Fall 2011

Law and Political Emergency

Listed in: Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought, as LJST-345

Formerly listed as: LJST-04  |  LJST-45

Faculty

Nasser Hussain (Section 01)

Description

(Analytic Seminar) This course introduces students to one of the more sustained problems in jurisprudence and legal theory: what happens to a constitutional order when it is faced with extraordinary conditions such as rebellion, war and terrorism. While it is generally agreed that rules, rights and procedures may be temporarily suspended, it is less clear which rights, and who decides on the suspension (the executive alone or in some combination with the legislature, with or without oversight by the courts). While these questions have now become familiar to us--and this course will guide students through the policy shifts and court battles in the United States since 9/11, from the issue of enemy combatants to the use of Guantanamo Bay as a detention center--we will take a more theoretical and historical approach to these questions. Thus we will look at the earliest use of some emergency techniques by the British in the colonies, Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War and the notorious Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which has often been blamed for facilitating the rise of the Nazis. We will end by examining alternative methods for contending with emergency.  One class meeting per week.

Requisite: LJST 101 or 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Hussain.

If Overenrolled: To be determined by the professor.

Cost: $55.00 ?

LJST 345 - L/D

Section 01
Tu 11:00 AM - 01:00 PM CHAP 205

This is preliminary information about books for this course. Please contact your instructor or the Academic Coordinator for the department, before attempting to purchase these books.

ISBN Title Publisher Author(s) Comment Book Store Price
Enemy Aliens 2005 NY Press ww Norton David Cole Amherst Books TBD
Constitutional Dictatorship: Crisis Government in the Modern Democracies 1948 Princeton University Press Clinton Rossiter, William Quirk Amherst Books TBD
The Constitution of Law: Legality in a Time of Emergency 2006 Cambridge University Press David Dyzenhaus Amherst Books TBD
When Governments Break the Law: The Rule of Law and Prosecution of the Bush Administration NYU Press 2010 Austin Sarat and Nasser Hussain Amherst Books TBD

These books are available locally at Amherst Books.

Offerings

2024-25: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2013, Fall 2013