Spring 2006

GOV 312L • Issues and Policies in American Government

Course Description

Offered on the letter-grade basis only. Fulfills second half of legislative requirement for government. May be taken for credit only once. The purpose of this course is to understand the role of the law and the legal system in shaping society. We will first explore the basic structure of the US and selected other legal systems, to understand the basic features of a legal system. We will then focus on specific issues in which the law might appear to be most important for changing society - civil rights, individual rights generally, the redistribution of wealth and the alleviation of poverty, and economic growth, for example. We will see which features our legal system shares with others, and which make it unique. By the end of the course, we should have a clear grasp of the limits and possibilities of the law as an agent of social change.

back