Public Law: Constitutional and Statutory Analysis

This course is offered only to M.L.S. students.  Public law concerns relationships between government entities, and how actions by government affect organizations and individuals.  Non-lawyer professionals need to understand the role of constitutional and statutory analysis in framing their responses to problems arising in business, public sector, and non-profit contexts.  The first half of the course surveys US constitutional law, covering interpretation, separation of powers, judicial review, the federal structure, the presidential foreign affairs and military role, checks on presidential power, the Commerce Clause, the Taxing and Spending Clause, economic regulation and takings, equal protection, and criminal due process rights.  The latter half focuses on specific areas of government regulation, including statutory and regulatory interpretation, administrative law, corporate criminal and civil liability, environmental law, immigration law, employment law, state constitutional and statutory regimes, and non-legislative public law doctrine.  For both the constitutional and regulatory portions of the class, study of specific provisions is followed by their application in case law and problem hypotheticals.