COURSE ASSESSMENT and REQUIRMENTS:

1. Attendance and participation in course sessions: Scheduled meeting times will consist of both lectures on and discussions of assigned reading. It is your responsibility to read the material before hand and be able to discussion this material during class. Unexcused absences and being late will affect adversely your final grade.
   
   Please note that this course includes tutorial sessions that will need to be scheduled. Attendance is required during class meeting times, both the lecture and tutorials.
   
   
2. Posting to the Moodle Group discussion (AMER2046LALS3005LLAW3226_2016): Please notice that there is a Moodle Group for this course; you can access it by going to the HKU Portal and logging in. Click on the "My eLearning" tab and it will take you to a page with the link to: Moodle group for AMER2046LALS3005LLAW3226_2016
   
   At points during the semester (approximately every other week), I will assign a short (approximately 200-500 words) response paper that you will post on Moodle. This will enable you to read and respond to other students' interpretations of the course materials. These posting will be part of your grade-- they are an excellent way of participating in the discussions (especially if something occurs to you outside of class, or you don't get a chance to say what you wanted during the course time).
   
   
3. Class Presentation: Throughout the course schedule are "Presentations" (see below) on a Supreme Court decision, piece of legislation, or topic. At some point during the semester, you will work individually or with a partner to prepare a short class presentation (5-10 minutes) in which you provide an overview of your assigned topic. As part of your presentation, please prepare a one-page summary, distribute this summary to members of the class before you speak, and post the summary to Moodle.
   
   
4. Two essays exams as midterm and final: The essays two exams should be 6-8 pages in length. I will provide topics from which you will choose.
   
   Note: When writing your essays it is important that you acknowledge through proper citation any secondary sources that you use. If you borrow someone else's words or ideas be sure to mention this in the body of the essay or in a footnote. Here is the University definition and policy on plagiarism. In regard to formats for proper academic citation (APA, Chicago, MLA), please consult: Purdue University OWL: Citation Chart

COURSE OBJECTIVES and LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Students will be able to convey key concepts and philosophies behind the creation and development of the United States, law, theories of nationalism, and print culture. They will be able to trace in contemporary political events the historical patterns of the national constitution and its development in relation to civil rights, issues of indigenous sovereignty, and protest movements in the United States.
  
  
• The course will foster students' abilities to read closely a variety of media and genres (literature, legal documents, paintings, film) and to connect the form of literature to key cultural and theoretical themes.
  
  
• Demonstrate how consideration of a text's immediate and potential extended audiences are important factors in the interpretation of that text/
  
  
• Exercise skills of interpretation and communication that enable students to think critically, to evaluate arguments and to respond constructively in writing and in speech, and in both formal and informal environments.
  
  
• Establish an awareness of the international context to the foundation and development of US law and literature thus enabling students to evaluate, with historical perspective, contemporary international collaborations and crises.
  
  
• Cultivate the enjoyment of intellectual experience in everyday life and continue to broaden students vision of the dynamic relationship between literature, history, geography, science, and the arts.

• Declaration of Independence (1776); Jefferson's manuscript; with quotation marks; and, the John Dunlop broadside
  
  
• Articles of Confederation (1777-81) and The United States Constition (1789)
  
  
• "Federalist X", James Madison, from The Federalist Papers (1788)
  
  
• John Locke, Chapters 1-5: Second Treatise on Government (1690)
• Signing of the Declaration, John Adams (HBO; 2000)

PART II: CIVIL RIGHTS: Slavery and Fugitive Writing

• Presentation 3: The Missouri Compromise (1820)
  
• Presentation 4: United States v. The Amistad - 40 U.S. 518 (1841)
  
• Presentation 5: The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
  
• Presentation 6: Kansas / Nebraska Act of 1854
  
• Presentation 7: Dred Scott v. Sandford - 60 U.S. 393 (1856))
  Dred Scott Case Collection, Washington University

PART III: SOVEREIGNTY: Removal, Allotment, Self-Governance, Self-Determination

• A Son of the Forest (1829)
  
• The Experiences of Five Christian Indians of the Pequod Tribe (1833), "An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man" (53-60)
  
• Eulogy on King Philip, as pronounced at the Odeon, in Federal Street, Boston (1836)
  

• Presentation 13: The General Allotment Act (1887)
      Indian Land Tenure Foundation
  
• Presentation 14: Indian Reorganization Act, or Wheeler Howard Act (1934)

• "Impressions of an Indian Childhood," "The School Days of an Indian Girl," and "An Indian Teacher Among Indians," from the Atlantic Monthly, January, February, March 1900
• "Ideals of American" by Woodrow Wilson and "Why I am a Pagan" by Zitkala-Sa, in the Atlantic Monthly (1902)
  
  

PART IV: Resistance to Civil Government or Civil Disobedience

• Movements
• Presentation 15: Plessy v. Ferguson - 163 U.S. 537 (1896)
  
• Presentation 16: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka - 347 U.S. 483 (1954)