2009 Course Descriptions
Animal Law |
Animal Law will provide students with a general overview of animal law and the different legal issues and areas most typically encountered by animal law practitioners. The practice of animal law involves treaty, statutory and decisional law in which the nature of animals-- including their legal status, behavior or biology—plays an important role. Animal law draws on several different areas of the law including property, contract, tort, constitutional, criminal, family and estate planning law as well as government regulation at the international, federal, state and municipal levels. |
Business Associations |
Business Associations will survey of agency, partnerships and other forms of business organization. The course will also cover the fundamentals of corporations and securities regulation, including disregarding the corporate entity, management and control of closely held corporations, merger, liability under the federal securities laws, takeovers, public registration, exemptions, and derivative suits. This is a condensed, 2-credit hour version of the usual Business Associations course. |
Contract Drafting |
Contract Drafting is a course that teaches basic practical skills in contract drafting through written and interactive exercises done both in and outside of class, with substantial peer and instructor participation and constructive critique. While the skills taught in this course will necessarily be basic, they will also be translatable to more sophisticated contracts that law school graduates can expect to see soon after entering a law practice. |
Criminal Justice (Restricted to Part-Time Students)
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This course will provide an introduction to the criminal law, starting with an exploration of the theories of punishment and foundational principles such as the presumption of innocence and legality. Thereafter selected substantive criminal law concepts will be explored such as the doctrine of larceny, omissions and mistakes of fact and law. Students will become familiar with the concepts of actus reus (the criminal act) and mens rea (the criminally culpable state of mind). In depth focus will be placed upon the doctrines of murder, attempt, accomplice liability, conspiracy as well as numerous criminal law defenses such as self-defense, provocation, necessity and insanity. |
Environmental Obligations in Bankruptcy Law |
Environmental Obligations in Bankruptcy Law will explore the interface of environmental laws and federal bankruptcy statutes. The goals of bankruptcy are in direct conflict with the goals of environmental laws. You will learn about the Bankruptcy Code as it relates to businesses under both Chapter 11 and Chapter 7, as well as how environmental obligations affect the functioning of the bankruptcy system or, in the alternative, how the bankruptcy system undermines the environmental law policies. |
Trusts & Estates |
Trusts & Estates surveys the law of gratuitous transfers with emphasis on the Uniform Probate Code, Uniform Trust Code, Restatement (Third) of Wills and of Trusts, and selected cases. This is a condensed, 2-credit hour version of the usual 4-credit hour T&E course. This condensed version is appropriate for students who want primarily to do well on the bar exam. Students interested in estate planning as a career are strongly advised to take the 4-credit hour version. |
Negotiations/ADR |
Lawyers negotiate settlements in almost all their cases. This class presents a "hands-on," skill- building approach to the newest ideas, as well as centuries-old techniques, about the skill lawyers will use most often in their practice - negotiation. The class also examines the rapidly developing field of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), including mediation, facilitation, arbitration, and court-annexed ADR. |
Integrity & Ethics in the Real World |
Will Weinstein has taught Ethics courses at UH, is presently teaching at San Francisco State University and has given seminars on the subject at prominent universities in Australia, the University of New Mexico, and at the Executive MBA program at Golden Gate University. He has also been active in the financial services business for over forty years. He was Governor of the American Stock Exchange for five years and currently serves as a Financial and Investment Adviser and Money Manager to individuals and corporations active in the equity markets. This course will examine the way things are in the “real world” and whether there is a better alternative. Can you conduct yourself with ethical dignity and integrity to achieve professional excellence? The course will focus equally on ethical performance in law, business and medicine in an attempt to find the constant themes that underlie professional ethics in all walks of life. Lying and deception will be a constant theme throughout the class and the notion of trust will be dissected and analyzed. Students will actively participate in an interactive class environment and in small group discussions. A number of knowledgeable guests from the business and legal world will visit and contemporary films as well as videos of prior guest appearances will be shown. |
Contact
Spencer Kimura '96
Director of the LLM and Summer Programs
Fax (808) 956-6402
sumlaw@hawaii.edu
