Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professors Gostin, Cabrera, and Baytor

J.D. Seminar 1018 | 4 credit hours

This course will provide students with the practical experience of working on O’Neill Institute projects that engage international human rights law to advocate for and impact domestic legal and regulatory mechanisms to address non-communicable diseases. Through coursework, students will gain a solid foundation in international human rights law, public health law, and non-communicable diseases and the law. They will also gain an appreciation of the major institutions that govern the global health law field, such as United Nations Institutions, the World Health Organization, and the role that civil society organizations, such as the NCD Alliance, play globally. Through the experiential learning component of the course, students will learn how to conduct a legal analysis of existing legal and regulatory frameworks for non-communicable diseases from a human rights perspective. Students will also learn how to use epidemiological data to support and craft compelling human rights law arguments for advancing government policies on tobacco control and obesity prevention. By working with the O’Neill Institute and civil society organizations, the course will give students the opportunity to use international human rights law to advocate for legal mechanisms to address non-communicable diseases.

Students may not concurrently enroll in this seminar and an externship or a clinic (except Street Law) or another practicum course.

Students who wish to receive credit for the Externship Seminar and an experiential learning course that has the same field placement may do so only if: (1) the experiential learning course is taken in a semester following the Externship Seminar; and (2) the student receives permission from the Assistant or the Associate Dean for Clinical Programs. To receive such permission, the student must explain in writing how the experiential learning course field work would serve substantially different learning goals than did their externship field placement. THIS IS AN EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING COURSE. This is a 4 credit course. Two credits will be awarded for the 2-hour weekly seminar and 2 credits will be awarded for approximately 10 hours of supervised work per week, for a minimum of 11 weeks. Note: The seminar portion will be graded. The 2 credits of supervised work is mandatory pass/fail and counts toward the 7 credit pass/fail limit. Students will be allowed to take another course pass/fail in the same semester as the supervised work.