Law 798: Legal Theory Seminar: Classical Readings in Anglo-American Jurisprudence

This is a seminar offered jointly by the University of Illinois and the University of Pennsylvania. It is co-taught by Leo Katz (Penn) and Michael Moore (Illinois). Students from both of these universities will be enrolled in the seminar. It is also possible that students/post-docs/faculty from other schools will also be auditing the seminar in whole or in part, as has been true of similar seminars in the past.

The subject matter of the seminar will be the uniquely singular focus of American jurisprudence on the nature of judicial reasoning. How judges both do and should reason in their resolution of disputed law cases is a topic of great interest during this current, troubled state of our legal system, but as the seminar will reveal, it has always been the central focus of American legal theory. The seminar will together read and discuss a number of articles/book chapters/book excerpts by leading American legal theorists spanning the last century and a half. As you can see from the accompanying syllabus for the seminar, the readings are organized historically, beginning with the formalist approach of Christopher Columbus Langdell in 1870.  

Because this is a joint seminar involving students from different universities, each of the sessions will be conducted on Zoom. While there may be occasional in person sessions at either Penn or Illinois, there will otherwise be no in person classroom component.

Each student at the University of Illinois will be expected to team up (by Zoom) with at least one student from Penn to prepare questions and comments for class discussion of one of the papers to be read and discussed in one of the fourteen sessions of the seminar. In addition, Illinois students will be expected to prepare a 5-10 page paper exploring in greater depth one of the topics discussed during the semester. This can be the topic on which the student also prepared questions for in-class discussion. There will no exam or other formal requirements other than regular attendance and participation.

Because there is no overlap between the content of this seminar and the content of the Seminar on Advanced Topics in Property and Contract Law taught by Michael Moore and Leo Katz academic year 2024-25, students who have taken the latter seminar may also enroll in the present seminar as well. The Seminar on Advanced Topics in Property and Contract Law will not be offered AY 2025-2026.

As you will see from the syllabus for the seminar, the academic calendars of the University of Illinois and the University of Pennsylvania are not perfectly congruent: Penn starts and finishes one week earlier than Illinois, and the spring breaks of the two schools are also one week off.  This means that two of the seminar sessions – session nos. 1 and 10 – are not official class days for Illinois students (although they are for Penn students). In the past some Illinois students have chosen to join these sessions anyway, and although you are under no obligation to do so you are welcome to do the same for these sessions this year.

Sequence and Prerequisites: None

Evaluation: Each student at the University of Illinois will be expected to team up (by Zoom) with at least one student from Penn to prepare questions and comments for class discussion of one of the papers to be read and discussed in one of the fourteen sessions of the seminar. In addition, Illinois students will be expected to prepare a 5-10 page paper exploring in greater depth one of the topics discussed during the semester. This can be the topic on which the student also prepared questions for in-class discussion. There will be no exam or other formal requirements other than regular attendance and participation.