Law, Litigation & Science

SLN #: 30199
Course Prefix: LAW-633
Course Section: 001
Credit Hours: 3
Instructor(s): Saks
Course Books: View List of Books

Course Description:
This course aims to fill a gap in the education of most lawyers, namely, how to effectively think about and use empirical evidence. How do lawyers and the law obtain needed facts about the way the world works, evaluate those facts, and employ them in making law as well as in deciding cases? The course will improve your skills in dissecting an opponent’s evidence and in presenting your own more intelligently and effectively. Although the materials of the course emphasize cases involving social science data, the intellectual skills and legal issues are equally applicable to any other kind of empirical evidence in law (e.g., biomedical, economic, forensic science, etc.), and some of the cases and materials we will use involve those other subject matters. The course has these goals: (1) To assist students in developing an ability to think rigorously and critically about factual assertions and the evidence offered in their support. (2) To understand the evolving doctrine that governs how the law obtains, evaluates, and gives legal effect to empirical knowledge. (3) To examine these issues in their legal context, as they occur in a wide range of substantive legal areas.

Additional Information:
Credit Hours: 3
Grading Option: Letter Grade Only
Graduation Writing Requirement: No
Flexible/Upper-Level Writing Requirement: No
Skills Requirement: No
Simulation Course: No
Experiential Learning: No
Seminar: No
Special Withdrawal Course: No
Final Exam Given: Yes
Final Exam Type: In-Class - Completely Secure
Paper Or In-Class Presentation: No
Participation Points: Yes
Attendance Policy: Per Statement Of Student Policies
Additional Attendance Policy: Attendance is required

* The law school has a policy that is used to calculate credit hours. Please see the Statement of Student Policies.