New Module on the Constrained Supreme Court
These lectures provide a proper theoretical clarity for what “attitudinal theory” is on the Supreme Court, and what anecdotal evidence might support it. They also provide a well organized account of the competitor theory, called “institutionalism.” This module is therefore about competing theories of judicial choice. Students learn not only how the idea of a […]
New Module on Judicial Ideology and Party Regimes
What is judicial political ideology on the US Supreme Court, and how is this measured? And what do the results show about whether SCOTUS is “political” (whatever that means) or driven by party regimes? Most of the empirical attention of this module is given to the binary indices of the Supreme Court Data Set. What […]
New Module on Sovereign & Edict
What happens when political power combines to create laws that are repugnant to basic decency in states that have honest functioning courts of law? This module looks at this issue philosophically, before modernity arrives, in Bonham’s Case, and as well after the American statutory state arrives in the 1900s. How do judges in modern times […]
New Module on the Common Law
These lectures provide a pretty good abstract understanding of what the common law is, and where it came from. The perspective is philosophical: what is casuistry, what relationship does the common law have to “truth” in the middle ages, and how does this intersect in theoretical discussions about natural law versus positivism?
New Module on Ideology
One of the most unfortunate grammars in life is this talk of “ideology.” It’s all balled-up. Sometimes it mean framework, other times it means “pathology.” And there are academic traditions for each. In this module, a philosopher tries to sort out the grammars and help his students. Most interesting is how the concept of “centrism” […]
New Module on Watergate
In the era of Covid, innovation in online teaching occurred. In this iteration of that, a major edit of an old lecture capture was refurbished. Although the original performance involved poor gear (a lavalier mic), what made the production work was the crazy use of media and images, which really are the show. And I […]