History of Common Law

History of the Common law is a study of things educated lawyers used to know about the ideas, institutions, and problems that make up modern American legal culture. How do legal institutions restrain or legitimate violence? How do legal actors seek, discover, or construct truth? How does the legal profession monitor and maintain its status? By exploring these and many other questions from the Middle Ages to the Present, History of the Common Law serves as a foundational course for 1Ls at the beginning of their legal education, or as a capstone course for upperclassmen continuing or finishing their studies. Classes will consist primarily of lectures on the first meeting of the week, and a mix of lecture and discussion on the second meeting. Evaluation consists entirely of a multiple-choice exam. As this is a new course (or at least one that has not been offered at Columbia in over a decade), interested students are welcome to reach out to the professor with any questions about the course.