Curriculum
In addition to the core Immigration Law course that is taught every year, the program frequently offers advanced courses, including Refugee Law and Policy, Citizenship and Membership, and other related seminars. Students who want hands-on experience in working with immigrant clients can take the Immigration Clinic, which is also offered annually.
The following courses have recently been offered, or will be offered in the current academic year. Numbers in parentheses indicate which academic year(s) the courses were offered: 2007-08 courses are coded (8); 2008-09 courses are coded (9); and 2009-10 courses are coded (10).
Core Courses
Citizenship and Membership (8,9)
Immigration Law (8,9,10)
Immigration Law Clinic (8,9,10)
Refugee Law and Policy (9)
Related courses
Administrative Law (8,9,10)
Anti-Terrorism, Law, and the Role of Intelligence (8,9,10)
Foreign Relations Law (10)
Governance and Control of the Multinational Business Enterprise (8,9)
Human Rights Advocacy (8)
International Human Rights Law (8,9,10)
International Human Rights Law Clinic (8,9,10)
International Law (8,9,10)
Legislation (8,9,10)
National Security Law (8,9,10)
Presidential Powers (8,9,10)
Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Transitional Justice as a Security Strategy (8)
Course Descriptions
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW Administrative agencies play an important role in determining people’s legal entitlements and duties. This course is concerned with the role of agencies in the constitutional structure and their operations. With respect to constitutional structure, the class covers topics such as the nondelegation doctrine, executive appointment and removal power, and the legislative veto. With respect to the operations of agencies the course explores the way in which the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and other sources of law regulate and structure the authority of agencies to determine the rights and responsibilities of the public. The topics include formality and informality in agency procedure, the choice between rule-making and adjudication, the procedures for agency rule-making, and judicial review of agency action.
ANTI-TERRORISM, LAW, AND THE ROLE OF INTELLIGENCE In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the Bush Administration’s doctrine of pre-empting such future attacks on U.S. soil by striking potential terrorist actors before they can strike us, this seminar examines the current posture of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) to supply the intelligence information on which a decision to launch a pre-emptive strike must be based. We shall examine the IC’s performance in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and the proposals for change that have come out of the two conflicts plus the “intelligence failure” to predict the 9/11 attacks. We shall further examine the impact of 9/11 on U.S. law—criminal, immigration, and under the U.S. Constitution; and the constraints, if any, of international law on the designations of unlawful or enemy combatant; and of President Bush’s decision to constitute special military tribunals to hear the cases of non-U.S. citizens captured outside the United States. Specifically, we shall examine the USA Patriot Act; the Creppy Memorandum closing special immigration proceedings to the press and public; the U.S. military order creating military tribunals; and the Odah, Padilla, and Hamdi cases, currently making their way to the U.S. Supreme Court. We shall also look at the problems presented to American jurisprudence by the Zacarias Moussaoui and John Walker Lindh trials. The seminar attempts to define a meaningful role for both law enforcement and intelligence faced with the threat on U.S. soil of terrorist acts by sub-national groups, armed with weapons of mass destruction (WMD); and it sketches what may be a changing role for the courts in dealing with the legal and constitutional disputes that a ceaseless war against an “ism” presents.
CITIZENSHIP AND MEMBERSHIP Short Course This short course provides an overview of U.S. citizenship law, including acquisition at birth, naturalization and denaturalization, loss of citizenship, dual nationality, and the history of U.S. doctrine, including the increasing importance of constitutional protections. The course looks briefly at selected international and comparative law issues, including citizenship questions that arise from the breakup of states, and considers deeper questions involving the concept of citizenship and the meaning of membership in a nation.
FOREIGN RELATIONS LAW This course examines the constitutional and statutory doctrines regulating the conduct of American foreign relations. Topics include the distribution of foreign relations powers between the three branches of the federal government, the status of international law in U.S. courts, the scope of the treaty power, the validity of executive agreements, the pre-emption of state foreign relations activities, the power to declare and conduct war, and the political question and other doctrines regulating judicial review in foreign relations cases. Where relevant, the class focuses on current events, such as the post-September 11 war on terrorism and the 2003 war in Iraq.
Governance and Control of the Multinational Business Enterprise Short Course This course examines the methods for internal governance and control of the multi-national business enterprise with emphasis on internal structure, enterprise culture, local and regional legal regimes, the significance of business and economic environments, public opinion and politics, and selected legal issues.
HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY This seminar explores a range of approaches to human rights advocacy, domestic and international, from the perspective of human rights methodology. Students examine diverse tactics, strategies, and venues selected by human rights lawyers and other advocates pursuing similar objectives. We consider the obligations and options of various stakeholders, including states, corporations, NGOs, and individuals. The seminar focuses on strategic choices, including litigation; legislation and policy advocacy; advocacy before the U.N., transnational, regional and national human rights bodies; investigation and documentation; and global human rights campaigns.
IMMIGRATION LAW This course, which is a prerequisite to advanced academic and clinical offerings in the immigration field, provides an introduction to the complex substantive provisions of U.S. immigration laws and the procedures used to decide specific immigration-related issues. But the course is not meant only as a technical study for those expecting to practice in the field. Attention is given to underlying constitutional and philosophical issues, to selected questions of international law and politics, and to the interaction of Congress, the courts, and administrative agencies in dealing with major public policy issues in the immigration field, including the struggle against terrorism. In this vein, the class considers recent efforts at major immigration law reform.
IMMIGRATION LAW CLINIC In this semester-long clinic offered in conjunction with the Legal Aid Justice Center, students are assigned several clients and handle at least one complex case involving extensive client interviewing, factual investigation and legal briefs. Students may work with clients appealing denials of applications for status, appealing for special categorization or procedures, or with clients who have cases complicated by past criminal or immigration histories. In addition to covering complex statutory, regulatory and case law, the clinic covers skills such as eliciting information from abuse victims and working through cultural and language differences.
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW This course offers a grounding in the basic principles and practice of international human rights law, emphasizing current application via case studies. The course explores select international human rights, their foundations in customary and treaty law, and the international systems and procedures for their promotion and protection. The course examines the difficulties involved in converting the principles into practice and in enforcing human rights law. Much of the material is covered via analysis and discussion of geographically or thematically oriented case studies. Grounded in the realities of these cases, the course covers a variety of topics, such as: the roles of international and domestic actors, including non-governmental organizations and other non-state actors; the incorporation of international human rights into domestic law; the development of new human rights; the use of human rights in diplomacy; human rights-based challenges to state sovereignty; humanitarian intervention; impunity, accountability and reconciliation; and the prosecution of certain human rights violations as international crimes before international tribunals.
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW CLINIC This semester-long clinic gives students practical experience in human rights advocacy working with nongovernmental organizations in the United States and other countries. Projects are designed to expose students to the range of activities in which lawyers engage to promote respect for human rights, to help students build the knowledge and skills used in most public international law and public interest lawyering in general, and to integrate the theory and practice of human rights. While there is no individual client representation in this clinic, students have direct contact with partner organizations. Each student works on two projects in collaboration with one or more students. Project work varies each semester, though the clinic focuses regularly on economic, social and cultural rights (in particular, the right of indigenous peoples to education). Clinic work may involve litigation-related research and writing for domestic and regional courts and international tribunals, preparation of training manuals and workshops (and occasionally opportunity to conduct the workshops), legislative drafting and advocacy, comparative law research and analysis, among other things. Class sessions provide the opportunity to discuss human rights law concepts and lawyering practice, and the legal, strategic, ethical and theoretical issues raised by the project work. The clinic provides significant opportunity to develop international human rights law research and written skills.
INTERNATIONAL LAW The practice of law today, in an era of globalization, requires a rich understanding of the basic principles of international law. This course provides an overview of a diverse range of problems arising in private and governmental practice that are affected by international law. The course begins by exploring the nature and sources of international law, foreign relations law of the United States, and treaties and international agreements. It then moves to an examination of the use of force: international law in conflict settings, the general principles of peaceful relations, and the Law of the Sea. It presents background and detailed studies of human rights and the rule of law, the environment and common areas, international economic issues, and peaceful settlement of disputes. It wraps up with a discussion of newer challenges, globalization, and efforts to build a more stable world order. The course typically invites one or more outside experts to meet with the class, such as a former president of the International Court of Justice.
Legislation Much of American law is codified in statutes and administrative regulations. Learning to parse and interpret these forms of law is comparable in importance and complexity to learning to read judicial opinions. This course teaches students these skills by reviewing the theory and practice of statutory interpretation. The class examines the lawmaking processes that produce statutes and regulations and discuss the analytical tools that courts use to interpret them, including the standard canons of construction. The class relates the practical discussions to important theoretical issues, such as the proper role of legislative history, the primacy of text, and the quandary produced when plain text yields absurd results. The class considers specialized but important topics in statutory interpretation, such as how courts do – and how courts should – interpret ballot propositions drafted by interest groups and approved by voters.
National Security Law This course covers the legal structure governing the national security activities of the United States government. Its primary focus is on military and intelligence functions, though it touches on other areas, such as immigration, in which the law reflects national security considerations. The course is mainly concerned with the domestic law of the United States, and deals with international law, such as the law governing the use of force and the conduct of war, with a view to its interaction with this country's legal system. With respect to the military, leading topics include the constitutional and statutory rules that govern the decision to use force and in particular the allocation of authority between Congress and the President, and the rules that govern the conduct of military operations, including the rules that define war crimes. Some attention is given to the law affecting the military in peacetime, including arms control. With respect to intelligence activities, the primary topics are the law governing the authorization, funding, and oversight of intelligence and counter-intelligence operations, and the rules that protect private interests, especially interests in informational privacy. A recurring theme is use of military and intelligence methods and agencies, as opposed to law enforcement methods and agencies, in dealing with terrorism.
PRESIDENTIAL POWERS This course considers a variety of issues involving the President’s constitutional powers. The course includes a review of some or all of the following: law enforcement (including the institution of the independent counsel); program administration (including the President’s authorities in relation to the so-called independent federal agencies); budgeting and accounting; the line-item veto; executive privilege; impeachment; immunity to suit for the President and other executive officers; authority over foreign affairs and the war powers, including claims to extensive powers war powers (e.g., the use of coercive interrogation), detention of “enemy combatants,” the use of military tribunals to impose criminal punishment, and surveillance of communications.The class examines the major judicial decisions on these subjects, but one insight from the course is an appreciation for how few of these questions have been or could be litigated. The class considers how to make sound judgments on the distribution and exercise of governmental powers, even when traditional sources are lacking. The casebook is Peter Shane and Harold Bruff, Separation of Powers Law (2d ed. 2005), with supplementary material.
REFUGEE LAW and Policy This course covers in detail refugee law and the procedures involved in adjudicating claims to political asylum, as well as such topics as: the theory and philosophy of refugee protection; comparative refugee law and procedure; the special dimensions of gender-based persecution claims; U.S. overseas refugee programs; restructuring the asylum adjudication process; “temporary protected status”; the role of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees; regional and universal treaties concerning refugees; and extradition law (including the political offense exception).
Rights of indigenous peoples From the United Nations and regional human rights institutions to the World Bank and other international institutions, indigenous peoples have made significant gains in recent decades. This seminar will explore emerging norms and principles of indigenous rights within the international legal framework. We will discuss such issues as the definition and concept of indigenous peoples and rights; tensions between individual rights and group rights; historical discriminatory practices (e.g., removal of children from indigenous communities); indigenous peoples’ land rights, environmental law and the activities of multinational corporations; cultural survival and indigenous peoples’ rights under international trade and intellectual property regimes; and indigenous mobilization and international advocacy.
Transitional Justice as a Security Strategy This seminar explores the various problems that traditional legal constructs encounter in cyberspace. Included are such subjects as intellectual property rights, the sale and licensing of software, personal jurisdiction, Internet governance, and privacy. Students prepare and present a substantial research paper on a related topic of their choice.
Program | Curriculum | Faculty | Community Service | News & Events