Elements of Law 3.0: Table of Contents for Lecture and Reading Notes for An Introduction to U.S. Legal Theory and Practice

(Pix (c) Larry Catá Backer 2013)

I have been posting about the development of a new course I have been developing for our first year law school students, "Elements of Law."  (Elements of Law 3.0: On the Relevance of a First Year Law Course Designed to Frame the Law School Curriculum).  The SYLLABUS can be accessed HERE.

This post makes the end of the lecture note series.  It includes the TABLE of CONTENTS for the Lecture Notes as I have developed them over the past semester.  These will serve as the core of materials that I will continue to use to introduce U.S. Law and Legal Theory to students.  It remains very much a work in progress and and open access project. Comments and suggestions always welcome.

Elements of Law:

An Introduction to U.S. Legal Theory and Practice

Introduction and Syllabus

Elements of Law 3.0: On the Relevance of a First Year Law Course Designed to Frame the Law School Curriculum

Part I: What is Law

--I-A (Introduction: The cast of characters, institutions and forms); Reading Justinian's Institutes

--I-B (Law Articulated by Courts: The Common Law & Equity)

--I-C (Law Articulated by Legislatures: Statutory Law)

--I-D (Law Articulated by Regulatory Agencies--The Administrative Function)

--I-E (Law Beyond Law--Social Norms, Contract Communities, and Disclosure Regimes)

Part II: Hierarchies of Law and Governance; Sources and Uses

--II-A (The State and Its Apparatus)
--II-B (Ordering Government Through Law: Constitutions, Statutes, Treaties, Regulations, Judicial Decisions, and Other Sources)
--II-C (Hierarchies of Law Within the Domestic Legal Order and Between National and International Law Reflecting Governmental Order)
--II-D (The Relationship of Law and the Government of the State--Role of Law/Rule of Law) 

Part III:  Institutional Architecture of Law and Governance: The United States and Law Making

--III-A (The General Government; Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances)
--III-B (The Administrative Branches: The Non-Delegation Doctrine, An Introduction)
-- III-C (The States and the People; Popular Referenda
--III-D (The Federal-State Interplay, the 9th and 10th Amendments of the Federal Constitution)

 Part IV: The Role of the Courts: Judicial Review, Interpretive Techniques, and Legitimacy

--IV-A (Custom versus Statute: The Norm, The Social Order, The Legal Order)
--IV-B (The Doctrine of Judicial Review--Judicial Authority to "Say What the Law Is")
--IV-C (The Role of the Courts: How Courts Engage With Law: Theories of Judicial Interpretation)
--IV-D (The Role of the Courts: Stare Decisis in Constitutional Cases and Under State Law)
--IV-E (The Role of the Courts: Constitutional Interpretation; A Special Case?) --IV-E(2) (The Role of the Courts: Constitutional Interpretation; A Special Case? Contemporary Theorizing)