This course surveys the legislative process, fundamentals of statutory interpretation, and the work of administrative agencies, with special emphasis on administrative rule-making process.
This course examines distributed ledger/blockchain technologies and computational law, and the related evolving regulatory environment. Topics covered include cryptocurrency use and regulation, legal forensic analysis of tokens, Ethereum-based smart contract governance frameworks, patent strategy, and the professional responsibility considerations when working in a space that is popular, but not well understood. Students will learn about distributed ledger technologies and even get an introduction to programming a decentralized game. No previous programming experience is needed for this course, but a willingness to read and reread, and discuss technical documentation and literature is essential.
In this course, we explore current topics in artificial intelligence. We first understand methods of data collection, analysis, artificial neural networks, and general software development methodologies. Topics we explore include data manipulation, unconscious bias, algorithmic bias, AI-enabled content generation, and legislative standards aiming for "algorithmic accountability." Assessments include the creation and analysis of machine learning systems, and drafting a short comment to a government agency that is considering adopting an AI system.
This course will help you understand modern environmental law - its genesis, its strengths, and its weaknesses - and how you can use it, and perhaps shape it, in your career. After covering basic principles of constitutional and administrative law as they apply to environmental regulation, the course focuses on the major federal environmental statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act. The course uses actual case examples to illustrate major concepts.
Our economy, livelihoods, and society rest upon natural resources. This course explores the legal and policy norms for owning, managing, and stewarding natural resources such as land, ocean, wildlife, forests, minerals, oil and gas, and our climate. We will also study how the U.S. manages the recreational and spiritual values of our natural resources.
Covers the path from assessment of a tax with the filing of a return, through the audit process, to the various paths available to contest an assessment including the Tax Court and the Federal Court of Claims, then how the IRS goes about collecting the tax once assessed and what defenses are available to taxpayers. If time permits, we will briefly cover the procedures that apply to North Carolina’s Department of Revenue.
This course will cover a broad range of topics as we survey the landscape of immigration law: Who is a citizen of the United States? Who else can enter and reside lawfully as a permanent resident or on a short-term visa? When can noncitizens be forced to leave? Who has the authority to answer the preceding three questions? Immigration law is a statutory course, focusing on provisions of the Immigration & Nationality Act. We will also cover important cases of constitutional law.
This course is your ticket into the world of securities regulation. You will learn the "ins and outs" of federal regulation of securities offerings (IPOs, private placements, and crowdfunding) under the Securities Act of 1933, as well as become familiar with the basics of federal regulation of securities markets and trading under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. P-LAW 203.