LAWS 9922 American Legal History
This course surveys major developments of American legal culture, legal institutions, and the Constitution: (1) the seventeenth-century and British colonization (founding ideas of law and legal institutions; regulation of the family; the witchcraft trials; indentured servitude and slavery; property law; and legal practice and education); (2) the founding period (the legal formation of the United States); (3) the early nineteenth-century and Civil War (antebellum legal culture; the corporation; the Cherokees cases; antislavery and the Fugitive Slave Law; the Civil War and emancipation); (4) Reconstruction to the 21st century (women's suffrage; race relations; labor, property, and the corporation; legal education and the legal profession; the rising importance of rights; Reagan conservatism).
Course overview
- Department
- Law
- School
- LAW
- Credits
- 3
- Level
- Graduate
- Offered
- Every Spring
Course evaluations
- Course rating
- 4.81 / 5 · Excellent
- Instructor rating
- 4.93 / 5 · Excellent
- Terms evaluated
- 4
| Term | Instructor | Course overall | Instructor overall | Well organized | Clear learning objectives | Intellectually challenging | Helpful assignments | Applicable beyond course | Attendance necessary | Weekly effort | Responses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | Mary Bilder | 4.8 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4–6 hrs/week | 28 of 29 |
| Fall 2023 | Mary Bilder | 4.8 | 4.9 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.6 | 4.9 | 4.6 | 4.8 | 4–6 hrs/week | 28 of 31 |
| Fall 2022 | Mary Bilder | 4.8 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 4–6 hrs/week | 28 of 35 |
| Spring 2022 | Mary Bilder | 4.8 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.7 | 4.5 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4–6 hrs/week | 27 of 37 |