JS
Unit: School of Law
Department: School of Law
Office location and address
WB350
580 Massie Rd
Charlottesville,
Virginia
22903
Education
J.D. Yale Law School 1984
B.A. Williams College 1981
B.A. Williams College 1981
Biography
John Setear joined the Law School as professor of law in 1998. He primarily teaches courses in international law, including international environmental law and counterfactual diplomatic history.
Setear joined the faculty of UCLA Law School in 1991 after serving as a policy analyst in the behavioral sciences department of the RAND Corporation. During the 1995-96 academic year, he was a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He taught a winter study course at Williams College in 1989, 1990, and 2003.
While in law school, Setear was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. Following graduation, he clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Judge Carl McGowan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Publications
Courses
Credits: 3
Special Topics in International Relations
Credits: 4
This course examines the legal obligations that attach to promises made in a business contract or otherwise, including the remedies that may be available for promises that are not kept. The course examines the legal requirements for enforceable contracts, including consideration, consent and conditions, and the effect of fraud, mistake, unconscionability, and impossibility.
Credits: 3–4
This is the introductory course in public (government-to-government) international law. Topics include the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, recognition and statehood, diplomatic immunity, sovereign immunity, the law of the sea, torture, the Geneva and Hague Conventions, treaties, the European Union, and the World Trade Organization.
Credits: 3
In this course, students will learn to read, interpret, draft, aggregate, manipulate, and improve rules embodied in contracts, statutes, treaties, constitutions, customs, sports, and games. We will write, and explore the implications of, rules in assignments involving individual work, small-group work, and class discussion. Grade depends on exercises and short papers undertaken throughout the semester.
Credits: 1
This course examines the effect of various laws and law-like rules on Major League Baseball. Suitable for non-experts and will include (optional) session aimed at bringing them up to speed.
Credits: 3
This directed study is one part of a two-part full-time externship combining academic study and work experience under the supervision of a faculty member and an educational, charitable, governmental or nonprofit host organization.
Credits: 1
Eligible students receive credit for serving as research assistants supervised by selected law school faculty members.
Credits: 1
This course is a semester-long independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
Credits: 2
This course is a semester-long independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member
Credits: 3
This course is a semester-long independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
Credits: 2
This course is the second semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
This course is the first semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
Credits: 3
This course is the second semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
Credits: 2
Eligible students receive 2 credits for participating in a sustained, productive and educationally valuable project for at least 85 hours of work supervised by an eligible faculty member.
Credits: 3
From 1940 to 1990, the United States eventually led the democratic world to victory in two worldwide struggles'World War II and the Cold War' against authoritarian systems. This course examines this pair of victories, especially the Cold War, through the role of international law, as well as the interplay between U.S. domestic law and foreign policy.
Credits: 2–3
This seminar deals chiefly with the role and impact of traditional public international law and policy, particularly multilateral environmental agreements, on international environmental issues. It also emphasizes the practical aspects of representing clients in the international context, by focusing on the regulatory and liability aspects of environmental law, both domestic and international.
This is the first semester of a yearlong seminar designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader.
Credits: 1
This is the second semester of a yearlong seminar designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader.
Credits: 2–3
This course will examine the many occasions when international law influenced events in World War I.
Credits: 15
For doctoral research taken under the supervision of a dissertation director.