Appellate Courts

Catalog description

This course will examine the practices and powers of American appellate courts, with a particular emphasis on the federal courts of appeals. Topics include the function of appellate courts, the components of appellate adjudication, including mediation, briefing, oral argument, and judgment, the roles of the personnel in the adjudication process, and the ways in which the appellate courts have been affected by an increasing caseload, and proposals for alleviating the strain on the courts. Evaluation in the course will be based on a final research paper, which may be used to satisfy the SRWP.