LAW 637 - Comparative Constitutional Law Seminar

Credits: 2
Conditions: Restricted to students in the German Law Journal.
Prerequisites: instructor consent.
Description: This course provides both grounding in the methodology of comparative constitutional law and in-depth exposure to the comparison of the United States (common law tradition) and German (civil law tradition) constitutions. The comparison is conducted by reference to key features of all constitutional arrangements, including: constitutional foundations (the locus of sovereignty; the State and the law); organization of power (separation of powers; federalism); rights of citizens (models of rights protection; judicial review). The course focuses on two countries as points of comparison in order to fully develop the theory that constitutionalism is deeply a matter of social context.