Hand wrote:2L and 3Ls who have experience with these professors and/or courses, please advise which of our 1L electives is most likely to not be a lot of work and/or most useful:
- Congress and the Administrative State – Professor Victoria Nourse
- Legislation and Regulation -- Professor William Buzbee
- The Regulatory State – Professor Eloise Pasachoff
- International Law I: Introduction to International Law (two sections) – Professor David Koplow; Professor David Stewart
- International Law, National Security, and Human Rights – Professor Mitt Regan
I haven't taken any of those, so I can only go off general reputations (i.e., I should not be giving answers, but I will anyway).
- Pasachoff: Some people in my section took Reg State with Pasachoff and seemed to really love her. It's just a variation on Administrative Law, which is a course you should definitely take if you have any interest in staying in DC. I gather this was a great class but can't speak to the workload.
- Stewart v. Koplow: I was section 2, which meant we had all the GLS kids who were automatically funneled into Stewart's International Law class. Everyone complained about his rambling, disorganized storytelling approach to teaching. Again, no idea about the work load, but none of my friends that had that class liked it. Heard great things about Koplow's class, however. Personally I think International Law is a pretty stupid class, or at least an impractical one that sounds good on paper. Learning treaty law and untangling the morass of customary international law serves no practical function unless you're one of the 5 kids in the world who lands at the State Department, and chances are, you will not be. But hey, do whatcha gotta do.
- Regan: Virtually everyone I know is taking Regan's 2L Corporations class right now (besides me, because I took evidence instead); I hear very good things. Workload for corps sounds very manageable. Something tells me a 3 credit elective will be lighter than that in terms of reading.
- I know nothing about Nourse or Buzbee.
Someone with direct experience with any of the above can give better advice, but my thought process would be this: if there's any chance you might want to stay in DC, or if there's any chance you might end up doing something that could bump up against the government (like Securities Litigation or any kind of regulatory practice like communications, privacy, energy, consumer finance, environmental, food and drug, health law, etc), I would choose a variant of Admin Law. If I wanted a "fun" class (but not really fun, because you'll probably read about crimes against humanity and endless human suffering), I would take Regan's Intl Law, National Security, and Human Rights class. If you must take international law, I would take it with Koplow. And you didn't ask, but I would absolutely take one of the Week One classes if you still have the option. We had no choice, but it was a great way to snag a credit, and the format was much more fun / less boring than a typical doctrinal course.