USC Schedule of Classes

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.

Examination of the rules and realities of American politics, and the role politics plays in American life and culture.

Provides a comprehensive analysis of the criminal justice system and an overview of the fundamentals of substantive criminal law.

Introduces the U.S. legal system and its relationship to basic principles of the rule of law. Examines lawmaking institutions, judicial processes and contemporary legal issues.

Examines current immigration law in America, the normative debates over immigration policies and the role the government plays in expanding or limiting immigration rights.

Exposes students to the impact of legal decisions on society through analysis of pending and recent cases on the courts docket.

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

Examination of the philosophic and political concepts that underpin international influence, while learning how this structure impacts the modern incentives and interests of international actors.

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

An exploration of core aspects of the US legal system (property, contracts, torts, criminal law, civil procedure) from the perspective of basic economics theory.

Explores issues of responsibility and credibility. Intentional and unintentional behavior. Clinical biases. Topics include witness credibility, confessions, cults, hostages, battered persons, and repressed memories.

Individual research and readings.

Introduces students to the basics of legal writing and research, with a focus on legal scholarship and law review-type journal articles.

Intensive experience with a law-related non-profit organization, or public agency.

Off campus coursework; title of course taken at host institution appears as a section title.

Consideration of the participants in litigation; private and public plaintiffs, defendants, and courts. Information exchange, process, outcomes, and costs of lawsuits.

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.

Considers the delineation of spheres of responsibility between the judiciary and legislature, the nation and the state, and the government and the individual.

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.

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.

Development of legal research, writing, and advocacy skills. Emphasis on objective legal writing, including memoranda, and researching case law through primary and secondary sources. Registration restricted to Law students.

The basic structure of government in the U.S., including the constitutionally mandated division of power in the federal government and the federal system of power sharing between state and federal systems. A comparative perspective on selected substantive and procedural matters, such as common law reasoning, jury trials, adversary process, and various aspects of civil procedure. Open to incoming LL.M. students only.

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

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

A student-run periodical that publishes student-written and peer-edited articles relevant to the intersection between law and business.

Explores the business of law, legal service delivery as it has traditionally been undertaken and its current transformation, and the primary drivers of change throughout the business of law ecosystem.

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

Part-time or full-time, practical work experience in the student's field of study. The internship must be located at an off-campus facility. Students are individually supervised by faculty. May not be taken until the student has completed at least one semester of enrollment in the graduate program with a cumulative 3.0 GPA.

An in-depth look at the most prevalent transactions and finance tools related to both residential and commercial real estate. Topics include: purchase and sale of realty; property valuation; brokerage agreements; land conveyance and the recording acts; escrows, title insurance and closings; investment vehicles and deal structures; mortgage lending and commercial finance; and foreclosures.

Students work in groups using principles of contract design analyzing concrete cases based on actual events in transactions handled by a large commercial law firm. Open to law students only.

Students receive the training required to become professional mediators for civil cases in the L.A. County Superior Court, and mediate these cases.

This course introduces law students to the tools, concept, and language of business. It is premised on the belief that to excel as a business lawyer, one must understand the business world from the perspective of the clients one counsels and assists. The course will cover, in compressed form, the basic subjects from the MBA program which are most useful to lawyers. Open only to law students.

Legal analysis of the rules of Evidence using problems designed to improve analytic skills and problem-solving. Taken in conjunction with Evidence.

An introduction of trauma and trauma-informed practice within the legal field. Learn the skills to represent trauma survivors and address vicarious trauma.

Examines the legal and policy issues involved with the emergence of cyber crimes and cyber security issues, including government access and privacy issues.

An in-depth study of television industry legal concepts, contracts, business structures and economic models.

Principles of international law involving relations among governments. The function of international tribunals and organizations.

An intensive, two-semester course preparing students interested in U.S. trademark and unfair competition law for participation in the annual Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition.

Invitation-only course offered to second-year students as part of the Hale Moot Court Honors Program. Students write an appellate brief.

Evaluation and supervision of the preparation of briefs and oral arguments in the Hale Moot Court honors competition.

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.

Develop knowledge and skills associated with the mediation process as a third party neutral. Explore mediation theories, practices, ethical issues and policies.

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.

Gives students operational significance to the abstractions presented in the Constitutional Law courses by investigating civil rights litigation.

An ivestigation of the role of business in respect to human rights; the rise of national and international instruments addressing business behavior and remedies available for victims of corporate abuse.

An overview of common legal issues impacting both providers and users of Internet services.

Explores how legal, social, racial, cultural and economic factors contribute to health disparities and the role that physicians and lawyers can play in advocating for patients and policy changes to promote health equity.

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

An introduction to the problem of poverty in the United States and to the response of government and the legal system to the problems of the poor.

The law of community property, including disposition of property on dissolution of the marriage and questions of conflict of laws.

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.

Students present to the class their assessment of assigned contracts, then draft their own contracts, interpret a complex contract, followed by team-based rewrites.

Develops enhanced negotiation skills and a working understanding of ADR processes and procedures in an interactive classroom experience.

Explore areas of law that cover children and require students to think critically and practically about childrens role in the legal system.

Focuses on applied principles of litigation involving software, including mobile and web applications, databases and machine learning.

Continuation of Small Business Clinic I. Open to Law students only.

Focuses on the electronic storage of information (ESI) and how it works in the litigation discovery process.

Covered topics include offenses relating to fraud and political corruption, terrorism, narcotics, money laundering, organized crime, false statements and obstruction of justice.

Intersectionality, deconstruction and critical histoiography; specifically affirmative action in education, hate speech and immigration reform. Open only to Law students.

Structured around consumer transactions; studies contemporary consumer law; examines consumer law statutes in the context of the common law, primarily tort and contract.

Regulation by state and federal agencies 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 second-year students serving as staff members on the Journal. Graded IP/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 IP to CR/69/65.

Special seminars to provide a forum for students who wish to produce a paper for academic publication to receive guidance and feedback.

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 IZ..

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 IP to CR/69/65.

Provides law students with the ability to represent clients (under the supervision of the professor) in cutting-edge issues of intellectual property and technology law. Corequisite: LAW 772 or LAW 841. Graded CR/NC.

Examines the seminal legal events and cases relevant to Latinos in Los Angeles history, starting with the founding of 'El Pueblo' and continuing through the modern day.

Students represent clients before Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Immigration Court, and certain law enforcement agencies in cases including applications for relief under the Violence Against Women Act, for asylum, and for relief against deportation. Open only to LAW students.

An 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. All externships include a classroom component.

Advanced externship. All externships include a classroom component.

Explores the role of racial stratification in the development and regulation of social media.

Examines the three prevailing concepts of race currently used in the American legal system: biological race, performed race and physical race.

Understand the reciprocal relationship through which race and racism have shaped American law and how law has shaped popular conceptions of race and racism.

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.

Enduring questions in the theory and practice of torts and related fields. Topics to vary by semester.

Examines methods of dispute resolution used in other countries and compares them to those employed in the United States.

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.

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.

Brings an international perspective to understanding the impact of culture in the most commonly used international and domestic dispute resolution practices (negotiation, mediation, and arbitration).

Develops students' negotiating skills through role plays, reflection and instructor feedback.

Students work under close faculty supervision on cases and projects that involve the application of international law to address human rights violations.

Learn the practice and theory required to navigate many family law issues, including divorce, property, custody and immigration disputes.

Students work under close faculty supervision on cases and projects that involve the application of housing law and policy.

Explores the spectrum of interrelated legal and policy issues known as "homeland security" since the events of September 11, 2001.

Assist in teaching writing and advocacy. Responsibilities include helping prepare lesson plans and drafting writing assignments and sample answers; leading class exercises; and judging first-year moot court practice rounds. Graded CR/D/F.

Students write a majority opinion and a dissenting opinion based on cases pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. This is a writing-intensive course.

Students interested in business law and other transactional practice areas will develop the skills to communicate clearly, concisely and correctly in a business law setting.

One CR/D/F unit for a research proposal approved by a full- or part-time faculty supervisor; up to four graded units with academic deans approval of proposal by LLM or third-year JD student to produce a publishable paper under full-time professor.