This seminar examines the modern American jury, a controversial entity that empowers average citizens to participate in legal decision making. Proponents of trials by jury defend them as evidence of our shared commitment to democracy and liberty. Critics argue, however, that juries are “the apotheosis of the amateur” and are often incompetent, irrational, and biased (both overtly and subconsciously).
Technology is changing the practice of law in all fields and venues. This course will provide students with the theoretical and practical background to understand these changes and to have a positive impact on a firm’s or an organization’s responses to such challenges. Areas of special focus include: litigation technologies; document management; electronic discovery; legal process and project management; eLawyering and virtual law practice; and the ethical, security and privacy issues implicated by these technological changes.
Prerequisites: Taxation I
Prerequisites: Legal Writing & Research I & II
This online, asynchronous course is designed to help students develop the sophisticated research skills necessary for the effective practice of taxation law. It emphasizes research of federal and state tax issues based on statutes, administrative rules, agency materials and judicial decisions, in order to help clients with both tax planning and compliance. Students will be introduced to concepts, sources and specialized tools used in income, business entity, and estate and gift taxation law research.
A study of the fundamental concepts employed in federal income taxation, the public policies that underlie the current system and the impact of that system on individuals and business entities. Could be called Federal Income Tax, Income Tax or Tax.
Prerequisites: Taxation I
Prerequisites: Taxation I
This seminar evaluates topics such as the choice of a tax base (income or consumption), rate structure (flat or progressive), taxable unit (individual or family), and method of government spending (direct or through the tax system via tax expenditures) against the tax policy norms of equity, efficiency and administrability to determine how well the present tax system satisfies these norms.
Prerequisite or co-requisite: Taxation I (Federal Income Tax)
Although useful to both criminal law-interested students and tax-interested students, this is principally a criminal law course. This is a skill training course in which students will learn core criminal law concepts such as scienter, criminal tax procedure constitutional issues, and post-conviction remedies and achieve basic competence in working with the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other considerations bearing on sentencing.
Prerequisites: Constitutional Law I and II
Extensive role-playing in which nine students, acting as current members of the United States Supreme Court, decide three cases pending on the Court's docket after briefing and oral argument by student advocates.
