Travail & civilisation américaine

The United States Supreme Court plays an important role in American political life, and its decisions often have profound effects on the lives of individual women, men, and children. Over the last 230 years, the court has repeatedly dealt with controversial questions at the heart of American democracy, including: slavery and citizenship rights; protection against discrimination of various kinds; freedom of speech and religion; the power of the federal government in relation to the states; the status and sovereignty of Native American nations; the rights of workers and immigrants; sexual privacy and reproductive rights; the death penalty, and more. Examining landmark decisions of the Supreme Court thus provides one way of surveying the history of American democracy while dealing with complex interpretive questions about the origins of law, how it functions in society, and its effects on people and institutions.

This seminar will introduce students to methods and sources of U.S. legal history (such as the structure of the court system and how to read judicial opinions) but our focus will be on the interaction between law, politics, and social change. We will study a series of court cases in their historical contexts, and students will have the opportunity to explore a particular case or legal question in depth. The seminar will proceed largely in chronological order over the two semesters, but it will be possible to join the seminar at the beginning of the second semester (please contact instructor).

Preliminary bibliography (further readings and documents will be indicated in the seminar):

Anne Deysine, La Cour suprême des États-Unis : droit, politique et démocratie (Dalloz, 2015).
Kermit L. Hall and Peter Karsten, The Magic Mirror: Law in American History (Oxford, 2009).
Lawrence Friedman, A History of American Law. 4th ed. (Oxford, 2019).
Michael Grossberg and Christopher Tomlins, eds., The Cambridge History of Law in America. 3 vols. (Cambridge, 2008).
Peter Irons, A People's History of the Supreme Court. Rev. ed. (Penguin, 2006).
Élisabeth Zoller, Les grands arrêts de la Cour suprême des États-Unis (Dalloz, 2010)