Law Schedule of Classes

NOTE: Course offerings change. Classes offered this semester may not be offered in future semesters.

Apart from their assigned mod courses, 1L students may only enroll in courses offered as 1L electives. A complete list of these courses can be found on the 1L Elective Listings page. 1L students must use the 1L class number listed on the course description when enrolling.


218.4 sec. 001 - History of the Common Law: Institutions, Ideas, and Problems (Spring 2026)

Instructor: Jose Argueta Funes  (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only)
View all teaching evaluations for this course - degree students only

Units: 3
Grading Designation: Graded
Mode of Instruction: In-Person

Meeting:

W 10:00 AM - 12:40 PM
Location: Law 10
From January 14, 2026
To April 22, 2026

Course Start: January 14, 2026
Course End: April 22, 2026
Class Number: 34197

Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 25
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 35
As of: 02/07 02:15 PM


The common law is an integral yet poorly understood element of American law. Indeed, its very essence is a quandry: at times a set of procedures for how a particular set of institutions should behave, at others a body of law, and at yet others a method of lawmaking supposedly imbued with the very meaning of liberty. This seminar traces the history of the common law through its manifold forms, beginning with its institutional origins in medieval England to its perplexing persistence in the modern-day United States. Students should expect substantial reading for this course, comparable to a graduate history seminar. Students will be assessed on a substantial research paper on any topic in the history of the common law.


Attendance at the first class is mandatory for all currently enrolled and waitlisted students; any currently enrolled or waitlisted students who are not present on the first day of class (without prior permission of the instructor) will be dropped. The instructor will continue to take attendance throughout the add/drop period and anyone who moves off the waitlist into the class must continue to attend or have prior permission of the instructor in order not to be dropped.


Requirements Satisfaction:

This class fulfills Option 2 of the J.D. writing requirement for all students in the course. All students must write 30 pages and complete a draft.

Units from this class may also count toward the J.D. Race and Law Requirement.

Student Academic Advising and Support Services (SAASS) is available to answer questions.


Exam Notes: (P) Final Paper  
(Subject to change by faculty member only through the first two weeks of instruction)
Course Category: Legal History
This course is listed in the following sub-categories:
Legal Theory
Race and Law

If you are the instructor or their FSU, you may add a file like a syllabus or a first assignment to this page.

Readers:
No reader.

Books:
Required Books are in blue

  • Common Law and English Jurisprudence, 1760-1850
    Michael Lobban
    Publisher: Oxford University Press
    ISBN: 9780198252931
    e-Book Available: Unknown
    Price: To Be Determined
  • Common Law, History, and Democracy in America, 179-1900: Legal Thought Before Modernism
    Kunal Parker
    Publisher: Cambridge University Press
    ISBN: 9781107614352
    e-Book Available: Yes
    Price: To Be Determined
  • History of the Common Law: The Development of Anglo-American Legal Institutions
    John H. Langbein, Renee Lettow Lerner, Bruce P. Smith
    Publisher: Aspen Publishers
    ISBN: 9780735562905
    e-Book Available: Unknown
    Price: To Be Determined
  • Inventing American Exceptionalism: The Origins of American Adversarial Legal Culture, 1800-1877
    Amalia Kessler
    Edition: Yale University Press
    ISBN: 9780300198072
    e-Book Available: Yes
    Price: To Be Determined
  • Law's Machinery: Reforming the Craft of Lawyering in America's Industrial Age
    Kellen Funk
    Publisher: Oxford University Press
    ISBN: 9780197543931
    e-Book Available: Yes
    Price: To Be Determined
  • The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law: A Study of English Historical Thought in the Seventeenth Century-A Reissue with a Retrospect
    J.G.A. Pocock
    Edition: 2d Revised Ed
    Publisher: Cambridge University Press
    ISBN: 9780521316439
    e-Book Available: Unknown
    Price: 33.49
    Note: prices are sampled from internet bookstores. Law-school Bookstore prices are unavailable at this time.
  • The Province of Legislation Determined: Legal Theory in Eighteenth-Century Britain
    David Lieberman
    Publisher: Cambridge University Press
    ISBN: 9780521245920
    e-Book Available: Unknown
    Price: To Be Determined

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