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Constitutional Law, Liberal Arts and Citizenship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2020

David S. Lindberg
David S. Lindberg*
Affiliation:
Elmhurst College
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Extract

Constitutional law classes include three constituencies of students. The constituency of political science majors brings to the class the expectation of gaining specialized knowledge of the role of the judicial institutions in the political system. The second constituency is composed of nonmajors who have chosen the course as an elective and who expect to learn something of the general development of the law. The final constituency is made up of pre-law students who are seeking familiarity with the legal principles, concepts and analytical skills in preparation for their professional training.

The professor faces the problem of how to address these three groups with their differing expectations. The three sets of expectations correspond to three strategies of teaching constitutional law.

Type
Research Article
Information
News for Teachers of Political Science , Volume 37 , Spring 1983 , pp. 1 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1983

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References

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2. Hamilton, Alexander, No. 1, The Federalist, in Hamilton, AlexanderMadison, JamesJay, JohnThe Federalist, ed. by Cooke, Jacob E. (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1961), p. 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. ibid., p. 7.

4. Madison, James, The Federalist,No. 10, p. 58.Google Scholar

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6. Wilson, James, “Oration delivered on the Fourth of July, 1788, at the Procession Formed at Philadelphia to Celebrate the Adoption of the Constitution of the United States”, Vol. II: The Works of James Wilson, ed. by McCloskey, Robert G. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967), p. 777.Google Scholar

7. de Tocqueville, Democracy, p. 305.

8. ibid., p. 510.

9. ibid., p. 632.

10. ibid.

11. Plato, The Laws, 4. 721.

12. Baker v. Can, 369 U.S. 186. Dissenting opinion.

13. Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494. Concurring opinion.

14. Lincoln, Abraham, “Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Jan. 27, 1838”, in The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln, ed. by Stern, Philip Van Dorn (New York: The Modern Library, 1940), p. 237.Google Scholar

15. Madison, The Federalist, No. 10, p. 57.

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17. ibid., p. 232.

18. Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45.

19. Madison, The Federalist, No. 37, p. 231.

20. Barlow, Joel, Prospectus for a National Institution to be Established in the United States,quoted in Brann, Eva T. H., Paradoxes of Education in a Republic (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979), p. 48.Google Scholar

21. de Tocqueville, Democracy, p. 264.