Jurisprudence and Legal History

This seminar is intended to introduce students to key concepts in evolutionary biology (pre-adaptive and vestigial uses, punctuated equilibrium, path dependence, speciation, etc.) and to explore the extent to which these concepts are useful in thinking about constitutional law and how it evolves. The seminar is also intended to give students an opportunity to pull together on a macro-level multiple concepts that have already been encountered in constitutional law classes as well as in other required courses. Students will be given an opportunity to think "outside-the-box" in considering different philosophical and interpretive approaches to constitutional law as well as to the role of law in society.

Explores the many ways in which race and the law have interacted historically and continue to interact. Students read and discuss a wide variety of materials, presenting a variety of viewpoints. Materials include historical, social-scientific, critical race theory, and feminist writers, as well as current legal materials. The goal in the seminar is to assist each participant to develop his or her own thinking on this important current issue. Students may take this course for 2 or 3 credits. Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, and students who have already satisfied the long paper requirement and plan to write another long paper in this course, should register for three credits.