Spring 2013 Course Descriptions

Faculty members or visiting scholars present selected topics focusing upon subject areas in their area of specialty or expertise.

Introduction to ERISA Law

The protections afforded by ERISA, or the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, to participants and beneficiaries of employer-sponsored pension and health and welfare plans affect most working individuals. This is largely due to ERISA's nondiscrimination requirements and corresponding Internal Revenue Code provisions. This course will provide an introductory framework for understanding the origins, purposes, and operation of ERISA.  

Faculty members or visiting scholars present selected topics focusing upon subject areas in their area of specialty or expertise.

Faculty members or visiting scholars present selected topics focusing upon subject areas in their area of specialty or expertise.

Faculty members or visiting scholars present selected topics focusing upon subject areas in their area of specialty or expertise.

Faculty members or visiting scholars present selected topics focusing upon subject areas in their area of specialty or expertise.

Students selected for the Asian-Pacific Law and Policy Journal editorial board have writing, researching, editorial and production responsibility for publication of the journal. Repeatable four times. CR/NC only.

This class focuses on the issues pertaining to at-risk children and their families. The course is intended to be multidisciplinary in scope, applying and, ideally, blending the analytical lenses of the disciplines of law, social work, nursing, and education.  The class will be clinical in approach, with students working to make a positive impact on the lives of youth through on-site experiences at selected community programs.   Students will collaborate in multidisciplinary teams (class enrollment permitting) on projects that directly benefit young people at their community placement sites. Students will leave the course with improved practice skills, a deeper understanding of interdisciplinary interaction, and valuable connections to other child welfare professionals.

This course is offered CR/NCR for law students, but for a grade for the non-law students.  Non-law students should contact Jane Dickson Iijima for registration instructions.

An honors program for students who prepare for and compete in national advocacy. Travel/Registration Fees required. (B) Black Law Students Association; (C) Client Counseling; (D) Hispanic Bar Association; (E) Environmental Law; (H) Native American; (J) Jessup International; (K) International Environmental Law; (M) Intellectual Property; (N) Labor; (O) Other. Repeatable one time. CR/NC only. Pre: selection by competition.

Real estate transactions are an important and growing conservation strategy; examines land transactions within the environment of conservation. (Once a year)

Continuation of 509. Pre: 509.

An examination of substantive rules and rationales of the criminal law. The course begins with a survey of criminal procedure from arrest through sentencing. Study of the criminal sentencing process raises important jurisprudential questions about the purposes and efficacy of criminal sanctions as a response to officially proscribed behavior. The heart of the criminal justice course is the study of general principles of American criminal law, including culpability criteria, the mental element in crimes, and definitional ingredients of crimes such as murder, rape, attempt, and conspiracy. The focus is on the Hawai‘i Penal Code, supplemented with comparative materials drawn from the common law and from the law of several Asian nations. Consistent with overall objectives of the first year of law study, the imparting and sharpening of general legal analytical skills is emphasized throughout the criminal justice course.

This course introduces you to the law governing the relations between debtors (those who owe) and creditors (those to whom obligations are owed). We will begin by reviewing non-judicial debt collection practices and limitations and judicial state law debt collection (this review will build upon concepts introduced in Secured Transactions). We will then study the Federal Bankruptcy Code, first examining overriding concepts and policies, then consumer bankruptcy cases. We will also consider, throughout the course, how parties and their attorneys can (and indeed must) take the effects of debtor/creditor laws into account in (i) counseling clients, (ii) negotiating, documenting and performing contracts, (iii) reducing risk, and (iv) resolving disputes with and without litigation. Recommended: Secured Transactions (LAW 554)

Students perform research and write papers on selected legal topics or problems under the direction of a faculty member.

Through this clinic, students will have the opportunity to hone their legal skills, including analyzing legal issues, developing and implementing case strategy, collaborating with clients, refining factual and legal research, and writing persuasively. Initial classes will be spent reviewing relevant state and/or federal laws relating to natural and cultural resource management. Students will then work in teams to assist clients on a range of issues. The primary work product will be legal memoranda, although students may also prepare pleadings, comment letters, or oral or written testimony. In order to facilitate that work, client interaction and site visits to affected resources and communities are highly encouraged. When a project is completed, students will have the opportunity to present the final product to a client and/or their counsel. Pre: Environmental Law (LAW 582) or Administrative Law (561).  These classes may be taken concurrently.

This course focuses on specific topic areas that will vary from year to year, depending upon current developments and issues in environmental law in Hawaiʻi, nationwide, and internationally, as well as the expertise of visiting faculty. Topics in the past have included Hawaiʻi environmental law, environmental law and the military, wildlife law, and toxic waste issues.

This course principally examines both practice aspects and theoretical underpinnings of equitable remedies. Frequently, compensatory damages cannot adequately protect clients or provide them with the relief they need. Topics include temporary restraining orders, preliminary and permanent injunctions, restitution and unjust enrichment, specific performance, and equitable defenses such as unclean hands, laches, and estoppel. Practice issues concerning appeal, jury trials, and the relationship of equity to law are also explored.

The Externship Program offers significant academic benefits not otherwise available in the prescribed curriculum.

• Students are provided field experience by being “placed” in an outside supportive environment to learn the panoply of lawyering skills.
• Mentors create situations specifically designed to maximize new learning, to develop new skills and to encourage creativity.
• Students discover their own strengths and weaknesses through self-direction, as they apply skills and knowledge learned in the classroom, in semester-long peeks into the “real world.”

Credit/No Credit.

A practical introduction to the law governing the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of the family. Topics include marriage, annulment, divorce, alimony, property division, marriage agreements, and child custody. The course focuses on Hawai`i statutes and case law, within the context of common law and recent constitutional doctrine.

An examination of the jurisdiction and law-making powers of the federal courts, standing issues, appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, federal-question and diversity-of-citizenship jurisdiction of the federal district courts, immunities from suit in the federal courts possessed by governmental entities and officers, intervention by federal courts in state proceedings, and choice of law in the federal courts. Particular emphasis on relevant Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Pre: 533 (or concurrent).

This course is an in-depth examination of the principal problems that lead to the conviction of the innocent and leading proposals for measures to reduce the number of wrongful convictions. The seminar will examine common errors or problems that produce wrongful convictions, the process for investigating a claim of actual innocence, state and federal post conviction procedures, and the nature and uses of DNA and other scientific evidence. Students work on actual post-conviction cases.

For more information visit the Hawai'i Innocence Project website

Introduction to health care jurisprudence and the  study of bioethics, a term used generally to describe ethical issues in the life sciences as applied in professional fields, including medicine, nursing, philosophy, theology and law.

(B) prosecution clinic; (C) defense clinic; (D) elder law clinic; (E) environmental law clinic; (G) estate planning workshop; (I) native Hawaiian rights clinic; (J) family law clinic; (K) entrepreneurship and small business clinic; (M) mediation clinic; (N) lawyering skills workshop; (P) mediation workshop; (Q) immigration clinic; (R) child welfare clinic; (S) Hawai'i Innocence Project I; (T) Hawai'i Innocence Project II; (U) legislation and statutory interpretation. Repeatable one time for (K). LAW majors only for (R), (S), (T) and (U). CR/NC and letter grade option for (J); CR/NC only for (N), (P), and (Q). Pre: 543 for (B) and (C); 521 or consent for (D); 529 or 561 or LWEV 582 for (E); 552 and 567, or consent for (G); 568 or consent for (J); 548 for (Q). (Once a year for (K)) (Alt. years for (U))