Legal History

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: No Exam Our reading course on “Compromise” is brand new, so this description is necessarily tentative with regard to specific assignments.

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: One Day Take-home History is encoded in legal documents and systems. This is a truism of academic approaches to law, and…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam The main impetus for the Constitution of 1787 was the perception, spelled out in the very first paragraph of…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam Whether in solo, small firm or not for profit legal aid offices, new modes of serving clients of modest…

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: No Exam An introduction to the history of law and legal institutions in England from the Anglo-Saxons to the seventeenth century.

Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites for the class, although an environmental law or animal law survey course is recommended. Exam Type: No Exam This…

Prerequisites: None. Basic knowledge of constitutional law preferred but not required. Exam Type: No Exam

Students will be required to submit a…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam This course will survey core concepts in Islamic law (sharia) in historical and comparative modern contexts. Popular perceptions of…

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: No Exam

The requirement for the course is writing that amounts to about thirty double spaced pages. The…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: Any-Day Take-Home This course explores law’s role in global affairs. We will examine the history of ideas, legal doctrines, institutional…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: Any-Day Take-Home This course will explore past and present debates about the role of the legal order in economic development. We…

Prerequisite: None Exam Type:None Narrative and law; agada and halakha, story and rule. In recent decades the relationship between these pairs has become a central…

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: In Class This course examines freedom of disposition in American succession law by way of: (a) intestate succession; (b) wills (including…

Prerequisites: None Exam type: Any Day Take-Home This course focuses on the structure of the United States government, including the doctrines of separation of powers…

Prerequisite: By Permission. Students interested in applying to join the Lab should submit a short (300 word maximum) statement of interest to Professor Hanson. The…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: Please refer to the Spring 2021 Exam Schedule This course is designed to consider the development of American law from…

Prerequisite: There are no prerequisites, and 1L students are welcome in the class. Exam Type: One Day Take-Home Students will be evaluated on the basis…

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: No Exam From public assistance for Civil War widows, New Deal programs to address the Great Depression, and growing calls for…

This seminar examines changing understandings of civil liberties in American legal history. It emphasizes legal and ideological contests over the meaning of free speech, religious…

Prerequisites: This seminar is open to LLM students by permission. Exam Type: No Exam This seminar provides an overview of the historical law and policy…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam COVID-19 has given rise to an unprecedented and rapidly evolving set of urgent legal issues. This reading group will…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam This is a discussion class on the history of law in Europe (including both England and the Continent, as…

Prerequisites: Prior completion of a course in U.S. Constitutional Law that covers separation of powers and federalism is recommended, but not required. Exam Type: In…

Prerequisite: Torts or permission of the instructor. Exam Type: No Exam Protecting privacy has become one of the major challenges of our time. In the…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: In Class An integrated political economy now covers much of the globe.  This course focuses on the monetary structure of that…

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: No Exam More books are said to have been written about Abraham Lincoln than about any other human being.  What is…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type:One-Day Take-home This course will explore the role of race and ethnicity in American legal jurisprudence and history. Areas of focus will…

Prerequisites: This seminar is open to LLM students by permission. Exam Type: No Exam This seminar provides an overview of the historical law and policy…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam An introduction to Roman law that combines a survey approach with one that focuses in some depth on topics…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam A survey of the main outlines of Continental European legal history from the fall of the Roman Empire to…

Prerequisite: None Exam: In Class According to one of the framers, the “soul of the Constitution” was the clause allocating authority over money.   Over the…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam. Grades will be based upon short responses to weekly readings, a small project and presentation, and class participation. This…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam The main impetus for the Constitution of 1787 was the perception, spelled out in the very first paragraph of…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam In this seminar we will examine the ways in which the rhetorical and communications principles of framing and narrative…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam Politicians and pundits frequently charge that aggressive partisanship has infected our political institutions. Critics allege that even the federal…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam
Students will be expected to complete two short papers in response to course readings, and a longer paper…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam What is a Constitution? Why, and under what circumstances, do people make them? What about the United States and…

Prerequisites: Public International Law Exam Type: No Exam The United Nations Security Council is at the heart of the post-WWII international order. It is often…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam Whether in solo, small firm or not for profit legal aid offices, new modes of serving clients of modest…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: Please refer to the Spring 2021 Exam Schedule This course will explore the role of race and ethnicity in American…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam In this reading group on Feminist Utopias, we explore literature, essays and history of women’s law reform movements through…

Prerequisites: None Exam: No Exam Since the killing of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014, there has been an…

Pre/Co-requisites: Concurrent registration in Continental Legal History, or equivalent preparation is required, as is the ability to read simple Latin prose.

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: Any Day Take-Home This course considers, from the perspective of social and political history, American constitutional development from the Articles of…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: Please refer to the Spring 2021 Exam Schedule This class provides an introduction to the legal and constitutional history of…

Classroom: For weeks 1, 2, 7, 11, and 12, this workshop will meet in WCC 3011 and in Hauser 104 for Weeks 3, 4, 5,…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam A survey of the main outlines of Continental European legal history from the fall of the Roman Empire to…