Second-Third-Year

Taxation Legal Research

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.

Taxation I

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.

Tax Policy Seminar

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.

Tax Crimes

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.

Supreme Court Role-Play

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.

Sports and the Law

A study of state and federal laws relating to the business of sporting competitions as entertainment, including matters such as the creation of a free market for players' services, the relationships of franchise owners to the league commissioner, player/agent relationships and contract negotiation. There is also some study of the NCAA regulation of collegiate athletics.