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SCHOOL OF LAW
SCHOOL OF LAW
LAW A

Detailed course offerings (Time Schedule) are available for

LAW A 500 Introduction to Perspectives on the Law ([0-1]-, max. 1)
Explores critical perspectives as a method of understanding common laws to provide context for black letter law. Creates a basic framework for understanding the relationship between race, class, gender, sexuality, and the law to help students deepen their ability to represent and counsel clients from diverse backgrounds and personal identities. Credit/no-credit only. Offered: AWSp.
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LAW A 501 Contracts ([2-8]-, max. 8)
Focuses on guiding principles of contract law, including formation, consideration, bargaining, performance, conditions, termination, breach, defenses, damages, and remedies available to parties to enforceable agreements. Offered: A.
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LAW A 502 Civil Procedure I ([2-6]-, max. 6)
Studies procedure that governs how civil disputes in United States are resolved. Offered: ASp.
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LAW A 503 Property I ([2-8]-, max. 8)
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LAW A 504 Torts ([2-8]-, max. 8)
Basic objectives develop an understanding of principles, concepts, and purposes of private law governing injuries and common-law method of adjudication. Topics covered include intentional harms to persons, negligence, and strict liability. The course may cover conversion, trespass to property, nuisance, products liability, misrepresentation, defamation, privacy, misuse of legal procedures, and interference with advantageous relationships.
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LAW A 505 Criminal Law ([2-5]-, max. 5)
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LAW A 506 Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing ([1-7]-, max. 7)
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LAW A 507 Constitutional Law I: Constitutional Structures of Government ([2/6]-, max. 6)
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LAW A 508 Transnational Law (3)
Survey of basic principles of public international law; comparative and historical overview of various legal traditions (civil law, common law, Islamic law, and mixed systems). Examines sources, subjects, and challenges of international law, and methodology of comparing foreign legal systems, providing perspective on U.S. legal system and rules. Offered: Sp.
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LAW A 509 Administrative Law (3-5)
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LAW A 510 Sales (3-4)
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LAW A 511 Payment Systems (2/4)
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LAW A 512 Secured Transactions (3-4)
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LAW A 513 Creditor-Debtor Law ([2-3]-, max. 5)
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LAW A 514 Publicly Held Corporations (3)
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LAW A 515 Business Organizations (4-5)
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LAW A 516 Accounting for Lawyers (2/3)
Provides students with foundational knowledge of accounting concepts, an understanding of financial statements and regulatory environments, and common accounting-related issues that lawyers may encounter in the practice of law.
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LAW A 517 Securities Regulation (4)
Examines the federal regulations of the offer and sale of securities and the public offering process under the Securities Act of 1933; exemptions from federal registration; the reporting obligations of public companies under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and the examination of the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
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LAW A 518 Restitution (3)
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LAW A 519 Trusts and Estates (5)
A survey of the law governing gratuitous transfers of property during life and at death. Primary emphasis on the law of wills and intestate succession, trusts and fiduciary relationships. Consideration also given to disability planning, future interests, and common will substitutes such as life insurance, joint tenancy, and multiparty bank accounts.
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LAW A 520 Property II ([2-8]-, max. 8)
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LAW A 521 Community Property (2/3)
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LAW A 523 Real Estate Transactions (3/4)
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LAW A 524 Law, Science, and Technology (3)
Considers how the linkage between science and law has become more pivotal with advancements in technology. Topics include science in the context of criminal law, public regulation, and individual rights. Explores the power of science to promote justice and expose injustice. Offered: A.
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LAW A 525 Water Law (3/4)
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LAW A 526 Copyrights and Trademarks (5)
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LAW A 527 Environmental Law (4)
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LAW A 529 Public Land Law (3/4)
Covers history of federal public land law, including grants of public land to private interests and the creation of management regimes for lands still publicly owned; aspects of legal rules that govern public timber, grazing, wilderness, and wildlife resources. Also, covers such matters as the public trust doctrine and provides a context for understanding current disputes about use of public lands and resources.
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LAW A 530 Individual Income Tax ([2-6]-, max. 6)
Study of federal income tax law as it applies to individuals apart from their capacities as partners, shareholders, or beneficiaries of trusts or estates. Examination of the concept of gross income and net income, including investigation of what constitutes income, when it should be taxed, to whom it should be taxed, and its character as unearned, earned, or capital gain income.
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LAW A 531 Death and Gift Taxation (2-5, max. 5)
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LAW A 532 Taxation of Business Entities (5)
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LAW A 534 Mergers and Acquisitions (4-6)
Deals with tactics, strategy, and state and federal law relating to transactions by means of which corporations and other forms of business entity combine. Emphasizes corporate law with some treatment of federal tax and securities law issues. Prerequisite: either LAW A 515 or LAW A 567.
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LAW A 535 Trademarks and Unfair Competition (2)
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LAW A 537 Taxation of Corporations, Partnerships, and Limited Liability Companies (4-)
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LAW A 538 Estate Planning Workshop (3-4)
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LAW A 540 Land Use Planning Seminar (3)
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LAW A 541 Transnational Tax (5)
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LAW A 542 Land Law and the Urban Environment (3)
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LAW A 543 Business Reorganization Under the Bankruptcy Code (4)
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LAW A 544 Comparative and Transnational Commercial Law (1-4, max. 4)
Examines the political economy of transnational commercial law. Uses select international harmonization instruments (e.g. Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment, UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency, Vienna Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods) to illustrate and critique different methodological and institutional approaches.
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LAW A 545 International Environmental Law (3-4)
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LAW A 547 Critical Perspectives on Law Seminar ([2-4]-, max. 4)
Considers law from the point of view of Continental philosophy and critical social theory. Involves close readings and intensive discussion of canonical texts from various critical traditions of thinking about law. Students also write and present papers concerning themes raised by the readings. Offered: A.
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LAW A 548 Civil Rights ([2-6]-, max. 6)
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LAW A 549 Advanced Legal Research (4)
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LAW A 550 Constitutional Law ([2-8]-, max. 8)
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LAW A 551 Global Governance Seminar (3-4)
Introduces international and transnational regimes governing issues as varied as international economic inequality and instability; conflict and peace-building; humanitarian crises and intervention; and global environmental change. Explores principles of regime design and legal architecture. Evaluates the effectiveness and legitimacy of various modes of global governance.
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LAW A 552 Antitrust Law and Policy ([2-5]-, max. 5)
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LAW A 553 Feminist Jurisprudence Seminar (4)
Explores the intersections of law and sex, gender, and sexuality with the aid of various theoretical lenses, prominently feminist legal theory. Focuses on those areas of law where notions of sex, gender, and sexuality seem conflated and confused.
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LAW A 554 Labor Relations and the Law ([1-5]-, max. 5)
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LAW A 556 Employment Discrimination ([2-4]-, max. 4)
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LAW A 558 National Security Law Seminar ([2-6]-, max. 6)
Three-quarter seminar that provides an opportunity for study and research in selected legal issues relating to national security law and its processes and institutions. Prerequisite: LAW A 507. Offered: AWSp.
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LAW A 560 Employment Issues (2/3)
Examination of issues under selected employee protection laws. Analysis of the Fair Labor Standards Act, Workers' Compensation, and Social Security Act (related to retirement, disability, and supplemental income benefits). Includes assessment of public assistance issues for low-wage workers. Prerequisite: LAW A 509, LAW A 562, or permission of instructor.
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LAW A 561 Law and Economics (2-4, max. 4)
Examines the applications of Law and Economics to: torts, property, contract, and criminal law; intellectual property, tobacco litigation, employment law, human organ sales, and U.S. regulatory design. Offered: jointly with PUBPOL 519.
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LAW A 562 Employment Law (3-5)
Examines the law governing the employment relationship, including the establishment and termination of employment. Topics include employee duties, prohibited employment practices, regulation of wages, hours, and benefits of employment, workers' compensation, and occupational safety and health.
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LAW A 563 Local Government Law (3)
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LAW A 564 American Legal History (1-4, max. 4)
Reviews the American legal history from colonial times to the civil rights era. Readings cover early constitutionalism, the republican revolution, the antebellum movement, the end of slavery, the regulatory state, and rights of women and minority groups.
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LAW A 565 American Indian Law (3-4)
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LAW A 566 Theories of Justice ([2-4]-, max. 4)
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LAW A 567 Closely Held Business Organizations (4)
Examines elements of various unincorporated business forms and closely held corporations. Reviews relevant state statutes and case law related to each form relevant to advising small business clients on the choice of business form utilized in their ventures. Not open to students who have taken LAW A 515. Offered: A.
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LAW A 568 Collective Bargaining and Labor Arbitration (2-4)
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LAW A 569 Investments Funds and Managers Seminar (3)
Explores U.S. regulation of investment managers and invest companies, including hedge funds and mutual funds. Topics draw heavily from federal securities laws, particularly the Investment Advisers Act and the Invest Company Act of 1940, and encompass regulatory developments/proposals and policy considerations underpinning investment industry regulation. Offered: Sp.
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LAW A 571 International Organizations Seminar (3)
Provides a critical introduction to some of the issues that are important to understanding how international organizations function today. Focuses on the role of international organizations in the modern forms of international law-making, regulation, and global governance.
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LAW A 572 Criminal Justice Policy (4)
Provides overview of key policy issues arising in the criminal justice system, such as mass incarceration, victim's rights movement, racial disparities, and wrongful conviction. Considers role of prosecutors and public defenders in contributing to or alleviating these problems, and how participants in the system can provide leadership in addressing them.
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LAW A 574 International Law (2-4, max. 4)
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LAW A 575 Human Rights History Seminar: Rights, Revolutions, Republics (4)
Comparative constitutional history of rights lawyering. Includes political trials form French Revolution in Europe through postcolonial Jacksonian American Republic. Covers basic rhetoric of early human rights discourse: on treason, seditious libel, racial equality, servitude, labor conspiracy, religious liberty, consumer protection, and codification.
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LAW A 576 Cross-Border and International Criminal Law (3-4)
Examines responses by states and international organizations to international and transnational crimes. Covers substantive and procedural international criminal law, criminal responsibility, defenses and immunities, and the prosecution and punishment of international criminals in both national and in international tribunals. Prerequisite: LAW A 505. Offered: W.
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LAW A 577 Immigration Law (3/4)
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LAW A 578 International Business Transactions ([1-4]-, max. 4)
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LAW A 579 Child Advocacy Seminar (2-4, max. 4)
Includes child abuse and neglect, parental rights termination, paternity, and an overview of other practice areas as they intersect with issues of child abuse and neglect. Focuses on Washington law and practice, covering applicable substantive and procedural law, local practice rules, and professional responsibility. Offered: A.
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LAW A 580 Family Law (3-5)
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LAW A 581 Washington Constitutional Law ([3/4]-)
Studies the history, structure, content, and role of state constitutions generally, and the development of Washington's constitution in particular. Examines the important distinctions between the federal constitution and state document, and the interplay between them. Covers state declarations of rights and the substantive sections of state constitutions that relate to the structure, role, and constraints. Offered: A.
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LAW A 582 Bankruptcy (3-4)
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LAW A 583 Insurance Law (4)
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LAW A 584 American Public School Law (3)
Constitutional, statutory, and common law principles common to all public education systems within the United States. Applicable law in a variety of substantive legal areas such as torts, property, contracts, administrative law, and fundamental rights. Offered: Sp.
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LAW A 585 Admiralty (3-5)
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LAW A 586 Advanced Family Law Seminar (2-4)
Discusses family law topics previously excluded or covered only minimally including: adoption, paternity, guardianship, third-party custody, parenting plans in the child welfare context, and family law in the intimate partner violence context. Prerequisite: LAW A 580.
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LAW A 588 Survey of the American Judiciary Seminar (1)
This course provides a survey of the American Judiciary. Students will learn about a variety of legal proceedings through firsthand observations. Students will compare their observations of the American Judiciary with Afghanistan's judicial system. Prerequisite: either LESPA LLM students, or permission of instructor. Credit/no-credit only.
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LAW A 589 Elder Law (4)
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LAW A 590 Constitutional Law: Equal Protection, Fundamental Rights, and Due Process of Law (2-5, max. 5)
Constitutional rights of equal protection, substantive due process, and procedural due process. Also, rights under the Takings Clause and Contracts Clause.
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LAW A 591 Constitutional Law: Freedom of Expression (4-5)
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LAW A 592 Constitutional Law II ([2-8]-, max. 8)
Examines individual constitutional rights, primarily involving guarantees of due process and equal protection found in the 5th and 14th Amendments. Focuses on constitutionality of laws that classify people on basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, and other bases, as well as laws that restrict abortion, contraception, sexual activity, and other individual freedoms. Prerequisite: LAW A 507.
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LAW A 595 Jurisprudence and Moral Philosophy ([2/4]-, max. 4)
Surveys classic questions in jurisprudence and moral philosophy including the nature, norms, and justifications of legal systems. Considers conceptions of justice in major twentieth- and twenty-first century schools of jurisprudential thought, such as American Legal Realism, Natural Law, Legal Positivism, and Critical Legal Theory.
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LAW A 597 Intensive Legal Writing Workshop (2-4)
Focuses on how the rhetorical situation of legal writing influences choices about grammar, syntax, sentence structure, and paragraph structure. Students learn to use structures that best serve law-trained readers' needs for clear, concise, cohesive writing, and practice critical reading skills and techniques for self- and peer-editing.
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LAW A 599 Legal Research Methods (3/4)
Legal tools that answer more complex legal research problems, such as federal legislative histories, sources of administrative law, specialized subject research. Federal emphasis. Builds on skills and techniques taught in LIS 591/LAW A 598. Extensive work with online resources. Offered: jointly with LIS 592.
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