Legislation

3 units

Most law school courses focus on judge-made law, but many important practice areas - from bankruptcy and tax to environmental law and civil rights - are dominated by statutes. This three-unit course examines how legislatures create statutory law and how judges interpret statutes. The first part of the course focuses on the legislative process. How do members of Congress draft, debate, and enact legislation? How do voters and interest groups influence the content of federal laws? What rules constrain federal and state legislative processes? The course then explores how courts can and should interpret statutes. What are the theoretical bases for statutory interpretation? What sources of authority should determine the meaning of statutes? Only the text? Legislative history materials? Related statutes or administrative provisions? Students' grades will depend primarily on an in-class exam. [BCCCR Requirement: this course contains 3 hours of BCCCR instruction.]