Details

This seminar begins with Blackstone's Commentaries, which shaped American legal consciousness from the late eighteenth through most of the nineteenth century. It then considers the jurisprudential revolution of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, focusing particularly on the ethical skepticism of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. The bulk of the seminar will be devoted to more recent schools of legal thought, though which ones the seminar will cover will depend on student interest. The possibilities include legal realism, law and economics, critical legal studies, critical race theory, feminist jurisprudence, and natural justice. Each student will be expected to write a paper, circulate it to the class, and lead a one-hour discussion of its subject.