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   Here is the sixth in a series of Registration & Curriculum updates for the Fall 2010 Semester.  Please read this entire message, which contains 2 items:

(1) Newly-added course: Law 904-004: Sel. Prob. Con Law: 4th, 5th, 6th Amendments (Justice Louis Butler); meets Tuesdays & Thursdays 2:25-3:45; 3 credits; pass-fail optional; meets Con Law II requirement; limit: 15 students; Call Number 77850. 

Course description: Taught by a former justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, this class will look at the constitutional underpinnings of criminal procedure, with a focus on the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution.  Topics covered will include a detailed look at confession law, right to counsel issues, guilty, no contest and Alford pleas, motion practice tied to constitutional issues (including eyewitness identification questions, arrests, search and seizure, double jeopardy, discovery, and public and speedy trial issues), jury trials (including the right to present a defense, the confrontation clause and its evolution, and compulsory process), jury trial waivers, and appeal rights.  Class size will be limited to 15 students, with grading based on a research paper with a topic selected by the student and approved by the instructor (20 pgs. for three credits, with an outline and draft submitted for those who want to satisfy the legal writing requirement) and classroom participation.  This class will satisfy the Constitutional Law II requirement. 

(2) Newly-added course: Law 814-001: Appellate Advocacy I (Justice Louis Butler); meets Mondays 9:55-11:55 a.m.; 3 credits; pass-fail optional; limit: 16 students; Call Number 77866. 

Course Description: Taught by an appellate practitioner and former justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, this class will highlight the good and the bad of appellate advocacy, as seen through the eyes of a former appellate practitioner, trial attorney, trial judge and appellate judge.  Students will explore what goes into some of the practical and strategic decisions that have to be made in identifying what issues to litigate on appeal, as well as what issues to abandon.  Students will also learn what the judgeslook for in effective brief writing, oral advocacy in an appellate setting, and what will catch a justice's eye when drafting a petition for review.  The instructor will also present a behind-the-scenes look into how decisions are made by the appellate court.  The class will be a three credit seminar, limited to 16 students (1 two-hour meeting per week).  Grading will be based on a number of projects, including the drafting of an appellate brief, arguing the briefed case before the class, and then drafting a petition for review, as well as classroom participation.  Students will also have an opportunity to view an actual argument before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and then critique it.

Thank you for your attention.

K. M. Kelly

Submitted by newsletter, newsletter on August 17, 2010

This article appears in the categories: Must-Know Info

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