PSC 371B: Seminar in Law, Syllabus

T-Th, at 6 - 7:15pm, Fall semester 2007.
Revised 10 pm, 19 Aug. 2007; data from instructors, page by Prof. Jeremy Lewis.

PURPOSE: The emphasis will be on basic precepts of constitutional law, legal reasoning, writing and briefing. The goal is an introduction to the kind of critical thinking, research and writing needed for law school -- but also for general professional life. The course will lead you through basic examples of law cases in a variety of topics selected for liberal arts undergraduates. The course has been attuned to the suggestions of several young alumni who attended law school.

This course is not just for students planning to go to law school. If you are or expect to be in business, education, law enforcement, or medicine you should benefit greatly from the skills and knowledge you gain in this course. If you intend to run for office or pursue a career in public or private administration, this course should be beneficial to you. And, of course, if you are or intend to become a paralegal or court reporter, your success at work should be enhanced by what you learn in this course.

Even if you have no present intention to pursue a career in any of these areas, your participation in this course should make you a better citizen. How? By assisting you to better form educated opinions about public and private policy-making. Ultimately, the opinions you form should allow you to make rational decisions about matters that can have far-reaching consequences.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

You will be introduced to critical legal thinking and legal reasoning

You will engage in basic legal writing amd problem solving

You will experience preparation and writing of basic legal briefs

You will be introduced to basic concepts of constitutional law through the reading of historic and contemporary judicial decisions.

You will derive some basic knowledge of principles of statutory interpretation

You will begin to understand precedent and the common law

You will be introduced to other legal concepts such as property law and torts.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES:

You will demonstrate basic competence in legal reasoning on tests and exams

You will demonstrate basic knowledge of historic and contemporary court decisions on tests and exams

You will demonstrate basic understanding of American legal concepts and principles.

You will demonstrate competence in short pieces of basic legal writing

You will prepare competent, introductory legal briefs and papers

You will research and write a competent term paper on a topic related to law

You will demonstrate critical thinking about legal topics and cases in class discussion

INSTRUCTORS:

The Honorable Lucie McLemore (former judge, district court, Montgomery County) will teach primarily legal reasoning, legal writing, and, of course, research.

Judge McLemore offers her expectations of students:

"1. I do expect you to attend class regularly, read each assignment carefully and be prepared to participate in discussions and exercises while in class.

2. I don't expect you to grasp everything you have been assigned to read the first time you read it.
3. I don't expect you to prepare your writing assignments perfectly at first.
The topics and methods covered will be new to many of you. Our time together will be spent reinforcing your assignments through discussions, lectures, exercises, at least one field trip, and, probably, a guest speaker or two.

I am glad you decided to take this course and I look forward to our working together. I will do everything I can to make your experience rewarding."

Scott L. Rouse esq., Dep. Legal Adviser to the Governor, and formerly Dep. Solicitor General with the office of the Attorney General of Alabama, will co-teach the course. Mr. Rouse will cover more substantive areas of the law: primarily US constitutional law.

Mr. Rouse notes, "After going to the link listed below, students can simply plug in the volume and page number from my citations (included for every case in the syllabus) in the "Citation Search" function.

http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html
The students may have to sign up for a FindLaw account, but that is free and easy to do."

BOOKS:

These very brief, inexpensive, introductory law textbooks have been ordered (all very well reviewed) with web review links:

M. Neil Browne and Stuart M. Keeley, Asking the Right Questions, A Guide to Critical Thinking, 8th Ed., Prentice Hall publisher (available from Barnes and Noble; and Amazon)

Bahrych and Rombauer, Legal writing in A Nutshell, Third Ed., West Publishing, and west.thomson.com

Lief Carter and Thomas Burke's Reason in Law (7th edition), [Amazon reviews]

Moliterno & Lederer, An Introduction to Law, Law Study, and the Lawyer's Role (Very readable) [Carolina Academic publisher's page], [Amazon reviews]

Jay Feinman, Law 101: Everything You Need to Know About the American Legal System [Oxford UP, US, publisher's page], [Amazon reviews]

The Blue Book, a Uniform System of Citation, 18th Ed., Harvard Law Review Association (publisher) and at www.legalbluebook.com.

Cases listed in timetable may be read online (Findlaw.com) or in the AL law library, 300 Dexter Ave.

recommended, but not required:

Edward H. Levi, An Introduction to Legal Reasoning, phoenix books, pb, [Amazon Reviews]. (An oral report on this may offer you extra credit in Judge McLemore's class participation.)

Other resources:

The textbooks will likely be supplemented by briefs, judicial decisions, and real world examples such as search warrants.

Most judicial decisions can be found online in databases at findlaw.com; leading constitutional law cases at oyez.nwu.edu; or at cornell.edu.

The library audiovisual collection includes "May it Please the Court", a collection of audiotapes of oral argument before the US Supreme Court. These can also be heard online at Oyez.nwu.edu.

Additional legal research may be conducted via the AL Supreme Court library (both in hardcopy and via LegalTrak database) on Dexter Ave (9 mins'. drive) and the Lexis database (at ASU, 2 mins'. drive.)

Computation of Final Grades:
This formula replaces, for this seminar, the general political science formula found on the requirements page.

2 Mini-Papers 20% (10% for each paper)
Term Paper 20%
Midterm Test 15%
Final Exam 25%
Class Participation 20% (10% independently determined by each instructor)

BEHAVIOR:

You are expected to comply with the HC Honor Code and with specific rules placed on our Requirements page above.

Instructors may explain additional rules in class.

Students With Disabilities, HC notice:

"Huntingdon College makes every reasonable accommodation for disabilities that have been processed and approved through our Disability Services Committee in accord with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. In order to request disability-related services at Huntingdon College, students must seft-identify to the Disabilities Intake Coordinator, Sandy Montgomery, and provide appropriate and up-to-date documentation to verify their disability or special needs. After the accommodations have been approved by the Disability Services Committee, the 504 Coordinator, Dr. Sid Stubbs, will notify your professor(s) of the Committee's decision. If you have any questions regarding reasonable accommodation or need to request disability-related services, please contact Disability Services at (334) 833-4432 or e-mail disabilityservices@huntingdon.edu."