Course Catalog

"Approaches to Legal History" gives a grounding in particularly influential authors and works on the history of law, and also requires critical reflection on method. It provides a detailed knowledge of certain fundamental texts and the debates that they generated, thereby developing the skills needed to understand and evaluate the arguments presented by legal historians since the 19th century. Themes covered will include the common law tradition of legal history stretching back to F. W. Maitland in the late nineteenth century; writings on law and society, including those of English Marxist historians, such as E.P. Thompson, and of James Willard Hurst in the U.S.; and more recent approaches, including legal anthropology and dispute studies, law and emotions, law and literature, feminist legal history, and historical jurisprudence and originalism.

• Type: Seminar

This course serves as an introduction to: (1) the major areas of law governing the health care sector malpractice, licensing, credentialing, problems of patient rights, and professional prerogatives; (2) the organization of the health care sector and how major institutions within it function (hospitals, licensing and accrediting bodies, professional associations, health maintenance organizations, etc.); and (3) the tension between legal, scientific, and clinical styles of thinking, all of which come to bear on subjects such as malpractice liability, right to die, and admissions to hospital staff privileges.

• Type: Upper Class