Kursbeschreibung

In the United States, constitutional law is the area of lawdealing with two subareas (1) the structure of governmental institutions and the divisionof power between those institutions; (2) civil rights and liberties. The US Constitutionis a single written document ratified at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphiain 1787 (it came into force on 4 March 1789) plus some 27 amendments ratifiedsince then. The body of US law called “constitutional law” thus includes the textof the constitution and its interpretation by the courts. Underlying the US Constitutionare three principles: federalism, separation of powers, and rule of law. Power is dividedboth horizontally and vertically. The vertical distribution is between power allocatedto the states and to the federal government. Horizontal allocation is betweenthe three branches of government: the executive, the legislative and the judiciary.The Constitution is set out in seven articles, a preamble and the previously mentionedamendments. This course will deal with the structure of government and distributionof powers as reflected in Articles I to VII. It will entail reading and interpretingthe leading cases, starting with Marbury v Madison, 1803, which established thepower of the Supreme Court to review the legality of executive and legislative actions.Students will learn to read, analyse, discuss and brief judicial decisions.