American Legal History
LAW 550 Section 1
Peter D. Garlock
The casebook for the course is Presser & Zainaldin, Law and Jurisprudence in American History (8th ed., 2013). You must have the 8th edition of the casebook; no other edition will do. New copies are available for purchase or rental at the CSU bookstore. (They should arrive by Friday, Jan 8.)
There is also a required Supplement, which may be purchased at the secretarial offices in the atrium. The Supplement sould be available either this Friday, Jan. 8, or Monday, Jan 11.
For Monday, January 11:
(1) Pick up a copy of a Handout, entitled Introduction, which you will find in a box on top of the cabinets opposite my office (LB161), no charge. ( It is available now, Tuesday, Jan. 5.) Read (a) for background, pp. 1-5, and (b) for class discussion, pp. 6-9, excerpts from the Massachusetts Laws and Liberties (1648). Which strike you as the most important civil rights and liberties granted citizens of Massachusetts Bay Colony? (Note: Your excerpt retains the spelling and grammar of the original document. Note also that the term "Freeman" as used in this document does not mean "free" as opposed to "slave"; rather, it signifies a full member of the Puritan church, the established church of the colony.)
(2) Also read the Course Syllabus before class. The Syllabus should be available by this Friday, Jan. 8, also on top of the file cabinets opposite my office.
For Wednesday, January 13:
(1) The Zenger Case, Seditious Libel, and the Jury: In the Casebook, read pp. 44-52 (up to last para.), mid 54-57 (up to sec. 6), mid 59 (from sec. 7)--top 60, bott 60-66 (thru n.8).
(2) In the Handout Introduction, read pp. 10-17 on the modern problem of jury nullification.