Courses & Description
LAW 600. Adv. Criminal Law: Case Studies. 2 Hr. PR: LAW 705. The examination of pre-trial, trial, and post-trial issues in an actual criminal case, identifying legal errors in all aspects: jury instruction, testimony, evidence to support the conviction, and decision.
LAW 700. Legal Analysis, Research and Writing 1.0 Hr. Introduction to legal analysis, research, and writing. Stresses basic law school skills including case briefing, statutory analysis, and synthesis. Drafting of various legal documents including an office memorandum.
LAW 701. International Human Rights. 3 Hr. An examination of historical, philosophical and legal issues in defining, understanding, and enforcing fundamental rights in a world of conflict and diversity.
LAW 702. Forensic Mental Health. 2 Hr. This course will address the interface between the law and mental health issues. Topics covered will include the insanity defense, competencies, emotional injury, expert witness, and civil commitment.
LAW 703. Contracts 1. 4 Hr. Basic elements of consensual relations enforced by law: formation, performance, breach, excuse, remedies, and the impact of modern legislation upon common law principles.
LAW 705. Criminal Law. 3 Hr. Substantive law of crimes including: (1) the philosophical basis for penal systems, (2) the characteristics of particular crimes, and (3) conditions of exculpation.
LAW 706. Civil Procedure 1. 2 Hr. The study of jurisdictional concepts of civil procedure and the introduction of civil procedure law, with the examination of the appropriate forums of legal conflict.
LAW 707. Property 1. 3 Hr. Law of real and personal property in historical and theoretical context. Includes topics such as estates and future interests in land, concurrent ownership and methods of obtaining title to land.
LAW 709. Torts 1.4 Hr. The basic civil common law response to injury. The fault-based liability system for intentional torts, privileges, and negligence. Consideration of fact and proximate cause, joint tort feasors, and limited duty.
LAW 710. Torts 2. 3 Hr. PR:LAW 709. A continuation of Torts 1. The tort law of land occupiers, damages, defenses, imputed negligence, strict liability, products liability, and modern statutory substitutes for tort law.
LAW 711. Legal Analysis, Research and Writing 2. 4 Hr. PR:LAW 700. Continuation of LAW 700. Stresses research and writing. Drafting of various legal documents culminating in the preparation of a trial motion and memorandum and oral argument of the motion. (Credit for LAW 700, LAW 711.)
LAW 712. Analytical Methods for Lawyers. 2 Hr. An introduction and overview of game theory, probability, statistics, finance, accounting and economics as they relate to the practice of law. Beneficial to students without undergraduate degrees in business or economics.
LAW 714. Remedies. 3 Hr. Equity, damages, and restitution. Survey of remedies available for harms.
LAW 715. Appellate Advocacy. 2 Hr. PR:LAW 700 and LAW 711. Survey of appellate practice. Drafting of an appellate brief and an argument based on the brief.
LAW 716. Wealth Transfers. 3 Hr. PR:LAW 707. An analysis of the laws governing intestate succession, wills, trusts, and other testamentary substitutes focusing on West Virginia Law. Rules of construction governing iner vivos and testamentary dispositions shall also be investigated.
LAW 718. Adv. Bankruptcy. 3 Hr. PR: LAW 767. The exploration of Bankruptcy Code complexities with emphasis on Chapter 11 reorganization.
LAW 719. Income Taxation 1. 3 Hr. Gross income, deductions, exclusions, and gains and losses from dealing in property.
LAW 720. Entertainment Law 3 Hrs. A foundation for the pursuit of a transactional or corporate law career in the entertainment industry. Includes the law of contracts, copyright, trademark, and agent representation issues.
LAW 721. Sports Law 3 Hr. A foundation for the pursuit of a transactional or corporate law career in sports law. Includes the practical application of law of contracts and agreements, and the process of negotiation.
LAW 722. Civil Procedure 2. 3 Hr. Personal and subject matter jurisdiction; federalism in the court systems of the United States; claim and issue preclusion. (Subject to change in October 2004)
LAW 723. Immigration Law . 2-3 Hr. Constitutional underpinnings for immigration power; categories of an requirements for employment-based, family-based, and diversity-based immigration; visas for temporary visitation; problems with illegal immigration; removal procedures; and special policy issues, such as terrorism.
LAW 724. Immigration Clinic. 4-5 Hr. Students work in teams representing real clients with immigration law problems. Instructors supervise the students’ work.
LAW 725. Constitutional Law 1. 3-4 Hr. Basic study of the principles of constitutional decision making. Areas of emphasis include the allocation of power within the federal system, procedural and substantive due process, and equal protection of the law.
LAW 726. Constitutional Law 2. 3 Hr. PR:LAW 725. First Amendment freedoms of speech, press, assembly, association, and petition.
LAW 727. Evidence. 3 Hr. Rules, principles, and practice of the law of evidence covering judicial notice; real, demonstrative, testimonial and circumstantial evidence; hearsay; and other exclusionary rules, privileges, confidential relationships, witnesses, and other related subjects.
LAW 728. West Virginia Constitutional Law. 2 Hr. A study of the West Virginia Constitution, its history, and its judicial interpretation with special emphasis on the branches of state government.
LAW 729. Business Organizations. 4 Hr. Basic introduction to business organizations, their formation, maintenance, and dissolution. Includes agency, partnership, and corporations.
LAW 732. Construction Law. 3 Hr. The course explores specialized legal issues in the law governing building construction including legal relationships among the primary participants in such projects and an examination decisional and statutory law affecting those relationships.
LAW 733. Education Law. 3 Hr. A survey of major topics in education law with a focus on public primary and secondary education. The course includes consideration of both constitutional and statutory law affecting schools.
LAW 734. Intellectual Property. 3 Hr. Legal problems in the protection of ideas including copyright, trademark, patent, and law of unfair competition; and their interrelationship.
LAW 735. Patent Law. 3-4 Hr. This course teaches application and interpretation of patent law. It provides a working knowledge of patents in the US Patent and Trademark Office, and reviews the procedure for preparing, filing, and prosecuting a patent application.
LAW 736. Legal Estate Planning. 3 Hr. PR:LAW 716. The law in its relation to problems of intergenerational transfers, including federal transfer taxes (estate and gift tax), life insurance, revocable and irrevocable trusts, wills, and the probate process.
LAW 737. Land Use Planning. 2 Hr. Land use planning, management, zoning and environmental controls; finance, development, and conservation; reclamation of disturbed land, and rehabilitation of depressed areas.
LAW 738. Business Torts. 3 Hr. The study of trademark, trade secrets, and unfair competition law, with a strong emphasis on the development of these doctrines in American law from both a statutory and common law perspective.
LAW 739. American Legal History. 3 Hr. The study of American law from the colonial period to the present with emphasis on the jurisprudential, social, economic, political and cultural influences that have shaped the development of a distinctively American legal system.
LAW 740. Conflict of Laws. 3 Hr. Legal problems arising when an occurrence cuts across state or national boundaries, emphasizing questions of characterization, jurisdiction, foreign judgments, recognition and application of foreign law in selected fields of law.
LAW 741. Employment Law. 4 Hr. The course primarily focuses on federal and state regulations of the employee-employer relationship and may include: wrongful discharge, employee discrimination, wage/hour issues, and occupational safety and health.
LAW 742. Professional Responsibility. 3 Hr. Professional responsibility in the administration of justice in society; Code of Professional Responsibility examined in light of traditional and changing demands of the legal system.
LAW 743. Patent Claims Drafting. 2 Hr. PR: LAW 735. A study of all stages of patent prosecution, with an emphasis on claim drafting and amendment of claims. Prosecution study emphasizes drafting responses to official actions.
LAW 746. Lawyers and Literature. 3 Hr. A course of literary readings (emphasizing fiction and novels) that involve lawyers and focus on the theme of reflection and introspection.
LAW 750. Alternative Dispute Resolution. 3 Hr. A theoretical and practical examination of negotiation, court-annexed and private mediation and arbitration, summary jury and minitrials, and other “alternative” dispute resolution processes; an assessment of the appropriateness of ADR for particular legal disputes.
Courses & Description cont’d
LAW 752. Jurisprudence. 3 Hr. Introduction to legal philosophy. Major jurisprudential issues; definition of law, concept of justice, relation of law and morality considered in light of specific legal theories and contemporary issues.
LAW 753. Estate and Gift Taxation. 3 Hr. Application of federal transfer taxes (estate and gift tax) and West Virginia inheritance tax; inter vivos transfers; joint interests; life insurance; valuation; exemptions, exclusions and deductions; marital deduction.
LAW 755. Partnership Tax. 2 Hr. PR: LAW 719. The study of partnership tax with an emphasis on reading the appropriate sections of the Internal Revenue Code and applying them to various problems to instill in the students the fundamentals of partnership tax.
LAW 756. Trial Advocacy. 4 Hr. PR:LAW 727. Introduction to techniques of, and moral and ethical questions associated with trial practice, jury selection, opening statement, direct and cross examination, closing argument. Lecture, discussion, and simulation.
LAW 757. Law Review Seminar 1. 2 Hr. Legal research, writing, and editing involved in the production for publication of analytical and scholarly commentary on the law. Enrollment is limited to third-year students who are members of the West Virginia Law Review.
LAW 758. Law Review Seminar 2. 2 Hr. PR:LAW 757. Continuation of LAW 757.
LAW 759. Civil Rights. 3 Hr.* Survey of federal civil rights and statutes; causes of action to vindicate constitutional rights and remedy discrimination; primary emphases on substance, procedures, and defenses under 42 U.S.C. 1983.
LAW 760. Workers Compensation Law. 3 Hr. A study of the compensation system for work related injuries.
LAW 761. Criminal Procedure. 4 Hr.* Investigatory stages of criminal process including search and seizure, interrogation and identification, processing defendant through criminal process; arrest through trial including preliminary hearings, grand jury, discovery, plea negotiation, and double jeopardy.
LAW 762. Federal Courts. 3 Hr. Jurisdiction and procedure in federal courts. Federal question and diversity jurisdiction; removal jurisdiction and procedure; the law applied in federal courts, and procedural rules unique to the federal system.
LAW 763. Employment Discrimination. 3 Hr. Survey of federal and state statutes prohibiting discrimination in employment practices on grounds of race, gender, national origin, religion, age, or disability.
LAW 764. Administrative Law. 3 Hr. Creation and operation of administrative agencies, common procedural practices and requirements of administrative procedure acts, judicial control of administrative agencies.
LAW 765. Comparative Law. 3 Hr. Comparisons of the U.S. legal system with the laws, legal institutions, and legal professions in the civil law countries of Europe and Latin America.
LAW 766. Coal, Oil and Gas. 3 Hr. Nature of ownership of subsurface minerals; methods of transferring ownership thereof, partition among co-owners, analysis of leasehold estates, and rights and duties thereunder, coal mining rights and privileges.
LAW 767. Bankruptcy: Creditors and Debtors Rights. 3 Hr. Federal bankruptcy law including consumer and business liquidation in Chapter 7 and rehabilitation in Chapter 11 and
Chapter 13. Actual preparation of filings and plans. Introductory coverage of state debtors in collecting debts and enforcing judgments.
LAW 768. International Law. 3 Hr. The law governing the behavior of nations; overview of customary law, treaties, dispute resolution, armed conflict, and recent specific problems for the United States in the world community.
LAW 769. Family Law. 3 Hr. The law in its relation to creation, stability, and breakdown of domestic relations including engagement, marriage, annulment, separation, divorce, alimony and child support, custody, and adoption (Based on national and West Virginia law.)
LAW 770. Insurance. 2 Hr. A survey of the basic principles, rules, and issues from the formation of the insurance relationship including indemnity, protections afforded, claims, and payment.
LAW 771. Labor Law. 3 Hr. Labor-management relations under the general jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board and the courts. Collective bargaining, administration, and enforcement of labor agreements and enforcement and protection of rights of employees, unions, and the public.
LAW 773. Payment Systems. 2 Hr. The law dealing with bills, notes, and checks. The relationship of banks with depositors and with other banks; commercial credit operations; creation and protection of claims, and UCC Articles 3,4,and 4a.
LAW 774. Local Government. 2 Hr. Distribution of governmental authority among local, state, and national governments; public office and employment, liability risks of local governmental action; taxing and budgeting.
LAW 775. Pretrial Litigation. 3 Hr. This course will immerse students in the daily work of civil litigators. Students will learn the procedural and substantive contours of litigating a hypothetical case from its inception through the eve of trial.
LAW 776. Sales & Secured Transactions. 4 Hr. Functional approach designed to use the UCC for commercial and consumer problems. Focus on sale of goods, security interest in personal property, and Articles 1, 2, 6, and 9 of the UCC.
LAW 777. Health Care Torts. 3 Hr. Introduction to legal issues that arise in the U.S. health care system relating mainly to patient care; emphasizing topics such as medical malpractice, informed consent, patient confidentiality, quality and accessibility of health care to patients.
LAW 778. Trade Regulation. 3 Hr. Federal and state controls of vertical and horizontal integration and the legal limits upon the concentration of economic power in the United States.
LAW 779. Business Transactions Drafting. 4 Hr. Focuses on the process and principles of drafting documents used in connection with various types of business arrangements. Such documents establish norms, or rules of expected behavior between the parties in the business context.
LAW 780. Federal Judicial Externship. 13 Hr. Selected students will serve as regular, full-time clerks to federal district judges in West Virginia. Placement is for one semester. Varied experience is intended to be similar to that of a graduated clerk.
LAW 781. Postmodern Jurisprudence. 3 Hr. This course explores contemporary legal philosophy. It examines reactions of postmodern schools – law and literature, law and economic, critical race, gender law, “queercrit”, pragmatism, therapeutic jurisprudence – to classical jurisprudence including natural law, positivism, and realism.
LAW 782. Legal Clinic 1. 7 Hr. PR:LAW 706, LAW 722, and LAW 727. A clinical introduction to the arts and skills of lawyering. Students may represent clients and also engage in simulated practice exercises.
LAW 783. Legal Clinic 2. 7 Hr. PR:LAW 782. A continuation of LAW 782.* Students are given increased responsibilities for cases and will try a case in a simulated and/or actual trial setting.
LAW 784. Securities. 3 Hr. Federal and state regulations of the distribution of and trading in securities, including the Laws and federal acts.
LAW 785. Federal Corporate Tax. 4 Hr. PR: LAW 719. Application of federal income taxation to corporations and shareholders; distributions and redemptions; complete liquidations; corporate acquisitions and divisions, and Subchapter S.
LAW 786. Lugar Trial Advocacy. 2-3 Hr. An extensive lecture series and trial simulation program designed to provide opportunities for students to develop advanced litigation skills. Students must participate in six full-scale mock trials and one outside trial competition.
LAW 787. Intercollegiate Moot Court. 2-4 Hr. Appellate brief writing and argumentation for members of intercollegiate moot court teams.
LAW 788. Legal Interviewing, Counseling and Negotiation. 3 Hr. The course studies each of the lawyer’s basic interpersonal skills and develops a client-centered approach to law practice. Readings and class discussion on interpersonal professional relations supplement extensive skills training in simulated cases.
LAW 789. Environmental Protection Law. 3 Hr. Problems of identifying and evaluating scientific evidence of air and . water pollution; weighing the benefits of economic and technological progress against resulting harm to the quality of life; choice among alternative forms of litigation and public regulation as methods of social control.
LAW 791. Advanced Topics. I, II, S. 1-6 Hr. PR:Consent. Investigation of advanced topics not covered in regularly scheduled courses.
LAW 793. Special Topics. I, II, S. 1-6 Hr. A study of contemporary topics selected from recent developments in the field.
LAW 794. Seminar. I, II, S. 1-6 Hr. Research seminar in various topics. A substantial writing is required under close supervision of the faculty member. (Enrollment limited.)
LAW 795. Independent Study. I, II, S. 1-6 Hr. Faculty supervised study of topics not available through regular course offerings.