Informed Citizens. Accountable Power.

A Primer on US Constitutional Law

It is far too easy for people—scholars and laypeople, even Americans and especially Europeans—to think of American law as a modification or adaptation of European legal approaches. However, such thinking renders a great disservice to the depth and diversity of the American legal project and its knowledgeable revolt against European approaches to power. This course helps students understand the important ways in which the American legal system not only departs from but fundamentally defies traditional European approaches to Rule of Law.

This self-guided course serves as an introduction to the U.S. legal system through a close study of U.S. Constitutional law and the dominant analytical tools used to interpret and understand the U.S. Constitution’s legal effects. The class is lecture-based and will cover major U.S. case law, legislation, doctrines, and philosophical frames. Through this course, students will:

  • Develop a more accurate understanding of the aims and guiding principals of one of the world’s most influential legal systems
  • Acquire the capacity to make fine-tuned distinctions between the U.S. system and other legal systems
  • Learn to engage in high-level discussion on contemporary topics in U.S. Law and make reasonable predictions about the system’s future growth and development

Course Content

The course outline is organized against the Preamble of the United States Constitution.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

– Preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America

Part I. We the People of the United States

  1. Session 1: Introductions and setting the frame; Who are “we” the People?
  2. Session 2:  What is Equality?
  3. Session 3: Establishing Justice: Federalism & the Judicial Branch (Nov. 20, 2019)

Part II. In Order to form a more perfect Union

  1. Session 4: Insuring domestic Tranquility: The Commerce Clause
  2. Session 5: Constitutional Limits on Individual Freedom
  3. Session 6: Federalism & the Legislative Branch (e.g. Healthcare)
  4. Session 7: Providing for the common defense & promoting the general Welfare: Federalism & the Executive Branch (e.g. The President’s War Powers)
  5. Session 8: Securing the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity: The Constitution and Individual Rights

Part III. Establishing the Constitution of the United States

Applying the law in context: