Daniel M Brinks

Comparative study of the nature of courts and law, their position in political systems, and their potential impact on society.

Please check back for updates.

Judicial politics is the study of how political dynamics shape courts and how courts, in turn, shape politics and society. This course is an introduction to the comparative study of judicial politics, designed for students who want to learn more about the role of courts in the modern state and to better understand their growing importance as political actors. We will engage with different theories to compare and contrast how law, politics and judiciaries interact around the world. To help us understand and apply the readings, we will role-play a constituent assembly and design our own court.

Participating in this course will help you understand questions such as the following: What is the political logic that gives rise to judicial power? How do different courts make decisions? How do different political contexts (democracy, authoritarianism) shape the way courts make decisions? Why are some judiciaries more independent than others? Can courts bring about social and political change?

The readings will help you develop an understanding of some of the key theories and debates in the field of comparative judicial politics. We will constantly put the theories we engage with in dialogue with events and facts about judicial systems in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Africa. Over the course of the semester we will apply what we learn about courts and politics in a collective class project: the design of the highest court of the land in a fictional country inspired by events in contemporary Egypt. The class will represent different political factions present in the Egyptian parliament and we will prepare for and hold debates to determine the characteristics of our fictional country’s supreme court.

The readings are often quite challenging and many of them are quite long. In order to participate in the debates regarding institutional design you will need to be very familiar with the readings. The class will demand a significant amount of preparation each week. You should not take this class if you are not able or willing to spend time on it outside of class hours. Attendance is mandatory and part of your grade.

Class requirements:

• 2 quizzes worth 10% each (20% total)
• A midterm worth 25%
• A final worth 30%
• Class participation, worth 25% total, calculated on the basis of

• The quiz lottery results (the quiz lottery randomly tests student preparation and attendance)
• A series of very short written assignments due throughout the semester
• Participation in class debates and group assignments

Gov 384N/Law 379M: Comparative Judicial Politics

Courts around the world are becoming more powerful and more deeply involved in setting public policy, deciding important political and social questions, and constraining democratic politics. At the same time, those who should know – and care – the most about this phenomenon, including lawyers, politicians, and political scientists, often operate under mistaken premises concerning courts and law, how politics affects them and how they in turn affect politics. In this course we will try to dispel some of these misunderstandings. We will ask questions like the following: What is behind this global trend? What are courts doing with their newfound powers? When do courts and law have more important consequences for politics and for social change? Perhaps more importantly, is the “judicialization” of politics good, bad or indifferent? And good for whom?

The course examines the role that courts and law play in political systems around the world, including the United States. We begin with an examination of the basic logic of courts and law, and cover such topics as the differences across legal traditions, the creation of constitutional courts, the nature of judicial decision-making, judicial independence, the capacity of courts to produce social change, etc. The ultimate goal is to understand the conditions under which courts are or become consequential actors within the overall social and political system.

The course should be especially relevant to those with an interest in comparative law and legal systems, comparative judicial behavior, the role of courts in politics and social change, and the rule of law around the world. Given the course’s strong institutional focus, the course should also be relevant to those interested in comparative institutional analyses more generally. The readings will include materials on courts around the world, from the US and the rest of North America, to Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

Grading: Your grade in the course will be determined by your participation in class discussions (20%), two one- to two-page long discussion guides (10%), your reflection paper (20%), and your final paper (50%).

Books to Purchase: You will be required to buy Martin Shapiro’s 1981 book, Courts: A Comparative and Political Analysis, since we will be reading most of it (it is available very inexpensively from Amazon or other online sources). I will post electronic versions of all the other readings. You should expect a fairly heavy reading load (normal to moderate for grad seminars, pretty heavy for law courses). 

Gov 337 LAS 337 course description

Law and Democracy in Latin America

This course explores many of the challenges to the rule of law across Latin America, and their connection to democracy. We will begin by examining the relationship between law and democracy, then look at a series of issues that illustrate the strength or weakness of the rule of law in the region. Rather than focusing on one country at a time or a few countries in depth, we will use events and systems in various countries as illustrations of important themes. We will then look at the possible consequences of these challenges for democracy in the region, and possible solutions. The course materials will at times cover difficult and controversial topics such as violence, human rights violations, and corruption.

The readings are a collection of recent research on these issues and require the students to engage critically with the arguments presented. We will test authors’ claims against the evidence they present, challenge the logic of their arguments, and question their conclusions. The readings will often be challenging, including both qualitative and quantitative analyses, and containing both historical and more philosophical discussions of law and democracy in the region. Some of the readings are also quite long. Students are expected to come to class prepared and participate in the discussions. I will occasionally test students’ preparation with brief, unannounced written questions.

By the end of the semester you will have acquired some basic information about Latin American legal systems, and some basic concepts about the different ways courts work in that part of the world. More importantly, however, you will have a greater understanding of what a robust democracy should look like, and where different countries fall short. You should be able to engage in a discussion about the role courts and laws do play, should play and can play in the (democratic) political systems of Latin America, and their potential for improvement.

Please check back for updates.

Natural resources, human rights and inequality 

Monday 4:00 – 5:50pm

This seminar will address the human rights issues that arise in the context of natural resource extraction and governance, especially in relation to resources such as fossil fuels, minerals and timbers. It will examine how persistent inequalities between and within countries pose additional challenges for the realization of human rights in relation to natural resource extraction. Natural resource extraction is often seen as a means to raise needed revenue for development and realization of social and economic rights within countries, but it is also often located on the land of indigenous or otherwise socially marginalized groups, who may oppose it. Moreover, extractive projects often seem to benefit the corporations or governments that control them more than the local population that bear their costs. Does a human rights perspective help us adjudicate these tensions? How do existing inequalities influence how the benefits, risks and decision-making authority in relation to natural resource governance are distributed? Would a human rights lens help redress some of these inequalities? What alternative governance regimes can we envision that might most effectively address the inequalities that might arise in the context of natural resource extraction? What should we do about the downstream effects of fossil fuel extraction, such as the carbon it releases into the atmosphere?

The seminar will be organized around the visits of leading scholars and practitioners in the fields of natural resources and human rights who will come to the Law School to present their research.

Students will spend two weeks considering work by each speaker. In the first week, we will meet in a traditional seminar format to discuss the speaker’s work. In the second week, the speakers will present their work in a public forum, and will engage in dialogue with seminar students, as well as with others in the university community who choose to attend the talk. Students will thus have the opportunity both to participate in critical discussion of the work in a small setting and to observe and contribute to a conversation with the authors in a broader audience.

Students are expected to participate actively in class discussions, write short critical papers in response to the readings for the seminar, and write a longer essay on a topic related to the themes that arise during the semester.

The seminar is open to law students as well as to non-law graduate and professional students with relevant background.

Gov 384N/Law 379M: Comparative Judicial Politics

Courts around the world are becoming more powerful and more deeply involved in setting public policy, deciding important political and social questions, and constraining democratic politics. At the same time, those who should know – and care – the most about this phenomenon, including lawyers, politicians, and political scientists, often operate under mistaken premises concerning courts and law, how politics affects them and how they in turn affect politics. In this course we will try to dispel some of these misunderstandings. We will ask questions like the following: What is behind this global trend? What are courts doing with their newfound powers? When do courts and law have more important consequences for politics and for social change? Perhaps more importantly, is this “judicialization” good, bad or indifferent? And good for whom?

The course examines the role that courts and law play in political systems around the world, including the United States. We begin with an examination of the basic logic of courts and law, and cover such topics as the differences across legal traditions, the creation of constitutional courts, the nature of judicial decision-making, judicial independence, the capacity of courts to produce social change, etc. The ultimate goal is to understand the conditions under which courts are or become consequential actors within the overall social and political system.

The course should be especially relevant to those with an interest in comparative law and legal systems, comparative judicial behavior, the role of courts in politics and social change, and the rule of law around the world. Given the course’s strong institutional focus, the course should also be relevant to those interested in comparative institutional analyses more generally. The readings will include materials on courts around the world, from the US and the rest of North America, to Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe.

Grading: Your grade in the course will be determined by your participation in class discussions (20%), two one- to two-page long discussion guides (10%), your reflection paper (20%), and your final paper (50%).

Books to Purchase: You will be required to buy Martin Shapiro’s 1981 book, Courts: A Comparative and Political Analysis, since we will be reading most of it (it is available very inexpensively from Amazon or other online sources). In addition, I will post electronic versions of all the readings (except for Shapiro).

Title: “Law and Democracy in Latin America”

Course description:

Subject matter of the course: This course explores many of the challenges and improvements to the rule of law across Latin America, and their connection to democracy. We will begin by examining the relationship between law and democracy, then look at a series of issues that illustrate the strength or weakness of the rule of law in the region. Rather than focusing on one country at a time or a few countries in depth, we will use events and systems in various countries as illustrations of important themes. We will also look at the possible consequences of these challenges for democracy in the region, and possible solutions.

The readings are a collection of recent research on these issues and require the students to engage critically with the readings. We will test authors’ claims against the evidence they present, challenge the logic of their arguments, and question their conclusions. To do this effectively, students must come to class prepared. We will use the quiz lotto (described below) to monitor and reward prepared class attendance.

By the end of the semester you will have acquired some basic information about Latin American legal systems, and some basic concepts about the different ways the law works in that part of the world. More importantly, however, you will have a greater understanding of what a robust democracy should look like, and where different countries fall short. You should be able to engage in a discussion about the role courts and laws do play, should play and can play in the (democratic) political systems of Latin America, and its potential for improvement. The various essays and the take home exam will help you to think about these issues and test how well you are acquiring the basic concepts and information needed.

Evaluation: Your grade in this course will be determined as follows:

15% each of the four essays due throughout the semester

15% your grade on the quiz lotteries

25% take home final

The quiz lottery: At the beginning of each class period, I will run the quiz lottery. The lottery has a 45% chance of generating a single question meant to determine whether you have done the reading for that day. The question should be fairly obvious if you have done the reading, but hard if you have not. If you are absent, you get a 0, if you are present but don’t know the answer, you earn a 1, if you answer accurately, you earn a 2. At the end of the semester I drop the lowest score and average the rest.

Required Books:

A Course Packet will be available from Jenn’s at 2200 Guadalupe. No books are required.

Title: “Courts and Politics Around the World”

Course description:

This course carries out a comparative study of the nature of courts and law, their position in political systems, and their potential impact on society. We will look at experiences around the world, in part, in order to gain a better understanding of how the US legal system works. The course is very theoretical, and organized around key themes rather than countries. The main themes of the course include the following: why politicians create powerful courts, how do judges and courts make decisions, what is judicial independence, how do we get it, and which systems have it, and how effective are courts as tools for political and social change. The court has a heavy emphasis on judicial design, and the class will design a court structure for an imaginary country.

Two modes of approaching the material will distinguish this class. First, we will not read pre-digested summaries or textbooks, but original social science research. We will engage critically with the readings, testing authors’ claims against their evidence, challenging the logic of their arguments, and questioning their conclusions. Secondly, we will apply what we have learned to an imaginary country modeled roughly on Iraq’s constitutional and ethno-political situation. The class will represent some of the factions present in the Iraqi parliament, and will model debates about how the judiciary should be shaped in our imaginary country.

The readings are often quite challenging and many of them are quite long. In order to participate in the debates regarding institutional design you will need to be very familiar with the readings. I expect that the class will demand a significant amount of preparation each week. You should not take this class if you are not able or willing to spend time on it outside of class hours. Attendance is mandatory and part of your grade.

Class requirements:

• 2 quizzes worth 10% each (20% total)
• A midterm worth 25%
• A final worth 30%
• Class participation, worth 25% total, calculated on the basis of

• The quiz lottery results (the quiz lottery randomly tests student preparation and attendance)
• A series of very short written assignments due throughout the semester
• Participation in class debates and group assignments

Law 379M/Gov 384N: Law in Latin America -  A comparative view

Subject matter of the course: This course offers a broad overview of the current legal environment in Latin America. For too long, the dominant impression in the United States has been that legal institutions in Latin America are, if not completely irrelevant, at least extremely weak. This conventional wisdom typically does not distinguish among countries, and it misses important recent changes in many of them.  This course will note the increasing prevalence of systems in which courts are stronger and more autonomous, and judicial decision-making more predictable, and briefly look at the reasons for judicial strengthening. Mostly, however, the course will offer students an understanding of the diversity of legal experiences in the region. The goal of the course is threefold: to give future U.S.-based practitioners a realistic, politically and historically informed understanding of legal systems in Latin America; to give future Latin American practitioners a more comparative view of their own legal systems; and to give any student interested in Latin America a strong understanding of how historical and political processes have shaped legal developments in the region, and vice versa.

The course has three broad sections. In the first we will undertake a tour of the institutional arrangements found in Latin America today, and glance briefly at their historical development. The objective of this section is to give students an idea of how courts are arranged, how the legal profession is organized, and in which countries courts are more or less autonomous institutions. This section will offer a more structural look at the courts and their organization. In the second section of the course we will cover the courts' intervention in public law, and the increasingly broad intersection between public and private law. We will focus more closely on courts’ interventions in the social and economic rights area. The third section will look at general trends and some particular examples in the private law area in Latin America. The point of the course is not to acquire exhaustive knowledge of each of these substantive legal areas in each of the countries, but to get a sense of the overall approach and some signature characteristics.

Evaluation: Your grade in this course will be determined as follows:

20% class participation

20% each, your grade on two essays and their in-class presentations

40% take home final

Required Books:

-           The only book that is required is Merryman and Pérez-Perdomo’s The Civil Law Tradition, 3d Ed., which you can purchase very inexpensively from Amazon or another on-line retailer

-           The remaining readings will be available electronically from Blackboard, or, depending on student demand, in a course packet. 

Course description:

Subject matter of the course: This course explores many of the challenges and improvements to the rule of law across Latin America, and their connection to democracy. We will begin by examining the relationship between law and democracy, then look at a series of issues that illustrate the strength or weakness of the rule of law in the region. Rather than focusing on one country at a time or a few countries in depth, we will use events and systems in various countries as illustrations of important themes. We will also look at the possible consequences of these challenges for democracy in the region, and possible solutions.

The readings are a collection of recent research on these issues and require the students to engage critically with the readings. We will test authors’ claims against the evidence they present, challenge the logic of their arguments, and question their conclusions. To do this effectively, students must come to class prepared. We will use the quiz lotto (described below) to monitor and reward prepared class attendance.

By the end of the semester you will have acquired some basic information about Latin American legal systems, and some basic concepts about the different ways the law works in that part of the world. More importantly, however, you will have a greater understanding of what a robust democracy should look like, and where different countries fall short. You should be able to engage in a discussion about the role courts and laws do play, should play and can play in the (democratic) political systems of Latin America, and its potential for improvement. The various essays and the take home exam will help you to think about these issues and test how well you are acquiring the basic concepts and information needed.

Evaluation: Your grade in this course will be determined as follows:

15% each of the four essays due throughout the semester

15% your grade on the quiz lotteries

25% take home final

The quiz lottery: At the beginning of each class period, I will run the quiz lottery. The lottery has a 50% chance of generating a single question meant to determine whether you have done the reading for that day. The question should be fairly obvious if you have done the reading, but hard if you have not. If you are absent, you get a 0, if you are present but don’t know the answer, you earn a 1, if you answer accurately, you earn a 2. At the end of the semester I drop the lowest score and average the rest.

Required Books:

A Course Packet will be available from Jenn’s at 2200 Guadalupe. No books are required.

Course description

 This course carries out a comparative study of the nature of courts and law, their position in political systems, and their potential impact on society. We will look at experiences around the world, in part, in order to gain a better understanding of how the US legal system works. The course is very theoretical, and organized around key themes rather than countries. The main themes of the course include the following: why politicians create powerful courts, how do judges and courts make decisions, what is judicial independence, how do we get it, and which systems have it, and how effective are courts as tools for political and social change. The court has a heavy emphasis on judicial design, and the class will design a court structure for an imaginary country.

Two modes of approaching the material will distinguish this class. First, we will not read pre-digested summaries or textbooks, but original social science research. We will engage critically with the readings, testing authors’ claims against their evidence, challenging the logic of their arguments, and questioning their conclusions. Secondly, we will apply what we have learned to an imaginary country modeled roughly on Iraq’s constitutional and ethno-political situation. The class will represent some of the factions present in the Iraqi parliament, and will model debates about how the judiciary should be shaped in our imaginary country.

The readings are often quite challenging and many of them are quite long. In order to participate in the debates regarding institutional design you will need to be very familiar with the readings. I expect that the class will demand a significant amount of preparation each week. You should not take this class if you are not able or willing to spend time on it outside of class hours. Attendance is mandatory and part of your grade.

Grading Policy

• 2 quizzes worth 10% each (20% total)
• A midterm worth 25%
• A final worth 30%
• Class participation, worth 25% total, calculated on the basis of

• The quiz lottery results (the quiz lottery randomly tests student preparation and attendance)
• A series of very short written assignments due throughout the semester
• Participation in class debates and group assignments

Courts around the world are becoming more powerful and more deeply involved in setting public policy, deciding important political and social questions, and constraining democratic politics. At the same time, those who should know – and care – the most about this phenomenon, including lawyers, politicians, and political scientists, often operate under mistaken premises concerning courts and law, how politics affects them and how they in turn affect politics. In this course we will try to dispel some of these misunderstandings. We will ask questions like the following: What is behind this global trend? What are courts doing with their newfound powers? When do courts and law have more important consequences for politics and for social change? Perhaps more importantly, is this “judicialization” good, bad or indifferent? And good for whom?

Whether you are interested in law, courts, the executive, legislatures, or democracy more generally, it has become increasingly important to understand how law and courts impinge on other political actors and on public policy. The course examines the role that courts and law play in political systems around the world, including the United States. We begin with an examination of the basic logic of courts and law, and cover such topics as the differences across legal traditions, the creation of constitutional courts, the nature of judicial decision-making, judicial independence, the capacity of courts to produce social change, etc. The ultimate goal is to understand the conditions under which courts are or become consequential actors within the overall social and political system. Along the way, we will address a number of important questions about the nature and impact of all this judicial activity: Who benefits when courts become more important? Who is really behind increases in judicial power? Can we realistically expect courts to act on behalf of minorities, and if so, which minorities?

The course should be especially relevant to those with an interest in comparative law and legal systems, comparative judicial behavior, the role of courts in politics and social change, and the rule of law around the world. Given the course’s strong institutional focus, the course should also be relevant to those interested in comparative institutional analyses more generally. The readings will include materials on courts around the world, from the US and the rest of North America, to Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. 

Course Description

The basic purpose of this course is to give you some of the tools and information you will need to critically engage with issues relating to law and politics in our society today. In particular, we will seek to understand the place of the law and the legal system in society, and the ways in which each shapes the other. We will explore the basic structure and purpose of the legal system and then focus on specific issues on which the law might appear to be shaping society, and vice versa – we will look at judicial nominations, prominent judicial decisions, the protection of civil rights, the way the criminal justice system works, and the issues raised by civil litigation for the economy and society, for example. When appropriate we will take very brief comparative looks at other countries, to see which features our legal system shares with others, and which make it unique. We will illustrate and analyze the issues by discussing prominent current events, such as recent Supreme Court nominations, important trials, or noteworthy judicial decisions. By the end of the course, we should have a clearer grasp of the mutual relationship between law, politics and society. My hope is that, after this class, when you read or hear news about some event related to law and courts, you will be able to understand the issues it raises, respond critically and intelligently to the questions it poses, and come to reasoned conclusions about what works and what doesn’t in our current legal system.

I would like to make this course as relevant as possible to current events. Rather than buy a course pack, any readings that do not come from the book will be posted on Blackboard, so that we can adapt the course content to new developments, such as an important trial, a Supreme Court decision, or a judicial nomination.

Grading Policy

Your grade in this course will be calculated in the following manner: 20% two quizzes (10% each) 20% your average grade on the various assignments due throughout the semester 30% midterm 30% final exam (non-cumulative).

Texts

There is one required book, Tarr, G. Alan. 2010. Judicial Process and Judicial Policymaking, 5th Edition (if you have the 4th edition, you should be fine. We will try to point out any differences between the two texts).

Course Description

This course carries out a comparative study of the nature of courts and law, their position in political systems, and their potential impact on society. We will look at experiences around the world, in part, in order to gain a better understanding of how the US legal system works. The course is very theoretical, and organized around key themes rather than countries. The main themes of the course include the following: why politicians create powerful courts, how do judges and courts make decisions, what is judicial independence, how do we get it, and which systems have it, and how effective are courts as tools for political and social change. The court has a heavy emphasis on judicial design, and the class will design a court structure for an imaginary country.

Two modes of approaching the material will distinguish this class. First, we will not read pre-digested summaries or textbooks, but original social science research. We will engage critically with the readings, testing authors’ claims against their evidence, challenging the logic of their arguments, and questioning their conclusions. Secondly, we will apply what we have learned to an imaginary country modeled roughly on Iraq’s constitutional and ethno-political situation. The class will represent some of the factions present in the Iraqi parliament, and will model debates about how the judiciary should be shaped in our imaginary country.

The readings are often quite challenging and many of them are quite long. In order to participate in the debates regarding institutional design you will need to be very familiar with the readings. I expect that the class will demand a significant amount of preparation each week. You should not take this class if you are not able or willing to spend time on it outside of class hours. Attendance is mandatory and part of your grade.

Grading Policy

• 2 quizzes worth 10% each (20% total)
• A midterm worth 25%
• A final worth 30%
• Class participation, worth 25% total, calculated on the basis of

• The quiz lottery results (the quiz lottery randomly tests student preparation and attendance)
• A series of very short written assignments due throughout the semester
• Participation in class debates and group assignments

Subject matter of the course: “Democracy and the rule of law” seem to be the prescription for what ails the developing world. But they are harder to put into practice than they at first appear. This course explores many of the challenges to the rule of law across Latin America, and how they affect the quality of democracy in the region. We begin by examining the meaning of democracy and its relationship to the rule of law. Then we look at a series of issues that illustrate the strength or weakness of the rule of law in the region. We use academic writings primarily, but also movies, news reports and statistical reports to examine topics such as violence and crime, human rights violations, judicial independence and corruption. Rather than focusing on one country at a time or a few countries in depth, we will use events and systems in various countries as illustrations of important themes. We will then look at the possible consequences of these challenges for democracy in the region, and possible solutions.

By the end of the course you will have acquired some basic information about Latin American legal systems and about the recent history of democracy in the region. More importantly, however, you will have a greater understanding of what a robust democracy should look like, where different countries fall short and why it might be so hard to implement the rule of law. You should be able to engage in a discussion about the role courts and laws do play, should play and can play in the (democratic) political systems of Latin America, and the possibility of improving that role. The grade is based on two quizzes and two exams and class participation – you will need to come to class prepared and you may be required to contribute to a class blog, although this is still in the planning stages. You should expect this class to be somewhat time consuming; you should also expect it to be interesting and rewarding.

description coming soon

 This course carries out a comparative study of the nature of courts and law, their position in political systems, and their potential impact on society. The course is very theoretical, and organized around key themes rather than countries. The main themes of the course include the following: the political and regime logic giving rise to judicial power, competing theories about how courts make decisions, the meaning of judicial independence and the extent to which it can be found in different systems, and the implications of all this for the potential effectiveness of courts as a tool for social and political change.

Taught by Dr. Dan Brinks

Course Description: The purpose of this course is to understand how law shapes society and vice versa. Most of the materials will be on the United States, but we will also glance at other countries, to put our own system in perspective. We will first explore the basic structure of the legal system, to understand its basic features. We will see which features our legal system shares with others, and which make it unique. We will then focus on specific ways in which the law shapes our society, and our society in turn, shapes the law. We will look at the impact of politics on law, and how we deal with crime, civil rights, the redistribution of wealth and the alleviation of poverty, for example. By the end of the course, we should have some insight into how social change produces changes in the law, and how the law might produce changes in society.

Grading Policy:

Your grade in this course will be determined according to the following formula:
15% class participation (determined primarily by objective measures: your average score on a variety of in-class and homework assignments administered throughout the semester; the quality of your oral participation in discussion will be a factor in assigning a final grade in borderline cases)
10% each, two short quizzes
30% mid-term exam
35% final exam

Textbooks:Tarr, G. Alan. 2006. Judicial Process and Judicial Policymaking, 5th Edition, plus a series of readings available on Blackboard.

Government 312L satisfies the second half of the mandated six hours of government that every UT student must take.  Course covers analysis of varying topics concerned with American political institutions and policies, including the United States Constitution, and assumes basic knowledge of government from GOV 310L, which is a prerequiste. May be taken for credit only once.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Government 312L satisfies the second half of the mandated six hours of government that every UT student must take.  Course covers analysis of varying topics concerned with American political institutions and policies, including the United States Constitution, and assumes basic knowledge of government from GOV 310L, which is a prerequiste. May be taken for credit only once.

Please check back for updates.

Government 312L satisfies the second half of the mandated six hours of government that every UT student must take.  Course covers analysis of varying topics concerned with American political institutions and policies, including the United States Constitution, and assumes basic knowledge of government from GOV 310L, which is a prerequiste. May be taken for credit only once.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.