Courses

Animal Law overlaps with many traditional areas of the law such as torts, criminal, constitutional and property law. Animal Law is rooted in the practical application of statutory and decisional law but also explores legal theory and jurisprudence. In Animal Law we ask fundamental questions about the nature of a legal right or interest, the manner in which the law often creates or entrenches power imbalances and how those imbalances impact animals.

ANIMAL LAW COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

ANIMAL LAW (449)

Frasch & Hessler
3 credit hours
For Fall '09:
Tuesday & Thursdays
10:30 a.m. - 11:50 a.m.

This course in Animal Law will introduce students to those principles, rules, and regulations -- as developed by common law and from statute -- that affect animals. Starting with a summary of historical origins, the course will examine such laws in their philosophical and practical underpinnings, and from a variety of differing perspectives. We will explore how the law has treated animals in the past and may treat them in the future, locally, nationally and internationally. From the foundational (How are animals defined? Can animals have standing? Are animals property?) to the pragmatic (What procedural obstacles might confront claims made on behalf of animals? What substantive constraints might prosecuting an animal cruelty case entail?) the course will address diverse questions and answers in such areas as contract and tort; protections under criminal and civil statutes; cruelty and abuse laws; legal standing for animals; treatment of laboratory animals; ownership and valuation issues; custody areas; and ethical and legal dilemmas posed by the capture, confinement, and commercial use of animals.

Students will be graded by a combination of final examination, class participation, class debate and a field research project.

ANIMAL LAW CLINIC (788, 789)

Hessler
3/3 hours
For Fall '09:
Wednesdays, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
*Limit: 6 students

The Animal Law Clinic (ALC) provides clinical training to second, third and fourth-year students. The ALC's emphasis is on state litigation, but often includes administrative actions, transactional matters, federal litigation, lobbying, and regulatory matters. Students will learn to interview and counsel clients; research and draft pleadings and motions; attend court hearings and trials; and otherwise advocate for clients. Students will participate in a weekly 2-hour class covering substantive issues and lawyering skills, meet with the Staff Attorney as needed, and spend an average of 8-10 hours per week on assigned work. In addition to discussions regarding animal protection lawyering, classes will provide opportunities for students to engage in mock lawyering tasks to hone their interviewing, negotiating, counseling, trial advocacy, and persuasive skills. While the ALC will not include an ethics portion for credit, students will be exposed to and will learn professionalism and conflicts issues critical to being an effective animal advocate. The ALC takes cases that maximize the students' opportunities to learn animal lawyering skills. Students will also learn the opportunity to work with attorneys and organizations nationwide to gain broad exposure to careers in animal law

Students will earn 3 credits. The ALC is a credit/no credit course with no final examination or paper requirement. Outside reading or case preparation may be required, tyypically not to exceed three hours per week.

Students must have permission to register for this course. To request permission, email Kathy Hessler (khessler@lclark.edu) prior to the class registration deadline. Include your name, your year in law school, the semester(s) in which you would like to enroll, and the reasons for your interest in working with the ALC. If there is more student demand than the ALC can accommodate, preference will be based on demonstrated interest in animal law, year in school, and interest in two consecutive semesters. The sooner students notify the instructor of their interest, the more likely they will obtain permission to register.

The Animal Law Clinic is located on campus in the lower level of Wood Hall. Students will often work in the ALC office, but the hours are flexible. There will be a 2-hour class once per week, with the day, time and location TBD based upon the students' class schedules.

The ALC encourages students to obtain animal law certification, but it is not required.

ANIMAL LAW SEMINAR (549)

Frasch
2 hours
Offered Every Spring Semester
* Limit: 10-12 students
Meets A or B Writing Requirement

The field of animal law has exploded in recent years, with a particularly high level of activity in the areas of standing; will and trusts benefiting animals; anti-cruelty laws; and non-economic damages for harm done to companion and other animals. Throughout the semester, the course will explore the latest cases, legislation and legal theory developing in these areas. The course keeps a tight focus on just a few issues throughout the seminar to allow a greater depth of learning and understanding in those select areas. As the field continues to develop, the "hot" legal issues may, and probably will, shift. The seminar will be structured in such a way that students will also have the opportunity to learn about and study these newer developments.

The students will be required to complete a 25-30 page paper on an emerging topic in animal law to be mutually agreed upon between the instructor and the student. Please consult instructor if interested in applying this seminar's paper toward the schoool's "A" or "B" Paper requirement.

CLINICAL INTERNSHIP SEMINAR: ANIMAL LAW LEGISLATION (785)

Otto
3 hours
Spring/Day
* Limit:  4 students

A legislative clinical program aimed at improving animal protection laws throughout the country.  Participants will acquire a substantive knowledge of the legislative process through clinical study and practical experience in the development of primarily local-level animal protection laws.

Through a collaboration between the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), a national non-profit legal organization, and Lewis & Clark Law School's Center for Animal Law Studies, law student participants will have the unique opportunity to research, analyze, develop, and advance local legislation, while working at ALDF's downtown Portland offices under the guidance of attorney Stephan K. Otto, ALDF's director of legislative affairs.  Participants may have the occasion to work on select state-level issues as well.

Equipped with the experience and skills gained through this program, participants will be better prepared for future work in government and administrative agencies, as well as to represent a variety of clients with the government and public policy interests.

Participants attend and participate in weekly interactive seminars, which will cover a variety of legislative issues (including statutory construction, strategy, legislative history, preemption and conflicts, lobbying and other related topics) and include a discussion of ongoing projects.  In addition, participants also spend the equivalent of 8-10 hours a week working on projects, both in the clinic and independently, to the satisfaction of the supervising attorney.  Any participant missing the orientation or more than 20% of the clinic sessions may be administratively withdrawn.  Seminars and clinic sessions will take place on Fridays at ALDF's downtown offices between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.  The office is conveniently located approximately 3 blocks from the Pioneer Express Shuttle's downtown stop.

CIS:  Animal Law Legislation is a 3-credit (credit/no credit) course.  The course satisfies both the seminar and professional skills requirements.  Enrollment is limited and applicants for this seminar will be screened.  To apply, submit a one-page letter of interest to the Registrar by the deadline for registration.

Suggested course:  Animal Law (449)

Lewis & Clark Law School has the only summer animal law program. Spend your summer in beautiful Portland, Oregon while studying with some of the best animal law professors and earning credit towards your Juris Doctorate. The 2009 Summer Animal Law Program is outlined below. For information regarding tuition, registration, summer housing, etc., please visit the Lewis & Clark summer school website.

Animal Law Clinic (799-S1)

Offered both Session I & Session II
Hours Vary
*Limited Availability
Please Note: The summer Animal Law Clinic offers limited opportunities for students to earn credit through an independent study. In addition to enrolling in the clinic, students may enroll in other animal law classes.

The Animal Law Clinic (ALC) provides clinical training to second, third and fourth-year students. The ALC emphasis is on state litigation, but often includes administrative actions, transactional matters, federal litigation, lobbying, and regulatory matters. Students will learn to interview and counsel clients; research and draft pleadings and motions; attend court hearings and trials; and otherwise advocate for clients. Students will participate in a weekly 2-hour class covering substantive issues and lawyering skills, meet with the Staff Attorney as needed, and spend a minimum of 26 hours per week on assigned work. In addition to discussions regarding animal protection lawyering, classes will provide opportunities for students to engage in mock lawyering tasks to hone their interviewing, negotiating, counseling, trial advocacy, and persuasive skills. While the ALC will not include an ethics portion for credit, students will be exposed to and will learn professionalism and conflicts issues critical to being an effective animal advocate. The ALC takes cases that maximize the students’ opportunities to learn animal lawyering skills. Students will also earn the opportunity to work with attorneys and organizations nationwide to gain broad exposure to careers in animal law.

Students will earn 4 credits per session. The ALC is a credit/no credit course with no final examination or paper requirement. Outside reading or case preparation may be required, typically not to exceed three hours per week. The ALC is offered as two separate summer sessions, which means that students may elect to take the clinic for one or both sessions.

Animal Rights Law (447-S2)

Professor Steven Wise
Two-Week Intensive: July 7 - July 20, 2009
9:00 am to 12:00 pm
2 credit hours
SYLLABUS FOR 2009 COURSE

Study of nonhuman animals’ current legal protections, the problem of obtaining standing, as well as sources and characteristics of fundamental rights—why humans are entitled to them, why nonhumans are denied them, whether they should be limited to humans and, if not, what rights should nonhuman animals be entitled to under common law.

Animal Law: Legislation, Lobbying & Litigation (448-S2)

Professors Jonathan Lovvorn & Nancy Perry
Two-Week Intensive: July 21 - August 3, 2009
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
2 credit hours
SYLLABUS FOR 2009 COURSE

A practical survey of lobbying and litigation on behalf of animals at the local, state, federal, and international level. Topics include the historical status of animals in the law; legislative drafting and lobbying; application and enforcement of federal statutes such as the Animal Welfare Act, the Humane Slaughter Act, the Wild Horses and Burros Act, the Animal Damage Control Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and the Endangered Species Act; international legal protections, free trade issues, and comparative animal protection laws; state laws concerning animal cruelty, hunting, animal fighting, and performing animals; free speech, religion, and other constitutional limitations on animal protection statutes; citizen initiatives and referenda; and the movement to obtain legal recognition of the rights of animals.

International Wildlife Law (951-S1)

Professor Erica J. Thorson
Two-Week Intensive: May 26 - June 8, 2009
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
2 credit hours
OVERVIEW FOR 2009 COURSE (Syllabus to Follow)

A first-time offering for the Summer Animal Law Program, International Wildlife Law examines the connection between international environmental law and animal law. This class will explore the nature of balancing competing interests in international fora, focusing on the worthiness of "sustainable use" as the compromise that hinges together the goals of wildlife conservation and enhancement of human welfare. Students will leave this class with a greater understanding and appreciation for the complexity of international lawmaking, specifically in the wildlife context, and with a greater sense of awareness of the negotiations that give rise to the balancing acts and compromises that make up international wildlife law. By the end of this course, students will have a set of tools to critically examine the utility of the compromises the international community has struck and to think creatively about ways to improve the international management of wildlife so that it serves reasonably and justly the interests of both the animals and the humans who depend on them.

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW (100)

Funk - Fall/Day
Powers - Spring/Eve
3 hours

Required for Animal Law Certificate

Administrative law is the law relating to administrative agencies. It includes constitutional law (especially separation of powers and procedural due process), Federal statutory law (especially the Administrative Procedure Act), and state statutory law (for example, Oregon's Administrative Procedure Act). Study of administrative law focuses on the activities of government agencies--from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Social Security Administration, from the Federal Trade Commission to the National Labor Relations Board. The validity of their actions depends on compliance with administrative law. Thus, lawyers for agencies, regulated industries, and public interest groups are vitally concerned with administrative law. Much of their practice both as litigants and advisors involves administrative law. Fourteen states, including Oregon, test Administrative Law on their bar exams.

For Funk:

This course uses a problem orientation to stress practical application of administrative law. There is a final exam with short objective questions and a longer problem question. If there is a large class, students may opt to take a multiple choice exam instead.

For Powers:

This course explores: sources and limits of agency authority; procedures agencies must use in investigation, rulemaking, and adjudication; and availability and scope of judicial review of agency actions. The course uses a problem orientation to stress practicial application of administrative law. Course evaluation is primarily by a final exam, but also includes 2-3 short research projects during the semester.

ADVANCED TRIAL LAWYERS SEMINAR (484)

Paulson, Coletti
2 hours
Spring/Day
* Limit: 16 students

A trial practice workshop with a compendium of lectures, demonstations and discussions on learning how trial lawyers actually prepare and present civil jury trials. Principles and techniques for all phases of civil trial practice will be analyzed. In addition, a number of guest panelists including trial lawyers, judges and expert witnesses will be called upon to comment and answer questions. Students will have an opportunity to study opening and closing statements and participate in focus groups in Judge Jones' federal courtroom in downtown Portland. Required weekly reading assignment in "Successful Trial Techniques of Expert Practitioners" - a $100.00 textbook.

This class is offered for credit/no credit only.

Note: Attendance is mandatory. Anyone missing the first class will be dropped from the class. This includes anyone on the class waitlist.

ADVANCED WRITING SEMINAR:

INTERPRETATION & APPLICATION OF STATUTES (398)

Villella
3 hours
Fall/Day
*Limit: 16 students

Meet B Writing Requirement

Statutes and administrative rules touch almost every aspect of the practice of law. Accordingly, lawyers need to develop the skills necessary to advise clients and advocate on their behalf regarding their rights and obligations under complex statutory and regulatory schemes. The seminar will help students develop skills that lawyers use regularly, including developing strategies for assessing statutory and regulatory schemes, refining research skills, using interpretive tools, and developing methods for writing sound legal analysis. Using case files, students will research and analyze statutory and regulatory provisions and will draft both objective and persuasive documents analyzing the law on behalf of a client. Students will gain experience analyzing the role of text, legislative history, precedent, and extrinsic sources in statutory and regulatory interpretation. Other topic areas may include judicial interpretation of laws enacted through initiative and referendum and the interplay between constitutions, statutes, regulations, and common law.

Students will write three assignments, receive written feedback on each assignment, and have the opportunity to conference individually with the professor. The focus of the course is statutory law; however, the goal is to provide students with an opportunity to refine their critical thinking and research skills, and their ability to write clear and precise legal analysis. This course satisfies the "B" writing requirement.

AGRICULTURAL LAW (492)

TBD
3 hours
Spring/Eve
*Typically offered every other year

This course is a survey of the law applicable to agricultural businesses. Emphasis is placed upon those provisions of commercial, property, regulatory and tort law uniquely relating to agriculture. Students will also be introduced to business and taxation issues facing the modern farming and ranching enterprise, as well as Chapter 12 bankruptcy proceedings. Students will be evaluated by means of a final exam.

AGRICULTURE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW SEMINAR (493)

2 hours
*Not offered 2008-09

Meets A or B Writing Requirement

This seminar examines the impact of environmental law on agriculture, including the effect of the Clean Water Act on wetlands, point source and non-point source pollution, the effect of Federal Farm Bill provisions regarding land and water conservation, and the regulation of pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Special problems arising from confined animal feeding operations and the effect of the Endandangered Species Act on farming and ranching, particularly with regard to grazing on public lands, will also be addressed. Students will be evaluated by class participation and a paper satisfying the "A" of "B" writing requirement for graduation.

APPELLATE ADVOCACY (517)

Zusman
2 hours
Spring/Eve
*Limit: 14 students

Meets the B Writing Requirement

Students learn and practice the fundamentals of written and oral appellate advocacy. The first several weeks emphasize practical brief-writing skills. Students learn - through writing/editing exercises and individualized feedback on brief drafts - to write concisely and persuasively, and to edit their own work effectively. Students also learn to apply preservation-of-error rules, standards of review, the harmless-error doctrine, and other essential appellate principles. Students ultimately write 2 briefs to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals - one criminal and one civil. The first brief assignment includes independent legal research; the second brief assignment is more circumscribed and does not involve legal research. The first brief satisfies the "B" writing requirement.

The middle of the course emphasizes oral argument skills. Students will argue before a simulated Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel, and will receive detailed critiques. Students who distinguish themselves in brief-writing and oral argument may be invited to join the school's regional appellate advocacy team the following fall.

This is a graded course and grades are premised upon the following factors: first brief (30%), oral argument (20%), second brief (30%), and class attendance and participation (20%).

Prerequisite: Legal Writing

LEGISLATIVE & POLITICAL PROCESS SEMINAR (396)

Chiamov
2 hours
Spring/Day
Meets B Writing Requirement

This seminar will explore the legislative and other legal issues related to the political system. The seminar will forcus on the Oregon Legislature, but will compare and contrast the structural, procedural and political characteristics of other institutions, including the U.S. Congress. The course will include statutory drafting. Other topics that may be considered include: local forms of government, the initiative and referendum process, campaign finance reform, and government ethics. Materials for the course will include a text as well as primary sources. Grades will be based on two short writing assignments, class participation, and a longer paper that can qualify for the B-paper writing requirement.

The expansion of Animal Law curriculum is an important reflection of the overall growth of the field. At some schools, not only can students specialize in Animal Law but they can further focus on paticular Animal Law issues such as wildlife law or anti-cruelty/criminal law. The following tracks are based on offerings available at Lewis & Clark Law School, but may be adapted to other schools' curriculums. In addition to substantive courses, it is valuable to also gain practical skills through clinics, internships and externships.

Civil Litigation Track

• Advanced Legal Research
• Advanced Legal Writing
• Advanced Torts Seminar
• Advanced Trial Lawyer Seminar
• Agriculture Law
• Alternative Dispute Resolutions
• Animal Law (Fall Class Preferred)
• Animal Law Clinic
• Animal Law Moot Court & Closing Argument Competition
• Animal Law Seminar
• Civil Procedure
• Constitutional Law
• Contracts
• Evidence
• Family Law
• Mock Trial
• Oregon Pleading & Practice
• Property Law
• Remedies
• Torts
• Torts II
• Trial Advocacy
• Wills & Trusts

Criminal / Enforcement Track

• Advanced Trial Lawyer Seminar
• Animal Law (Fall Class Preferred)
• Animal Law Moot Court & Closing Argument Competition
• Animal Law Seminar
• Crime Victim Litigation Law Clinic
• Criminal Law
• Criminal Law Clinical Internship Seminar
• Criminal Procedure
• Evidence
• Trial Advocacy
• Victims in Criminal Procedure

Federal Litigation / Wildlife Law Track

• Administrative Law
• Advanced Legal Research
• Advanced Legal Writing
• Agriculture Law
• Animal Law (Summer Class Preferred)
• Animal Law Clinic
• Animal Law Moot Court & Closing Argument Competition
• Animal Law Seminar
• Civil Procedure
• Constitutional Litigation
• Endangered Species Act Seminar
• Environmental / Animal Law Moot Court
• Environmental Law
• Environmental Litigation
• Evidence
• Federal Courts
• Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center (PEAC)
• Pacific Salmon Seminar
• Public Lands
• Supreme Court Seminar
• Water Law
• Wildlife Law
• Trial Advocacy

International Animal Law Track

• Administrative Law
• Animal Law (Summer Class Preferred)
• Animal Law Seminar
• Endangered Species Act Seminar
• International Environmental Law
• International Environmental Law Project (IELP)
• Ocean & Coastal Law
• Pacific Salmon Seminar
• Public International Law
• Trade & the Environment

Policy Track

• Administrative Law
• Agriculture Law
• Alternative Dispute Resolutions
• Animal Law (Summer Class Preferred)
• Animal Law Clinic
• Animal Law Moot Court & Closing Argument Competition
• Animal Law Seminar
• Healthlaw: Bioethics
• Legal Regulations / Political Process
• Local Government Law
• Nonprofit Law Seminar