Comparative Law: Globalization of Law in Historical Perspective: 1850-2000
Fall term, Block C
M,T,W 10:20 AM - 11:40 AM
Professor Duncan Kennedy
4 classroom credits LAW-32660A Fall
This course will examine the process by which western legal rules and ideas globalized during the period 1850-2000. It will review the development of western classical legal thought in the late 19th century, and its diffusion through colonization, unequal treaties and prestige/influence. It will then take up 'the Social,' the dominant western mode of the first half of the 20th century, and contemporary legal thought, each with characteristic modes of diffusion. Throughout, we will study the ways in which receiving countries 'selected' what ideas to import, transformed those ideas on arrival, and sometimes became exporters in their turn. The readings are mainly law review articles, in many fields of public, private and international law, comparative law and legal theory, and they are fairly extensive and difficult. The exam will be an open book take home distributed on the last day of class and due on the last day of exam period.