LAWS 4310 Housing Law and Policy Seminar

This seminar/colloquium will explore a range of topics regarding the law and policy of housing in the United States (U.S.). Topics may include but are not limited to: the history and development of federal U.S. housing laws and policies; the past and present of U.S housing markets; laws, policies, and strategies to create affordable housing and low-income housing; eviction, foreclosure, and homelessness; housing discrimination and fair housing; exclusionary zoning/inclusionary zoning; the subprime mortgage crisis and predatory lending; government housing programs; gentrification and displacement; historic preservation law; sustainable and green housing; and the effects of Covid-19 on U.S. housing markets. The course will also use Boston as a laboratory in which to study the local manifestations of U.S. housing law and policy. The seminar will be run as a colloquium and involve presentations by you and me, as well as, occasionally, by guest speakers, who will present virtually or in person. We will meet with local and nationally prominent scholars and practitioners in law, economics, sociology, urban policy and public administration to discuss research in progress on housing law and policy. In sessions before speakers visit the class, the professor will teach students the law, theory, and methodologies necessary to discuss the work in progress with its author. In colloquium sessions, students will discuss the work with the author. All students will submit written questions to ask the author in advance of the presentations. Finally, students taking the course for two (2) credits will prepare a few short papers critiquing some of the works and the author's defense of the work after the presentations. Students taking the course for three (3) credits will write seminar papersthat can satisfy the upper-level writing requirement.