Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Thompson

J.D. Seminar 261 | 3 credit hours

Corporations are artificial persons created by law and recognized as separate from the persons who own and manage them. This seminar will examine the legal responses to this separateness is two contexts. The majority of the seminar meetings will be devoted to how separate corporate entities permit planners to allocate (and avoid) risk and when will the corporate form be disregarded in contract, torts and regulatory contexts. This part will also address problems of separateness when corporations cross national boundaries. Several of the articles included in this part are empirical studies, so that the class will include some discussion and evaluation of empirical techniques for research. The second focus will be on the impact of the Citizens United case and how the opinions in that case reflect views of corporate separateness and corporate personhood.

This course carries either two (2) or three (3) credit hours, depending upon whether an individual student elects to take the course as a Writing Requirement course or regular seminar. It will meet once a week for two hours. The course syllabus will provide the dates for submission of a paper topic and thesis statement, research plan, paper outline, draft paper, and final paper for students taking the course for a Writing Requirement. Class attendance, class participation, and timely completion of the paper will be included in the grade.

Prerequisite: Corporations.