Politics, Law and Society

Abstract

Course Description: This course is designed to provide you with an introduction to the American legal system. We begin by exploring the sources of law, examining how legal norms emerge from each of our branches of government and what happens when these norms clash. We then turn to the key institutional components of our legal system, focusing on the structure of the US court system and the players within it. We will compare the federal and state courts, looking at the differences in how judges are selected and how cases proceed through the system. We will pay particular attention to the inherent conflict between the desire for independence and accountability within our judiciary and will assess how well we have done in balancing these goals. We will also look at the alternatives to courts and investigate why they emerged and how they are currently being used. We will put all of this knowledge to use by studying the disputing process in the civil (non-criminal) context. We will start by developing a framework for how disputes evolve and what tends to encourage and/or discourage people from pursuing grievances. After Thanksgiving, we will explore two case studies of civil disputes. The first is one of the most well-known “test” cases, namely the case that culminated with the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The second is the class action dispute memorialized in the bestseller, A Civil Action.