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Interstate Compacts

  • Typically offered every other year
Description: This seminar is designed to introduce students to the world of interstate compacts and regional governance. We survey constitutional requirements and issues, restrictions on states and the federal government after entering into a compact, federal and state court jurisdiction, Eleventh Amendment immunity, when state law is superseded, special problems with administrative procedure, drafting and interpreting compacts, history of the compact, and different forms of compacts. In addition to the law, this seminar will examine why compacts necessarily have a different body of jurisprudence, the politics of entering into and maintaining a compact, why courts struggle with compact issues and current events in the world of compacts. This seminar examines environmental, land use, transportation, criminal, and family law compacts from around the country.

Most states are a party to 25 or more compacts, but only a mere handful of attorneys nationwide understand the complexities of handling problems that cross state lines.

Students are expected to choose a compact to study for class discussion, write a seminar paper, and present their paper topic to the class. The professor may choose to supervise a limited number of students who wish to use the paper to satisfy the WIE or capstone writing requirements. The reading materials are excerpts from current interstate compacts, federal and state statutes and regulations, case law, and law review articles. Grading will be based on the seminar paper, presentation, and participation in class discussion.

With professor permission, meets WIE or Capstone writing requirement - Limited number