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MATERIALS:    UP↑

Bolt, A Man for All Seasons
Cohen & Fermon, Princeton Readings In Political Thought
Strunk & White Elements of Style
Roberts, Penguin History of the World
All other readings will be posted on the website.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:    UP↑

Content

This course will consider the ethical and conceptual foundations of the Western legal tradition considered in its historical context. Areas covered include the idea of justice, the relationship of the individual to the community, the nature of law and its relationship to morality, the foundations and justification of government authority, and the obligation, if any, to obey the law. The course will also consider the nature of specific types of law including various forms of private and public law as well as the foundations of international law. Three underlying questions will be continually addressed during the course of the semester:  

• What is law?
• How do we know what the law is?
• Why should we care what the law is?

Skills

This course is designed not only to teach you the ideas of others but also to help you develop and present your own ideas. Class discussions will help you to articulate your thoughts on issues presented in the reading and to anticipate objections. The writing assignments are designed to help you learn to formulate your arguments clearly and concisely. Making the effort to state your meaning precisely in writing will help you in thinking through your arguments.

General Education Credit

Western Legal Tradition is one of Five Foundation Courses in Cluster Two: Western Heritage and Institutions of Curricular Area Two, Traditions that Shape the Western World.  The Foundation courses in this cluster are:

GOVT-105G Individual Freedom vs. Authority
HIST-115G Work and Community
JLS-110G Western Legal Tradition
PHIL-105G Western Philosophy
RELG-105G The Religious Heritage of the West
 

This course is the first of a two-course sequence. Any of the following courses will complete the sequence:

COMM-270G How the News Media Shape History
HIST-235G The West in Crisis, 1900-1945
JLS-225G American Legal Culture
LFS-230G The Modernist Explosion: Culture and Ideology in Europe
PHIL-220G Moral Philosophy
PHIL-235G Theories of Democracy
PHYS-230G Changing Views of the Universe
RELG-220G Religious Thought
SOCY-215G The Rise of Critical Social Thought

 

REQUIREMENTS:  UP↑

Active class participation: all students are expected to attend class regularly and to be prepared to discuss the reading. Students may be called upon to participate in class.  No passing is permitted. Each student will be allowed 1 un-excused absence. Thereafter, each un-excused absence will reduce your final grade by one level (e.g. B+ to B) Excuses for absences will only be given for documented illness or deaths in the family. Study the class calendar carefully to make sure that you don't have any prior commitments that would preclude you from meeting these requirements. There may be several unannounced quizzes on the reading which will be counted towards the participation grade.

• NOTE This class is scheduled to meet for 4 hours on Thursday evenings. While we will probably not meet for every evening session you must attend for those sessions that are scheduled.
  
  
• Students will be expected to submit one paper every week of not more than 2 pages summarizing and critiquing the reading. Students should be prepared to read their papers in class.  These submissions will be marked on a pass/fail basis and will affect the final grade in the following two ways: excellent submissions will be used to improve the final grade and failure to present submissions for a class will lower the final grade. 
  
  
• There will be two analytical paper assignments. You may revise either or both of the paper assignments in response to comments made by me; your paper will then be regraded and the new grade will replace the original grade. The essays should be concise, neat (typed, double spaced), free of grammatical and spelling errors, and submitted on time. Use of a style manual such as William Strunk & E.B. White, The Elements of Style,is strongly recommended.
  
  
• There will be a final exam.
  
  
• Papers must be submitted on the dates specified on the syllabus. It is your responsibility to make sure that sudden emergencies (like your dog eating your paper) do not prevent you from submitting it on time. Late papers will be marked downwards on the basis of 1 grade per day. Because you have the option to re write your paper for a new grade it is always in your interest to submit your paper on time even if the paper is not completed to your satisfaction. You may rewrite your paper for a higher grade but deductions for late submissions will also reduce your rewritten paper. While rewritten papers nearly always result in higher grades resubmitted papers that have not actually been rewritten will receive a lower grade than the original paper. Merely correcting typographical or spelling errors does not count as a re written paper. Students who want to rewrite their papers must meet with me first to discuss my comments and your ideas about the paper.

Tests must be taken on the scheduled dates. The date of the final exam is listed at the end of this syllabus. Please make sure you do not purchase any non-refundable tickets home or make any other plans that will take you out of town before that date. Exceptions will be made only in cases of documented illness or deaths in the family. When such documentation is provided, the student will be excused from that exam and the final grade will be calculated from the other existing bases for evaluation.

This is a paperless class.  Assignments will only be accepted through the digital drop box provided on the class blackboard site.  It is your responsibility to register yourself for the blackboard site. 

Course timing: You will note that there are no dates associated with the reading. This is because the purpose of the class is to teach analytical and writing skills. The readings are tools towards this end. So we will proceed at the pace that is appropriate for this class and use our class meetings to develop your skills in these areas. This means that you will have to pay attention to what we have discussed in class and be prepared to discuss the next three readings that are listed in the syllybus during the following class meeting.

GRADING (subject to qualification described below):   UP↑

Two Papers -- 25% each
Othello Play And Panel -- 10%
Class participation -- (including weekly papers and possible quizzes)- 20%
Final exam -- 20%

STANDARDS:    UP↑

Grading standards are in part subjective and excellence in one area may compensate for deficiencies in another. No curve will be used to calculate the grades in this class. Hence, it is theoretically possible for every student to receive an A if he or she meets the standards for that grade. My primary goals are for each student to develop the critical thinking skills and to understand the ideas covered in this course by the time it is completed. If later exams and papers illustrate this proficiency, earlier grades which do not will be discounted. The following will give you a general guide as to the typical performance associated with each letter grade:

A: all course requirements met, work shows full understanding of course material and an original perspective on the subject

B: all course requirements met, work shows full understanding of course material (or satisfactory understanding of course material and an original perspective on the subject)

C: all course requirements met, work shows satisfactory understanding of course material

D: work fails to meet minimum course requirements, either in full and timely completion of requirements or in satisfactory understanding of course material

F: work falls far below minimum course requirements either in full and timely completion of requirements or in satisfactory understanding of course material.University and Classroom Standards:

The American University's "Academic Integrity Code" governing standards for academic conduct apply. Students may discuss the subject matter of their essays with anyone. All students, however, must compose their own essays and may not show or read their essays to any other persons, except for proofreading or typing assistance by a person not enrolled or previously enrolled in the course. The use of another person's words or ideas without proper attribution constitutes plagiarism or false authorship. Both are serious academic offenses. By turning in an essay, a student is certifying that the essay is entirely his/her own work. If there are any questions about this matter, consult the Academic Integrity code or see the instructor.

***************

Freedom of expression is at the root of academic discourse and the advancement of knowledge. This course will deal with a wide range of topics some of which may challenge a student's deeply held beliefs and perhaps even cause offense. While no topic will be censored simply because it has this effect, students are expected to treat the differing views of others with respect. While a tolerance towards the opinions of others does not preclude expressions of disagreement, which are, indeed, encouraged, it does require that these expressions be based on the content of the ideas expressed and not on the personal traits or values of the speaker. All class participants will be expected to tolerate the expression of opposing views and to engage in reasoned discourse about them.

I will endeavor to insure that the classroom is free of any conduct that has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating or hostile environment. Furthermore, I will attempt to give each student an opportunity to express his or her own opinions and to treat student opinions with respect. Any student who believes that he or she has not been given fair or adequate opportunity to contribute to class discussion is encouraged to bring this to my attention.

I am genuinely interested in student development and the generation of critical understanding of the issues addressed in this course. If you have any questions or problems and would like to discuss them with me, please call me, visit me during my office hours, or make an appointment to meet with me at a mutually convenient time and location. If problems arise that may affect your performance in this course (e.g. academic, health, family, or other personal matters), it is important that you bring these issues to my attention when they arise and not wait until they interfere with some class exercise such as a paper or an exam. I am eager to assist you in making this an interesting and beneficial educational experience.
 

PARTTHREE:  INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF LAW AND MORALITY: POTENTIAL CONFLICTS
	Institutes of Justinian, Preamble Book 1 & 11  Plus Commentary	Web Site
	Laws of Alfred	Web Site
	Constitutions of Clarendon	Web Site
	Assize of Clarendon	Web Site
	Murder of Thomas à Becket	Web Site
	Saladin Tithe	Web Site
	Bolt, A Man For All Seasons		Life In Elizabethan Times
	SUMMARY OF HENRY'S REACH FOR C ONTROL		Life of Thomas More (as told by his son in law, William Roper).
	Supremacy Act of 1534	Web Site	Select Documents of English ConstitutionalHistory
	Treasons Acts of Henry VIII	Web Site
	Act of Succession of Henry VIII	Web Site
	M. L. King, Letter From A Birmingham Jail	Web Site
	Thoreau Civil Disobedience	Web Site
PARTFOUR: OBLIGATIONSANCTIONSANDDUEPROCESS
	Plato,	The Apology
	Legal Document	Bushell's Case, Background and Decision
	Plato	Crito
	Sophocles,	Antigone
	Retrial of Antigone (In class)
PART FIVE: THE SOURCES OF WESTERN LAW: REASON,CHARISMA & IRRATIONALITY
	Manchester,  "The Shattering" from " A World Lit Only By Fire	Reading on the Web site
	Weber,	Politics As A Vocation
PART SIX:INDIVIDUAL, COMMUNITY& LEGALOBLIGATION:HUMANNATUREANDTHESOCIALCONTRACT
	Hobbes,	Leviathan
*******	Locke,	Second Treatise of Government
*******	Rousseau,	Discourse On The Origins of Inequality			Philosophers Website
*******	King John & The Barons,	Magna Carta
	Rousseau, The Social Contrac
	Walzer In Defense of Equality	Cohen & Fermon, 656
	Elizabeth (Movie Showtime to be announced)
PART SEVEN: EMERGENCEOFPROPERTYRIGHTS: ORIGINSANDIMPLICATIONS
	Bergin & Haskell, The Feudal Beginnings (Estates In Land & Future Etc.)	Web Site
	Honoré	Ownership
	Locke,	Second Treatise of Government (section on property)
	Marx,	The Communist Manifesto
	Nozick,	Anarchy State & Utopia
	Baby M Contracts Reading on web site	Web Site
	C. Fried, Contract As Promise	Web Site
	G.A. Cohen,	Capitalism, Freedom, And The Proletariat
PART   EIGHT: POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE FREEDOM IN WESTERN LAW
	Berlin, Two Concepts of Liberty	Web Site
	Declaration of Rights of Man and of Citizens	Cohen & Fermon, 347
	Dostoevsky,	The Grand Inquisitor
		Virginia Declaration of Rights
	Hamilton	"Federalist 84"
	Recommended
	V.I. Lenin, What Is to Be Done?	Cohen & Fermon, 53
	Nietzsche,	On The Genealogy of Morals		Especially Preface and Essays I & II
	Legal Document	"Translations of Reich Citizenship Laws"
	Final Record of DiplomaticConference of Geneva of 1929	Web Site
	Second Paper Due
	Thanksgiving Holiday - No class
	Wertmuller, Seven Beauties (Movie showtime to be announced)
	Bettelheim, Surviving	Web Site
PART NINE: INTERNATIONAL LAW & HUMAN RIGHTS:WESTERNLAWINTHEORY AND PRACTICE
	Handouts On Humanitarian Intervention, Sovereignty, Nationalism And Citizenship
	Bentham,	Anarchical Fallacies
	Charter of Human Rights	Web Site
	U. S. Constitution, Bill of Rights	Web Site
	Universal Declaration of Human Rights	Web Site
	International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights	Web Site
	International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights	Web Site
	World Court Case: Nicaragua v. United States	Web Site
	CONCLUSION
	Final Exam MAY 4 -- 8:30 AM -11:00 AM