Professor Nadine Strossen

The course combines a two-hour seminar with closely supervised placements in individual rights work at a private sector organization, government agency, or law firm in the New York City area. The seminar, in combination with the placements, seeks to develop lawyering skills needed in the individual rights field, as well as to pursue advanced topics in individual rights law. It also covers specific topics that relate to the particular placements in any given semester. The major emphasis will be on U.S. law and practice, although international human rights law and practice will also be addressed. The basic areas addressed include due process of law (fundamental fairness), equal protection of the law, free speech, and privacy. Specific topics that could be the focus of particular placements include art censorship, children's rights, rights of access to adequate and equal educational opportunities, rights of persons with disabilities (including AIDS), gay/lesbian rights, immigrants' rights, rights of poor and homeless persons, prisoners' rights, religious freedom, reproductive freedom, women's rights, rights in the workplace, and voting rights. Students must devote at least 8 hours per week to their placements, meet regularly with a supervising faculty member and placement mentor, participate in the seminar, and produce a paper or other written project (which, at the professor's discretion, may consist of something written in the placement). Selection will follow individual interviews with applicants. A student may be admitted to the two-hour seminar without undertaking the placement only with the specific permission of the professor. Course consists of 2 seminar credits graded and 2 placement credits pass/fail. Placement credits do not involve scheduled classes. No more than 14 placement credits may count toward the J.D.

Enrollment is limited.

Prerequisites: Constitutional Law I (REQ200) and II (REQ250).