Fall 2024 Class Descriptions: Electives
Jurisprudence (LWJT530)
Instructor(s): Staff
3 credit(s), Letter Graded
There is more than one way of finding a solution to any given legal problem. Some judges search for answers syllogistically, sometimes exaggerating the transparency of text (legal formalism), while others purport to seek solutions through original meaning or close, logical readings of text (e.g., textualism). Still other judges look for answers in the social ends of law, disciplined only by the judge's personal sense of justice (legal realism) or by well-defined community needs (sociological jurisprudence) or by existing governmental or social arrangements (legal process). This course gives students an opportunity to study these judicial techniques and to sharpen their understanding of case analysis. Beyond studying such “traditional process,” this course also gives students an opportunity to explore out-of-the-box thinking about judicial decision making by studying oppositional theories of judicial decision making called “critical process.” Unlike traditional process (e.g., originalism), critical process seeks to vindicate the norms of outsider groups (e.g., racial minorities, women, and LGBTQ community). Applying traditional process and critical process to a variety of legal problems—from personal jurisdiction to Second Amendment, school financing to ESL, trans-racial adoption to First Amendment, eminent domain to the right to shelter (or unshelter), discrimination based on intersectionality to discrimination based on gender nonconformity, violence against women to immigration—our main mission is to find ways to reconcile traditional process and critical process based on our society’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. This course has a final exam.