This Legal Process course is a course in
advanced legal analysis.  The course provides an analytical framework
capable of use in all areas of the law and for all the lawyers roles such as
advocate, counselor, planner, clerk, judge and legislator.  This framework
has its origins in economic analysis and, therefore, this is a course in law
and economics. (There is no need for a background in economics.  All that
you will need will be provided in the course materials and classes.)

        The framework
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 character of
institutional decision-making depends on the patterns of participation by
actors like consumers, producers, voters, lobbyists and litigants. 

        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.  This is a
limited enrollment course and there will be a conventional exam.