Foundations of American Law: History and Constitution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Coursera

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Provider

Coursera
Pricing

Paid Course
Languages

English
Certificate

Certificate Available
Effort

8 weeks, 2 hours a week
Sessions

Self-Paced
Level

Beginner
Subtitles

English

Found in

Part of

Foundations of American Law

Overview

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This course introduces the historical roots and constitutional structure of the American legal system. You will learn how competing views of the law's purpose shaped American legal thought, how the system evolved from early legal codes and English common law, and how the U.S. Constitution established separated powers, federalism, and the Bill of Rights. You will also explore the roles of legislatures, courts, and executives, including judicial review, congressional power, presidential authority, and the administrative state. Finally, you will apply concepts such as ex ante and ex post reasoning and rent-seeking to understand how law and elections shape markets, business, and public policy.

Syllabus

Module 1: The Purpose of the Law
- You will learn how competing visions of the law's purpose, from Jefferson and Madison to the libertarian, conservative, and classical liberal traditions, have shaped American legal thought. You will also learn how the law promotes economic prosperity through predictable contracts, property, and intellectual property protections, and how it maintains social stability by setting baseline standards of behavior and resolving conflicts peacefully.
Module 2: Historical Evolution of American Law
- You will learn how legal systems developed from the earliest legal codes through Roman law and the Napoleonic Code, and how the civil law tradition differs from the English common law tradition that shaped the United States. You will also learn how precedent and stare decisis work, why the Magna Carta established that no one is above the law, and how the common law created the distinction between criminal and civil cases and the jury system.
Module 3: The American Constitution & Modern Legal Structure
- You will learn how the U.S. Constitution was created and what it establishes, including separated powers, federalism, and the Bill of Rights. You will also learn how statutes, administrative regulations, and court decisions expanded the legal system beyond the Constitution, the seven primary sources of law in the United States, and how agency theory and the division of authority between federal and state governments explain who holds power and how they are held accountable.
Module 4: Key Institutions in the American Legal System
- You will learn how legislatures create statutes, how federal and state court systems are structured, and how jurisdiction determines which court hears a case. You will also learn how criminal and civil cases progress from filing through discovery, trial, and judgment, how the executive branch enforces the law as illustrated by Cooper v. Aaron, and the roles of regulatory, law enforcement, and prosecutorial agencies and the legal profession.
Module 5: Ex Post v. Ex Ante & Supreme Court
- You will learn how the law works both ex post, by remedying harms after they occur, and ex ante, by shaping incentives to reduce future harm, as illustrated by the bank hostage case Boyd v. Racine Currency Exchange. You will also learn how judicial review originated in Marbury v. Madison, how courts interpret the Constitution through originalism and the living Constitution, and how these approaches affect regulation of technology and business.
Module 6: The National Legislature
- You will learn where Congress gets its authority, including enumerated powers, implied powers under McCulloch v. Maryland, the Commerce Clause, and the powers to tax, spend, and investigate. You will also learn how Congress delegates authority to administrative agencies, how recent Supreme Court decisions and the major questions doctrine limit that authority, and how federal preemption and state experimentation shape regulation of areas such as AI, data privacy, cryptocurrency, and supply chains.
Module 7: The Chief Executive and Executive Power
- You will learn how Article II defines presidential power and how cases such as Curtiss-Wright and Youngstown set the boundaries of executive authority in foreign and domestic affairs. You will also learn how the president shapes the administrative state through appointments, executive orders, and agency guidance, how war powers and emergency authority are checked by Congress and the courts, and how impeachment, congressional oversight, and executive privilege hold the executive accountable.
Module 8: Elections and Rent-Seeking
- You will learn what economic rent and rent-seeking are, why competing to capture an existing prize destroys value rather than creating it, and how monopolies and cases such as the Daraprim price increase illustrate the harm. You will also learn how the Constitution structures elections through federal and state authority, staggered terms, and safeguards against corruption, and how campaign finance, lobbying, and anti-bribery laws seek to limit rent-seeking in the political process.