FALL 2008

The materials required for this course are: (1) Madeleine Schachter and Joel Kurtzberg, Law of Internet Speech (Carolina Academic Press, 3^rd ed. 2008) and (2) Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture (Penguin, 2004).  These required reading materials are available for purchase at the bookstore.  Additional required cases and law review articles available on the Internet are hyperlinked in the Syllabus.   

You will be held responsible for the information assigned, whether or not specifically discussed in class.
 

A valuable supplement for this course is an out-of-print paperback book: Leonard W. Levy, Kenneth L. Karst, and Dennis J. Mahoney, editors, The First Amendment: Selections from the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution (MacMillan, 1990). Many of the essays in this work provide useful background information on the First Amendment doctrines and theories relevant to the subjects covered in this course. You may be able to obtain a copy from Amazon.com via its Out-of-Print Books service. Should you find it difficult to acquire The First Amendment or to consult a library reference copy, the articles also may be found in the complete edition of The Encyclopedia of the American Constitution (MacMillan, 1986, 1990), located in the reference section of the law library.

Moreover, certain Internet websites may be of particular interest to you at specific points in your study. These websites are identified and hyperlinked on the Recommended Reading and Viewing page.     
 

Attendance is mandatory. Do not schedule conflicting obligations during class hours. Although attendance will not be recorded, continued absence will be noted and will result in automatic withdrawal from the course.
 

Given the intensive nature of this course, the reading burden for each class is heavy. It is advisable, therefore, to track the readings assigned for the immediate future should you need to prepare in advance. You will need to read carefully all assigned materials, including textbook notes, whether or not specifically discussed in class.
 

Participation in discussion is a critical component of this course. Class participation will constitute one-half (50%) of the final semester grade. As I do not call upon students involuntarily in an advanced course such as this one, class participation must be (1) voluntary, (2) frequent; and (3) noteworthy (i.e., comments that contribute substantially to the understanding of the class or that materially advance the course of analysis).
 

There will be no final examination in this course.  Instead, students will be assigned to a group that will collectively prepare a substantial writing project involving U.S. Supreme Court opinions for a hypothetical case.  A fuller description is provided on the "Court Opinions" Project page.