Course Information

796.58 - Disputed Elections

Professor: Edward B. Foley
Semester: 2012 Winter

Second Writing Requirement? Yes
Seminar? Yes
Professional Responsibility? No
Prerequisites: None

Course Description

Bush v. Gore.  Coleman v. Franken (the 2008 disputed U.S. Senate election in Minnesota).  John Jay versus George Clinton (the first such dispute, in 1792, involving our Founding Fathers, including Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr playing the role of legal counsel to the candidates, much as James Baker and David Boies for Bush and Gore in 2000).  The presidential election of 1876 involving Hayes and Tilden.  Etc., etc.

This semester will consider the major disputed elections throughout U.S. history and what we can learn for the benefit of the future from each of these interesting episodes. The primary text for this seminar will be the manuscript of a book on disputed elections that Professor Foley has been writing.

The seminar will also consider the work of a new American Law Institute project, which is designed to develop model rules or principles for the resolution of future disputed elections.

Each student will write a paper that addresses either a specific aspect of past disputed elections or a specific aspect of improving the resoltuion of these disputes in the future.  Professor Foley will distribute a list of suggested paper topics at the beginning of the semester, but students are free to develop their own particular topic (as long as Profesor Foley "green lights" it after consultation).  One exciting feature of this seminar is that these student papers will have a significant impact on the book that Professor Foley is writing as well as the ALI project.   Seminar papers from the last two years have already proved extremely valuable in this way.

The course materials listed above are for informational purposes only and should not be considered final. Students must check with the Registrar for a current list of closed courses.