ACADEMICS

Seminar on Constitutional Law

All participants will attend a seminar on constitutional law taught by leading legal scholars. The course is accredited by Ohio Northern Law School and students will receive a transcript after the successful completion of the three credit course. Students are encouraged to check with their home school’s registrar or dean in advance about the credit transfer policy. The Institute seminar will often satisfy a requirement for a constitutional law course or an elective.

Constitutional Law Seminar (3 Credits)
The Federalists’ Understanding
This seminar is an examination of the relationship of The Federalist Papers and the U.S. Constitution. The discussion will also connect particular essays with foundational Supreme Court cases, such as Marbury, Gibbons, Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee and McCulloch, which students read in Constitutional Law I courses. Students, however, need not have already taken the basic course in Constitutional law.

Students will be required to read The Federalist: The Gideon Edition (Liberty Fund edition by Drs. Carey and McClellan), and selected essays will be covered in class. The essays will primarily be those, such as numbers 1, 9, 10, 23, 39, 45, 47-51, 63, 68-71, 76, 78-85, which explain structure of separation of powers, federalism, and republicanism.

Please click here for a sample syllabus. A final syllabus will be available as the program start date nears.


Faculty

Dr. John Baker
Dale E. Bennett Professor of Law, Louisiana State University Law Center
Since 1999, Professor Baker has been an invited Professor at the University of Lyon III ( France). He was a Fulbright scholar in the Phillipines (2006). He regularly argues in federal court, including having had oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court. He has taught a number of short-courses on separation of powers with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Following law school, he served as a law clerk in federal district court and as an assistant district attorney in New Orleans before joining LSU in 1975. While a professor, he has been a consultant to the Justice Department, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Separation of Powers, the Office of Planning in the White House, USIA (now part of the State Department) and USAID. He served on an ABA Task Force that issued the report, The Federalization of Crime (1998). His writing includes the following books: The Intelligence Edge (with Friedman, Friedman and Chapman; Crown Books/Random House 1997); Hall’s Criminal Law: Cases and Materials (with Benson, Force and George; 5th ed. Michie, 1993); An Introduction to the Law of the United States (ed. with Levasseur; University Press of America, 1992), as well as articles both on the over-federalization of criminal law and the “war on terrorism.”

“I was given the chance to expand my knowledge of the Constitution and the important issues grounded in its interpretation. I would like to be involved in constitutional law issues and advocate before the Supreme Court in my career, and I know my experiences as part of the Legal Studies Institute have contributed to the foundation of knowledge and preparation I need to get there.”
Cole Milliard, Catholic University
Summer Associate, Stein Mitchell & Mezines LLP