This course will provide students an opportunity to explore the central building blocks of American legal theory. Specifically, we will concentrate on American Legal Realism. Realism is perhaps the most exciting and most distinctive American contribution to legal thought, and it forms the foundation for most contemporary American legal theory. Among the writers we will read are Oliver Wendell Holmes, Roscoe Pound, Karl Llewellyn and Felix Cohen. Topics will include the role of power in influencing legal rules and interpretations; the cultural effects of legal discourse and legal decisions; the distributive effects of legal rules; whether law is “indeterminate”; and the concept of legal rights. We will also explore constructive dimensions of Legal Realism: what role social science should play in legal scholarship and legal decision; what a more instrumental approach to law might mean; and how judging should be understood. We will close with discussion of the implications of Realism for legal education, legal scholarship, and for understanding law itself. The course is designed for students who have minimal background in legal theory. The texts we read are classics of American legal theory and will be helpful for those who go on to study other aspects of legal theory.