Law 798:  Seminar on Advanced Topics in Contract and Property Theory

This is a seminar offered jointly by the University of Illinois and the University of Pennsylvania.  It is co-taught by Leo Katz (Penn) and Michael Moore (Illinois). Students from both of these universities will be enrolled in the seminar.  It is also possible that students/post-docs/faculty from other schools will also be auditing the seminar in whole or in part, as has been true of similar seminars in the past.

 The subject matter of the seminar will be contemporary theories of two related areas of law, contracts and property.  The seminar will together read and discuss a number of articles/book chapters/book excerpts by leading property or contract theorists in America, the UK, Germany, and elsewhere. Because the authors of these readings will often be invited in from remote locations to join the seminar discussion, and because this is a joint seminar involving students from different universities, each of the sessions will be conducted on Zoom. While there may be occasional in person sessions at either Penn or Illinois, there will otherwise be no in person classroom component.

  Each student at the University of Illinois will be expected to team up (by Zoom) with at least one student from Penn to prepare questions and comments for the authors on one of the papers to be read and discussed in one of the fourteen sessions of the seminar. In addition, Illinois students will be expected to prepare a 5-10 page paper exploring in greater depth one of the topics discussed during the semester. This can be the topic on which the student also prepared questions for in-class discussion.  There will no exam or other formal requirements other than regular attendance and participation.

  Because there is no overlap between the content of this seminar and the content of the Seminar on Advanced Topics in Criminal Law taught by Michael Moore and Leo Katz academic year 2023-24, students who have taken the latter seminar may also enroll in the present seminar as well.

Sequence and Prerequisites: Contract Law and Property Law are prerequisites.

Evaluation:  Each student at the University of Illinois will be expected to team up (by Zoom) with at least one student from Penn to prepare questions and comments for the authors on one of the papers to be read and discussed in one of the fourteen sessions of the seminar. In addition, Illinois students will be expected to prepare a 5-10 page paper exploring in greater depth one of the topics discussed during the semester. This can be the topic on which the student also prepared questions for in-class discussion.  There will no exam or other formal requirements other than regular attendance and participation.