This proposal is based on a course being taught currently at Georgetown Law. The syllabus is attached. "Are bankruptcy laws racist? Does systemic racism or colonialism lead local governments in the United States to go bankrupt? Or do local governments seek bankruptcy due to fiscal distress caused by macro-economic forces and governance failures in managing those forces? Using locations such as Puerto Rico and Detroit as focal point case studies, this seminar will examine these questions using a variety of primary and secondary sources including budgetary documents, enabling statutes, excerpted law review articles, and select judicial decisions in order to answer the key questions presented in this course."