Law 6226/AMH 6557, Spring
2001
T,W,Th 8:00-9:00 am
Room 283, Holland Hall Law Center
Levin College of
Law, University of Florida
The course is designed for both advanced law students and
graduate students in history. There are common readings, listed below, and
extra readings for history graduate students, who are also expected to attend
an addition hour long seminar (at a time to be arranged) for discussion. (Law
students who wish to participate in this extra seminar may do so, but they must
plan to do so consistently, and need to contact me about their plans so that I
can find a suitable room.)
The course is organized both chronologically, and
thematically, so that we will examine particular issues as we consider the
legal history of specific periods. As a result of this mixed approach, we will
occasionally revisit a period of time we had dealt with previously, in order to
examine a different aspect of law at that time. In daily lectures and
discussion, we will explore the historical context for the materials covered in
each period, and the issues raised in each theme.
Assignments and due dates are listed in the syllabus below,
assignments are due the date stated and extensions will rarely be given (and
will never be given if they are requested on the due date).
Readings:
Books (common):
Boyer and
Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed
Kuttner, Privilege
and Creative Destruction
Cohen, Murder of Helen Jewett
Goodman, Scottsboro
Stories
Larsen, Summer
of the Gods
Kluger, Simple
Justice
Cases and Materials (common): may be
accessed directly through this syllabus, by clicking on each reading.
Grad student readings (extra): are
listed for each week under “extra readings.”
Requirements:
Take home
mid term, worth 25% of final grade
Take home
final, worth 75% of final grade
Graduate students:
Participation
in extra readings’ seminar, worth 25% of final grade
Seminar
paper, worth 75% of final grade
Assignments:
Part 1. Introduction to legal history:
Week 1 (1/8-1/12):
Th: intro to course
Part 2. The early colonial period, a comparative
introduction to the nature and sources of law:
Week 2: (1/15-1/19):
T: Massachusetts Bay
Charter, 1629; Sermon
on the Arbella
W: Williams, Bloudy Tenent of
Persecution; Winthrop, Speech
on Liberty
Th: Laws and
Liberties; Child’s
Remonstrance
Extra
readings: Tomlins, “The Mirror
Crack’d”
Grossberg,
Social History Update, “Fighting Faiths”
Week 3 (1/22-1/26):
T: Charter of Carolina
(1665); Fundamental
Constitution of Carolina (1669)
W: Fundamental
Constitution of New Haven (1639); Fundamental Constitution
of East New Jersey (1683)
Th: Frame
of Government for Pennsylvnia (1683); Penn’s Charter of
Liberty (1682)
Extra
readings: Oliver Wendell
Holmes, “The Path of Law”
Week 4 (1/29-2/2):
T: Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem
Possessed
Part 3. The late colonial and early national period: who has the power to determine “constitutionality” and why?
W: Articles of
Association (1774); Declaration
of Independence (1776)
Th: Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions; Rhode Island and New Hampshire
Reaction to the Resolutions
Extra
readings: Tushnet,
“Interdisciplinary Legal Scholarship”
Week 5 (2/5-2/9):
T: Marbury v.
Madison; Report
and Resolutions of the Hartford Convention
W: South Carolina
Ordinance on Nullification; President
Jackson’s Proclamation
on Nullification; South Carolina’s Reply to Jackson’s
Proclamation
***grad
student paper topics due***
Th: wrap up section
Extra
readings: Gordon, Critical
Legal Histories
Part 4. Judicial Power in the first half of the Nineteenth Century, Economics or Something Else?
Week 6 (2/12-2/16):
T: Dartmouth
College v. Woodward (1819);
W: Enfield Toll Bridge v. Connecticut River (1828); Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
Th: Charles
River Bridge Case (1837); Farwell v. Boston &
Worcester RR, 45 Mass. 49 (1842)
Extra readings: Gallanter, Why the Haves Come out on Top
***midterms handed out, law students***
Week 7 (2/19-2/23):
T: Louisville & Nashville v. Collins,
2 Duvall 114 (1865); Kuttner, Privilege and Creative Destruction
Part 5. The changing meaning of citizenship in the
nineteenth century
Th: Taney opinion, Scott v.
Sanford
Extra readings: Forbath, et al, Legal Histories
from Below
Sarat and
Kearns, Beyond the Great Divide
Week 8 (2/26-3/2):
T: Curtis
opinion, Scott v. Sanford
W: McLean
opinion, Scott v. Sanford
Th: wrap up Scott
***midterm due, law students***
Extra
readings: Fisher, Texts and
Contexts in Legal History
Week 10 (3/12-3/16)
W: Civil
Rights Cases, Baylies v. Curry (Ill App Court); Baylies v. Curry
(Ill. S.Ct.)
Part 6. The Importance of Popular Justice, Who has the power
to interpret the law?
Th: Cohen, Murder of Helen Jewett
Extra
readings: Kuehn, Reading
Microhistory: Giovanni and Lusanna
Week 11 (3/19-3/23):
T: Batholomew
v. Clark (1816); Commonwealth v.
Worcester (1826);
Commonwealth
v. Knapp (1830)
W: Charge to the Grand Jury (re Fugitive
Slave Act); Morris v. United States
Th: Sparf and
Hansen v. United States; Bruner v. Illinois
Extra
readings: Hartog, Pigs and
Positivism
Week 12 (3/26-3/30)
T: Coffee v. Florida
(1889); Adams v. Florida (1891); Garcia v.
State (1894)
W: Larsen, Summer of the Gods
Part 7. Nationalizing the Bill of Rights
Th: Plessy v. Fergusen;
Hurtaldo v. California
Extra
readings: Forbath, Ambiguities
of Free Labor
Week 13 (4/2-4/6)
Note: On Monday, at 9pm on
PBS, there will be a documentary on the Scottsboro Trials, one of the most
significant criminal and civil rights cases of the first half of the twentieth
century. If you have the time, you might try to watch (or tape) the show. We
will be reading the book that led to the documentary in a few days.
T: Lochner v. New
York; Muller v. Oregon
W: Twining v. New
Jersey; Palko v. Connecticut
Th: Goodman, Stories of Scottsboro
Extra
readings: Dorr, Article from
Dec 2000 Journal of Southern History
Week 14 (4/9-4/13):
T: US v.
Carolene Products; Adamson v. California
W: Brown v. Board of Education
Th: Heart of Atlanta v.
United States
Extra
reading: Umphrey,
Dialogics of Legal Meaning
Week 15 (4/16-4/20):
W: Kluger, Simple Justice
Th: Kluger, Simple Justice
No extra
readings, grad students work on seminar papers
*** law
student take home final handed out***
Week 16 (4/23-4/27)
T: Griswold v.
Connecticut; Roe v. Wade
W: Planned Parenthood v.
Casey
Th: no class
No extra
readings, grad students work on seminar papers