Civil Procedure I & II
Children and the Law: This course covers legal issues related to childhood and divided into three phases. The course first focuses on children's rights frameworks and the relationship between the child, parent, and state. The course turns to discussions of civil child neglect and abuse, termination of parental rights, adoption, kinship care, and foster care. The final segment of the course addresses juvenile delinquency, including the basis for the juvenile delinquency system, the constitutional rights of juvenile offenders, and the juvenile delinquency process. Prof. Dodds's course concept includes trauma-informed writing and lawyering skills.
Rural Justice Seminar (proposal in progress): Rural America has been shaped by legal systems that enabled histories of extraction, abandonment, and resistance. This seminar studies law, justice, and lawyering in rural and agricultural places, especially those experiencing persistent poverty. We will consider rurality as one aspect of identity and survey key legal subfields, such as rural access to justice, farm workers’ rights, rural technology, schools, land and water use, criminal justice, and developing a rural legal practice. Students will think critically about how legal systems operate in rural areas and influence rural-urban differences.
Poverty Law Seminar (proposal tbd): This seminar will explore legal issues faced by people living in poverty using public benefits/welfare law. The course will begin by studying the historical origins of the welfare state in disaster relief programs and the New Deal. Second, the seminar will look to significant doctrinal and theoretical developments during the Welfare Rights Movement of the 1960s and '70s. The course will conclude with discussions of fraud, welfare versus work, and other modern issues arising from 1990s welfare reform. The seminar will examine rural-urban differences, where appropriate.
Citizen & Self: Citizen and Self is a core course requirement for MHC students that emphasizes the role of citizen as problem solver and co-creator of public goods and develops skills that prepare students to work effectively in their communities, social groups, and professional societies to strengthen democracy and broader society through community partnerships and collaborative problem-solving.