The discipline of political science finds its origins in the study of law and legal doctrine. Though the discipline has become much more diverse in terms of the topics investigated by political scientists, it is nonetheless essential to understand the roles played by law, courts, and other legal actors in the political process. The purpose of this seminar is to introduce graduate students to the public law subfield by focusing on empirical research on law and courts from both American and comparative perspectives.

There is little consensus within political science about how to study politics. Political scientists use a range of approaches, and hold a variety of methodological commitments. This course is designed to introduce students to the philosophical and epistemological disputes that have given rise to this lack of consensus. The aim of the course is to enable students to make more deeply informed judgments about the types of political science work that they encounter and undertake.

This multidisciplinary graduate seminar draws on readings from the fields of political science, anthropology, and geography among others.

In this course, we will explore the American constitutional system as prescribed by the United States Constitution, and as developed by the myriad subsequent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court throughout this nation?s history. Broadly, we will focus on the areas of institutional powers, federalism, and government involvement in commerce, regulation, and taxation. Across these areas, students will learn about the legal, social, historical, and political contexts in which the Supreme Court reaches its decisions.

This course serves as a rigorous introduction to quantitative empirical research methods, primarily for doctoral students in political science (but also suitable for other social scientists). The material covered will include probability theory, distributions of random variables, data visualization, principles of statistical inference (estimation and uncertainty), covariate adjustment (a.k.a. linear regression), and a brief introduction to causal inference. Simulations and data analysis will be conducted in the R statistical environment or Stata.

Survey of theory, research, and methodology in the field of international relations; its interdisciplinary dimensions.

Not available at this time.

Not available at this time

Examination of the basic legal rules regulating relations among states and between states and other entities. Analysis of theories of international law and of how and to what extent legal rules and legal reasoning affect the policies of governments.

Not available at this time