennan Project is named in honor of the late Justices Thurgood Marshall and William J. Brennan, Jr., and is currently offered in less than a dozen law schools in the United States. Students accepted into the course will be known as the Marshall-Brennan Fellows at Suffolk Law School. The Rappaport Center will administer the program. This course will offer law students a rare opportunity to study constitutional law and to teach it at the same time to area high school students. The academic component of this course consists of a weekly seminar for an academic year. Fellows will learn the intricacies of Constitutional Law as it applies to high school students. Topics will include: Free Speech for Students, Separation of Church and School, Search and Seizure in School, Equal Protection against Race Discrimination, and Due Process in School. The weekly seminar sessions will also provide an opportunity for Marshall-Brennan fellows to discuss their high school classes and for us to explore together pedagogical problems in teaching constitutional law. There will be a two-day session for the Fellows at the beginning of the law school year to provide an orientation to the issues involved in teaching law in high school. Marshall-Brennan Fellows will teach in pairs in local high schools, in classes of no more than twenty. Each pair of Fellows will be expected to teach two one-hour classes per week, either during the high school day or after school. Fellows will also work with their high school students as they prepare for a national moot court competition. In additional to six course credits, Fellows may also be eligible for pro bono credit. This is a six credit course with a single grade at the end of the academic year. Law students will be evaluated based on written papers at the end of each semester and the observations of the field supervisors and the professors. Paper topics will be issues of constitutional law relevant to the course. Fellows will be required to write reflective papers from time to time during the semester and to submit lesson plans for the high school classes to the field supervisors and to Professors McLaurin and Cooper. Due to time constraints, Fellows may not participate in any clinical program during the same year they are enrolled in the Marshall-Brennan Project.
LAW-2256 Education, Equality & the Law: 2 credits
The course emphasizes the general principles, sources, and purposes of the education law, with a marked emphasis on civil rights and the allocation of educational opportunity in elementary, secondary and post-secondary educational institutions in the U.S. Course themes explore discrimination in public education on the basis of disability, sex, race, national origin, language, and sexual orientation among others. Topics include school finance, testing equity, school choices & vouchers, freedom of speech & equal access, IDEA & Section 504 disability rights, desegregation & affirmative action, equal protection & single sex schools, Title IX of the Higher Education Amendments, and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Participants engage in discussion of case law, as well as theoretical and practical policy solutions drawing on education, sociology, critical race theory source materials, in addition to traditional legal research, culminating in a series of collaborative peer and professorial roundtable paper critiques. Participants may elect to take the course for edited legal writing credit. There are no required prerequisites for this course.
LAW-2333 Race, Gender and Law: 2 credits
Through the prisms of history, culture and the law this course will examine the intersection of law and politics as they pertain to race, women's rights and gender identity. The course will focus on the ways bias explicit and implicit as well as the invisible hand of privilege continue to oppress large segments of society. We will attempt to determine how we got where we are today. However, more importantly we will consider strategies which might lead us to a more open and just society. The ultimate goal of this course is to facilitate a conversation about the challenges facing our nation on the questions: race, women's rights and gender identity. When we use the words "gender identity" we mean it mean it in the most inclusive way possible: Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex and Asexual/Allies hereafter "LBGTQIA".
• Perspectives Course
LAW-2437 Diversity/Inclusion Legal Profession: 2 credits
This course is designed to explore fundamental aspects of diversity and inclusion with an emphasis on how they play a role in the legal profession. Discover how issues related to diversity and inclusion impact the practice of law and the legal industry through history, policies, and laws. Topics to be discussed include identifying ongoing issues and systemic challenges, the marketplace demand for diversity and inclusion, understanding and recognizing implicit bias, and management tools to forward diversity and inclusion efforts in the legal profession. Students will have the opportunity to learn from guest speakers and experts and will be evaluated based on a course paper, final project, and active participation.
• Perspectives Course
LAW-2524 Feminist Legal Theory: 2 credits
This course will examine the historical relationship of law and women through the lens of feminist legal theory. We will consider major strands of contemporary Western feminism, including radical feminism, liberal feminism, dominance feminism, cultural feminism, socialist/materialist feminism, economic feminism in a liberal market frame, critical race feminism and postmodern feminism. We will read classics in feminist legal theory and relevant case law. The goal of this course is to enable each student to understand the historical place of women in law and undertake analysis of legal issues informed by feminist legal theory. Requirements for success in the course: attendance, reaction journals, lead and participate in class discussions, and a final paper on a topic related to the class and approved by the instructor. With the approval of the Office of Academic Services and the Law Dean's Office, students may satisfy their Upper Class Writing Requirement through this course.
LAW-2581 Civil Disobedience: 3 credits
This course examines civil disobedience and protest from legal, philosophical and historical perspectives. Issues discussed include: reasons for obeying or disobeying the law; the relation between law and ethics; varieties of civil disobedience; arguments used to justify civil disobedience; the use of civil disobedience in social change and protest movements; the role of lawyers in representing those engaged in civil disobedience; whether lawyers can participate in civil disobedience. We will examine the writing of authors who seek to justify civil disobedience and their critics starting with the classical Greek thought and focusing on Henry Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Rawls, and contemporary writers. The course examines the use of civil disobedience in Gandhi's South African Rights and Indian independence movement, the American civil rights movement, opposition to the war in Viet Nam, the environmental movement, and the anti-abortion movement, and in contemporary protest movements in the United States and other countries. Students may elect to write a paper in lieu of the final exam. Students who wish to fulfill the law school legal writing requirement may after completing the course enroll in a Directed Study for credit with Professor Rodwin and write an extended paper that builds on the paper written for the class. Grades will be based on a paper (80%), exam (20%) and class participation.
LAW-2595 Race and American Law: 3 credits
This course, team-taught by a dozen faculty, explores race in American law, drawing on empirical and theoretical social science, history, and traditional legal materials. It will explore how the law treats race (and ethnicity and national origin) across legal curricula The course will examine both how policy treats race explicitly and its differential impact based on social stratification, demographics and culture drawing on the experience of African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, first nation peoples, and other ethnic/ racial groups. Topics will include: whether race is a biological or social construct; the sociology of race, particularly the relation of race to social class and wealth; how the constitutional treatment of race and different racial/ ethnic groups has evolved since the origins of the nation and the varying interpretation of equal protection; the relation between race and citizenship and immigration policy; the civil rights act of 1964 and employment discrimination; discriminatory treatment of racial groups in criminal enforcement, prosecution, and adjudication; education policy and educational testing; disparities in health care treatment and outcomes, reproductive choices; race and eugenics; race and voting rights; family law including anti-miscegenation policy and domestic violence. Faculty for 2022: Constitutional: Reyes; Criminal Justice: McLaurin; Credit & mortgage lending: Engel; Discrimination & Title VII: Shin; Education & testing: Dyson; Electoral/ voting: Infranca; Family law, inti-miscegenation policy and domestic violence: Karmely; First nations & native peoples: Friederichs; Health/ Biomed law: Boonin, Landers, Rodwin; Housing/ Urban: Brenan, Langowski; Immigration: Shah; Mass Incarceration: Cody; Policing & 1983 suits: Blum. The course is graded Pass-Fail. There is an assessment at the completion of each module. The course cannot be used to meet the law school writing requirement. Some instructors can sponsor an independent study on their topic that can be used to fulfill the writing requirement for students who have completed the course.
LAW-2957 Housing Discrimination Law, Theory and Practice: Brainstorming and Implementing Solutions to Discrimination: 2 credit
The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status and national origin in public and private housing. Government and private actors have engaged in behavior that has caused segregation since the beginning of this country and resulting segregation persists today. Housing discrimination is prevalent throughout the United States and our society relies heavily on the private right of action of aggrieved individuals to enforce the FHA and similar state and local anti-discrimination laws to address this problem. ? This course is designed to provide the student with the practical knowledge necessary to assist a client in a fair housing matter. Students in this course will be introduced to fair housing law, policy, and procedure, and given the opportunity to draft fair housing complaints that are based on real test evidence. The Housing Discrimination Testing Program (HDTP) works with discrimination testers to gather evidence about the typical business practices of housing providers. Students will not only gain the experience of working with facts to develop a complaint, but will study the law, HUD guidance, agency procedure, and fair housing cases and agency decisions that will help prepare the student for practice in the future. This class will also focus on practical skills such as strategic decision-making and factual investigation. We will also take an in depth look at jurisdictional issues and matters of proof in discrimination cases. The final assignment will be a mediation memo based on the related complaint.
• Meets Trial and Appellate Advocacy Concentration Requirements
• Meets Experiential Learning Requirement
• Perspectives Course
LAW-2989 Immigration: Business: 2 credits
In order to compete in the global marketplace, companies based in the United States need to be able to hire and retain the best and the brightest around the world. Business immigration attorneys play a vital role in the acquisition and retention of the most valuable asset a company has - it's employees. This course will give students a practical understanding of business immigration law so that they possess the right tools for the marketplace. The course will include discussion on various processes and procedures in employment-based immigration law including non-immigrant visas, immigrant visas and "green cards", the PERM labor certification process, as well as various agency regulations which affect the process.
• Meets International Law Concentration Requirements.
LAW-8116 Access to Justice: 2 credits
All people deserve access to justice. Unfortunately, the "justice gap" - the difference between the civil legal needs of low-income Americans and the resources available to meet those needs - is large and growing. The basic human needs at stake include access to health care, housing, and financial security. Unsurprisingly, the justice gap disproportionately affects people of color, immigrants, the elderly, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBT community. This course examines the causes of the justice gap, the work being done to address it, and how new attorneys may join this work. Students will be challenged to identify and evaluate potential structural solutions to the problems inherent in our current system. Grades will be based on participation and a final project.
LAW-8170 Human Rights Survey: 3 credits
This is an introduction to international human rights law, focusing primarily on the UN system. The course includes an examination of: (1) the history of the international human rights movement, (2) the two major UN human rights treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), (3) the human rights systems used to monitor and enforce these rights, and (4) domestic implementation of human rights norms in the United States and elsewhere.
• Meets International Law Concentration Requirements.
• Meets Experiential Learning Requirement
• Perspectives Course
LAW- Race and Social Determinants of Health: 3 credits
Health and illness are determined by a combination of biological and social factors. This course explores the social determinants of health within and among populations. These factors include: social class/ socio-economic status, income, social inequality and hierarchy, occupation and work environment, the role racism, race discrimination and other social factors related to race and ethnicity. It also examines the role of law and public policy in creating social determinants of health and their potential use in countering disparities in health care treatment, and addressing the social causes of illness and in poor health status. The course draws on the work of epidemiologists, sociologists, and scholars writing about health policy, and race and law, to examine these issues in the United States and internationally. The course will draw on writing, films, and other audio-visual materials. Grading will be based on a mid-term and final take-home exam and on class participation.
Please visit the Suffolk Law School page on course offerings for a current list of classes.
