Course Section | Columbia Law School

Section Description Provided by Instructor

This is the basic course in Constitutional law, a foundation for more specialized courses on the Constitution, and for public law courses generally. The course locates the Constitution in the life of the United States. It explores: the theory of the Constitution and its antecedents; judicial review, its justification and development, and its legal and political significance; the nature of our federal system, the growth of national power and of limitations on state authority, and the abiding significance of the states; the separation of powers and varieties of checks and balances in the U.S. government; and then, for about half of the course, the theory and content of individual rights under the Constitution, the development of the principal rights during 200 years by Constitutional amendment and judicial interpretation, and the jurisprudence of the Judiciary in its role as the guardian of rights under the Constitution and under civil rights acts.