Courses

This course builds on the first-year Torts survey course to cover liability issues facing modern corporate, government, and non-profit entities. The course focuses on non-physical – i.e., economic and reputational – harms, especially to businesses and public figures. Specific topics include: defamation, invasion of privacy, name/likeness misappropriation, trade-secret misappropriation, liability of social-media and other online providers for user content, anti-SLAPP statutes, other intentionally and unintentionally caused economic harm, and governmental liability for negligence and violation of civil rights. Some of these cases involve First-Amendment-related questions of when speakers of harmful speech are (and should be) shielded from liability. We will study several high-profile recent and developing cases, possibly including the BP Deepwater Horizon litigation, Sines v. Kessler (the Charlottesville ’Unite the Right’ lawsuit), Jones v. Pozner (the Alex Jones/Info Wars Sandy Hook conspiracy case), Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College (alleging that Oberlin officials harmed the bakery’s business by calling its owners racist), Palin v. New York Times (defamation suit over editorial linking Palin with a mass shooting), Nunes v. Lizza (Congressman Devin Nunes’s defamation suit against Esquire Magazine), and Ixchel Pharma v. Biogen.