Foundations of Legal Thought

This course introduces students to movements and schools of thought in modern legal scholarship, exploring how these theories affect the practice of legal argument and judicial decision -making. Many of these approaches developed out of the debates within and critiques of these and other movements. We will therefore study schools of thought not as self-sustained conversations, but as responding to perceived flaws in earlier or contemporary legal thought, and as attempting to effect practical legal results. These schools of thought may include Formalism; Legal Realism; the Law and Society Movement; Critical and Feminist Legal Theory; Critical Race Theory as well as contemporary responses to late 20th-century movements.

Offer as needed

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