This Legal Process course is
a course in advanced legal analysis.  It
provides an analytical framework capable of use in any area of the law.  The analytical framework employed here focuses
on institutional choice and employs comparative institutional analysis.  Put simply, the central
issue of all law is who decides.  The
term “institutional” reflects the reality that the decision of who decides is
really a decision of what decides.  The
alternative decision-­makers are complex processes, such as the political
process, the market, and the courts, in which the interaction of many
participants shape performance.  The
analysis of institutional choice is called “comparative institutional analysis”
because the analysis of the choice among decision-making alternatives
necessitates the compari­son of the relative merits of these alternatives.  Judges may address institutional choice
consciously or subconsciously; sophisticatedly or simply; well or poorly.  But they do and must address the issue.  Therefore, the able advocate and analyst must
understand this central issue.

The materials for this course will be cases and
commentary from property, torts, constitutional law, civil procedure, land use,
contracts and administrative law.   There
will be a conventional exam.