The Rule of Law

Catalog description

This course examines core debates and perspectives on the nature of constitutional government, from antiquity to the present. It will begin with an examination of contemporary constitutional controversies in America, France, and Israel. It will then examine how great thinkers and practitioners have sought to define (and defend) constitutional government. The course will study various differing and sometimes clashing views among these writers and practitioners about the political and legal arrangements most conducive to constitutional government. Perspectives to be considered include: Aristotle and Xenophon on the constitutions of Greek cities, Isaac Abarbanel on the constitution of ancient Israel, John Locke and Montesquieu on the executive, the separation of powers, and the danger of tyranny, Edmund Burke and Madame de Staël on constitutional monarchy, and the views of constitutionalism at the American founding expressed by Federalists, anti-Federalists, and Thomas Paine.