(no subject)
May. 13th, 2007 01:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhd323If I were giving a public law comprehensive exam, here's what I suppose I'd ask:
1) What is law? How do the different conceptions of law shape the study and understanding of law and its relationship to institutions and society? Discuss some of the major scholarly legal traditions (legal formalism, legal realism, and so on) and their approaches to the study of law.
2) What is the role of law, litigation, lawyers, and legal institutions in movements pursuing social change? What is the utility of the use of law and rights talk by movements in their pursuit of social reform?
3) How do judges decide? How have scholars understood and attempted to explain judicial behavior, decision-making, and policy-making? Discuss approaches to understanding judicial behavior, highlighting some of the strengths and weaknesses of the various traditions. How does an inter-branch perspective that focuses on courts’ relationships to other institutions add to the understanding of judicial decision-making?
4) How do courts matter? Focusing not only on the American Supreme Court, discuss how courts matter – their impacts, effects – in political systems.
Now to think about how I'd answer them.
1) What is law? How do the different conceptions of law shape the study and understanding of law and its relationship to institutions and society? Discuss some of the major scholarly legal traditions (legal formalism, legal realism, and so on) and their approaches to the study of law.
2) What is the role of law, litigation, lawyers, and legal institutions in movements pursuing social change? What is the utility of the use of law and rights talk by movements in their pursuit of social reform?
3) How do judges decide? How have scholars understood and attempted to explain judicial behavior, decision-making, and policy-making? Discuss approaches to understanding judicial behavior, highlighting some of the strengths and weaknesses of the various traditions. How does an inter-branch perspective that focuses on courts’ relationships to other institutions add to the understanding of judicial decision-making?
4) How do courts matter? Focusing not only on the American Supreme Court, discuss how courts matter – their impacts, effects – in political systems.
Now to think about how I'd answer them.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-05-13 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-13 09:37 pm (UTC)