Academic Information
Course Information
Course Lists by Semester
Course Descriptions
Courses by Type
Courses by Areas of Study
Course Archives
8896.18 - Sem: Disputed Elections
Professor: Edward B. Foley
Semester: 2013 Spring
Second Writing Requirement? Yes
Seminar? Yes
Professional Responsibility? No
Prerequisites: Not open to students with credit for 796.58L
Means of Assessment: Seminar Paper
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 dud 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 past three 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.
