MVV375K American Constitutionalism: The Ideas behind the Nation

Právnická fakulta
podzim 2023
Rozsah
0/1/0. 3 kr. Ukončení: k.
Vyučující
prof. JUDr. Ing. Michal Radvan, Ph.D. (cvičící)
William J. Watkins, Jr. (cvičící), prof. JUDr. Ing. Michal Radvan, Ph.D. (zástupce)
Garance
prof. JUDr. Ing. Michal Radvan, Ph.D.
Právnická fakulta
Kontaktní osoba: Mgr. Věra Redrupová, B.A.
Dodavatelské pracoviště: Právnická fakulta
Rozvrh seminárních/paralelních skupin
MVV375K/01: Po 27. 11. 18:00–19:40 041, Út 28. 11. 18:00–19:40 041, St 29. 11. 14:00–15:40 041, Čt 30. 11. 18:00–19:40 041, Po 4. 12. 18:00–19:40 041, Út 5. 12. 18:00–19:40 041, St 6. 12. 18:00–19:40 041, Čt 7. 12. 18:00–19:40 041
Omezení zápisu do předmětu
Předmět je určen pouze studentům mateřských oborů.

Předmět si smí zapsat nejvýše 30 stud.
Momentální stav registrace a zápisu: zapsáno: 26/30, pouze zareg.: 0/30
Mateřské obory/plány
předmět má 80 mateřských oborů, zobrazit
Cíle předmětu
We have three distinct learning goals in this course:
1) The first is to learn what competing ideas led to the formation of the United States of America.
2) Our second goal will be to chart the development of these “first principles” throughout American history and into the present.
3) Our final goal is to apply these “first principles” to conflicts and issues in the 21st century.
Výstupy z učení
At the end of the course, students should
- achieve an understanding of the first principles of American constitutionalism;
- be able to articulate how ideas about the rule of law, popular sovereignty, federalism, and limited government shaped the United States and how these and other principles have developed and are applied today.
Osnova
  • Class 1
  • The British Constitution and the American Revolution
  • A discussion of how the British Constitution influenced the American revolutionaries and shaped American political thought. Of course, there were divergences from the British theory and an ultimate rejection of parliamentary sovereignty in favor of popular sovereignty. We will examine the impact of the adoption of popular sovereignty and its impact on American institutions.
  • Class 2
  • The U.S. Constitution: Federalists v. Anti-Federalists
  • For the new Constitution to be ratified, nine of the thirteen states had to agree to its terms. A great debate arose across the country on the merits and dangers of this new document of government. The Constitution’s friends—the Federalists—claimed that the new government’s powers were “few and defined,” and would be exercised on external objects such as foreign affairs and foreign commerce. The Constitution’s opponents—the Anti-Federalists—challenged the claims that the new plan of government was a mild antidote for the ills of the Confederation.
  • Class 3
  • Hamilton v. Jefferson: Different Views of American Republicanism
  • Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson both served in George Washington’s cabinet. These two Founding Fathers had markedly different visions for the United States and its Constitution. Hamilton envisioned and energetic national government with policies putting the United States the road to a status as a great power. Jefferson, on the other hand, championed the powers of the American states rather than the national government. He feared national ascendancy would endanger individual liberty. The battles between Hamilton and Jefferson continue until this very day.
  • Class 4
  • The Sections and the Civil War: Federal or National Supremacy?
  • Would the United States follow the Alexander Hamilton’s big government/commercial state model, featuring a strong, centralized government, a chief executive with extensive powers, and high tariffs to encourage manufacturing at the expense of agriculture? Or would it adopt the alternative that a government that “governs best which governs least?”
  • Class 5
  • Due Process and Equal Protection: Power to the Courts
  • As power gravitated to the national government after the Civil War, the federal courts assumed a more aggressive role in American society. The Supreme Court latched onto the idea of substantive due process when reviewing state laws enacted to protect workers from the unpleasant side effects of the Industrial Revolution. Today, the Court uses due process and the equal protection clause to protect rights it deems fundamental. Is this a legitimate use of judicial power or does it infringe on legislative policymaking?
  • Class 6
  • The Second Amendment: Guns and American Government
  • Do Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms? Or is this power vested solely in government? Recent years have seen a sea change in scholarship on the Second Amendment. Beginning in the 1960s, a view emerged that individuals had a “right” to bear arms only in militia service—a limited, "collective" right. But in the late 1980s scholars began producing an altogether persuasive analysis that changed thinking on the matter, so that today, even in canonical textbooks, bearing arms is acknowledged as an individual right.
  • Class 7
  • Affirmative Action: Race and American Government
  • Thus there are two starkly different interpretations of affirmative action. The first is that it is a noble and morally needed attempt to correct for past and current wrongs by working to have institutions approximate the racial, ethnic, and gender proportions existing in the broader society. The second is this is an attempt to implement a morally dubious and anti-meritorious system of making race, gender and other group characteristics the basis for determining such vital things as college admissions or appointment to well-paid positions with high job security. Are efforts at affirmative action congruent with the U.S. Constitution?
  • Class 8
  • The Rise and Fall of Roe v. Wade.
  • In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the U.S. Constitution does not protect or mention any alleged right to abortion. In overturning almost fifty years of federal judicial policymaking on abortion, the Court declared that “the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.” We will examine whether the Supreme Court adhered to the text of the Constitution or whether it committed and unnecessary act of warfare on a settled constitutional issue.
Literatura
  • See Course Contents and Teacher's Information for full details.
Výukové metody
While there will be lectures in the course, much of class time will be devoted to discussions of the merits and demerits of the principles of American government. The learning process in the classes is relies heavily on class discussions. Please do not be shy about asking questions, offering comments, and engaging in the discussions.
Metody hodnocení
A written exam during the final session that will consist of multiple choice, true/false and short-answer questions.
Vyučovací jazyk
Angličtina
Informace učitele
Course Description
This course is a history of the ideas leading to the formation of the United States of America. Students will seek to identify the concepts and cognitive methods which early Americans used to answer political questions and guide political behavior. Students will discover the ideas and values that enabled colonial Americans to question and challenge British authority, justify armed resistance to their king, and create thirteen independent nations in which the people govern themselves. The course will follow the development and application of American “first principles” (bedrock values that formed the basis of the American Experiment in self-government) in the great controversies and events of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Central concepts include sovereignty, republicanism, constitutionalism, federalism, nullification, secession, liberty, revolution, equality, progress, and democracy. Major American thinkers discussed include Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Abraham Lincoln, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Antonin Scalia.

Materials
It is strongly suggested that all students, for background purposes, read the transcript (or listen to the audio presentation) from the policy forum entitled “The American Revolution and the Legacy of Liberty.” The presenters are the distinguished historians Joyce Appleby and Hans Eicholz.
It is available online: http://www.independent.org/events/transcript.asp?id=26.
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Studijní materiály
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