Law and Public Policy in Practice

3 credits · Professional

The objective of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the decision making processes that create laws so that they will be better able to impact and shape future laws and regulations. Students will be provided with the foundations necessary to craft strong public policy and legal strategy. They will then work with concrete case studies analyzing the steps, arguments and decision making which have led to the particular legislative amendments of the drafting of a new law or legal framework or the failure to achieve change. Finally, students will identify an emerging public policy challenge and develop a proposed strategy to advance an argument for change. The goal of the course is to strengthen skills in defining the problem at issue, identify one or more strategies to resolve the issue and craft an evidence based sophisticated public policy or legal argument to advocate for change. CALENDAR NOTES: Evaluation Method: Evaluation: 15% class participation, 20% class presentation; 65% written assignment (detailed outline and a minimum 25 page paper). FORMATS: Lecture