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Required Clinic Component: Democracy and the Rule of Law Clinic (3-5 fall clinical credits). The clinic and course are bundled; your enrollment in the clinic will automatically enroll you in this required course.
Additional Co-/Pre-Requisites: None.
By Permission: No.
Add/Drop Deadline: August 23, 2024.
LLM Students: International students on F-1 student visas are required to have Curricular Practical Training (CPT) authorization; LL.M. students are not eligible for CPT.

This seminar is required for all students enrolled in the Democracy and the Rule of Law Clinic. The course will begin by exploring the conceptual and theoretical debates relating to democratic decline in the U.S. and around the world. We will then focus on the set of integrated advocacy tools available to protect our democratic institutions. This will include the development and conduct of impact litigation strategies; policy advocacy and coordination; transparency promotion and government oversight; strategic communications; and other tools to prompt pro-democratic reform. The course will then cover the substantive legal and policy issues that students will encounter in their clinical work, such as issues relating to protecting free and fair elections, countering disinformation, and reinforcing legal guardrails designed to prevent abuses of executive authority.  Finally, the course will consider longer-term legal and policy challenges to constitutional democracy in the United States, and potential solutions. Through regular presentations and discussions, students will also have the opportunity to generate creative advocacy ideas, develop their Clinic work, and receive feedback from their Clinic colleagues.

Please see the Democracy and the Rule of Law Clinic course description for additional information.