Categories: Legal History Legal Theory and Jurisprudence

Instructor(s)

Schweitzer, Nick

Course Data

Room 3226
T 2:40pm-4:40pm

Pass/Fail: Yes

Course Description

The class will look at selected legal systems throughout the world and throughout history to examine how a culture's structure and values are reflected in its fundamental legal documents, its mechanisms for creating and enforcing laws, and its dispute resolution systems. Topics to be covered (some in depth and some superficially, and possibly subject to change) include the Code of Hammurabi, Egyptian law ancient and modern, ancient Greek law, ancient Roman law, Chinese law ancient and modern, Japanese law ancient and modern, Mexican law, Native American dispute resolution systems, the German and French code systems, Jewish law, Islamic law, and the developing law of the European Union. Students will be expected to make a class presentation on a legal system of their choice.

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
1. understand the U.S. legal system as the product of centuries and millennia of cultural, social and legal development;

2. compare and contrast the U.S. legal system to systems in other countries and other times, and see their strengths and weaknesses.

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