Constitutional Law I (10001). 4 units. A.R. Amar (Section A), H. Gerken (Section B), J.M. Balkin (Group 1), P. Gewirtz (Group 2), R.C. Post (Group 3), J. Rubenfeld (Group 4), R. Siegel (Group 5), P.W. Kahn (Group 6)

Advanced Civil Liberties and National Security Post 9/11 (20483). 1 to 3 units. A fieldwork-only option. Prerequisite: Balancing Civil Liberties and National Security Post 9/11. Permission of the instructors required. H.H. Koh, M. Wishnie, J. Freiman, H. Metcalf.

Civil Liberties and National Security after September 11 (20343). 3 units, credit/fail. This course will be a hybrid between clinic and seminar, focusing on civil liberties cases arising out of government policies in the aftermath of September 11, including citizen and non-citizen detentions, Fourth and Fifth Amendment issues, international human rights and humanitarian law issues, and so on. Students enrolled in the course will prepare memoranda on points of law at issue in some of these cases, and, as the timing dictates, will help to do legal research and draft amicus briefs based on their research. The course will include a clinical component and a reading seminar focusing on the text of the cases themselves and their precedents. The class will meet at a regularly scheduled time once a week, and one additional weekly meeting period will be arranged at the beginning of the term. Permission of the instructor required. Enrollment limited. H.H. Koh, M. Wishnie, J. Freiman, and H. Metcalf.

Criminal Procedure I (20350). 3 units. This course will examine the fundamentals of the criminal process: police powers of arrest; search and seizure as constrained by the Constitution; the exclusionary rule; the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination; the right to counsel; the right to a jury trial; Due Process; confessions and plea bargaining; and double jeopardy. Scheduled examination. A. Stein.

[The] First Amendment (20450). 2 or 3 units. This course will study the constitutional right of freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment. Topics will include seditious advocacy; conflicts between freedom of speech and national security; defamation and privacy; offensive and racist speech; obscenity and pornography; symbolic expression; commercial speech; regulation of campaign finance; Internet and broadcast regulation; restrictions on time, place, and manner of expression; freedom of the press; and freedom of association. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. J.M. Balkin.

Rights in Comparative Perspectives (20461). 2 units. This research seminar will deal — on a comparative basis — with human rights: their historical origins, their jurisprudential analysis, and their analytical structure. The course will consider specific rights (e.g., freedom of speech, dignity, social, economic, and cultural); positive rights and negative rights; rights under national constitutions and international documents; and rights and the battle on terror. Students will meet individually with the professor during the term to discuss their papers. Paper required. Enrollment limited. A. Barak.

Topics in Advanced Constitutional Law (20502). 3 or 4 units. The seminar is designed for students who are seriously considering an academic career. Students will read scholarship on constitutional law and theory, with the aim of promoting student writing in the field. Sessions will include guest lecturers from the Yale public law faculty. The seminar will meet during Fall 2008 and reconvene for sessions at the end of Spring 2009, at which time students will be expected to have produced publishable manuscripts to present to the class in a workshop format. Students applying for admission should submit a developed paper topic or a completed student paper that they wish to revise for publication. Those enrolled in the seminar will earn between 3 and 4 units depending upon the nature of the writing projects they undertake. Paper required. Enrollment limited. R.C. Post and R. Siegel.

SPRING COURSES

Advanced Civil Liberties and National Security Post 9/11 (21549). 1 to 3 units. A fieldwork-only option. Permission of the instructors required. H.H. Koh, M. Wishnie, J. Freiman, H. Metcalf.

American Legal History (21063). 3 units. This course will focus on the transformation of American law from the colonial period through the early twentieth century. The first third of the course will analyze how the imperial structure of the British Empire and the expansion of the Atlantic economy led to the emergence of American federalism, the creation of the American law of slavery, and the reform of property and inheritance law. It will examine the economic context of the framing of the Constitution, Hamilton’s financial system, Thomas Jefferson’s competing vision of political economy rooted in an agrarian (but radical and complex) ideal, and the creation of an American patent system. The second third of the course will examine the entrenchment of the slave labor system in the South, the early women’s rights movement and the changes in marital property law in the second half of the nineteenth century, and the emergence of the corporation as the dominant economic form. The final third of the course will focus on various legal responses to growing corporate power, and the emergence of the modern regulatory state. The course readings will consist of contemporary sources, recently published works, and the classics in the field. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. C. Priest.

Civil Liberties and National Security After September 11 (21391). 3 units, credit/fail. This course will be a hybrid between clinic and seminar, focusing primarily on civil liberties cases arising out of government policies in the aftermath of September 11, including citizen and non-citizen detentions, Fourth and Fifth Amendment issues, international human rights and humanitarian law, and so on. Students enrolled in the course will prepare memoranda on points of law at issue in some of these cases, and, as the timing dictates, will help to do legal research and draft amicus briefs based on their research. The course will include a clinical component and a reading seminar focusing on the text of the cases themselves and their precedents. The class will meet at a regularly scheduled time once a week, and one additional weekly meeting period will be arranged at the beginning of the term. Permission of the instructor required. Enrollment limited. H.H. Koh, M. Wishnie, J. Freiman, and H. Metcalf.

[The] Constitution: Philosophy, History, and Law (21046). 4 units. An inquiry into the foundations of the American Constitution, at its founding and at critical moments in its historical transformation — most notably in response to the Civil War, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement. Philosophically speaking, do we still live under the Constitution founded by the Federalists, or are we inhabitants of the Second or Third or Nth Republic? Institutionally, in what ways are the patterns of modern American government similar to, and different from, those in post-Revolutionary (1787-1860) and post-Civil War (1868-1932) America? Legally, what is or was the role of constitutional law in the organization of each of these historical regimes? Through asking and answering these questions, the course will try to gain a critical perspective on the effort by the present Supreme Court to create a new constitutional regime for the twenty-first century. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. Also PLSC 842b. B. Ackerman.

Constitutional Litigation Seminar (21345). 2 units. Federal constitutional adjudication from the vantage of the litigator with an emphasis on Circuit and Supreme Court practice and procedural problems, including jurisdiction, justiciability, exhaustion of remedies, immunities, abstention, and comity. Specific substantive questions of constitutional law currently before the Supreme Court are considered as well. Students will each argue two cases taken from the Supreme Court docket and will write one brief, which may be from that docket, but will likely come from the Second Circuit. Students will also join the faculty members on the bench and will, from time to time, be asked to make brief arguments on very short notice on issues raised in the class. Enrollment limited to twelve. G. Calabresi and J.M. Walker, Jr.

Constitutions and the Environment (21561). 2 or 3 units. A majority of nations’ constitutions contain express provisions pertaining to the protection of the environment or natural resources. In the United States, environmental law has not been similarly constitutionalized except insofar as certain limitations on environmental, health, and safety regulation emanate from the Takings Clause, the dormant Commerce Clause, and other constitutional doctrines. Using selected cases and secondary readings, this seminar will examine the interface between constitutions and the environment, construed broadly. Topics considered will include rights-based versus structural frameworks for environmental protection; standing, harm, and justice across boundaries; climate change and the separation of powers; the precautionary principle and the regulatory state; resource conflicts within and between nations; and matters of implementation, interpretation, and enforcement. The question lurking behind these discussions will be whether, and to what extent, the demands of the environment pose a distinct challenge to liberal constitutionalism. Class participation, oral presentation, and research paper required. No prerequisites. Enrollment limited to fifteen. D. Kysar.

World Constitutionalism (21576). 2 or 3 units. Beginning with the American, French, and Latin American Revolutions, the idea of Enlightenment constitutionalism has swept the world — with vastly different consequences in one or another political culture. This seminar will aim to place this world-historical process of adaptation and repudiation into perspective, encouraging students to use their understanding of one or another national history as source for comparative insight. Some places will be reserved for graduate students from Political Science. Paper writing will be encouraged. More ambitious papers will earn additional course credit. Enrollment limited to eighteen. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. Also PLSC 614b. B. Ackerman.