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Course Details

Constitutional Theory (Berman)

Fall 2024   LAW 946-001  

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Faculty
Mitchell Berman

Leon Meltzer Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy

mitchberman@law.upenn.edu
Additional Information

Skills Training
Expository Writing

Grading
20% Participation,
80% Paper,
Other (Students will submit one very short paper during the semester (30% of the final grade) and one medium-length paper (50% of the final grade) at the end of the exam period. )

Satisfies Senior Writing Requirement

With Permission of Instructor

Location

Class meets in person.

Course Continuity
Students are encouraged to stay home if you are ill or experience flu-like symptoms. If you miss a class for any reason, it is still your responsibility to make up the work missed.

I offer the following to students who miss class due to illness:

- If you are absent, due to illness or some other unavoidable circumstance, email me and I can ask for volunteers among your classmates to share their notes with you.

Meeting Times/Location
T 4:30PM - 6:30PM
Silverman Hall 270

Category
Seminar

Credits
3.0

This seminar will critically examine leading academic theories of American constitutional interpretation. While drawing on the most important work written in the 19th and 20th centuries for historical background and context, the seminar focuses on live debates between originalism and nonoriginalism, within originalism, and within nonoriginalism. For better or worse, the 2024 version of this seminar will spend a good bit of time with portions of a book-in-progress by the instructor. For balance (but only if we're lucky), one or two other active contributors to the literature will visit late in the semester to defend their theories and to critique the instructor's.

The reading load will be moderately heavy. Students will be expected to read the assigned material carefully and to participate actively in class discussions. They will submit one short paper during the semester and one medium length paper (which can be a revised and expanded version of the first paper but does not have to be) at the end of exam period.

IMPORTANT: This seminar is usually oversubscribed. If you are put on the waitlist, but still want in, you must attend the first meeting.

Course Concentrations

Constitutional Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of constitutional law; Perform legal analysis in the context of constitutional law; Communicate effectively on topics related to constitutional law; Demonstrate an understanding of constitutional law affects other areas of law.

Courts and the Judicial System Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of both substantive and procedural issues in the operation of our legal system; Perform legal analysis in the context of procedural issues and the judicial process; Communicate effectively on topics related to procedure and the judicial process; Demonstrate an understanding of how procedural issues and the judicial process affect all other area of our legal system.

Perspectives on the Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of how the law affects, and is affected by, the individual course topic; Perform legal analysis in the context of the individual course topic; Communicate effectively on the legal and other aspects of the individual course topic; Demonstrate the ability to use other disciplines to analyze legal issues relevant to the individual course topic, including economics, philosophy, and sociology, as appropriate.