A comprehesive course on the Constitution?

[Steven Jamar]

Interesting course.  I would include some of the more ancient sources the
founders were steeped in -- Aristotle for example.  The Rhetoric essentially
sketches the shape of our legal system and the separation of powers based on
the nature of the three different tasks of legislating, executing the laws,
and deciding particular cases.
I guess I would also spend the last two weeks on Levinson's book Our
Undemocratic Constitution -- which would add a dimension of reality (and
depth) to the history course.

But, one cannot do everything, of course.

Steve



On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 11:45 AM, Nelson Lund <nlund at gmu.edu> wrote:

> The principal reason is that we couldn't fit it in without cutting
> things out that we thought were important. In addition, the
> Reconstruction Amendments were enacted much later, in the light of
> several decades of experience and case law arising under the original
> Constitution, so we thought it made some sense to postpone consideration
> of these provisions until after students had been introduced to that
> case law. Furthermore, what one might call the legislative history of
> the Reconstruction Amendments has played a less prominent role in
> Supreme Court decisions than  the analogous materials relating to the
> original Constitution.
>
> We introduce the Reconstruction Amendments during the required 4-hour
> Con Law I course, which  works especially well for those (like me) who
> use the Brest, Levinson case book. Those who use other case books may
> give less attention to the origins of those amendments, but there's
> another opportunity to get into it in more depth in the Con Law II
> elective, which covers modern equal protection and substantive due
> process.
>
> Nelson Lund
> George Mason
>
>
> Zietlow, Rebecca E. wrote:
> > Thanks to Nelson for telling us about this course, which looks very
> > interesting.  However, I can't help but notice the lack of coverage of
> > the Reconstruction Amendments, especially the 14th Amendment.  Those
> > Amendments had such a significant impact on our constitution, I am
> > curious about why are they not discussed in this class?
> >
> > Respectfully,
> >
> > Rebecca E. Zietlow
> > Charles W. Fornoff Professor of Law and Values
> > University of Toledo College of Law
> > (419) 530-2872
> > http://www.nyupress.org/books/Enforcing_Equality-products_id-4830.html
> > http://ssrn.com/author=291341
> > http://works.bepress.com/rebecca_zietlow/
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
> > [mailto:conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Nelson Lund
> > Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 5:54 PM
> > To: conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
> > Cc: Sanford Levinson
> > Subject: Re: A comprehesive course on the Constitution?
> >
> > The syllabus is now available here:
> >
> > http://www.law.gmu.edu/founders
> >
> > The specific readings are not set in stone, and we hope to make
> > improvements as we gain experience with teaching the course.
> >
> > Nelson Lund
> >
> >
> >>     Sanford Levinson wrote:
> >>
> >>>     I presume that I'm not alone in being interested in the syllabus
> >>>     of the new required course.
> >>>
> >>>     sandy
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >>>     *From:* Nelson Lund [mailto:nlund at gmu.edu]
> >>>     *Sent:* Mon 7/9/2007 4:20 PM
> >>>     *To:* conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
> >>>     *Cc:* DavidEBernstein at aol.com; Sanford Levinson
> >>>     *Subject:* Re: Why impose a course on constitutional law on our
> >>>     students?
> >>>
> >>>     Consistently, perhaps, with the spirit of the comments from both
> >>>     David Bernstein and Professor Levinson, George Mason recently
> >>>     created a new required course on the Constitution, which is a
> >>>     prerequisite to courses about constitutional law. Simultaneously,
> >>>     the previous requirement that students take Constitutional Law II
> >>>     (equal protection and substantive due process) was eliminated.
> >>>
> >>>     Nelson Lund
> >>>     George Mason
> >>>
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
> To post, send message to Conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see
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>
> Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as
> private.  Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are
> posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or
> wrongly) forward the messages to others.
>



-- 
Prof. Steven Jamar
Howard University School of Law
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