JLS 110

JLS 110

Western Legal Tradition

Prof. Deirdre Golash

Fall 2005

Office: Ward 252

Office hours: MTh 2-4:30 pm; T 8-9 pm

Phone: 202 885-2955 (Call any time; you can leave a message if I am not in)

E-mail: dgolash@american.edu

Course website: http://www.american.edu/dgolash/wltf05.htm

Teaching Assistant: Sharon Melzer (Sharon.Melzer@american.edu)

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE Dates and reading assignments are subject to change! Be sure to check with your TA if you miss class announcements.
Date	Reading (in course packet unless otherwise noted)	Assignment
August 29	Introduction Levinson, The Adultery Clause of the Ten Commandments [handout]	Forward your AU email
	Law in the Ancient World
September 1	Aldred, The Egyptians The Judgment of the Dead/Spell 125 The Loyalist Instruction from the Sehetepibre Stela	Respond to test email Post a comment on Blackboard
September 5	Labor Day - Holiday
September 8-12	The Code of Hammurabi (c. 1780 B.C.)
September 15	Hebrew Law [web] Glassroth v. Moore (2004) [web]
	Greece
September 19	Homer, Iliad (c. 800 B.C.) Aeschylus, The Furies
September 22	Plato (437-347 B.C.): Apology Plato, Crito	First paper due
September 26	Plato: Gorgias
September 29	Plato, Republic
October 3	Thucydides, Pelopponesian War (c. 430 B.C.)
October 6	Sophocles, Antigone (441 B.C.) King, Letter from Birmingham City Jail (1963) [web] In re Judith Miller (2005) [handout]	Links to web materials are on the course website.
October 10	Fall break
October 13	MIDTERM (firm date)	Midterm
	Rome
October 17	Cicero, De Legibus (51 B.C.) Roman Empire (website)
October 20	Augustine on Heretics, Letters (4^th century A.D.)
	Medieval England
October 24	Laws of King Aethelstan: Doom Concerning Hot Iron and Water (920 A.D.) Foucault, Discipline and Punish [handout]
October 27	The Murder of Thomas Becket
October 31	Aquinas, Excerpts from Summa Theologica (c. 1270)	Second paper due
November 3-6	The Act of Succession, 1534 The Oath of Supremacy, 1534 Excerpts from Bolt, A Man for All Seasons [handout]
	Colonial Period
November 10	Calvin, God and Political Duty (1559) [web] Massachusetts Body of Liberties (1641) [web]
	The Enlightenment
November 13-17	Hobbes, Excerpts from Leviathan Charles I’s statement at trial (1649) English Bill of Rights (1649) U.S. Bill of Rights (1789)
November 20	Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government, Chs. 2, 8, 9 (1690)
November 24	Thanksgiving
	French Revolution
November 28	Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762)
December 1-5	Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws (1748) Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789) [web] Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) [web]
	American Revolution
December 8	Declaration of Independence (1776) [web] Publius, Federalist Papers (1787) [web] U.S. Constitution (1789) [web]
December 12	Review and catch-up
December 19	Final exam	Final exam

Course Description

Content

This course will trace the historical roots of the Anglo-American legal system and its philosophical foundations. Areas covered include the relation between church and state, criminal law and punishment, and the foundations of government authority.

Skills

This course is designed not only to teach you the ideas of others but to help you develop and present your own ideas. Class discussions will help you to articulate your thoughts on issues presented in the reading and to anticipate objections. The writing assignments are designed to help you learn to formulate your arguments clearly and concisely. Making the effort to state your meaning precisely in writing will help you in thinking through your arguments.

Materials

Course packet (available at bookstore and on reserve at library)
Web materials. Links to these materials are found on the course website at http://www.american.edu/dgolash/wltf05.htm.
Handouts

Requirements

Participation

· Attend class consistently

· Unexcused absences will affect your participation grade. See Sharon to discuss whether your absence will be excused.

· If you must miss a class, you are responsible for obtaining notes, assignments, and announcements from a fellow student.

· Bring the assigned reading to class

· Print out web materials

· Handouts will be provided the class before the reading is due. Missed handouts can be picked up outside my office.

· Be prepared to discuss the reading.

Two papers

Papers must be submitted via Blackboard by the dates specified on the syllabus. Papers submitted after the deadline will not be graded. It is your responsibility to make sure that your computer does not eat your paper.

· 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.

Midterm and final exam

Study sheets will be provided for each test.
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 - 10%
Papers - 20% each
Midterm - 20%
Final exam - 30%

Classroom Etiquette

Our classroom is full, and it is not possible to enter or exit without disturbing other students. Please arrive on time and do not leave the room during the class.
Please turn off your cell phone before class begins.
Laptops and PDA’s are allowed only with prior permission.

General Education Credit

Western Legal Tradition is one of ten foundation courses in Curricular Area II, Traditions that Shape the Western World, in the General Education Program. This course is the first of a two-course sequence. Any of the following courses will complete the sequence:

HIST 205 America's Quests: The US to 1865

JWST 205 Ancient and Medieval Jewish Civilization

PHIL 220 Moral Philosophy

SOCY 215 Rise of Critical Social Thought

JLS 225 American Legal Culture

Grading 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.