May 13, 2025  
2024-2025 Law School Catalog 
    
2024-2025 Law School Catalog

LAW 698SEM - The Common Law


This class will study the history and theory of the common law. The first half of the class is devoted to studying the origins of the jury, the writ system, and the common-law courts in medieval and early-modern England. The class will read excerpts of crucial legal texts in the common law tradition, including Blackstone’s Commentaries, Glanvill, the Yearbooks, and statutes of Parliament. The second half of the class is devoted to studying the adoption and growth of the common law in America, and to theoretical issues raised by the modern American common law. For example, what makes the common law truly law? Does it leave too much room for judicial discretion? Is the presence of common-law methods in constitutional law appropriate? Students will be graded on the basis of weekly reaction papers and a final paper of 15 pages. The final paper may address an issue examined in class materials or a related topic that was not covered.

Credits: 3