Law school teaches students "think like lawyers": to read and argue within the constraints of the law and its traditions. Yet law does not stand alone: it is embedded in social practices and cultural understandings. While law school necessarily emphasizes knowledge and expertise that are useful to understanding and practicing the law, much can be gained from thinking about law in relation to other fields of inquiry, especially those that are centrally concerned with interpretation, evidence, and persuasion.

The Program in Law and Humanities is dedicated to exploring the links between law and such related fields as philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, literary, history, and cultural studies. The Program supplements the instrumental teaching of the law with more speculative explorations of the language, rhetoric, presuppositions, and cultural rituals associated with the law. It encourages cross-disciplinary teaching and research on all topics that might enhance our understanding of the law, and also of the law's contribution to other scholarly disciplines.

Contact: Kerry Abrams  

Curriculum

The Program is committed to offering courses each year that reflect an interdisciplinary law and humanities perspective. Students can also find relevant courses in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Students who are interested in pursuing a formal combined-degree program may apply for the J.D.-M.A. programs in English, philosophy or history.

Current Courses (2008-09) | Descriptions
Art Law
Bioethics and the Law
Colloquium:  American Legal History
Colloquium: Marriage in Law, Culture, and the Imagination
Constitutionalism: History and Jurisprudence
Feminist Legal Theory
First Amendment Theory
Foundations of Analytic Jurisprudence
Germs, Guns, and Lead: Public Health Law and Policy
Ideas of the First Amendment
Law and Literature
Modern American Legal Thought: An Historical Introduction
Privacy and Surveillance
Religion, Democracy, and Law
Rhetoric
Rights
Seminars in Ethical Values
Supreme Court Justices and the Art of Judging
The Lochner Era
Trials of the Century: Law and Literature

Previous Courses | Descriptions
American Legal History
American Social and Legal History
Classics in American Legal Thought
Civil Rights History from Plessy to Brown
Constitutional History I: Articles of Confederation to the Civil War
Constitutional History II: From Reconstruction to Brown
Comparative Constitutional Law
Critical Race Theory: Problems in Anti-discrimination Law
Human Experimentation: Law and Ethics of Research in Biomedicine and Public Health
International and Comparative Health Law and Bioethics
Law and Ethics in Medical Practice
Law in Society
Laws of War and the American Civil War
Lawyers in the History of American Public Life
Lawyers, Law, and Film
Rhetoric
Supreme Courts from Warren to Roberts

Current Courses
Courses are three credits except where noted.

ART LAW Amy Adler This interdisciplinary course explores how the law shapes and constrains visual expression. The focus is on the censorship of contemporary art. The reading draws extensively on non-legal texts as well as on an array of First Amendment materials. The class considers recent art controversies and the special problems presented by the interpretation of visual images to explore a series of First Amendment topics, including: obscenity law, child pornography law, the feminist anti-pornography movement, the critique of racist hate speech, public art and government funding of the arts. Ultimately we use the problems presented by visual art as a means to probe the meaning of "speech" for purposes of the First Amendment. Full Description

Bioethics and the Law Thomas Hafemeister Bioethics and the Law addresses some of the most divisive, sharply debated and rapidly emerging issues in society today. The course, which explores the intersection among medicine, technology, and the law, is likely to address issues such as human reproduction and birth (including actions for wrongful birth, wrongful life and wrongful conception), human genetics and the privacy and ownership of genetic information, death and dying, research involving human subjects, organ transplantation, and public health and bioterrorism. Full Description

Colloquium:  American Legal History Charles McCurdy This is a reading and discussion course in selected topics in the history and historiography of American law. Topics for consideration may include the law of accidents, debtor-creditor relations, Native American rights, judicial review, juvenile justice, immigration and citizenship, legal thought, and the civil rights revolution. Full Description

Colloquium: Marriage in Law, Culture, and the Imagination Kerry Abrams What does the law tell us about marriage, and how does this compare to how marriage is shaped in the cultural imagination? Do law and culture reinforce one another — or are there conflicts? This colloquium studies law relating to marriage (and associated topics, such as love, divorce, paternity, etc.) and explores the place of marriage, as legal, social, and cultural aspiration and means of regulation. Materials for study will include fictional texts, cultural analysis and films, as well as legal cases. Full Description

Constitutionalism: History and Jurisprudence A.E. Dick Howard This seminar focuses on various ways of thinking about constitutions and constitutionalism — as a restatement of ancient right (the tradition associated with England's Magna Carta), as being based upon a social compact (as in the thinking of John Locke), as reflecting the idea of a "nation" (as in the Turkish and Iranian constitutions), etc. In developing the ways of looking at constitutions, we will draw in part upon the various schools of jurisprudence (natural law, jurisprudence, etc.) as well as upon historical and contemporary sources. We will pay particular attention to important moments in the history of constitutionalism, such as the founding period of the United States and in France, the era of liberalism in 19th-century Europe, the emergence of social and economic rights in the 20th century, etc. Having in mind these perspectives, students are invited to write research papers dealing with constitutionalism in earlier eras or with constitutions or constitutional developments in our own time. Full Description

Feminist Legal Theory Kerry Abrams This seminar provides an intensive introduction to various schools of feminist theory, including liberal feminism, cultural feminism, dominance feminism, critical race feminism and feminist uses of queer theory. The seminar consists of two stages. First, we will devote a few weeks to acquiring an overview of foundational writings in feminist legal theory and case law that is commonly critiqued by feminist writers. After that, we will devote each session to a close critique of one law review article or an excerpt from a book on the subject. One student will write a 10-page critique of the article or book, identifying any problems with the author's argument. Another student will serve as the author's advocate, defending the article against all challenges (no writing required for this role). The principal objective of the seminar is to sharpen skills of close reading and critical analysis. Grades will be based one-third on the critique, one-third on performance as the author’s advocate, and one-third on class participation throughout the semester. Full Description

First Amendment Theory Lillian Bevier The seminar consists of two stages. First, we will devote a few weeks to acquiring an overview of general writing about the freedom of speech. After that, we will devote each session to a close critique of one law review article on the subject. One student will write a 10-page critique of the article, identifying any problems with the author's argument. Another student will serve as the author's advocate, defending the article against all challenges (no writing required for this role). The principal objective of the seminar is to sharpen skills of close reading and critical analysis. After the introductory weeks devoted to general background, the workload will be light in terms of sheer pages but heavy in terms of the command students are expected to have of the specific arguments in each article. Grades will be based one-third on the critique, one-third on performance as the author’s advocate, and one-third on class participation throughout the semester. Full Description

Foundations of Analytic Jurisprudence Frederick Schauer An introductory seminar in the basic ideas and works of modern analytic jurisprudence. Issues include the relation between law and morality, positivism and natural law, theories of legal reasoning, the nature of rules, the obligation to obey the law, the characteristics of legal sources, and the foundations of a legal order. Works discussed will include those of H.L.A. Hart, Ronald Dworkin, Hans Kelsen, Lon Fuller, Joseph Raz, the American Legal Realists and the instructor. No prior background in philosophy is expected, but a tolerance for theory is essential. Full Description

Germs, Guns, and Lead: Public Health Law and Policy Richard Bonnie and Ruth Gaare Bernheim This course explores the legitimacy, design and implementation of policies aiming to promote public health and reduce the social burden of disease and injury. It highlights the challenge posed by public health’s population-based perspective to traditional individual-centered, autonomy-driven approaches to bioethics and constitutional law. Other themes center on conflicts between public health and public morality and the relationship between public health and social justice and human rights. Illustrative topics include mandatory immunization, screening and reporting of infectious diseases, prevention of obesity and diabetes, prevention of lead poisoning, food safety, mandatory use of cycling helmets and seat belts, and restrictions on alcohol and tobacco advertising. Full Description

Ideas of the First Amendment Vincent Blasi The principal goal of the course is to develop skills of close critical reading, as well as an understanding of the central ideas of the First Amendment tradition. The emphasis is on how those ideas emerged in various historical periods from particular political, legal and intellectual struggles. Each week is devoted to one major thinker in the tradition. Philosophical and polemical essays are studied as well as judicial opinions. We read essays and opinions by, among others, John Milton, James Madison, John Stuart Mill, Learned Hand, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis and Alexander Meiklejohn. We study the argumentative techniques employed by each major thinker; in part, this is a course in elementary rhetoric. Throughout the semester, we will explore how the ideas of these thinkers bear on issues of contemporary First Amendment controversy. Full Description

Law and Literature Zahr Stauffer We begin with the premise that we can know more about both law and literature by thinking not just "about" each one but "through" each one. In the first half of the course, we read literature through texts drawn from two areas of substantive law: torts and immigration. In the second half of the course, we move away from these legal frameworks, and read cases and texts selected with recourse to a set of concepts that originate in literature and literary criticism. We will focus on authorship, authority, gender, and self-fashioning — or the creation of a self through language — and the way legal mandates may shape that self-fashioning. Throughout, we will be interested in the ways literature represents, resists, and reworks models of legal thinking and legal action. In turn, we will consider how legal storytelling sometimes subverts narrative forms and patterns to innovative ends. Our reading list will include works by Auden, Capote, Frost, Gurnah, Hawthorne, Salih and Shakespeare, and cases by Breyer, Cardozo, Learned Hand, Leval, Kozinski, Posner and Scalia. Students will be asked to turn in several two-page responses to the readings. Full Description

Lochner Era Barry Cushman This seminar examines significant developments in the areas of constitutional law governing social and economic regulation in the so-called "Lochner Era," extending roughly from 1880 to 1940. Attention is given to restrictions on and changes in the scope of the federal powers to tax, spend and regulate interstate commerce, as well as to limitations placed upon state and federal regulatory competence by the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and 14th Amendments, the Equal Protection Clause, the 10th Amendment, and the Dormant Commerce Clause. We will seek to understand how these limitations and developments presented both obstacles and opportunities to regulatory reformers, how they constrained and shaped their legal strategies, and why they succeeded or failed in securing their regulatory objectives. Each student will be required to produce a substantial research paper on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor. Full Description

Modern American Legal Thought: An Historical Introduction Neil Duxbury (2 credits) This course provides students with an understanding of the main jurisprudential ideas and perspectives that have informed American legal thought since the late 19th century. The course approaches the history of American legal theory mainly in terms of themes rather than representatives and aims to provide students with an understanding of those juristic perspectives that featured centrally in the education of American lawyers during the 20th century. The course also shows students how these perspectives invariably developed in response to distinct legal problems, the majority of which they will have encountered elsewhere in their studies. For this reason, the course provides students with broader perspectives on some of the problems encountered in other parts of the law syllabus, and should introduce them to arguments and literature which they might draw upon when completing assignments and examinations in other modules. Full Description

Privacy and Surveillance Siva Vaidhyanathan Can we preserve dignity and privacy in the age of Facebook? This seminar considers the history and current applications of technologies and cultures of surveillance. How and why did we get to the point where almost all of our activities leave a trace? What is our level of tolerance of mass surveillance? Are we willing to let the state into our bedrooms? Are we more comfortable letting our stores and shopping services understand us? What sorts of laws and policies do we need to protect our sense of personal integrity? And is privacy worth anything these days anyway? This course allows students to survey a broad range of approaches and issues. We will read the latest work as well as some classic contributions to the field. Students will conduct two brief oral presentations and produce a full, 30-page research paper on some aspect of privacy and surveillance. Full Description

Religion, Democracy, and Law Micah Schwartzman This seminar explores the proper role of religious convictions in a liberal democracy. The first few weeks of the seminar provide a general overview of the contemporary debate on whether citizens and public officials have duties to refrain from relying on religious beliefs in political and legal decision-making. After this introduction, each session is devoted to an intensive discussion of an article drawn from the philosophical and legal literature (with selected topics including, e.g., abortion, homosexuality, evolution, blasphemy, public education and civil disobedience). For each session, designated students are required to criticize or defend the article in question. Since the focus of the seminar is on rigorous evaluation of the author’s argument, grades are based mainly on a 10-page critique and on class participation throughout the semester. Full Description

Rhetoric Robert Sayler (1 credit) This course focuses on readings from Aristotle, Cicero and other ancients and modern rhetoric writers, lectures on rhetorical style and substance, review and analysis of videotapes of distinguished oral presentations, informal discussion, student presentation of three videotaped speeches and critique thereof. Full Description

Rights Alan Simmons This seminar examines the nature of and possible justifications for claims of right. Readings are from both classical and contemporary sources, including the works of philosophers, legal theorists and political theorists. Questions addressed concern the nature of rights (e.g., their roles in moral and legal theory and reasoning, their proper analyses and constituent parts, their possible contents, etc.), the (alleged) general varieties of rights (e.g., moral, natural, human, conventional, institutional, legal, cultural), the possible properties of rights (e.g., imprescriptibility, inalienability, forfeitability, absoluteness, etc.), and possible justifications for claims that particular rights exist. In addition, the seminar concludes with a careful consideration of one kind of right — to many theorists the most important (or, perhaps, the only) kind — namely, property rights. Full Description

Seminars in Ethical Values Darryl Brown (1 credit) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. Full Description

Supreme Court Justices and the Art of Judging A.E. Dick Howard Key figures on the modern Supreme Court are the focus of this seminar. We consider selected justices — their background before coming to the Court, their major decisions, their jurisprudence, their interaction with other justices, their legacy. We will take stock of these justices both through their own writings and through the views of commentators, including judicial biographers. Full Description

Trials of the Century Barbara Armacost and Anne Coughlin This seminar examines a number of famous, even sensational, criminal trials in order to ask a set of intersecting questions. What makes a sensational criminal trial sensational? What commonalities, if any, are shared by those trials that capture our cultural imagination? What role do sensational criminal trials have in our popular conception of law and justice, and how, if at all, does this cultural significance matter for how we understand "ordinary" criminal trials? Do sensational trials ever prompt significant reforms in substantive crime definitions, criminal procedure rules or rules of evidence? We especially focus on rhetorical and narrative strategies for representing the facts — as well as the legal rules, adversarial norms and ideological stakes — in such trials. How are sensational criminal trials represented in legal materials, in nonfiction accounts, in literary depictions and on film? How are the facts of the case made and remade within various genres, from the testimony of the trial itself, through appellate briefs, through both fictional and journalistic accounts? What is the relation, if any, between genre and what is depicted and how? Does comparing the conduct of the trial itself to later depictions reveal anything of importance about how we construct our ideas of law, authority, evidence, or responsibility? Texts for the course include trial transcripts, cases, briefs, works of nonfiction, works of literature and films. We study, among others, the trials of Socrates, Lizzie Borden, Oscar Wilde, John Scopes, the Scottsboro boys, Leopold and Loeb, and O.J. Simpson. Students will be expected to undertake and present their own case study of a significant trial and its representations. Texts include: Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy; Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray; Merlin Holland, The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde; James Goodman, Stories of Scottsboro; William Shakespeare, Othello. Full Description

Previous Courses
Courses are three credits except where noted.

American Legal History Charles McCurdy This seminar provides students with an opportunity to investigate problems in American legal history and to learn from one another. Each student will write a 40-page research paper, evaluate 5 or 6 papers written by classmates, and participate in weekly discussions of important works written from different historiographical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives. Each student will also have a weekly appointment time to discuss (and establish) with the instructor a topic, an appropriate method, and a plan of work. Papers may focus on the 18th, the 19th, or the 20th centuries.

American Social and Legal History Tomiko Brown-Nagin This course considers issues in 20th-century social and constitutional history, with special emphasis on race matters. The course explores historiography and focuses on connections between social movements and legal developments. Students read from texts about social and/or legal aspects of the civil rights, labor, and anti-poverty/welfare rights movements.

Classics in American Legal Thought James Ryan This seminar covers some of the most important and influential works in 20th-century American legal literature. These are the articles you have heard about in your courses and excerpts of which you may have read. We will read these works in their entirety. After a few weeks of surveying classic texts from the first half of the century, the remainder of the semester is devoted to an intensive study of a single article each week, with students designated to criticize or defend the piece. A willingness to read and re-read the pieces and participate actively in discussion is expected and crucial.

cIVIL RIGHTS HISTORY FROM PLESSY TO BROWN
Risa Goluboff This course explores the history of civil rights in the 50 years between Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education. The course emphasizes two things: recreating the uncertainties that characterized civil rights doctrine in the pre-Brown era, and analyzing the disparate ways historians of civil rights have treated the topic. Students will write short weekly response papers.

Constitutional History I: Articles of Confederation to the Civil War This course traces the history of American constitutional law development from the Articles of Confederation through the Civil War. Topics include the framing and ratification of the Constitution, the Alien and Sedition Acts, the landmark decisions of the Marshall Court, the constitutional ramifications of slavery, and various constitutional issues raised by the Civil War.

Constitutional History II: From Reconstruction to Brown This course examines, from the perspective of social and political history, constitutional developments from Reconstruction through Brown v. Board of Education. The principal issues addressed include the enactment and early judicial interpretation of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments; constitutional questions involving race in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; economic regulation during the Lochner era; the birth of modern free speech jurisprudence in the wake of World War I; the constitutional crisis over the New Deal in the 1930s, including the Court-packing plan; the birth of the modern Establishment Clause in the late 1940s; free speech issues involving Jehovah’s Witnesses and Communists in the 1940s and 1950s; and, finally, topics involving Brown v. Board of Education, including the Court’s internal deliberations and the consequences of the decision.

Comparative Constitutional Law A. E. Dick Howard Recent years have seen a renaissance of an interest in the comparative possibilities of constitutional law. Just as framers of liberal constitutions 200 years ago were influenced by events in France and America, so constitution-makers in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe, South Africa, and elsewhere have pondered the experience of more established constitutional democracies in framing their fundamental laws. This seminar explores the issues entailed in the drafting and uses of a constitution. To what extent do constitutions reflect universal values (such as human rights), and to what extent are they grounded in the culture and values of a particular people? How much borrowing goes on in the writing of a constitution? In particular, in what respects do the U.S. Constitution and American constitutionalism serve as models for newer democracies? What are the historical, cultural, political, and economic contexts necessary to the success of liberal constitutional democracy?

Critical Race Theory: Problems in Anti-discrimination Law Devon Carbado (1 credit) Throughout American history, race has profoundly affected the lives of individuals, the growth of social institutions, the substance of culture, and the workings of our political economy. Not surprisingly, this impact has been substantially mediated through the law and legal institutions. To understand the deep interconnections between race and law, and particularly the ways in which race and law are mutually constitutive, is an extraordinary intellectual challenge. That is precisely the project of Critical Race Theory (CRT). This course will pursue this project by exploring the emerging themes within CRT. We will also examine some of the questions and criticisms raised about CRT, from both inside and outside of the genre, as well as the impact of the work on legal and political discourse. The point of departure for the course is an exploration of race itself—what exactly is race?—and the role law plays in constructing this identity. Finally, we will consider the extent to which CRT can be employed to address various problems in anti-discrimination law.

Human Experimentation: Law and Ethics of Research in Biomedicine and Public Health Margaret Riley In recent years, as the health care system, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries evolve, the way human research is conducted and regulated is under increasing scrutiny. We begin with a brief look at the origins of the current system, and then study the federal, state, and international regulatory structures. We explore central issues like risk-benefit assessment, informed consent, confidentiality, diversity in subject populations and how subjects are recruited and retained. We study research with vulnerable populations like children, prisoners and adults lacking decision-making capacity. We discuss how public health research is different and similar to biomedical research and what special problems may be raised by the differences. We look into concerns raised by international research such as recruitment of poor and underserved populations and equitable access to the results of the research. We examine some of the issues raised by new technologies such as genomics and personalized medicine, stem cell research and genetic engineering, nanotechnology and synthetic biology. Finally, we explore how the changing economics of research creates both conflicts of interest and potentially increased innovation.

International and Comparative Health Law and Bioethics Gil Siegal (1 credit) In today’s world of ever-changing technological, biomedical, and scientific advances, an understanding of how to regulate such changes—both legally and ethically—becomes of crucial importance to anyone interested in international relations, medicine, law, ethics, political science, and even business. This short course explores how health law and bioethics are dealt with in the international arena. It seeks to cultivate a more varied and nuanced understanding of health law and bioethical issues, both outside of the sphere of American culture and legislation as well as in comparison to it. To accomplish this we compare case law and national legislation in countries varying from Japan, Germany, Israel, the U.K., and Iceland, as well as international treaties and conventions which balance the interests of a diverse body of nations. We explore traditional issues such as patients' rights and organ donation as well as newer problems such as genetics, embryonic stem cell research, telemedicine (the role of computers and the Internet in medicine), and the function of international institutions such as the WHO and the U.N.

Law and Ethics in Medical Practice Daniel Larriviere This interdisciplinary seminar addresses legal and ethical issues arising in the practice of medicine and surgery. During the first meeting of the seminar, the instructor orients the law students to the practice of medicine at the University, and to basic medical concepts pertinent to seminar topics. The following meetings bring together residents, fellows, and faculty from the various departments at the Medical School, including Neurology, Internal Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Family Practice, to explore such issues as what constitutes the “practice of medicine”; ethical, legal and logistical implications of work hour limitations for residents; patients and the profession, informed consent and capacity to consent to or refuse treatment (including life-sustaining treatment); ethical and legal challenges arising in managed care; prevention and acknowledgment of medical errors; the purpose and role of evidenced-based medicine in contemporary medical practice; conscientious refusals to treat; regulation of research; and end-of-life issues such as the definition and implications of the vegetative and minimally conscious states and the definition of death. Efforts are also made to identify areas of divergence and convergence in professional norms in law and medicine. Law students are expected to present assigned material to the class in a way that is accessible to those without legal training.

Law in Society Alfred Pollard This course examines law as a moving force and a responsive element in society. Topics include how law operates, how society presses upon law for response and how advising a client is very much tied to considering the role of law and the intended and unintended consequences of legal actions. The course explores several legal disciplines with a focus on understanding the questions that must be addressed in making informed decisions and in advising clients effectively. Areas of review include the operation of law and science, law and business, law and markets, and law and social issues, and illustrative materials range from the trial of Jeanne D’Arc to Mein Kampf to current Enron-type corporate scandals and problems relating to cloning, child pornography, and federal guidelines for killings. The course provides an understanding of the analytic skills that must be brought to bear in applying legal knowledge to actual fact situations presented by a variety of clients. The focus is on more effective problem-solving by an increased familiarity with the uncertainty, trade-offs, and unanticipated outcomes that may result from applying legal concepts.

Laws of War and the American Civil War Thomas Lee (1 credit) Why and how did two American governments apply the international laws of war to a conflict that the Union at the time—and most commentators after the fact—have characterized as domestic in nature? Relying on primary sources (e.g., the war of the rebellion official records of the Union and Confederate armies and navies, memoirs, correspondence, and court cases) and secondary sources (e.g., excerpts from the instructor's book manuscript on the subject), this class will attempt to arrive at answers to these questions and to explore what those answers may mean for the United States' conduct of the Terror War today. Specific topics will include the Trent Affair and the laws of war at sea, the Lieber Code, the definition and treatment of “unlawful combatants,” occupation and the administration of justice, and enemy or former enemy access to the writ of habeas corpus.

Lawyers in the History of American Public Life Charles McCurdy This seminar considers connections between the legal profession and main themes in the history of American public life. Readings will be biographical, treating lawyers as politicians or writers or NGO managers and litigators. A substantial paper on a topic chosen and conceptualized in consultation with the instructor is required.

Lawyers, Law, and Film Anne Coughlin Contemporary culture is saturated with images of law, lawyers, and the work they do. Movies and TV shows peddle stories about law and lawyers, some real, some fictional, and others in-between. Films represent lawyers and other legal actors as heroes, as villains, and as goats. Then too, films give rise to legal disputes, films are used as evidence in legal proceedings, and films may give new meaning to the concept of “public” trials. This seminar explores some of the myriad connections between film and the legal domain. How have films influenced popular perceptions about and actual experiences of law and lawyers? How have films changed the ways in which lawyers and other legal actors work, the performances they give, the evidence they are expected to offer? Texts for the course will include movies and documentaries, as well as cases, works of fiction, and legal and literary scholarship. Students will write several short papers over the course of the semester.

Rhetoric Robert Sayler (1 credit) This course focuses on readings from Aristotle, Cicero, and other ancients and modern rhetoric writers, lectures on rhetorical style and substance, review and analysis of videotapes of distinguished oral presentations, informal discussion, student presentation of three videotaped speeches and critique thereof.

Supreme Courts from Warren to Roberts A.E. Dick Howard The Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren is remembered as having been one of the most activist courts in American history. During the years of Chief Justice Warren Burger, the Court seemed to lack a sense of direction, and the counter-revolution some observers had predicted never came about. What will be the legacy of the Court during the time of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist? What may we expect of the Roberts Court? Among the themes likely to be developed in this seminar are the origins of the Warren Court, that Court’s legacy, and the extent to which that legacy survives today; the relation between presidential politics and the work of the Court; the interplay between the Court and the country at large; specific doctrinal developments; the philosophies of the individual justices; and voting blocs and behavior on the Court.