Spring 2013
Law No.: LAW7025
Sched. No.: 113219305
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Administrative Information:
During SIS enrollment, check on SIS for real-time enrollment numbers
| Days, Times (Room): | TR, 1130-1250 (SL258)
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| Credits: | 3 | Type: | Lecture |
| Capacity: | 40 **This information is current as of 05/24/2013 06:18:32 AM** |
| Current Enrollment: | 33 **This information is current as of 05/24/2013 06:18:32 AM**
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Course Description:
Working can be surprisingly dangerous. Hundreds of thousands of employees every year suffer accidental injuries, occupational diseases, or become victims of violence in the workplace. However, injury rates have fallen steadily over the last century. What role has legal regulation played in this decline? How might existing laws be better designed to improve workplace health and safety without imposing unduly large regulatory burdens on employers? This course will consider questions such as these as we examine legal responses to work-related safety and health issues. We will study in some detail the worker's compensation system and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). In addition to these central topics, we will also study several current controversies about issues such as workplace violence, drug testing, smoking, health insurance and healthcare reform.
In order to begin to develop your knowledge of the legal rules relevant to workplace health and safety, we will read judicial opinions, statutes, briefs and other litigation materials, as well as academic and popular commentary. For each topic we study, I will provide short screencast lectures and a detailed outline designed to explain important rules and clarify difficulty concepts. We will focus the great majority of our classroom time together on in-class simulations, debates, and problem-solving exercises. You will also take periodic low-stakes comprehension quizzes. I will deliver brief in-class lectures highlighting key issues and offer frequent opportunities for you to ask questions. You will complete at least two longer written exercises designed to mimic the sort of writing, advocacy, problem solving, and counseling that occupy practicing employment attorneys. Finally, students will write a short position paper in lieu of a final exam. Designed to complement Employment Law: Contracts, Torts & Statutes and Employment Discrimination Law, this course has no prerequisite, and students should feel free to take these introductory employment law offerings in any order they wish.
Please note that we will negotiate the laptop and technology policy for this course during either our first or second class meeting. I will propose a menu of alternatives. We will try to reach consensus on a preferred policy and on any modifications to that policy that students might propose.
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Multiple low-stakes content quizzes, participation grade for in-class simulations, debates, and problem-solving exercises, at least two graded written exercises, and a short position paper in lieu of a final exam.