This readings course focuses on the history of legal challenges to civil liberties and civil rights in the United States during times of war, beginning with the U.S. War for Independence (1775-1783) and proceeding to the "War on Terrorism" President George W. Bush announced in 2001 in response to the events of September 11th. Focusing on the war at home, the course aims at developing perspectives on the impacts U.S. engagement in war has had on public policies and practices affecting constitutional rights and civil liberties. The course addresses war as a crucial moment for national community, not only in regard to the dreadful, open and intentional violence of the declared battlefield, but in regard also to sometimes frightful balances of principles and conflicts of values that develop with the war and that may linger thereafter. Readings case reports such as Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919), Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), and Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494 (1951), and also items such as John Braeman’s “World War One and the Crisis of American Liberty” (1964), Robert E. Cushman,“Civil Liberty After the War” (1944), or Mark E. Neely’s The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties (1991).
This seminar deals with constitutional liberties in the U.S. Constitution, particularly those that are derived through substantive due process. The course will be a mixture of advanced constitutional law and political philosophy. Readings will include the major substantive due process cases decided by the United States Supreme Court, with an emphasis on cases dealing with contemporary issues such as abortion, physician assisted suicide and homosexual sex, as well as some essays on liberty from political philosophy. Course requirements include attendance, participation, reading, student class presentations, and a seminar paper.
There are no prerequisites, although a background in constitutional law and/or political theory will be helpful. This course is open to graduate students in Philosophy and Political Science.
The course focuses on inventions arising out of ASU's Life Sciences invention portfolio but does not require a science background. We examine the scientific, legal, and business processes that underlie the commercialization of intellectual property created at research institutions. Central to this process are issues of “control” as embodied in the tech transfer license and partnering agreements between the various parties. Conflicts inevitably arise between the owner (institution), creator (researcher) and marketer (industry) and the essence of technology transfer licenses is to anticipate these conflicts and, as much as possible, resolve them at the negotiation stage. To make this possible, students must be exposed to a wide array of important legal, political, economic, and scientific principles. The class will use actual inventions from the ASU intellectual property portfolio. Students are required to maintain confidentiality regarding all issues raised or discovered with regard to these inventions and will be required to sign confidentiality agreements.
Working mainly in groups, students will take these inventions and, through preparation of legal documents, negotiations, and commercial decisionmaking, commercialize them. Although commercialization of these inventions is entirely for classroom purposes, students will, where available and appropriate, be able to compare their work product with that undertaken by lawfirms and business groups operating for and within ASU.
Students enrolling in the course will gain exposure to all aspects of the technology transfer process and the role that lawyers play in making that process successful. Students will be required to draft legal documents, conduct client interviews, and give oral presentations.
Students that successfully complete the course will have a substantial body of work to show potential employers and will be eligible to enroll in the Technology Ventures Clinic.
This seminar will explore important aspects of medical malpractice and law reform. Topics will include data concerning the nature and extent of medical malpractice; current legal doctrine; the goals that the law does and should seek to advance in responding to malpractice; legal reforms enacted in the past 30 years or so to address the problem, and the performance of such reforms (insofar as that can be ascertained). We will also explore alternatives to traditional tort law (such as various versions of “no-fault,” alternative dispute resolution, enterprise liability, and other possible approaches), and the promise of the recently launched “patient-safety movement” (an industrial model of harm-prevention that focuses more on improving human systems and technology than on individual persons as the central cause of error and harm).