Constitutional Law Seminar:Supreme Court & Constitutional Theory

Catalog description

This seminar is for a maximum of twelve students. The seminar will meet for the first three or four weeks of the semester to discuss the history of the Supreme Court and the various “mainstream” theories of Constitutional interpretation. Students will choose a constitutional law topic (in consultation with the Professor) during the first two weeks. The seminar will not meet from week four or five through week ten. During that time each student will turn in an outline, a first draft, and attend as many editing conferences with the Professor as needed to produce a product deserving of a high grade. Second drafts will be due at the beginning of week eleven. Second drafts will be copied and distributed to all members of the seminar. The remainder of the seminar meetings will be led by students, each leading a one hour seminar discussion of the student’s paper. If there are twelve students in the seminar, we will use two Saturday mornings during weeks eleven through thirteen in order to give each student an opportunity to present and have the draft critiqued by seminar colleagues. Final drafts, reflecting any changes from the end of semester discussion sessions, will be due at the end of the examination period.