Modern American Law
Fall 2013
This course explores the evolution of American public law since the Civil War. Our principal concerns will be the impact of social change and social thought on legal doctrine, on conceptions of the judicial function, and on the role of lawyers in American society. The course has four parts: Equality Before the Law, 1865-1954; The Age of Laissez-Faire Formalism, 1861-1933; The Emergence of Legal Liberalism, 1900-1954; Dilemmas of Legal Liberalism, 1954- .
Reading materials include the following titles:
- Witt, Patriots and Cosmopolitans: Hidden Histories of American Law
- Tushnet, The NAACP's Legal Strategy against Segregated Education
- Klarman, Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Movement
- Cushman, Rethinking the New Deal Court
- Gillman, The Constitution Besieged
- Walker, Hate Speech: History of An American Controversy
- McCurdy, Readings in Modern American Legal History
Reading assignments average 150 pages per week. There will be two mid-term examinations, partly take-home and partly in class (25% each), and a final examination (50%).
There are no prerequisites.
