Handbook

This course will focus principally on the study of the relationships between two different legal traditions  - the Civil Law and the Common Law. Together these legal traditions provide the foundation of most of the world's national legal systems. As an initial matter, the class will examine the essential characteristics of the Civil Law and the Common Law, focusing on each tradition's history, legal structures, legal actors, procedures, and sources of law. As part of the general examination of these traditions, the class will examine particular systems within those traditions, including the American, English, Scottish, French, and German legal systems. The class may, time permitting, also consider non-Western Legal traditions such as Islamic and Hindu Law.