Law

This course is an introduction to the legal system surveying such topics as the New York and federal court systems, legal history, and various areas of substantive law.

This course covers the progress of a civil action from the first client interview through the trial and appeal. The student is introduced to the various steps in litigation, including interviewing and investigation techniques, pleadings, discovery, motion practice and trial procedure. The student becomes familiar with the various procedures and legal documents that are part of civil litigation in New York State.

This course is designed to provide an understanding of both traditional and electronic legal research. Students will learn the function of the law library and what resources, traditional and electronic, are available for accessing the law. Although classroom lectures and textbooks are utilized, special emphasis is placed on research assignments requiring the use of the legal resources.

This course presents to the student a comprehensive view of contracts with an emphasis on understanding the rationale behind laws that affect business practice and the application of law to specific business situations. Topics to be covered include the nature and classification of contracts, agreement and consideration, capacity and legality, genuineness of assent, the statute of frauds, third party rights and discharge, breach of contract and remedies, sales contracts, title and risk of loss, performance and warranties. (Equivalent to BUS 212).

This course will cover topics in the areas of commercial transactions and business structures, and the more specialized areas of consumer law, anti-trust, and real property. Topics to be covered include commercial paper, secured transactions, bankruptcy, agency, partnerships, corporations, anti-trust, consumer law, personal property and bailment's, real property, and wills and trusts. (Equivalent to BUS 213).

This course focuses on alternative mechanisms of enforcing the law. The case method is used to introduce the student to a process differing in historical development and growth from the judicial process. Particular attention is focused on the major agencies and to the principles of law underlying and applicable to all of regulatory agencies. The Federal Administrative Act is covered and due attention is paid to the problems of delegation of legislative power, the nature of a hearing, the right to and scope of judicial review and to other statutory and non-statutory methods of review.

Beginning with a study of morality and law, their interrelationship in the natural law tradition will be examined first; then their separation in positivism will be considered. Finally, the code of professional responsibility and the canons of ethics will be examined.

This course includes a study of the more common forms of wills and trusts and a survey of the New York State requirements applicable to each. Emphasis is placed on the paralegal's function in the probate of wills and administration of estates and trusts.

The course covers such topics as divorces, separations, custody, adoption, guardianship and support, with a survey of the appropriate courts and how they deal with such matters.

This course covers the basics of managed care, what it is and why it is supposed to reduce health care costs; bioethics issues as they relate to the developing law concerning the right to die, reproductive medicine and cloning; patient confidentiality and AIDS; and selected issues concerning professional medical conduct and nursing home care. 

Analytic and research skills are enhanced through research assignments involving various areas of substantive and procedural law. Emphasis is placed on legal writing skills, including the drafting of various types of legal memoranda. Enrollment restricted to legal studies program student or by permission of the program coordinator.

This course is designed to help the legal studies student become a more critically-minded thinker about the moral decisions that lawyers face. Students will engage in legal research, study the model lawyer's Code of Professional Responsibility, and develop an understanding of morality and the law. The course looks at lawyers in history and in cinema, and the ethical and professional dilemmas they face. Areas to be explored include; conflicts of interest; communication and scope of representation; attorney client privilege; civility; confidentiality; and solicitation.

This course focuses on African American Legal Studies. The students study case law starting with 1609 through the present. The course focuses on the development of the law and on questions concerning equality and fairness within the Black community. The primary source of legal analysis will be Supreme Court decisions and the evolution of constitutional rights and civil rights. The history of Blacks in America is studied to provide context for understanding legal decisions. The history and impact of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 will also be analyzed.

This course offers in-depth study of subjects beyond the range of core courses or subjects that are emerging areas of law not otherwise addressed in the curriculum.