LWP 6121 — Law and Legal Reasoning 2: Statutes and Statutory Interpretation
3 semester hoursGraduateLecture
Explores modes of legal reasoning, lawmaking, and policy influencing used by lawmakers in legislatures. Focuses on the U.S. Congress and the judiciary's role in interpreting the products of legislative lawmaking and constraining or influencing legislative activity. Examines how Congress and legislatures develop and enact statutes and otherwise influence policy and how courts interpret statutes and review legislative processes and functions. Explores how to analyze and develop strategic insights into the organization of legislatures; how legislation is developed and moves through legislatures; other legislative strategies for influencing policy, including the federal budget and appropriations processes; congressional oversight and investigations and informal methods of influencing policy; the different types of legal reasoning used in legislative lawmaking; and how to read and comprehend statutes and legislative materials.