USC Schedule of Classes

By examining key constitutional moments involving race, rights, and revolutions, students will explore how legal meaning changes over time.

Sources and structure of law; history of Bill of Rights emphasizing effect on criminal justice system; limits of law in solving problems in American society.

Introduces students to the basic aspects of the legal profession.

The main concepts and topics in American law, in the historical, economic and cultural contexts in which they have developed.

Studies how law, politics and culture interacted to shape the institution of slavery and the development of modern conceptions of race.

Issues at the intersection of law and psychology, both civil--e.g. civil commitment--and criminal-e.g. the insanity defense. Emphasis on ethical issues.

Historical overview of the evolution of international legal norms prohibiting atrocity crimes found in the law of armed conflict, international human rights law and the 1948 Genocide Convention.

The interpretation and enforcement of promises and agreements.

The crime problem and the legislative response to it through substantive criminal law; administration of criminal justice through police, prosecutorial, sentencing, and penological discretion.

Functions of the lawyer in modern society; history and organization of the legal profession; the adversary system; equal access to justice; other problems of ethics and professional responsibility.

The idea of property as understood through economic and philosophical ceoncepts. Rights in land, water, and other natural resources. Forms of shared ownership (e.g., landlord and tenant), and a survey of mechanisms for controlling land use.

Individual's obligation not to harm others; bases for compensating persons who are harmed, either by holding responsible whoever is at fault, or by invoking other principles of liability, including the efficiency of resource allocation and the spreading of losses.

Examination of the basic sources of law for federal and California jurisdictions, utilizing a vast array of sources from books to computer-assisted research and analyzing research methodology and techniques. Graded CR/D/F.

Two-semester course focusing on developing analytic and communication skills. Lawyers will analyze legal principles and incisively apply them to facts. Graded CR/D/F.

Continuation of LAW 515. Development of legal research, writing, and advocacy skills. Emphasis on persuasive legal writing, including appellate briefs, and researching statutory and administrative law. Participation in a moot court program. Registration restricted to Law students.

This course will provide LL.M. and M.C.L. students with a survey of various topics in American law including criminal law, evidence, family law, constitutional law, torts, wills and trusts, administrative law and property law. Open to LL.M. and M.C.L. students only.

Covers the delineation of spheres of responsibility between three branches of the federal government, the federal government and the states and the government and individuals.

Exposes students to everyday business and finance vocabulary, concepts and modes of analysis. Strongly recommended for students without significant prior business experience.

Covers legal ethics issues with an emphasis on access to justice, nonprofit practice settings, and duties of prosecutors and defense attorneys. Fulfills Legal Profession requirement.

Examines constitutional rights particularly ones protected under the Equal Protection/Due Process Clauses and related questions of judicial role and theories of interpretation.

Write or edit articles for the Business Law Advisor, a student-run publication that publishes advisory articles relevant to the intersection of business and law. Open only to Law students. Graded CR/NC.

Explores the communication and presentation skills necessary for persuasive legal advocacy.

Explores how judicial opinions interact with other sources of law and develop law in the U.S.

Explores effective legal communication and professionalism skills.

Provides an overview of the United States legal system for those unfamiliar with common law courts, including the mechanics of the U.S. Court system in both criminal and civil courts, as well as more detailed analysis of torts and intellectual property disputes.

Federal tax statutes, technical issues and social problems involved in tax planning, tax litigation, and reform of the tax laws.

Requires students to draft legal documents they were not exposed to in the first-year writing course, such as client letters, demand letters, and contracts.

Criminal procedure in the courts, and the regulation of lawenforcement by the courts through rules of evidence andinterpretation of the Bill of Rights.

Organization of economic activity especially the modern corporation as institutions of social power. The roles of managers, owners, and regulatory agencies in shaping processes ofdecision making.

Gratuitous transfer of wealth, especially the transmission of wealth from one generation to the next as a settlement of family affairs. Comparative analysis of the legal mechanisms of gifts, wills, and trusts. Introduction to problems of fiduciary administration.

The purpose and character of trial. Problems of adversary presentation and the nature of proof. The basis for admission and exclusion of evidence in judicial proceedings.

Examines the California rules of civil procedure. Emphasizes California law, with some discussion of the differences between state and federal procedure.

The lawyer's skills needed to understand the financial affairs of a business client.

Creating, regulating and dissolving family relationships. Explore moral and power relations among men, women, children, and the State. Develop skills to help clients in families.

Comparison of the remedial goals of contracts, torts, and property and the impact of procedural devices in law and equity. Damages, injunctions, specific performance and restitution. Remedial theory and transactional application.

Provide students with the opportunity to gain a greater in-depth understanding of the key issues and legal questions that arise in international business dispute resolution.

Selected problems to supplement LAW 629.

A survey of the major types of financing used for real estate and the basic techniques used to make real estate investment and financing decisions. Recommended preparation: LAW 605. Open to law students only.

Continuation of LAW-630

Examines the regulation of employment discrimination under federal law. Pays primary attention to issues of race, sex, age and disability discrimination.

This is a course on Chattel paper and secured transactions involving personal property under Article 9 of the Uniform Commerical Code and some related bodies of law.

Tax principles and practice applicable to business, especially problems of formation, liquidation, and reorganization.

Contemporary topics in the field of entertainment law.

An examination of how the courts are handling selected, "cutting edge" topics in entertainment law. The topics will include the scope of and limitations on the right of publicity; fair use and parody defenses to copyright infringement; future technology clauses in rights contracts; and copyright and defamation issues arising in the online world. Previous entertainment law courses recommended, but not required.

Focus on environmental law policy and practice. This course is a combination of regulatory and private law, with a special emphasis on disputes and regulations involving contamination in soil, water and air.

Problems of integrating the corporate, securities, tax, business, antitrust, accounting and contractual aspects of corporate mergers and aquisitions.

Examination of the nature of the United States' national security law, focusing on how it is created, violated and enforced.

Provides an overview, often from a litigation perspective, of legal issues affecting artworks and cultural property.

Invitation-only course for students in the Hale Moot Court Honors Program. Students present an oral argument and judge first-year student rounds. Graded CR/NC.

Evaluation and supervision of the preparation of briefs and oral arguments in the Hale Moot Court honors competition. Graded CR/69/65.

Preparation of oral arguments in approved moot court competitions, such as national and state prize rounds, (other than Hale Moot Court Program). Graded CR/69/65. Open only to law students.

Preparation of briefs in approved moot court competitions, such as national and state prize rounds (other than Hale Moot Court Program).

Examines the legal and business skills, concepts and practices, involved in structuring, drafting and negotiating financing, production and distribution deals in the entertainment industry.

Provides hands-on experience in the various tasks typically required in structuring, documenting and closing a personal property secured transaction. Corequisite: LAW 642. Graded CR/NC.

Writing, source-checking, and preliminary editing of articles and comments for publication in the Review of Law and Social Justice. For second year students serving as staff members on the Review. Open to law students only. Graded CR/D/F.

Writing, source-checking and preliminary editing of articles and comments for publication in the Review of Law and Social Justice.

Supervision of research and writing, and final editing of articles and comments for publication in the Review of Law and Social Justice. For officers of the Review. Open to law students only. Graded IP to CR/D/F.

Important business and economic concepts that will assist with problems lawyers in every practice area routinely encounter.

Students prepare oral arguments on the issues in a problem that is the basis for the Jessup International Moot Court Competition. Participation is by faculty selection only. Graded CR/D/F.

Introduction to a practice-oriented approach to interviewing and counseling clients. Enables students to develop a useful framework for effectively interviewing and representing clients.

Develops legal, analytical, and client management skills required to represent entertainment industry clients in all areas of the entertainment industry.

Students learn how to effectively interview child witnesses. Students will practice mock interviews, and may be eligible to conduct actual interviews of child witnesses.

Students will work on cases in the following areas: 1) dependent and neglected children: All children who are wards of the court must have legal counsel. 2) Children with AIDS: Legal implications of such issues as health care and custody. 3) Guardianships or other temporary arrangements for children whose parents are terminally ill or are otherwise unable to care for them. Graded CR/69/65.

The law of community property, including disposition of property on dissolution of the marriage and questions of conflict of laws. May be offered as a reading course.

Highlights the complex interactions between health, law and human rights, emphasizing the use of human rights in public health thinking and practice. Duplicates credit in PM-577.

Covers the fundamentals of reviewing and analyzing business contracts and strategies for negotiating business issues with an emphasis on developing practical skills. Open only to Law students.

Contract drafting and negotiating will teach students the mechanics of drafting and negotiating sophisticated contracts from a variety of legal disciplines including entertainment law, real estate law and general corporate law.

Students examine contracts and present to the class their assessment of why the specific provisions were drafted and possible alternatives and challenges to those provisions.

Real world advocacy projects involving issues such as civil rights, disability rights, foster care, welfare, and health care, among others.

This course will address the international law and institutions which have developed since World War II for the protection of human rights.

Legal and economic aspects of corporate finance including capital structure, policy, mergers, takeovers, and freeze-outs; analysis of policy relating to present law and possible reforms.

Executive malfeasance, shareholder rights, securities class actions, asset securitizations, hedge fund regulation and corporate social responsibility from a theoretical and corporate finance framework. Open only to Law students.

Covers leading land use appellate cases, developing and implementing winning strategies with clients, formulating and articulating sensible arguments and rebuffing flawed arguments.

This course deals with the formation, features and functions of general partnerships, limited partnerships and limited liability companies. It will also focus on business planning, recognizing business and legal objectives and selecting the appropriate entity to accomplish these objectives.

Reorganization of failing corporations under Chapter XI of the Bankruptcy Act. Claims, protective committees, plans, tax considerations.

Study and evaluation of the municipal and regional legal institutions. Emphasis on the crises in financing and governing the urban society.

Students provide legal assistance to small businesses, entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations that cannot pay market rates for legal services. Graded CR/NC. Open to Law students only.

Regulation by state and federal authorities of issuance of, and trading in, stocks, bonds, and other securities. Particular reference to SEC regulations.

Source-checking and preliminary editing of articles and comments for publication in the Interdisciplinary Law Journal. For third year students serving as staff members on the Journal. Graded CR/NC.

Students will write journal notes as members of the Interdisciplinary Law Journal.

Supervision and final editing of articles and comments for publication in the Interdisciplinary Law Journal. Graded CR/69/65.

Problems of adjudication in a federal system. Allocation of authority between federal and state courts and among Congress, the Executive and the Courts; choice of federal and state law; jurisdiction of federal courts and significant rules of practice.

Analyzes selected contributions to intellectual property scholarship and explores some challenging problems in contemporary intellectual property law.

Writing, source- checking, and preliminary editing of articles and comments for publication in the Southern California Law Review. For second year students serving as staff members on the Review. Graded CR/NC.

Writing, source-checking and preliminary editing of articles and comments for publication in the Southern California Law Review.

Supervision of research and writing, and final editing of articles and comments for publication in the Southern California Law Review. For officers of the Review. Graded CR/69/65.

Provides students with the foundation for advising clients on transactions involving patents, trade secrets and other technology-related rights.

Development of immigration law to its present state.

This course will analyze the buying and selling of goods both in domestic and international transactions with a heavy focus on Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code.

Continuation of LAW 771.

A clinical internship or judicial externship allows a student to gain hands-on legal experience in legal settings. Students will be assigned to a legal services program, government agency, or state or federal judge under faculty supervision. Graded CR/D/F.

Advanced clinical training/externship. Graded CR/NC

Examination of the best scholarly work currently done by legal, moral and political philosophers. Open only to Law students.

Continuation of LAW 776. Enrollment restricted to law students. Prerequisite: LAW 776.

Focuses on one or two topics per year at the intersection of law, mental health and ethics and explores them from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Surveys the legal framework concerning information privacy in the US, including developments in constitutional, tort, contract, property and statutory law to address emerging privacy threats.

Medical and law students, in conjunction with public policy advocates, work together to identify and improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations.

Emphasizes strategies and tactics in asking and objecting to questions at a deposition in a civil case. Students will conduct mock depositions.

Explores the statutes and regulations that govern the health care system and the policies that shape its development.

Introduces students to the range of issues addressed by the Federal Arbitration Act and state arbitration laws.

Examines the major components of deals in the entertainment industry, and provides students the opportunity to learn real-world negotiating skills in the process.

Presents the theoretical groundwork of online dispute resolution (ODR) and prepares students to be successful neutrals in ODR settings.

Examines conceptual and practical aspects of interviewing, counseling, negotiation, settlement, drafting and formal advocacy in the handling of legal cases.

Examines decicion-making by counsel in the litigation of cases. Emphasis is given to decisions involving tactics, strategies, and their implications for the functioning of legal institutions and substantive doctrine. Extensive use of simulated trial practice exercises.

Explores a variety of contract provisions, and teaches students the important drafting skills necessary to achieve a clients goal.

Helps students understand the basic approaches to preparing and presenting cases in the arbitration context.

Covers basic aspects of international commercial arbitration and prepares a USC Law School team for participation in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot.

Provides hands-on experience in mediation of the complex issues of disability, wage and hour, sex and sex harassment, age, race, religion, and national origin.

Role of the attorney in startup firms: business plan, employment agreements, lease, stock option plan, financing documents and distribution and strategic partnership arrangements. Enrollment restricted to law students.

Introduces students to the process of mediation, explores the philosophical approaches to mediation and different styles of mediating, develops a working knowledge of the stages of mediation, and cultivates students skills to become effective advocates throughout each stage of the process.

Introduces students to the tools needed to work in a large law firm pro bono practice.

Allows students to hone their legal skills while representing veterans of the United States Armed Forces in administrative proceedings.

Prepares students to handle due diligence projects at the level of a first-year or second-year transactional associate through hands-on, practical training.

Examine legal and social perspectives on the concept of diversity.

Students learn how to prepare and prosecute U.S. patent applications, as well as an overview of design and foreign patent prosecution. Open only to Law students.