LAW 864 - Local Government Law

Unit(s): 3

Local government law, and its state law parent, both create and codify social consensus, however uneven, in the provision of basic public goods. Not a single field of law, but a weave of thematically varied practice areas, local government law reflects and shapes the major fault lines of contemporary American life in a number of concrete ways. This course examines themes of gender, race, class and the economy as ways of understanding how local governance is structured and experienced. Specifically, the course surveys the law and politics of local government formation, public finance and government services as well as the application of these subjects to themes such as regionalism, sprawl, environmental concerns and development, residential segregation, policing, immigration, schooling and welfare. This course also provides a quick examination of municipal bankruptcies and the financialization of regional, state and local economies. Not least, the course builds in skills development with a look at the operations of administrative law courts and state and local legislative processes.

Restriction: Class restrictions exclude Law 1st Yr. Full time, Law 1st Yr. Part Time and Law 1st Yr. Part Time Day; College restricted to School of Law
School of Law