General Course Descriptions for Terms: administrative
744 - Administrative Law
772 - Use of Trusts in Estate Planning
This course studies the use of trusts from the perspective of both the drafting attorney and the trustee who administers the trust. In this course, we will explore hypotheticals based on common estate planning situations and discuss the use of trusts as a solution. We will also explore issues that arise in the disposition of property, interpretation of trust language, management of trust assets, selection of a trustee, powers of the trustee, and determining who the lawyer represents (entity, fiduciary, or beneficiaries) and identify drafting and administrative solutions to such issues.
904 - SP Con Law: WI Constitution, Law & Society
This course will be an exercise in ‘constitutionalism’. The course will address not only court opinions interpreting the State constitution, but will spend significant time with the document itself. We will cover the history of the document from its initial drafting through amendment exercises, including currently proposed amendments. The class will actually read the State Constitution and discuss its historical context, overall logic, and meaning: i.e., is this document one of restricted, expressly enumerated powers; or is it a wholesale grant of plenary authority (or power) to the government institutions it establishes? We will do a textual analysis particularly focusing on the relationships between and among various Articles, sections, and provisions. While we all have learned the importance of the basic ‘separation of powers’ between legislative, executive, and judicial functions, this course will teach that, as important as it is to separate powers in government, perhaps it is equally if not even more important to separate powers from government. As a result we will study the relationship(s) between the constitution and the ‘liberty sphere’ where the citizenry, property, and societal institutions reside (i.e., corporations, unions, families, marriages, religions, churches, political parties, etc.) The course will focus on certain constitutional provisions and developments unique or peculiar to our State’s constitution, including legislative committees playing a participant role in the executive or administrative process even after enactment of a law; legislators having standing to file suit; the idea of the ‘constitutional office’; the ever-looming ‘partial-veto’; the lengthy provisions on non-governmental social issues du jour – i.e., gaming, the Public Trust Doctrine, anti-gay marriage, as well as other hot-button issues today: redistricting, selection of judges, open meetings, resurrecting a meaningful State Bill of Rights, and the constitutional amendment process. Additional readings may include a book by Professor Dinan on State constitutions generally as well as several law review articles on the Wisconsin Constitution. The course, however, will not be all constitutional theory. We will study how law is made is Wisconsin. We will study the structure and processes of the Wisconsin court system. We will look at administrative processes in general including, for example, our contested rule-making requirements. Several guest speakers will be invited to present on their respective areas of government practice or expertise. The course will be offered for 2 or 3 credit option. Both the 2 and 3-credit requirements will include one two hour class session per week and a two-hour final exam. The 3-credit requirement will add a paper from 5 to 7 (10-15 double-spaced) page paper.
940 - Wisconsin Legal History
Wisconsin Legal History will meet once a week for two hours. In thirteen class sessions the focus will be on the following: 1). earliest legal antecedents & the Territorial legal system; 2). making of the Wisconsin Constitution & early Wisconsin state law; 3). the Civil War era & Wisconsin’s early industrial age; 4). corporate consolidation and regulation 1875-1915 & Wisconsin 19th century tort law; 5). Wisconsin women and the law & ethnic assimilation 1846-1920; 6). the Good Government movement 1895-1925 & Wisconsin’s tax system 1897-1925; 7). utilities 1890-1920 & the workplace 1867-1925; 8). Substantive Due Process, administrative law & labor and Wisconsin’s “Little New Deal”; 9). Wisconsin 20th century tort law & Wisconsin contract law; 10). Wisconsin criminal law & Wisconsin civil rights law; 11). Wisconsin women and the law since 1920 & Wisconsin practice of law; 12). the Governor Thompson years & the essence of Wisconsin’s legal system; and 13). Wisconsin legal highlights of the 21st century.