POLITICAL SCIENCE 4890, 4990, 6810
COMMON LAW, LIBERAL THEORY, and the AMERICAN FOUNDING
Spring 2001
Wednesdays
6-9. Main 318
James R. Harrigan
Office: Old Main, Room 330E. Office Hours: M,W,F
1:30-3:30, and by appointment.
Phone: 797-1339 email: j_r_harrigan@yahoo.com
Course Objectives:
Historians have long
disagreed on the nature of the America Founding. The facts are easily accessible, but no definitive interpretation
of the Founding has yet emerged. In
this course we will examine a good number of the possibilities. Although we will be particularly concerned
with liberal theory and the common law tradition as the course title suggests,
we will also consider a number of other possible interpretations.
This course will
be conducted in Socratic fashion. I
expect students to actively participate in class discussion. The
attendance and participation component of your grade will be determined largely
by how much you choose to participate.
If you choose not to participate, you can expect to receive no
credit. It will be virtually impossible
to get an A in this class without strong participation. It will be absolutely impossible to pass
this class with poor attendance.
Required Texts:
Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of
the American Revolution, The Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
1992. ISBN: 0-674-44302-0
Colonies to
Nation 1763-1789: A Documentary History of the American Revolution, Jack P.
Greene, ed., W. W. Norton and Co., New York, 1975. ISBN:
0-393-09229-1
William
Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Volume 1, The
University of Chicago
Press, 1979. ISBN:
0-226-05538-8
Two Treatises
of Government, Peter Laslett, ed., Cambridge University Press,
1988.
ISBN: 0-521-35730-6
Grade Distribution:
First Paper 25%
Second Paper 25%
Final Exam 40%
Class Participation 10%
Your grade in
the course will be wholly based on your written work and classroom performance. You should take your paper assignments
seriously. Writing is quickly becoming
a lost art, and if you have difficulties with writing you should be sure to
bring me drafts of your papers, which I will be happy to read. I fully expect your papers to be
grammatically perfect, and with the extra help that I offer there is simply no
reason why they shouldn’t be. If it
takes me longer to address your spelling and grammar errors than it takes me to
address the quality of your argument, you will not receive a passing
grade. Each of your first two papers
will be 5-7 pages in length, and will be a response to a question I give you in
class. I will give you these questions
well in advance of the due dates.
Your final
examination will also be a writing assignment.
You will be given a question at roughly
the 2/3 point
in the course, sometime immediately following spring break. Your answer to this
question
should be quite good given the amount of
time that you have to complete it.
Furthermore,
I will be happy
to read rough drafts until two weeks before the due date of your exam. There is no
excuse for
poor performance.
Class
attendance and participation is simply expected. If you choose to skip classes, you will not
receive the
participation credit. If you skip
habitually, you can expect to lose more than 10%. Poor
attendance can
(and will) result in a failing grade.
I.
Introduction.
No Readings.
II. The
Liberal Tradition.
John Locke, Second Treatise, pp. 262-428, Editor’s Introduction, pp. 3-127.
American Constitutionalism, 1992, pp. 13-47. (reserve)
Norman F. Cantor, “The Age of
Coke,” from: Imagining the Law: Common Law and the
Law.
(reserve)
Herbert Storing, “William Blackstone,” from: The History of Political Philosophy, Leo
Strauss, Joseph Cropsey, eds., 1987. (reserve)
Blackstone, Commentaries, pp. 3-115.
Bonham’s Case. (reserve).
IV. The
Liberal Tradition in America.
Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America, pp. 1-66. (reserve)
Henry Steele Commager, “America and the Enlightenment.” (reserve)
V. Law in
America.
Stanley
N. Katz, “The Problem of a Colonial Legal History,” from: Colonial British
America: essays in the New History of the Early Modern Era, Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole, eds. 1984. (reserve)
General
Laws and Liberties of New Hampshire, from: Colonial Origins of the American
Constitution, Donald S. Lutz, ed., 1998. (reserve).
The Laws
and Liberties of Massachusetts, from: Colonial Origins of the American
Constitution. (reserve)
Connecticut
Code of Laws, from: Colonial Origins of the American Constitution.
James Otis, “Against the Writs of Assistance.” (reserve)
VI. Considering
the Classics.
George Anastaplo, “The Founders of Our Founders: Jerusalem, Athens, and the
American Constitution,” from: Harry Jaffa, Original Intent and the Framers of the Constitution, 1994. (reserve).
Thomas West, “The Classical Spirit of the Founding.” (reserve)
Charles Kesler, “The Founders and the Classics.” (reserve)
VII. The
Ideological Melting Pot.
John Adams, Letter to Hezekiah Niles, February 13, 1818.
Declaration of Independence.
Colonies to Nation, pp. 1-6, 8-39, 42-92, 196-250, 252-297.
Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, entire.
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Henry Lee, May 8, 1825.