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Law and
Poverty
Spring 2008
Professor Barbara Glesner Fines
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Powerpoints ( in word)
For complete course syllabus, policies, assignments and
reading resources, see the course blackboard site at http://blackboard.umkc.edu/
Professor Barbara Glesner Fines
Office: 1-511 (in the Holmes Suite)
Phone: 235-2380
Email: glesnerb@umkc.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 2-3 p.m. and by
appointment
SCHEDULE Course meets
Tuesdays and Thursdays in Room B2 (in the
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course surveys significant issues in poverty law and
policy. The course will examine the poverty, poverty programs, access to the civil
justice system and the changing nature of poverty law practice. Students will
examine the areas of civil law most commonly addressed in poverty law practice,
including access to income, employment, food, housing, child care and support,
and health and legal services.
At the end of the course students should be able to:
1. describe poverty
in the
2. explain a
variety of social theories regarding the causes and conditions of poverty.
3. discuss the
role of law in aggravating or alleviating poverty
4. articulate a personal philosophy
regarding their roles and responsibilities as attorneys in insuring equal
access to justice.
5. describe common
difficulties attorneys face in delivery of legal services to low-income clients
Other learning objectives will be determined by the class.
TEXTBOOKS
John Iceland, Poverty in
Course materials linked in course webpage.
COURSE
REQUIREMENTS:
Attendance:
Attendance is required, consistent with the law school's uniform
attendance policy. Attendance requires
preparation. Occasional inability to
complete the assignments is understandable and excusable if I am notified before
class; regular patterns of lack of preparedness will require excuse and make‑up
work and may be the basis for a reduction in final course grade.
Students are expected to be
prepared for each class. Some classes
will have written preparation assignments. Students are expected to contribute
quality comments and questions to class discussion and to give respectful
attention to the comments and questions of others.
METHOD OF GRADING
AND APPRAISAL OF STUDENT FOR GRADE:
25% of the final grade for the course will be
based on class preparation and participation.
For the remaining 75%, students may choose one of three assessment
options: (1) a service learning project, (2) a research paper, or (3) a
standard final exam. Students make their
selection of a service learning project or research paper by securing approval
of their topic or project by the end the third class period. Students who are unable to complete their
paper or project by the date of the scheduled final exam may opt to take the
examination. No incompletes will be
awarded.
(1) Service Learning Project:
Should you choose to do a service project in
law and poverty, the project must be approved by the third class period. The
requirement is that the project not be something that you are committed to
outside of this class or with an organization you have a prior history of
involvement (it can be within a field you have knowledge of but cannot be
simply a repeat of prior experiences). The work you do must be uncompensated;
however, the choice of project and group you work with (though you could design
your own independent work as well) is entirely up to you. The total time
commitment is 40 hours. At the conclusion of the project, a 10 page paper
(double spaced, size 12 Times font) which describes your work, experiences, and
understanding of your organization and your role (1/2 the paper) and places
your service in the context of existing literature (1/2 the paper) is due to my
email account before the start of the final exam.
(2) Research paper
Should you choose to do a research paper, I
must approve the paper topic and we must individually discuss your paper during
office hours or by appointment within the first three weeks of the start of the
semester. The choice of topic is yours and can span a wide range of topics but
must relate to some area of law and poverty. Students are required to prepare a
thesis statement and research outline or overview, including a bibliography of
law review articles or books on the particular topic, and email to me by
February 11, 2008.
Papers should be no less than 20 pages and
have a minimum of ten sources.
The memorandum must clearly identify the specific issue or
question to be addressed, rather than simply reporting on a subject.
The memorandum must provide thorough analysis of the issue
presented, exploring and resolving competing arguments).
The memorandum must reflect thorough research of primary
authorities and the proper use of those authorities to support arguments
raised. Citation form for authorities
must be consistent, complete and accessible.
The memorandum must be organized, coherent, and written in
clear, concise, simple, precise language.
(3) Final Exam
The final exam in this class will be a closed
book exam made up of identifications, short answers, and mini-essays.
GUIDELINES
FOR CLASS DISCUSSIONS
This course will at times involve the study of
controversial social, religious, racial, gender, political, and economic
issues. Some student will have had
personal experiences of the topics explored in this class. For all of us, but especially for those of
use who have immediate experience with these profoundly personal issues, it is
difficult to distance ourselves from our own experiences to achieve some
objectivity in evaluating opinions and ideas that run contrary to our own
understanding. Nonetheless, we will do
so.
We will maintain a respectful, even formal if
necessary, tone in our classroom discussions.
We will listen carefully and respectfully to
the ideas our colleagues offer. We will
not hold side-bar conversations, interrupt, or surf the internet for weekend
entertainment plans.
We will examine ideas not attack people.
We will not personalize our disagreements or
dissents and will try not to take personally the disagreements and dissents of
others.
We will contribute our ideas and questions to
support and further the learning of the entire class.
TO READ MORE ABOUT IT – BOOKS, JOURNALS AND
WEBLINKS ON POVERTY LAW ISSUES
READING
ASSIGNMENTS
Thursday, January 10, 2008 -
Introduction to the Course
In today’s class we will negotiate much of the syllabus for the
course. We will discuss course policies:
What makes a good law school class? What activities and approaches to learning
work best for you? We will discuss
course content: What do you want to learn from this class? Come prepared to plan our course together.
I. SUBJECT MATTER COVERAGE
We have 27 class periods in this course:
I have chosen several basic subject matter objectives to get us started.
These will take about six class sessions:
Demographics of Poverty
Policies and Values
Representing Low-Income Clients
I have extended invitations for two joint class sessions:
We will meet with Professor Levit's Gender and Justice class for a
session on Gender & Poverty
We will meeting with Professor Popper's Consumer Protection class
for a session on Consumer Law & Poverty
That leaves eighteen class sessions. Please identify two or
three topics you are most interested in covering.
You may be interested in exploring poverty among a particular
group of persons (children, immigrants, rural, etc) or you may be interested in
how certain areas of law affect low-income populations) (e.g., banking, tax,
zoning, environmental) or you might want to look at a particular program
designed to help provide critical support to low-income persons (e.g., hot
lunch, supplemental social security, TANF, earned income tax credit
etc.). For ideas about subject matter, you might want to surf some
of the web pages listed under the "web resources" portion of this
website.
2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
I have set several learning objectives for this course for you:
At the end of the course students should be able to:
describe poverty in the
explain a variety of social theories regarding the causes and
conditions of poverty.
discuss the role of law in aggravating or alleviating
poverty
articulate a personal philosophy regarding their roles and
responsibilities as attorneys in insuring equal access to justice.
describe common difficulties attorneys face in delivery of legal
services to low-income clients
For the first class, please identify one or two other specific
outcomes you would like to take from this course. These might be
objectives relating to knowledge of certain legal doctrines, skills related to
poverty law practice, or other understandings or attitudes you would like to
achieve.
3. TEACHING & LEARNING METHODS
Considering your learning preferences and the subject matters we will be exploring,
identify some ways you would like to spend class time. I cannot
necessarily accomodate all teaching and learning methods, but I will provide a
variety of learning activities to engage us with the subject matter.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 Values and
Attitudes
The polical and
social policy debate that surrounds any discussion of poverty and law can
often make reasoned discussion difficult. For today's class, I would like
you to consider your attitudes and values as they relate to poverty. In the
first article for today, Dr. Heclo identifies a number of sometimes conflicting
values that underpin the debate over policy responses to child poverty.
In the portions of the second article, you are given a variety of
perspectives to consider in the context of the stories of two women in
poverty. Reflecting upon what you have read, choose one of the two
stories in the second article and prepare your own two-paragraph reaction to
the story. What do you say about the story? How would you label
your perspective? Consider what role or life experience most profoundly
shapes your perspective and label your response: "A
_________________ would say..."
Copies of
these articles will also be on reserve in the law library.
http://www.futureofchildren.org/usr_doc/vol7no2ART9.pdf
http://www.pitt.edu/~lbrush/Getting_By.pdf
Please read
pages 1-21 (Introduction, Red's story, and Julie's story).
Thursday, January 17, 2008
What is Poverty?
Read John
Iceland, Poverty in America: A Handbook (2006), Chapters 1-4, pages 1-69
Think about: What is poverty? How is
poverty related to inequality or vulnerability?
How do we measure poverty? Who is poor? Why?
Prepare Making Ends Meet in Kansas City budgeting
written assignment. You may work on this
assignment in groups of no more than three persons.
Additional assignments will be posted to the
blackboard course page. See http://blackboard.umkc.edu/