Law and Humanities Colloquium
Spring term, Block L
W 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Professor Janet Halley and Assistant Professor Jeannie Suk
2 classroom credit LAW-41235A
This colloquium has two goals. The first is to provide students with an opportunity to discuss ongoing research on law that employs the disciplinary tools of the humanities. The second is to introduce law students and graduate students with humanities backgrounds to aspects of legal theory that are particularly important for humanists interested in law.
At half of the sessions, invited speakers -- a mix of humanities scholars writing about law and legal scholars using humanities tools -- will present their scholarly works in progress, recently published works, or other materials for discussion of law and humanities research. Members of the Law School and FAS community will be invited to attend. The remaining sessions will focus on discussions of canonical works of legal theory and examples of legal scholarship that extrapolate those works in close readings of particular legal problems.
Students will submit brief (2-3 pp.) written comments on each week's assigned readings, due by 9 a.m. on the morning of each session. Evaluation will be based on these short papers and class participation. Students who wish to do supervised research in connection with their enrollment in the Colloquium should discuss their proposals and credit strategy with Professor Halley and/or Professor Suk.
Required Text. David Kennedy and William W. Fisher III, The Canon of American Legal Thought (Princeton U.P. 2006).