POSC 389 - Constitutional Law: Structures and Powers

The focus of this course is what Aristotle identified as the central question of political science, the character of regime–the organization of offices and the distribution of power that is designed to achieve an understanding of justice and the human good. More specifically, students focus on the structural characteristics of the American regime, or Constitution–separation of powers, federalism, emergency powers, property rights; but students are equally concerned with the politics of interpretation itself–the complex process by which people determine what is the Constitution, how it is to be understood, and who has authority to interpret it. The responsibility for constitutional interpretation is broadly distributed, but it is also obvious that the preeminent voice for interpreting the Constitution has become the Supreme Court. Accordingly, students spend the greater portion of the course with the analysis of cases, that is, the Court’s opinion of what the Constitution means.

Credits: 1.00
Corequisite: None
Prerequisites: None
Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Class Restriction: None
Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
Liberal Arts CORE: None

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