Drew Kershen: Teaching
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Professional Responsibility
Professor Kershen has taught a required upper-level course in Professional Responsibility
every year since 1974. At present, the Professional Responsibility course is a 3 credit course.
Professor Kershen teaches the course using a problem-method course-book and a supplement
comparing and contrasting the Oklahoma Rules of Professional Conduct to the ABA Model Rules
of Professional Conduct 2002. Course enrollment is usually 40 students or more. Professor
Kershen uses a multiple choice examination at the end of the course as the evaluation
method for the course.
Professional Responsibility Syllabus
(pdf, opens in a new window)
Agricultural Environmental Law
Professor Kershen has taught an elective course in Agricultural Environmental Law since 1988.
The course is taught every other academic year with an enrollment of about 20 students. At present,
the course is a 2 credit course. The course focuses on environmental issues having a particular
agricultural focus: Clean Water Act Section 404 wetlands; Clean Water Act Section 402 permits
for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs); Clean Water Act sections related to non-point
source pollution; Farm Bill Conservation Programs (such as Conservation Reserve Program, sodbuster
and swampbuster programs); Oklahoma Environmental statutes relating to swine and poultry
operations. Students complete three take-home essay examinations as the course evaluation method.
Agricultural Environmental
Law Syllabus (pdf, opens in a new window)
Water Law
Professor Kershen has taught an elective course in Water Law since 1990. The course is taught every other academic year with an enrollment of about 25 students. At present, the course is a 3 credit course. The course focuses on property rights in water as a resource; the course does not discuss environmental issues related to water resources. Students take an essay examination at the end of the course as the course evaluation method.
Agricultural Biotechnology Law & Policy
Professor Kershen has taught an elective course in Agricultural Biotechnology Law & Policy since 1999.
The course is taught every other academic year with an enrollment of about 25 students. At present,
the course is a 3 credit course. The course has three one-hour components: Intellectual Property in
Living Matter [plants, animals, and bacteria]; Comparative Regulation between the United States,
the European Union, and (briefly) Canada; International Conventions and Protocols relating to
agricultural biotechnology. Students complete three take-home examinations, one at the end
of each component, as the course evaluation method.
Agricultural
Biotechnology Law & Policy Syllabus (pdf, opens in a new window)
Contracts I and Contracts II
Professor Kershen has taught a required first-year course in Contracts every year since 2002.
Contracts I and II is a year-long course of 5 credits. Professor Kershen uses a casebook and
a Restatement of Contracts supplement as the course materials. The focus of the class is on the
common law, rather than on the Uniform Commercial Code. Students take a practice examination
during the first semester. Students take an essay examination at the end of the semesters as the
course evaluation method.
Contracts I
Syllabus (pdf, opens in a new window)
Contracts II
Syllabus (pdf, opens in a new window)
American Legal History
Professor Kershen has taught a course in American Legal History on an irregular basis since 1980. In recent years, Professor Kershen has team-taught this course with Professor Donald J. Pisani, Merrick Professor of History of the American West. Professors Pisani and Kershen have taught this course – using various themes and monographs – to undergraduate students in the University of Oklahoma Honors College or the University of Oklahoma Department of History. The course is a three credit course. Students write an essay on an assigned theme at the conclusion of the class discussion of each assigned book. The course usually has five assigned books.
American Legal History Syllabus