History is fundamental to both understanding and changing the law. Following the Supreme Court's lead, courts and lawyers around the country have struggled to master the intricacies of 19th-century regulations on firearms, reproductive rights, and immigration. Through studying the development of legal ideas such as privacy and citizenship and institutions ranging from philanthropies to municipal agencies, students will improve their grasp of American law today. The course will also sharpen students' existing research and writing skills by introducing them to historical tools and methods. By learning to locate and evaluate primary sources like government reports, newspapers, and private letters, they will investigate how present-day judges use history and consider how lawyers can make effective historical arguments.

Students will also put this training to use beyond the classroom, unearthing histories with the potential to reshape New York's legal landscape. In partnership with one or more local advocacy organizations, students will undertake original research projects on questions of vital concern to the city's practitioners, like the deep investigations into the meanings of state constitutional rights for which judges are increasingly calling. Their findings will be made publicly available at the end of the seminar, ideally through formal publications or media appearances of various kinds. These projects will thus give students the opportunity to make professional connections with and to have their work known by New York's legal community.

This course satisfies the Writing Requirement.

Recommended for the following Professional Pathways: Civil Rights/Civil Liberties; Government/Public Sector; Labor and Employment; Law Through a Different Lens

2 Credits