Western Legal Tradition 

Syllabus

• Materials
• Course Description
• General Education Credit
• Requirements
• Grading
• Schedule

 Materials

Required:

• Course Packet - available at Campus Store
• Aeschylus, Oresteia 
• Sophocles, The Theban Plays
• Bolt, A Man for All Seasons
• Plato, Trial and Death of Socrates G.M.A. Grube, trans. (Hackett Pub.)
• Plato, Gorgias, Donald Zeyl, trans. (Hackett Pub.)

Recommended: 

• Anouilh, Becket
• J. Kelly, A Short History of Western Legal Theory

 Course Description

 Content

 Skills

 General Education Credit

• HIST 205 America's Quests: The US to 1865
• JWST 205 Ancient and Medieval Jewish Civ.
• PHIL 220 Moral Philosophy
• SOCY 215 Rise of Critical Social Thought
• JLS 220 Cities and Crime
• 73.1 American Legal Culture

 Requirements

1. All students are expected to attend class consistently and to arrive on time. You are allowed two unexcused absences during the semester.   Attendance will be taken at 8:30 a.m. 
2. You are expected to complete the reading assignment before class and to bring the book to class with you. 
3. There will be a class listserv (group mailing list) to which you are required to make ten contributions during the semester. 

1. There will be two paper assignments. You may revise either or both of these papers in response to comments; your paper will then be re-graded and the new grade will replace the original grade. 
2. There will be a midterm and a final exam. Study sheets will be provided for each test. Papers must be submitted at the beginning of class on the dates specified on the syllabus. Papers (including revised papers) submitted outside class, or at a later date, will not be graded.  It is your responsibility to make sure that your computer does not eat your paper. 
3. Tests must be taken on the scheduled dates. No make-up tests will be given.  In case of documented illness, the student will be entirely excused from the test and the final grade will be computed from the remaining assignments. 

 Grading

• Participation - 20%

 

Participation grade will be based on class contributions, ability to answer questions based on the reading, and contributions to the listserv. If you don't like to speak up in class, you can raise your participation grade by making extra contributions to the listserv.

• Papers - Each 20%
• Midterm - 20%
• Final exam - 20%
• Attendance

Attendance is required. You are permitted two unexcused absences; your course grade will be lowered by 1/3 grade for each three additional absences. Thus, if your course grade is a B, and you have five unexcused absences, your grade will be lowered to a B-. Exceptions will be made for documented illness. 

Standards:

Grading standards are in part subjective and excellence in one area may compensate for deficiencies in another. 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.