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Law Courses at MIT

MIT offers many law-related courses for both its graduate and undergraduate students. We have attempted to offer a complete list of law-related classes, but if you know of one one not list, please e-mail the course number to law-exec at mit.edu. Ranging from intellectual property to environmental law, a list of the courses found in the MIT Bulletin (2003-2004) is found below:
 

[1]  [2]  [3]  [4]  [5]  [6]  [7]  [8]  [9]  [10]  [11]  [12]  [13]  [14]  [15]  [16]  [17]  [18]  [21A]  [21H]  [ESD]  [HST]  [SP]

Course 1: Civil and Environmental Engineering

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  1. 1.043 Law and the Construction Industry
    Practical focus on key legal principles applicable to construction. Provides sufficient understanding to manage legal aspects, instead of being managed by them. Contractual relationships, contract performance, avoiding/resolving disputes, designing procurement systems, and legal aspects of contract strategies. Case study applications. Topics include forms of organization, changes, differing site conditions, designer liability, risk management, public construction, surety bonds, liens, E&O insurance, site safety, arbitration, ADR, and partnering. Invited industry speakers, in-class arbitration.
     

  2. 1.081J Chemicals in the Environment: Toxicology and Public Health
    The challenges of defining a relationship between exposure to environmental chemicals and human disease are illustrated in case studies of local and national interest. Material covers epidemiological approaches to understanding disease causation; evaluation of human exposure to chemicals, and their internal distribution, metabolism, reactions with cellular components, and biological effects; and review of methods underlying regulatory standards, including use of animals.
     

  3. 1.082 Air Pollution: Processes and Controls
    Solving air pollution problems requires a multi-disciplinary approach. Effects of air pollutants on human health and the environment. Origins of atmospheric pollutants and methods to estimate emissions from anthropogenic sources. Atmospheric chemistry and pollutant removal processes. Meteorological phenomena and pollutant dispersion modeling. Laws and regulations to control air pollution. Technologies and methods used to control air pollution. Regional and global issues such as acid rain, ozone depletion, and global climate change.
     

  4. 1.44J Law and the Construction Industry
    Practical focus on key legal principles applicable to construction. Provides sufficient understanding to manage legal aspects, instead of being managed by them. Contractual relationships, contract performance, avoiding/resolving disputes, designing procurement systems, and legal aspects of contract strategies. Case study applications. Topics include forms of organization, changes, differing site conditions, designer liability, risk management, public construction, surety bonds, liens, E&O insurance, site safety, arbitration, ADR, and partnering. Invited industry speakers, in-class arbitration.
     

  5. 1.811J Environmental Law and Policy: Pollution Prevention and Control
    Reviews and analyzes Federal and state regulation of air and water pollution and hazardous wastes. Emphasizes use of legal mechanisms and alternative approaches (such as economic incentives) to control pollution and to encourage chemical accident and pollution prevention. Focuses on the major Federal legislation, the underlying administrative system, and the common law in analyzing environmental policy, economic consequences, and the role of the courts. Discusses classical pollutants and toxic industrial chemicals, community right-to-know, and environmental justice. Also provides an introduction to basic legal skills.

Course 2: Mechanical Engineering

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    No courses listed

Course 3: Materials Science and Engineering

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  1. 3.172 Inventions and Patents
    History of private and public rights in scientific discoveries and applied engineering, leading to the development of worldwide patent systems. The classes of invention protectable under the patent laws of the US, including the procedures in protecting inventions in the Patent Office and the courts. Reviews of past cases involving inventions and patents in a) the chemical process industry and medical and bio-engineering fields; b) devices in the mechanical, ocean exploration, civil, and/or aeronautical fields; c) the electrical, computer, software, and electronic areas, including key radio, solid-state, and computer inventions.

Course 4: Architecture

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  1. 4.453 Building Technology in Real Estate
    Introduces the structure of the building industry, presents a framework for understanding building technologies and systems, and provides opportunities to solve building technology-related problems pertinent to real estate development, management, and investment. Major assignments focus on different aspects of the building development methodologies, evaluation of alternative construction methods, and a final project developing a construction scope and cost analysis for a new development project. In addition, students analyze a set of contract documents throughout the semester in order to become familiar with drawings and construction specifications.

Course 5: Chemistry

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  1. 5.22 Biotechnology and Engineering
    Illustrates how the principles of chemistry, biology, and engineering are integrated to create new products for human health and consumption. Uses case-study format to examine recently developed products of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries: how a product evolves from initial idea, through patents, testing, evaluation, production, and marketing. Emphasizes scientific and engineering principles, as well as the responsibility scientists, engineers, and business executives have for the consequences of their technology.

Course 6: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

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  1. 6.805 Ethics and the Law on the Electronic Fronteir
    Illustrates how the principles of chemistry, biology, and engineering are integrated to create new products for human health and consumption. Uses case-study format to examine recently developed products of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries: how a product evolves from initial idea, through patents, testing, evaluation, production, and marketing. Emphasizes scientific and engineering principles, as well as the responsibility scientists, engineers, and business executives have for the consequences of their technology.
     

  2. 6.806 Ethics and the Law on the Electronic Fronteir
    Illustrates how the principles of chemistry, biology, and engineering are integrated to create new products for human health and consumption. Uses case-study format to examine recently developed products of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries: how a product evolves from initial idea, through patents, testing, evaluation, production, and marketing. Emphasizes scientific and engineering principles, as well as the responsibility scientists, engineers, and business executives have for the consequences of their technology.
     

  3. 6.901 Inventions and Patents
    History of private and public rights in scientific discoveries and applied engineering, leading to the development of worldwide patent systems. The classes of invention protectable under the patent laws of the US, including the procedures in protecting inventions in the Patent Office and the courts. Reviews of past cases involving inventions and patents in a) the chemical process industry and medical and bio-engineering fields; b) devices in the mechanical, ocean exploration, civil, and/or aeronautical fields; c) the electrical, computer, software, and electronic areas, including key radio, solid-state, and computer inventions.
     

  4. 6.931 Development of Inventions and Creative Ideas
    Role of the engineer as patent expert and as technical witness in court and patent interference and related proceedings. Rights and obligations of engineers in connection with educational institutions, government, and large and small businesses. Various manners of transplanting inventions into business operations, including development of New England and other US electronics and biotech industries and their different types of institutions. American systems of incentive to creativity apart from the patent laws in the atomic energy and space fields.

Course 7: Biology

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  1. 7.547 Principles and Practice of Drug Development
    Description and critical assessment of the major issues and stages of developing a pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical. Drug discovery, preclinical development, clinical investigation, manufacturing and regulatory issues considered for small and large molecules. Economic and financial considerations of the drug development process. Multidisciplinary perspective from faculty in clinical; life; and management sciences; as well as industry guests.

Course 8: Phyiscs

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    No courses listed

Course 9: Brain and Cognitive Sciences

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    No courses listed

Course 10: Chemical Engineering

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  1. 10.547 Principles and Practice of Drug Development
    Description and critical assessment of the major issues and stages of developing a pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical. Drug discovery, preclinical development, clinical investigation, manufacturing and regulatory issues considered for small and large molecules. Economic and financial considerations of the drug development process. Multidisciplinary perspective from faculty in clinical; life; and management sciences; as well as industry guests.
     

  2. 10.805 Technology, Law and the Working Environment
    Addresses relationship between technology-related problems and the law applicable to work environment. National Labor Relations Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act. Toxic Substances Control Act, state worker's compensation, and suits by workers in the courts discussed. Problems related to occupational health and safety, collective bargaining as a mechanism for altering technology in the workplace, job alienation, productivity, and the organization of work addressed. Prior courses or experience in the environmental, public health, or law-related areas.

Course 11: Urban Studies and Planning

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    Nearly every course in this major may be considered to have some relevance to public policy or law. Please see the course listing for a full selection of the courses.

Course 12: Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

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  1. 12.103 Strange Bedfellows: Science and Environmental Policy
    Explores the role of scientific knowledge, discovery, method, and argument in environmental policymaking from both idealistic and realistic perspectives. Case studies of science-intensive environmental controversies will be used to study how science was used and abused in the policymaking process. Case studies include: global warming, biodiversity loss, and nuclear waste disposal sitting. Subject includes intensive practice in the writing and presentation of "position statements" on environmental science issues.

Course 13: Ocean Engineering

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  1. 13.67J International Logistics
    An overview of globalization and the international environment. The international marketing and supply chain interface; the international finance and supply chain interface; global strategy for logistics and supply chain management; global supply chain models; role of government intervention and regulations (including border crossings, local content laws, etc.); the role of ports and airports in international product movements; the economics of international air and ocean carriers; and the forwarding industry. Half-term subject offered in the first half of the term.

Course 14: Economics

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  1. 14.282 Organizational Economics
    Builds on the theory developed in 14.281, but focuses on substantive areas rather than on models per se. Topics include decision-making in organizations (power and politics, culture and leadership), organizational structures and processes (classic organizational forms and recent alternatives, capital allocation and transfer pricing), careers in organizations (incentives revisited, networks, new employment systems), contracts between organizations (joint ventures, alliances, networks), and organizations besides firms (order without law, government agencies).

  2. 14.63 Labor in Industrial Society
    Examines the role of technology, class, gender, race, and law through a historical discussion of the three most important changes in the US economy this century: the rise and decline of unions; the entrance of women into the paid labor force; and the migration of African Americans into the industrial labor markets of the Northern cities. Economic studies integrated with insights from other social sciences. Readings are supplemented by documentary films and guest speakers from outside MIT.

Course 15: Management Science

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  1. 15.615 Law for the Entrepreneur and Manager
    Broad-gauged introduction to business law covering the major law-sensitive issues arising in the building and financing of new ventures, and the management of mature companies. Organizing a new company; venture capital; contracts; liability; employment; intellectual property; public offerings and running a public company; antitrust; regulatory compliance and business crime; taking a business international; selling a business; bankruptcy and reorganization; and business disputes. Focuses on US law but frequent comparisons made to other systems.

  2. 15.616 Innovative Businesses and Breakthrough Technologies – The Legal Issues
    An introduction to business law which touches upon most of the topics in 15.615 but puts primary emphasis on intellectual property protection and law-sensitive aspects of IP strategies; the legal framework of research, licensing, and the commercialization of new technologies in entrepreneurial and other settings; and the liability and regulatory implications of innovative business models and new products. Examples from many industries, but with special emphasis on health sciences hi-tech.

  3. 15.617 The Law of Corporate Finance and Financial Markets
    An introduction to business law which touches upon most of the topics in 15.615 but puts primary emphasis on the law of finance, including law-sensitive aspects of M&A transactions, national and international financial and securities markets, venture capital and private equity, the financial structure of the corporation and other business entities, antitrust, bankruptcy and reorganization, the regulation of financial service providers, and the regulatory and liability risks associated with innovative financial products and services.

  4. 15.628 Patents, Copyrights, and the Law of Intellectual Property
    Introductory examination of the US law of intellectual property, with emphasis on patents and copyrights, and a brief look at trademarks, trade secrets, and license agreements. Comparisons made with regard to what can and cannot be protected, what rights the owner does and does not obtain, and how these rights come into being. Issues relating particularly to new information technologies highlighted. Assignments include case and statutory readings, written preparatory exercises, and student case presentations. Regular attendance required. No listeners.

  5. 15.635 Law and International Business
    Designed to prepare managers to better exercise judgment in the many crucial law-sensitive decisions facing multinational corporations and other companies involved in transnational ventures or markets. Protecting and licensing intellectual property. Contracts and joint ventures. M&A. International securities markets. Employment law. Products liability. Fair competition. Business disputes. The GATT/WTO.

  6. 15.647–15.649 Special Seminar in Law
    Opportunity for group study by graduate students on current topics related to law not otherwise included in curriculum.

  7. 15.655J Law, Technology, and Public Policy
    Examination of the relationship between law and technological change, and the ways in which law, economics, and technological change shape public policy. Areas addressed include: responses of the legal system to problems created by new or existing technology; how law can be used to influence and guide technological change; how law and markets interact to limit or encourage technological development; and how law can affect the distribution of wealth and social justice. Topics covered include genetic engineering; telecommunications; health, safety, and environmental regulation; cost/benefit analysis as a decision tool; public participation in governmental decisions affecting science and technology; and law and economics as competing paradigms to encourage sustainability.

  8. 15.765J International Logistics
    An overview of globalization and the international environment. The international marketing and supply chain interface; the international finance and supply chain interface; global strategy for logistics and supply chain management; global supply chain models; role of government intervention and regulations (including border crossings, local content laws, etc.); the role of ports and airports in international product movements; the economics of international air and ocean carriers; and the forwarding industry. Half-term subject offered in the first half of the term.

Course 16: Aeronautics and Astronautics

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  1. 16.652 Inventions and Patents
    History of private and public rights in scientific discoveries and applied engineering, leading to the development of worldwide patent systems. The classes of invention protectable under the patent laws of the US, including the procedures in protecting inventions in the Patent Office and the courts. Reviews of past cases involving inventions and patents in a) the chemical process industry and medical pharmaceutical, biological, and genetic-engineering fields; b) devices in the mechanical, ocean exploration, civil, and/or aeronautical fields; c) the electrical, computer, software, and electronic areas, including key radio, solid-state, computer and software inventions; and also d) software protection afforded under copyright laws.

Course 17: Political Science

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  1. 17.042J Citizenship and Pluralism
    Examines how political philosophers have addressed the challenges raised by pluralism. Topics include how democracies accommodate different types of groups in granting rights and benefits, permitting exemptions from law, and guaranteeing political representation; how such rights conflict with ensuring liberty and equality for all; and what elements hold a pluralistic society together. Readings include legal cases and contemporary political theory. Open to advanced undergraduates with permission of instructor.

  2. 17.245 The Supreme Court, Civil Liberties, and Civil Rights
    Subject considers constitutional rights, processes, civil rights and liberties, and criminal procedure. Focus on Supreme Court case law. Enrollment limited.

  3. 17.249J Law and Society
    Subject studies legal reasoning, types of law and legal systems, and relationship of law to social class and social change. Emphasis on the profession and practice of law including legal education, stratification within the bar, and the politics of legal services. Investigation of emerging issues in the relationship between institutions of law and science. Enrollment limited.

  4. 17.264 Electoral Politics
    Analyzes elections in light of theories about voters, parties, and candidates. Topics include election laws and reforms, and the formation of governments. Focus is mainly on US elections, though other democracies are also examined. Familiarity with statistics recommended but not required. Open to qualified undergraduates.

  5. 17.30J Fundamentals of Public Policy
    Provides an introduction to policy-making. Explores policy questions from the perspective of different focal actors, including administrative agencies, citizen and interest groups, and the media. Examines the interplay between policy development and institutions, and reviews normative and empirical models of policy-making. Considers the significance of the democratic context for policy-making. Primary focus on domestic policy.

  6. 17.305J Race, Gender, and Law
    Employs legal materials such as case law, legislation, and essays to explore issues of power, privilege, and exclusion in the American legal system. Considers the construction of racial, ethnic, and gender categories and identities; alternative visions of equality and justice; critical race theory; and contemporary remedies such as affirmative action.

  7. 17.50 Introduction to Comparative Politics
    Examines why some countries are democratic and others not; how political institutions affect economic development; and how politics in the United States compare to politics in other countries. Reviews economic, cultural, and institutional explanations for political outcomes. Provides detailed examination of politics in five countries: the United States, Germany, Brazil, Russia, and China. Students analyze political events around the world, drawing both on their knowledge of specific countries and the broader theories presented in the subject.

Course 18: Mathematics

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No courses listed.

Course 21A: Anthropology

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  1. 21A.219J Law and Society
    Subject studies legal reasoning, types of law and legal systems, and relationship of law to social class and social change. Emphasis on the profession and practice of law including legal education, stratification within the bar, and the politics of legal services. Investigation of emerging issues in the relationship between institutions of law and science. Enrollment limited.

  2. 21A.225J Violence, Human Rights, and Justice
    An examination of the problem of mass violence and oppression in the contemporary world, and of the concept of human rights as a defense against such abuse. Explores questions of cultural relativism, race, gender and ethnicity. Examines case studies from war crimes tribunals, truth commissions, anti-terrorist policies and other judicial attempts to redress state-sponsored wrongs. Considers whether the human rights framework effectively promotes the rule of law in modern societies. Students debate moral positions and address ideas of moral relativism. Enrollment limited.

Course 21H: History

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  1. 21H.224 Constitutional Law in US History
    Introduces major themes and patterns of change in American constitutional law since 1787, including federal-state relations, racial and gender equality, economic regulation, and civil liberties. Readings consist of original court cases, especially from the US Supreme Court. Emphasis on the historical development of constitutional law and on the relationship between the Supreme Court and broader social, political, and cultural trends.

  2. 21H.225J Gender and the Law in US History
    Explores the legal history of the United States as a gendered system. Subject examines how women have shaped the meanings of American citizenship through pursuit of political rights such as suffrage, jury duty, and military service, as well as how the legal system has shaped gender relations for both women and men through regulation of such issues as marriage, divorce, work, reproduction, and the family. Readings draw from primary and secondary materials, focusing on the broad historical relationship between law and society. No legal knowledge is required or assumed.

Engineering Systems Division

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  1. ESD.10 Introduction to Technology and Policy
    Frameworks and Models for Technology and Policy students explore perspectives in the policy process — agenda setting, problem definition, framing the terms of debate, formulation and analysis of options, implementation and evaluation of policy outcomes using frameworks including economics and markets, law, and business and management. Methods include cost/benefit analysis, probabilistic risk assessment, and system dynamics. Exercises include developing skills to work on the interface between technology and societal issues; simulation exercises; case studies; and group projects that illustrate issues involving multiple stakeholders with different value structures, high levels of uncertainty, multiple levels of complexity; and value trade-offs that are characteristic of engineering systems. Emphasis on negotiation, team building and group dynamics, and management of multiple actors and leadership.

  2. ESD.133J Environmental Law, Policy, and Economics: Pollution Prevention and Control
    Reviews and analyzes Federal and state regulation of air and water pollution and hazardous wastes. Analyzes pollution as an economic problem and the failure of markets. Emphasizes use of legal mechanisms and alternative approaches (such as economic incentives and voluntary approaches) to control pollution and to encourage chemical accident and pollution prevention. Focuses on the major Federal legislation, the underlying administrative system, and the common law in analyzing environmental policy, economic consequences, and the role of the courts. Discusses classical pollutants and toxic industrial chemicals, community right-to-know, and environmental justice. Also provides an introduction to basic legal skills.

  3. ESD.134J Regulation of Chemicals, Radiation, and Biotechnology
    Focuses on policy design and evaluation in the regulation of hazardous substances and processes. Includes risk assessment, industrial chemicals, pesticides, food contaminants, pharmaceuticals, radiation and radioactive wastes, product safety, workplace hazards, indoor air pollution, biotechnology, victims' compensation, and administrative law. Health and economic consequences of regulation, as well as its potential to spur technological change, are discussed.

  4. ESD.265J International Logistics
    An overview of globalization and the international environment. The international marketing and supply chain interface; the international finance and supply chain interface; global strategy for logistics and supply chain management; global supply chain models; role of government intervention and regulations (including border crossings, local content laws, etc.); the role of ports and airports in international product movements; the economics of international air and ocean carriers; and the forwarding industry. Half-term subject offered in the first half of the term.

Health, Sciences, and Technology

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  1. HST.924 Information Technology in the Health Care System of the Future (Laboratory)
    Student tutorial provides an opportunity for interactive discussion covering emerging information technologies (IT) used in healthcare. Practicum: HMS and MIT graduate students in medicine, business, law, education, engineering, computer science, public health, and government collaborate in interdisciplinary teams to design an innovative IT application. Student projects presented during the final class. Students ordinarily also register for HST.921 or HST.922, the lecture component of the subject. Undergraduates require permission of instructor. (Only HST students may register under HST.923, graded P/D/F.)

  2. STS.021 History, Society, and Solid State Chemistry
    Deeper and more substantial look at the humanistic dimensions of scientific and technical material. Offers a broad understanding of STS themes while enhancing the learning of the science itself. Topics include: the public sphere, the Nobel Prize, trust, discovery credit, law and regulation, risk, large technical systems, science fiction, gender and race, material culture, and high culture. Intended for, but not restricted to, first-term freshmen who are taking 3.091. Enrollment limited.

  3. STS.085 Ethics and the Law on the Electronic Frontier
    Studies the growth of computer and communications technology and the new legal and ethical challenges that reflect tensions between individual rights and societal needs. Topics: computer crime; intellectual property restrictions on software; encryption, privacy, and national security; academic freedom and free speech. Students meet and question technologists, activists, law enforcement agents, journalists, and legal experts. Extensive use of World Wide Web for readings and other materials. 6.805 meets with STS.085 but does not carry HASS credit. 6.805 may be used as an Engineering Concentration Elective. Enrollment limited.

  4. STS.487 Ethics and the Law on the Electronic Frontier
    Studies the growth of computer and communications technology and the new legal and ethical challenges that reflect tensions between individual rights and societal needs. Topics: computer crime; intellectual property restrictions on software; encryption, privacy, and national security; academic freedom and free speech. Students meet and question technologists, activists, law enforcement agents, journalists, and legal experts. Extensive use of World Wide Web for readings and other materials. Enrollment limited.

Special Programs

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  1. SP.600J Citizenship and Pluralism
    Examines how political philosophers have addressed the challenges raised by pluralism. Topics include how democracies accommodate different types of groups in granting rights and benefits, permitting exemptions from law, and guaranteeing political representation; how such rights conflict with ensuring liberty and equality for all; and what elements hold a pluralistic society together. Readings include legal cases and contemporary political theory. Open to advanced undergraduates with permission of instructor.

  2. SP.604J Race, Gender, and Law (Same subject as 17.305J)

  3. SP.607J Gender and the Law in US History (Same subject as 21H.225J)

  4. SP.621J Violence, Human Rights, and Justice (Same subject as 21A.225J)