University of Colorado School of Law (Boulder)
Contact/ Disability Resource Center
Disability Services is dedicated to providing students with disabilities an equal opportunity to participate in university programs, courses and activities through reasonable accommodations and services. Our office is here to support students, staff and faculty with accommodation requests, implementation, guidance and general information.
Center for Community, N200
107 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0107
303-492-8671
[email protected]
Courses
Employment Discrimination: Examines statutory and constitutional prohibitions of discrimination in employment on the basis of race, gender, age, religion, national origin, and disability.
Student Organizations
Colorado Disability Justice Alliance (CDJA)
University of Denver, Sturm College of Law
Contact/ Disability Resource Center
University of Denver
Ruffatto Hall, RM 440
1999 East Evans Ave.
Denver, CO 80208
Phone: (303) 871-3241
Fax: (303) 871-2248
Email: [email protected]
Courses
Disability Law (L4202): This course covers theories of disability and provides a brief history of disability rights in the United States. The course will explore the major federal laws protecting individuals with disabilities in various contexts such as housing, public accommodations, schools, and employment. Relevant federal statutes we will examine include Section 504, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Housing Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The course will also provide an overview of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Olmstead v. LC.
Education Law: Education Law is a survey class of major educational issues, covering such topics as race-conscious remedies, campus safety and criminal justice, rights of educators, bilingual education, privacy law, religion in the schools, LGBT-related issues, charter schools, ESEA flexibility, and special education issues.
Mental Health & Criminal Law: This course will provide a timely and in-depth examination of the significant intersection between mental illness and criminal law. Topics to be addressed include a look at the history of how the mentally ill came to be overrepresented in today’s criminal justice system, types of mental illnesses and disorders, ethical issues that may arise for lawyers representing mentally ill clients, competency to stand trial, criminal responsibility (including culpable mental state and the insanity defense), sentencing issues (including mental illness as mitigation in capital cases), and competency to be executed.
Mental Health and the Law: This course will help students understand how mental illness and psychopathology interface with the legal system, in both the civil and the criminal justice systems. Taught by a practicing lawyer and a board-certified forensic psychiatrist, the course will begin with an overview of approaches to diagnosing and treating mental disorders, a brief discussion of psychotropic medications, and a description of the process for conducting forensic mental examinations of the sort used in court proceedings. We then will survey the many different contexts in which mental health intersects with the law before examining some of those contexts in detail. Specific areas of focus will include risk assessment and civil commitment, the right to treatment, informed consent and the right to refuse treatment, special competency issues involving children and older people, workplace discrimination based on mental illness, and a series of criminal law issues, including competency to stand trial and mental status defenses, sentencing, mental health and the death penalty, the evaluation and incarceration of sexual predators, and mental health issues involving incarcerated persons.
Psychiatry and the Law: This course will explore the relationships between psychiatry, psychology, medicine and the law. Subjects to be covered will include: DSM-IV diagnoses and psychopharmacology; sanity and competency determinations; role of mental health experts in the court; special issues involving the mentally ill and death penalty; issues particular to juvenile offenders; third party protections and reporting requirements in child abuse and danger to third parties; civil commitment and involuntary treatment of the mentally ill; malpractice including professional misconduct and sexual boundary violations, and standards of mental health care; professional ethics in medicine and the law; law of informed consent and proxy decision making for medical treatment; confidentiality; clinical and legal aspects of end of life care; and prisoners’ rights in correctional settings including sex offender treatment. Readings will include landmark state and federal decisions shaping each of these areas, along with readings from legal and mental health literature.