| Course Name |
Number |
Cr. |
Description |
| Antitrust |
156 |
3 |
This course examines judicial doctrines, enforcement guidelines, and policies relating to competition as a means of ordering private economic behavior. Specific topics include agreements involving competitors, dominant firm behavior, joint ventures, mergers, distribution, practices, and international competition policy. |
| Bankruptcy |
167 |
3 |
Studies legal, economic, and social issues in bankruptcy through a survey of the Bankruptcy Code and the previous Bankruptcy Act. Considers bankruptcy liquidation and reorganization, as well as the role of the courts and trustees in the bankruptcy process. |
| Comparative Law |
346 |
3 |
This course will provide an introduction to the methods of comparative law by examining the concept of a legal tradition and by comparing the development of the law in various legal systems. It begins with a survey of basic historical developments in Western legal systems, including discussion of the general features of the civil and common law systems. The course will compare theoretical frameworks and judicial interpretative methods. A substantial portion of the course will consider selected comparative problems either in private law or in constitutional and public law. |
| Corporate and Securities Track Thesis |
447 |
2 |
Requires the student to develop, refine, and expand a research paper into an article suitable for publication in law journals. |
| Economic Foundations of Legal Studies |
108 |
3 |
This course exposes students to a broad survey of economic, statistical, finance and accounting concepts in which those concepts play a crucial role in determining the outcome of legal disputes. Students will not become expert in these technical areas but will be exposed to both the mechanics and subtleties of these tools. The goal is to educate and train students so that they will be better prepared to understand a dispute, craft an argument, or prepare a witness. |
| Economics of Private Law |
420 |
2 |
After a brief review of the methodology of law and economics, this course utilizes the standard tools of economic analysis for the study of private law and legal institutions, with special emphasis on property, torts and contracts. The course builds upon the coherent first-year curriculum offered at GMU Law School. Students will develop a coherent framework for an economic explanation of legal rules: a framework that can be easily built upon in other courses for an economic analysis of other areas of the law. The first part of the seminar reviews some of the basic concepts of economic analysis, including the following: (i) Coase theorem; (ii) models of market failure; (iii) uncertainty and risk-aversion; (iv) strategic behavior and basic game theory; and (v) collective decision-making and public choice theory. The second part of the seminar applies the above tools to the study of private law and legal institutions with special focus on: (i) emergence of law and models of legal evolution; (ii) sources of law; (iii) selected topics in property, contract and tort law. |
| Environmental Law |
218 |
3 |
This course covers numerous substantive areas in environmental law, while exploring the theme that environmental law is perhaps the most significant area of the law where structural constitutional questions of federalism and the separation of powers regularly arise. After explaining some of the background constitutional provisions in the environmental area, such as the Commerce Clause, the Spending Clause, and Takings, we turn to analyzing particular statutory areas: (1) the Clean Air Act (a greater area of focus as the first complex regulatory statute encountered); (2) the Clean Water Act; (3) NEPA; (4) RCRA; (5) CERCLA; and (6) the Endangered Species Act. We also spend several class units on recurring administrative law issues in environmental law and on the topic of environmental enforcement. Modes of statutory and regulatory interpretation are also an important class theme. |
| International Business Economics and Law |
249 |
2 |
This course is designed to provide International Business track students with an analytical framework, based on microeconomic theory, for studying law and policy questions relating to international trade issues. Topics covered include comparative advantage and the gains from trade, patterns of trade, the effects of tariffs, subsidies and other trade laws, balance of payments issues, exchange rate determination, and industrial policy. |
| Law and Economics Seminar |
482 |
2 |
The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to the law and economics field. The classes will be devoted to discussion of the assigned readings. Grading will depend on participation in the discussion and a term paper in the field. May be 2 or 3 credits. |
| Law of Investment Management |
275 |
3 |
This course examines the law and economics of investment advisors, investment companies, mutual funds, and pension funds. These institutions currently manage a large and rapidly increasing share of America's wealth, and further expansion is especially likely with the growing impetus to privatize social security. Yet little is known about their internal organization, the critical contracting and property rights issues they face in financial markets, or the sources of regulation that influence them under the Securities Exchange Act (1934), the Investment Advisors Act (1940), the Investment Company Act (1940), or the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (1974). The course will use basic financial theory and property rights analysis to examine the law that shapes these increasingly vital institutions, with the objective of understanding their internal organization and external environment. This course is an elective in the Corporate and Securities Track. Financial Theory recommended but not required. |
| Legal and Economic Theory of Intellectual Property |
261 |
2 |
A survey of the legal and economic theory of intellectual property including the common law premises for the protection of ideas and their embodiments and the evolution of statutory and judge-made law. The first half of the course concentrates on the underlying economic and property theory and law, and the second half develops the application to the statutory and common law classes of intellectual property: patents, copyright, trademarks, mask works, and trade secrets. |
| Litigation and Dispute Resolution Theory |
205 |
3 |
Provides the cornerstone of the Litigation Law track. It introduces the theory and practice of litigation and other forms of dispute resolution, and draws upon the basic tools of decision theory, game theory, and economic analysis to address some of the key features of the litigation process and its institutions. Among the topics addressed are the decision to commence litigation and whether to settle or go to trial; settlement negotiations; strategic behavior as affecting decision making by both private actors and the courts; economic analyses of litigation; agency or moral hazard problems presented by both lawyers and courts; the impact of attorney¬πs fee arrangements, fee-shifting rules, and court-imposed sanctions; party versus court control of proceedings; and the effect of enforcement costs on competing substantive legal rules. |
| Neuroeconomics and Law Seminar |
609 |
2 |
Public choice is the economic study of the decisionmaking process behind the (constitutional or ordinary) laws, statutes and regulations governing society, and other such non-market decisions.This course focuses particularly on the origins and foundations of the state, voting rules, political activity, direct and representative democracy, interest groups, and rent seeking. Some specific law reform issues will be analyzed through the lens of public-choice theory, showing how such theory can help interpret mechanisms and aims of lawmaking. The tools developed during the course will be applied to an analysis of specific areas of the law such as tort liability and intellectual property.
|
| Perspectives on Regulation |
289 |
2 |
This course introduces students to regulatory institutions and the political economy of regulatory processes. With this foundation, students will examine current or proposed regulation and the costs, benefits, and incentives they create. |
| Perspectives on the Individual, Family, and Social Institutions |
344 |
2 |
Wealth (capital) creation and transmission in the context of the individual rather than the firm unifies this sequence. Wealth, in the broad sense considered here, means not only the person's accumulation of financial assets but also his or her earning capacity, moral values and contributions to society. Although much of the approach will be law-and-economics based, other disciplines will necessarily inform the discussion as well. Biology, sociology, political science, history, and philosophy all will play a part. |
| Products Liability |
296 |
2 |
Discusses the historical development of product liability as a branch of contracts, through express and implied warranties, and of torts, through abnormally dangerous activities, joint tortfeasors, and industry-wide liability. Students address the benefits and costs of such a system in economic and legal terms. Proposals for federal and state legislation are also considered. |
| Public Choice and Law Reform |
378 |
2 |
Public choice is the economic study of the decisionmaking process behind the (constitutional or ordinary) laws, statutes and regulations governing society, and other such non-market decisions.This course focuses particularly on the origins and foundations of the state, voting rules, political activity, direct and representative democracy, interest groups, and rent seeking. Some specific law reform issues will be analyzed through the lens of public-choice theory, showing how such theory can help interpret mechanisms and aims of lawmaking. The tools developed during the course will be applied to an analysis of specific areas of the law such as tort liability and intellectual property.
|
| Regulated Industries |
315 |
2 |
Surveys the legal and economic foundations of the various forms of regulation. The origin and development of both economic and social regulation are analyzed. |
| Spontaneous Order and the Law |
456 |
3 |
This course shows how experimental economics can be used to understand how self-generating and spontaneous orders emerge in law and economics. Participants will receive hands on experience with different institutions in our experimental laboratory. The classroom experiments involve making decisions as buyers and/or sellers who are motivated to find optimal allocations specific to their unique situations. By building on this experience we will then explore a number of different public and private applications to law. Some applications demonstrate how experimental economics can be used to influence court decisions while other applications show how to improve the practice of law.
|
| Tort Theory Seminar |
449 |
2 |
This seminar explores advanced topics in tort law doctrine and policy through readings, class discussion, and a substantial writing project. Students are encouraged to pursue their own interest within this broad field of study. Enrollment requires instructor's approval. |
| Unincorporated Business |
339 |
2 |
This course is intended to be a modern successor to Agency and Partnership. The course focuses on general and limited partnerships as well as several relatively new business forms: limited liability companies, limited liability partnerships, limited liability limited partnerships, business trusts and unincorporated nonprofits. The course covers the theoretical, legal and business context of unincorporated firms, including choice of form considerations and exercises in drafting governance documents and statutes. Live examples will be drawn upon, and periodic guests will be drawn upon to supplement and enrich the classroom dialogue and learning experience. |
