Seminar in American Legal History: The Legal Foundations of American Capitalism

Law, legal processes, and legal institutions have long played a pivotal role in American political and economic development. One of the fundamental aims of this seminar is to examine how the law broadly conceived has affected, and been affected by, the emergence of a market economy in the United States from the late-nineteenth century to the present. In addition to class discussion, each student will be responsible for a brief formal presentation, a short book review, and a final research paper.