The program in Law, Letters, and Society is concerned with law in civilian and customary legal systems, both historically and contemporaneously. The program is designed to develop the student's analytical skills to enable informed and critical examination of law broadly construed. The organizing premise of the program is that law is a tool of social organization and control, not simply an expression of will or aspiration, and that it is best understood by careful study of both rhetorical artifacts and empirical consequences of its application. Program requirements are constructed to support the organizing premise, and, because of the nature of the requirements, transfer students ordinarily are not eligible to register as concentrators.

The program requires course work in three areas, although there is a reasonably broad latitude both expected and permitted in satisfaction of the distributional requirement. There is a substantial writing requirement; candidates for special honors are expected to produce further written work under the close supervision of a faculty member whose area of scholarly concern is related to the broad objectives of the program.

Course work is required in three areas. After successfully completing the Introductory Course, students must take two courses in Letters and two courses in Society. In addition, students must complete six other courses that, while not necessarily offered or listed formally under either rubric, are substantively supportive of the topics, areas, skills, or concerns of the two areas. Courses satisfying the additional requirement are identified on an annual basis, and final approval of additional required course work is made on the basis of consultations between the student and the program chairman.

The Introductory Course. The introductory course must precede all other course work in the concentration, because it establishes the intellectual moorings of the program. The importance of the introductory course lies not in its content (indeed, its precise focus and scope tends to be different every year) but on its approach to the nature of law. In 1999-2000, for example, the introductory course is Legal Reasoning, a study, based primarily on cases, of the classic conventions of legal argument in the Anglo-American legal system. In other years, the introductory course might be Roman Law or Greek Law, Medieval Law, or a text-based course on ancient legal philosophy, or a comparison of modern legal categories and policies with those of former societies and cultures. The objective is not so much to establish a historical foundation for modern studies as to demonstrate that legal systems are culturally rooted; that urgent, presentist concerns may obscure important characteristics of legal ideas and behavior; and that many recurrent themes in Western legal thought are shaped or driven by both common and uncommon features. Unlike many legal studies programs that attempt to orient study of the law in primarily contemporary debates, usually in the field of American constitutional law, the program seeks to organize its exploration of law as a system rather than as a forum or an instrument.

Other Course Work. After completing the introductory course, students must take two courses each in the Letters and Society divisions of the program, plus six other courses complementary to the required work, as outlined previously (the other six courses may be ones cross listed in the program or may be from other disciplines). Letters and Society are not meant as fixed or self-defining fields, but instead as organizational categories emphasizing two fundamental modes of examining law in a systemic fashion. Courses under the rubric of Letters (whether based in the program or in English, philosophy, or political theory) tend to be based on the study of literary and historical artifacts, such as cases, tracts, conventional literature, or other texts, and emphasize the ways in which law formally constitutes itself. Questions of interpretative and normative theory, rhetorical strategy, and the like are central to such courses. Society serves to organize studies from a variety of different disciplines (including history, political science, economics, and sociology) that try to measure, with different techniques and at different times, the effect of law on society. The combined objective is to treat law as an intellectual activity and as a phenomenon, and to emphasize that both occur in contexts that help to shape them, whether ancient or modern.

Research. In addition to satisfying the course requirements, each concentrator must produce evidence of sustained research in the form of two substantial papers. Normally, this requirement is satisfied during the junior and senior years by papers prepared on the basis of work done in conjunction with courses offered in the program (although the paper may or may not be part of the routine requirements of the course). The scope, method, and objective of the paper, as well as its length, are subject to negotiation between the student and the instructor.

Honors. In Law, Letters, and Society, the primary requirement for honors is a distinguished senior paper. After completion of the first half of the writing requirement in the junior year in conjunction with regular course work, the student chooses an instructor to decide mutually whether the student does research and submits a paper for honors. Papers submitted pursuant to such agreements are examined by a second reader, who must agree with the primary instructor that special honors are merited. No formal grade requirement supplements these conditions.

Reading and Research Courses. For students with a legitimate interest in pursuing study that cannot be met by means of regular courses, there is an option of devising a reading and research course to be supervised by a member of the faculty and graded, like other NCD 298 courses, on a Pass/Fail basis. Such courses may not be used to satisfy the requirements of either the two-course Letters or two-course Society requirements, but up to two such courses may be used to satisfy part of the other six required courses, with the written permission of the program chairman obtained in advance of initiation of the work.

Grading. Two of the six supplementary courses required in the program may, with the consent of the instructor, be taken on a Pass/No Credit basis.

Advising. Students who wish to concentrate in Law, Letters, and Society should consult with the program chair early in spring quarter of their first year, at which time the students arrange to consult with the program chairman on their course of study in the program. Students should continue to consult their College advisers with respect to general degree requirements.

242. Legal Reasoning. PQ: Open only to LL/Soc concentrators with consent of instructor. This course is an introduction to legal reasoning in a customary legal system. The first part examines the analytical conventions that lawyers and judges purport to use. The second part examines fundamental tenets of constitutional interpretation. Both judicial decisions and commentary are used, although the case method is emphasized. D. Hutchinson. Autumn.

224. Rhetorical Theories of Legal and Political Reasoning (=Hum 214, Id/Met 324, LL/Soc 224, SocSci 224). This course uses Plato's Gorgias to raise the question of whether practical thinking is possible and considers responses to this question by such writers as Aristotle, Cicero, and Machiavelli. We study the methods and concepts that each writer uses to defend the cogency of legal, deliberative, or more generally political prudence against explicit or implicit charges that practical thinking is merely a knack or form of cleverness. W. Olmsted. Autumn.

243. American Law and the Rhetoric of Race (=Law 598, LL/Soc 243, PolSci 223). This course examines the ways American law has treated legal issues involving race. Two episodes are studied in detail: the criminal law of slavery during the antebellum period and the constitutional attack on state-imposed segregation in the twentieth century. The case method is used, although close attention is paid to litigation strategy and judicial opinion. D. Hutchinson. Winter.

261. Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws (=Fndmtl 261, LL/Soc 261). Through a close reading of Montesquieu's principal work, The Spirit of the Laws, we examine the distinctive genius of this influential figure of the early Enlightenment. We focus on the nature of, and reasons for, Montesquieu's fascination with the immense variety of human governments, codes of law, and ways of life, as well as with the profound influence of local and historical circumstances on human affairs. F. DuVinage. Spring.

292. Political Philosophy: Aristotle (=Fndmtl 292, LL/Soc 292, PolSci 315). PQ: Consent of instructor. This course is a detailed study of Aristotle's Politics. J. Cropsey. Winter.

215. The Church and the Law in Medieval England and Europe (=Hist 226, LL/Soc 215). This course uses England as the primary example, but also looks at the European setting for major institutions of the medieval Church and how they related to the structure of secular law. Topics include the rise of Papal government, investiture, ecclesiastical patronage, canon law, the organization of monasteries and religious orders, and ecclesiastical finance. In addition to the practical working of institutions, attention is given to medieval theories about the relation of the Church to secular government. C. Gray. Spring.

216. Impeachment and the Constitution (=Id/Met 316, LL/Soc 216). Three presidential "impeachments" (Johnson, Nixon, and Clinton), in addition to those of some judges, are examined to raise questions about what are impeachable offenses and the manner in which specific judgments of removal from office should be reached, answers to which are not obvious from the Constitution. We also discuss the appropriate functionings of Congress and the Executive and the relations between them, and how and why these have changed since 1787. We focus on how constitutional interpretation and the making of constitutional "law" has not been confined to court decisions. D. Smigelskis. Autumn.

218. Emancipatory Narratives (=Hum 239, Id/Met 318, LL/Soc 218). Some reflective autobiographies written in mid-career are featured. The primary texts are Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, Bill Bradley's Life on the Run, and James Watson's The Double Helix. Each exemplifies how some people have used various resources and strategies to increase their ability to act without simultaneously diminishing the similar abilities of others in situations that require overcoming systemically oppressive obstacles. This is in part accomplished through examples of how a flourishing in certain types of activities has been achieved and the kinds of satisfactions involved. Other texts are chosen as the interests of the class emerge in discussion. D. Smigelskis. Spring.

231. Environmental Law (=EnvStd 231, LL/Soc 231, PubPol 231). PQ: Third- or fourth-year standing or consent of instructor. This lecture/discussion course examines the development of laws and legal institutions that address environmental problems and advance environmental policies. Topics include the common law background to traditional environmental regulation; the explosive growth and impact of federal environmental laws in the second half of the twentieth century; regulations and the urban environment; and the evolution of local and national legal structures in response to global environmental change. H. L. Henderson. Autumn.

236. The Environment in U.S. History (=EnvStd 236, Hist 190, LL/Soc 236). This course examines the importance of land, water, and other natural resources to the American vision of opportunity and social progress. It explores the environmental consequences of the competition for control of these scarce resources between Native-American, European-American, and Mexican-American cultures during the eras of colonial exploration, territorial expansion, industrialization, urbanization, conservation, and twentieth-century regulation. Although earlier environmental contests did not always utilize our current rhetoric, this course illustrates that the issues debated today have long been a part of the American story. K. Brosnan. Spring.

269. Medicine and the Law (=LL/Soc 269, NCD 269, PubPol 269, SocSci 269). An introductory investigation of the relations and conflicts between the law and the profession of medicine. After an initial segment involving informed consent and patient refusal, the course is divided into two parts. The first part follows the development of the "right to privacy" with particular emphasis on the legal precedents involving access to contraception and abortion; the second studies the termination of life sustaining treatment precedents from Quinlan to the Supreme Court physician-assisted suicide cases. Each class is divided into two parts: a discussion of the cases and an attempt to resolve a contemporary controversy involving the law as announced by the cases. A. Goldblatt. Spring.

278. Aristotle's Politics (=Fndmtl 256, Hum 256, Id/Met 316, LL/Soc 278). Special attention is given to the problems Aristotle thought important to consider and why they continue to be problems that are worthy of attention. Of particular interest is the manner in which politics is distinct from but interrelated with many other enterprises and the shaping of the inquiry as a deliberation that is meant to eventuate in choices by the readers. D. Smigelskis. Autumn.

279. The Federalist Papers (=Fndmtl 258, Hum 258, Id/Met 372, LL/Soc 279). This text is the first sustained commentary on the U.S. Constitution. It assumes that the Constitution is not self-interpreting. As such it is read in its entirety as an introduction to the problems and possibilities of both the specifics talked about and the more generic features of a certain type of text. In addition, it is argued that much of what is provided, especially in the first fifty-one of the total eighty-four papers, is meant to be relevant to an appreciation of considerations appropriate to the making, more generally, of certain kinds of practical decisions. Context for these activities is provided as needed in the form of background data as well as some other texts of the same period which deal with the same kinds of problems and activities. D. Smigelskis. Spring.

282. Liability, Responsibility, and Causality. This is a course on texts relating to a cluster of concepts, but the texts are studied in all dimensions, not as illustrations of a premediate theme. Assessing blame, feeling guilt, assigning legal liability, and taking responsibility, and how these relate to thinking of one act or event as the cause of another, constitute the conceptual core. Texts are primarily Greek (legal oratory, such as the Tetralogies of Antiphon, the Oedipus plays, and Aristotle on causality), but a few modern classics of philosophy and jurisprudence are also read. C. Gray. Winter.

294. Research Seminar. PQ: Consent of instructor. Class limited to fifteen students. This research seminar examines problems in modern American constitutional history. Topics are selected by students with approval of the instructor. Prior topics include inherent Presidential power, due process in prisons, sexual preference and equal protection, impeachment, and Congressional control of foreign affairs. D. Hutchinson. Autumn.