Students in this course will study the means and ends of social ordering through law. That is, the class will explore what law is and is not and what it is capable of doing within the social context. The course will consist of the following units:

1) law as an instrument for remedying grievances;

2) law as an instrument for defining and punishing crimes;

3) law as an administrative-regulatory instrument;

4) law as a facilitator of private arrangements between people; and

5) law as a way of promoting safety and human rights. The course materials will consist largely of photocopied original materials. Students are expected to attend class regularly and be well prepared to participate in class discussions. There will be two written papers (and one re-write), and a mid-term. There will also be several in-class graded oral presentations and participation will be graded.

Individual interests are often in tension with each other; they are also often in opposition to a common or societal goal/value. This course seeks to introduce you to the law's capacity to mediate between these individual interests as well as the law's attempts at furthering the common good, often at the expense of individual interests. The law is a powerful instrument for encouraging people to work together. However, it is not capable of resolving every problem or achieving every goal. How does the law resolve disputes? How does it maximize welfare and wealth? How is it structured? Who decides what we mean by "law" and how it functions? Who decides what the societal interest is or whether it trumps what an individual wishes to do?

Required Texts: Photocopied Materials, for sale at the College Bookstore

Course Requirements:

It is imperative that you attend class regularly and be fully prepared to participate in discussion every day. Classes are designed to be a genuine interaction. You should not hesitate to speak.

Your final course grade will be determined according to the following allocation:

1. Class Participation (25%). This entails regular and thoughtful participation in class discussions. Any unexcused absences from class may affect your final grade for participation by up to one increment.

2. Papers (45%). You will write four papers and you will also be required to rewrite two of them. (See the tentative syllabus below for the schedule of the written assignments.

First assignment: First submission- 10%

Rewrite- 15%

Final Assignment: 20%

Mid-Semester Examination 20%

3. Oral Presentation 10%

If ultimately, there is a final examination, your mid-semester examination will be worth 10%, class participation will be reduced to 20%, and the final examination will count for 15% of your grade.

Written papers are to be your original work. You may work with the instructors in the Writing Lab. Papers are due at the beginning of the indicated class and you will be penalized if they are turned in late.

Academic Honesty: As in all other courses at Grinnell, you must adhere to standards of honesty in this class. Feel free to consult the Student Handbook for the official statement of the College policy. If you ever have questions about this, you should come see me. At a minimum, remember that academic honesty entails the following: 1) work that you present as your own must be the product of your own efforts, and 2) if you rely on a book or any other written material for quotations, ideas, formats, or anything significant you need to indicate your reliance on this outside source in a fashion that puts us clearly on notice.

Course Overview:

I. Introduction

A. First Amendment/Methods of Resolution

B. Introduction to the Legal Structure

II. Law as a Grievance-Remedial Instrument

A.What is the Grievance-Remedial Instrument?

B. Remedies

C.Structures and Processes

D.Limitations- The Duty to Rescue and Wrongful Birth

E. Roles of Different Parties

III. Law as Penal-Corrective Instrument

A.Penal-Corrective Techniques

B.Structures and Processes

C.Coercive Power- Death Penalty and Corporal Punishment

D. Theories of the Law

IV. Law as an Administrative-Regulatory Instrument

B. Administrative-Regulatory Techniques

C. Authorized Makers of Administrative Law

V. Law as an Instrument for Facilitating Private Arrangements

A. Fundamentals of Contract Law

B. Remedies

VI. Law to Promote Equality

A. Fundamentals of Equal Protection

B. Affirmative Action

C. Freedom of Religions Expression

D. Political Intervention of Majority Opinions

Tuesday, January 23

First Amendment Discussion and Hypothetical

Introduction to the American Legal System

Thursday, January 25

Pages 1-24 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Village of Skokie v. National Socialist Party of America

Tuesday, January 30

Skokie: discussion continued

Thursday, February 1

Law as a Grievance-Remedial Instrument

Pages 30-33 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits (right up to but not including Butterfield)

Introduction

Clinton v. Commonwealth Edison Co.

Tuesday, February 6

Remedies within Grievance-Remedial Law

Pages 35-43 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Davies v. Mann

Thursday, February 8

Structures and Processes for applying the Grievance-Remedial Instrument

Pages 71-128 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Tuesday, February 13

Continued: Structures and Processes for applying the Grievance-Remedial Instrument

Pages 71-128 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Thursday, February 15

Guest Lecture- Herbert Hausmaninger

Litigation in a Civil Law System

Pages 160-165 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Tuesday, February 20

Pages 169-171 and 173-178 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Tubbs v. Argus (to be handed out)

Cockrum v. Baumgartner

Thursday, February 22

Role of Private Citizens and their Lawyers

Pages 138-147 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Class Presentations

Hand out Written Assignment #1

Tuesday, February 27

Guest Lecture: Peter Jarvis

Ethics

Thursday, March 1

Law as a Penal-Corrective Instrument

Begin: Penal-Corrective Techniques

Pages 185-192 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Regina v. Dudley & Stephens

M’Naghten’s Case

Tuesday, March 6

Continue: Penal-Corrective Techniques

Pages 192-201 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Durham

Rex v. Esop

Due: Written Assignment #1

Thursday, March 8

Structures and Processes

Pages 209- 222 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Visit of the Local Prosecutor

Tuesday, March 13

Coercive Power- Death Penalty and Corporal Punishment

Pages 224-230 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Furman v. Georgia

Solem v. Helm

What is theory and the theories of the Law (criminal)

Pages 180-185 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Hand out Final Assignment

Thursday, March 15

Mid-semester Examination

Spring Break: March 16-April 2

Tuesday, April 3

Law as an Administrative-Regulatory Instrument

Why we need government intervention to deal with private beneficial activity

The fundamentals of the administrative system

Pages 299-305 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Problems 1 and 2

Thursday, April 5

Administrative-Regulatory Techniques

Pages 320-323, 329-340, 342-349 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Find Environmental Law Cases

Tuesday, April 10

Pages 320-323, 329-340, 342-349 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Thursday, April 12

Law as an Instrument for Facilitating Private Arrangements

Fundamentals of Contract Law

Lucy v. Zehmer

Hamer v. Sidway

Tuesday, April 17

Remedies in the Law of Contracts

Pages 563-569 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Thursday, April 19

Law to Promote Equality

Pages 703-709

Korematsu

Tuesday, April 24

Continued: Law to Promote Equality

713-714, 716-730 of Law: Its Nature, Function, and Limits

Palmore v. Sidoti

Shelley v. Kraemer

Thursday, April 26

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

Tuesday, May 1

Affirmative Action (continued)

Rodriguez v. San Antonio School District

Thursday, May 3

Freedom of Religious Expression

Tuesday, May 8

Political Intervention of Majority Opinions

Romer v. Evans

Thursday, May 10

Open Class