Profile

Carol M. Bast is a professor in the Department of Legal Studies at the University of Central Florida, where she has taught for since 1991. Prior to becoming a professor, Bast clerked for a federal district judge and practiced corporate, securities, and real estate law. Dr. Bast used her 2015-2016 sabbatical to obtain an LL.M. in International Economic Law and Policy from the University of Barcelona. She converted her LL.M. thesis on the Trans-Pacific Partnership into the article Club Goods and Regulatory Opportunism: Trans-Pacific Partnership and Rules of Origin for Autos, published in the spring of 2017.

She is a key Legal Studies professor because of her consistent commitment to the teaching of three of the Legal Studies courses required for Legal Studies majors: Law and the Legal System (since spring 1994), Legal Research (since fall 1991), and Legal Writing (since spring 1992). Dr. Bast takes an active role in teaching outside the classroom. Over the years, she has chaired honors in the major thesis committees for 15 students.

• Legal research
• Legal writing

• LL.M., International Economic Law and Policy Program, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
• J.D., MAGNA CUM LAUDE (RANK 7/187), New York Law School, New York, New York
• B.A. in Spanish, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Michigan

Dr. Bast's scholarship has amounted to a steady flow of between 2 and 3 publications annually. She authored or co-authored 30 law review and journal articles, 26 peer-reviewed articles, 1 edition of INTRODUCTION TO LEGAL RESEARCH AND WRITING, 5 editions of FOUNDATIONS OF LEGAL RESEARCH AND WRITING, 4 editions of FLORIDA COURTS, and 3 editions of FOUNDATIONS OF LAW. Dr. Bast's recent scholarship includes the following:

• Carol M. Bast, INTRODUCTION TO LEGAL RESEARCH AND WRITING (Carolina Academic Press 2021)
• Carol M. Bast, Privacy, Eavesdropping, and Wiretapping Across the United States: Reasonable Expectation of Privacy and Judicial Discretion, Vol. 29 Issue 1 THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF LAW AND TECHNOLOGY Article 3 (2020), available at scholarship.law.edu
• Cristina Del Rosso & Carol M. Bast, Protecting Online Privacy in the Digital Age: Carpenter v. United States and the Fourth Amendment’s Third-Party Doctrine, 28 THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF LAW AND TECHNOLOGY 89 (2020)
• Carol M. Bast & Carlton J. Patrick, Information Otherwise Unknowable: Carpenter as a Window into the Judicial Decision Making Process, 57 SAN DIEGO LAW REVIEW 357 (2020)
• Carol M. Bast, Toward More Effective Faculty Evaluation, Vol. 2 Issue 2 JOURNAL OF BUSINESS LAW & ETHICS PEDAGOGY article 3 (2019)
• Carol M. Bast, The Clash Between Technology and Communication Privacy, 21 JOURNAL OF LEGAL STUDIES IN BUSINESS 18 (2018)

• Eavesdropping and wiretapping statutes
• Privacy
• International trade agreements

• Received the award for Outstanding Reviewer for the JOURNAL OF BUSINESS LAW AND ETHICS PEDAGOGY at the Academy of Legal Studies in Business Awards Ceremony on August 6, 2021
• Received a Teaching Incentive Program award April 2017
• Proactive Business Strategies in the Wake of Mass Surveillance under the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act selected as the 2015 Best Article Published in the JOURNAL OF LEGAL STUDIES IN BUSINESS
• Received the College of Health and Public Affairs Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award at the Founders’ Day Convocation on April 3, 2013

Dr. Bast has taken a leadership role at the college level, serving as the department representative to and chairing the Promotion and Tenure Committee of the College of Community Innovation and Education for the past two years, in the fall of 2021 and 2020; serving as the department representative to and chairing the Research Incentive Award Selection Committee of the College of Community Innovation and Education for the past three years, in the fall 2020 – spring 2021, fall 2019 – spring 2020, and fall 2018 – spring 2019; and serving as the department representative to and chairing the Teaching Incentive Program Selection Committee of the College of Health and Public Affairs in the spring of 2018.

Dr. Bast has also taken a leadership role at the department level. She authored the Student Success Fund Proposal, entitled UCF Westlaw Campus Research: Impact and Return on Investment, submitted on September 10, 2021.

• PLA 3014, Law and the Legal System (fall). A survey course designed to familiarize the student with the American legal system, ethical considerations, terminology, legal reasoning, and the role of the legal assistant
• PLA 3108, Legal Research (fall & spring). A study of the various research tools used in legal investigation and the methods used to conduct legal research
• PLA 3155, Legal Writing (fall & spring). A study of legal writing format and technique through preparation of memoranda and other legal documents, using research skills learned in PLA 3108
• PLA 4436, Florida Partnerships and Corporations (spring). Statutory requirements of Florida partnerships and corporations; creation and dissolution of business organizations, responsibilities of officers and basic rights of stockholders