Penn State Dickinson Law Electives (LWELB)

The course examines how the rise of AI is challenging the law, while also exploring how law might shape AI. The course is intended for all students who anticipate having corporate, start up, or artistic clients, as well as for students interested in becoming AI specialists.

This course examines the multifaceted concept of homeland security and the legal authorities governing the protection of the homeland. This course will be divided into three components. The first will examine the most significant threats to homeland security, whether natural or manmade, including terrorism, cyber activities, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, power outages, hazardous materials spills, pandemic health threats, and others. The second component will provide an overview of the organization of homeland security institutions, and examine the division of homeland security responsibilities and jurisdictions between federal, state and local governments, and the private sector. This section will also consider the appropriate level of interagency and intergovernmental coordination. The third and most significant component, will explore the legal architecture governing how the public and private sectors identify, prepare for and respond to threats to homeland security. This section will also consider how political decision-making structures influence the development of homeland security laws, and the appropriate balance between security and civil rights and libe1ties. By the end of this course, students will have a solid understanding of the complex set of actors, institutions and processes that make up the homeland security infrastructure, a strong working knowledge of the governing legal authorities, and an appreciation for the most significant and persistent controversies in the field.

Today's business bankruptcy practice seldom centers around one debtor filing one case in a single nation's bankruptcy court. Most corporations of any size have operations and assets in more than one country. In addition, many troubled corporations are part of a "corporate group" that includes affiliated entities operating in numerous countries, many of which will file their own insolvency proceedings in their countries of incorporation. The most obvious example of this trend is the Lehman Brothers group of companies: approximately 80 Lehman affiliates commenced insolvency proceedings in 16 countries. The International Bankruptcy is a course designed to deal with this world of multi-jurisdictional business insolvency.

This course will examine American Indian law, with emphasis on contemporary Indian Country issues such as constitutional challenges to federal laws, treaty application, civil and criminal jurisdiction, child welfare, gaming, and cultural and religious protection. It will review foundational legal principles governing the unique relationship between Native Nations and the United States. The course will then shift to specific challenges facing Indian Country today, how federal laws and Supreme Court decisions help or further those challenges, and the solutions pursued to address them. The focus is on current law and current challenges. Topics include treaty rights; the tribal right of self-government under federal law, including the civil and criminal jurisdiction authority of tribes; the status and importance of tribal lands; tribal sovereign immunity; the Indian Child Welfare Act; the management of tribal natural resources, including water; religious and cultural resource protection; and environmental law and tribes.

This course introduces you to current "hot-button" issues in technology policy and law through the eyes of policymakers, asking you to advance their conversations. The early weeks of the course introduce you to the substantive legal, technical, and policy background around these issues. The later weeks shift toward problem solving and building concrete, public-facing projects, working in interdisciplinary teams. The projects in this class are tailored to meet the current research needs of particular federal and state lawmakers and agencies based on their legislative and regulatory agendas for the year. Possible policy coverage and project areas include connected health; consumer/ investor protection in security and privacy; disinformation, governance, and tech literacy; internet availability and net neutrality; sustainability and ethics in computing design; the Internet of Things and the right to repair; machine learning/ AI suitability; tech competition; computing history; and tech workforce development. Successful projects will be shared with the policymakers whose work they advance.

This course describes the substantive law relevant to the field of information security or "infosec" law, commonly known to policymakers as "cybersecurity." It examines how courts, legislatures, and regulators confront the major legal issues that information security presents. The course includes three types of 'readings' - one set introduces you to a key aspect of the history and culture of information security; the second set introduces technical and policy standards; the third consists of statutes and caselaw. The early weeks in this class introduce you to the state of the law of information security and assist you in acquiring technical competence in the terms of art of the field. The later weeks in the course identify and frame current legal debates in Congress, state legislatures, regulatory agencies, and the business community on matters of information security.

Public health issues are in the news every day. This course is a survey of the constitutional, statutory, administrative, and common law that govern the field of public health in the United States. We will explore the legal and policy aspects of addressing public health problems such as new disease epidemics, drug overdoses, mass shootings, drunk driving, hospital patient injuries, contaminated food and water, and others.

This course examines the federal tax consequences of wealth transfers under the unified federal estate and gift tax regime. The treatment of transfers involving trusts is a recurring focus. Limited attention is devoted to the generation-skipping transfer tax.