Legal Studies 361 - Law and Public Policy

This course begins from this premise: what the courts do -- or fail to do -- matters for public policy. Through this semester, we will evaluate this claim. Our focus will be on examining the complexity of the law and of the policy process, and the role of courts in the policy process. The course will start with a broad introduction to courts, their power, and limitations on their power, and will then proceed through a series of studies demonstrating the place and power of courts in the policy process. Counter to this perspective, the course will then transition to a sequence suggesting limitations on courts, before returning at the end to the central question of how and when courts matter for public policy.

Open to Legal Studies majors only. Pre Req: LEGAL 250