Power, Knowledge, and Procedure

This seminar explores topics in the history of civil procedure, focusing on the way civil procedure channels power and produces knowledge. Students will learn about the relationship between civil procedure and sovereignty, economic power, race, scientific authority, and social knowledge. The course will help students: understand how civil procedure creates and responds to power and knowledge, gain competence in the methods of legal history, explore the relationship between history and law, and build confidence using procedural and historical arguments both in and outside of the courtroom.