Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Daniel Ernst

J.D. Course 015 | 3 credit hours

This course is a political history of American legal institutions in the twentieth century. After a brief survey of nineteenth-century state of courts and parties, it explains how American law and lawyers were transformed by the emergence of an administrative state. The bulk of the course is devoted to the emergence and consolidation of two political regimes--the Progressive (1898-1932) and the New Deal (1933-1964). Topics include the rise of the corporate bar, judicial reform, theories of administration and the rule of law, race and gender in the legal profession, "New Deal" and "Washington" lawyers, state and federal administrative agencies, and McCarthyism and the bar. The course is intended to provide students with a perspective on the statutory and regulatory courses of the upper-class curriculum and a historical understanding of the profession they are preparing to join. Readings are a collection of photocopied documents and historical articles. Classes mix lectures with discussion of assigned readings.