Welcome to Dr. Alan Sager’s Spring 2025 course. Course Overview<\/a> | Course Goals<\/a> | Requirements<\/a> | Grading<\/a> | Office Hours<\/a> | Suggestions<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n I look forward to teaching and working with you this semester. In case you do not know me, I have a J.D. from Michigan and a Ph.d. from Northwestern in Political Science.<\/p>\n I have done many things in my life including practicing law, teaching, running a business with 300 employees in 3 states, being in the political polling and consulting business, and working on the staff of Chief Justice Warren Burger among other things. I have taught part time at U.T. for more than 30 years and full-time back in the late 60’s and early 70’s before I went to the Supreme Court and\u00a0 the Federal Judicial Center. I continue teaching because I love doing it and I love the law, judicial process and politics.\u00a0 Also I started\u00a0 out as an engineer, B.S. Chem Eng. Tufts ’62.\u00a0\u00a0 As an engineer I like to model the various parts of what we are studying.\u00a0 Perhaps it is not surprising my dissertation was\u00a0 A Computer Model of the 1962 Term of the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/span><\/p>\n Lastly, I will note I have had very direct experience in courtrooms both as a lawyer and a business man. As a lawyer\u00a0 I have been through cases involving divorce, landlords, personal injury and so on, My business\u00a0 once had a case that went on for 20 years,\u00a0 traveling to 4 different courts, some a couple of times, 2 federal, 2 state,\u00a0 with perhaps 7 sets of one or more judges ruling on\u00a0 various aspects of the case. Going to court is not for the faint hearted. <\/a><\/p>\n This course focuses on understanding and explaining judicial behavior. In order to do this, this course examines not only what judges do, but also all aspects of the judicial process such as juries, attorneys, prosecutors, judicial selection, plea bargaining, court structures and the social and political settings in which courts operate. To put another way, along with studying judicial behavior we are studying many aspects of what is called procedural due process and how it is interpreted and applied. This also requires us to consider various aspects of fairness and justice.<\/p>\n Most of the assignments involve reading and analyzing judicial opinions in actual cases. When I first created this course in the Government Department many, many years ago, it was more quantitative.\u00a0 As the years have gone on I think using cases as illustrations makes many of the points better than just numbers.\u00a0 A number \u00a0 of these cases are studied in a different courses and\u00a0 contexts in most law schools. I studied a number of these in my first year classes at Michigan and they are still relevant in many ways today)\u00a0 These opinions not only reveal what the judge is thinking and how judges think and reason, but also explain how the judicial process works.<\/p>\n Some assignments include viewing videos.<\/p>\n To look at this course another way.\u00a0 We are trying to predict judicial decisions, the dependent variable .\u00a0 We want to find the independent variables or predictors.\u00a0 I say predictors because in social life, no one variable explains all.\u00a0 As any seasoned lawyer will tell you, whatever you call the “law” is not necessarily the best predictor. As you will see in an interesting chapter in D’Amato in case packet, even lawyers regularly disagree what the “law” is.<\/p>\n The cases are drawn from a variety both “public’ and “private” law areas. Case topics include international law, negligence and product liability law, criminal law and procedure, the interpretation of federal statutes, and constitutional law. Some cases used in this course come from the most recent terms of the U.S. Supreme Court. Several of the cases we will cover have been the subject of major movies or discussed in movies and popular T.V. series.<\/p>\n This course is designed for students who want a general understanding of the legal and judicial process as well as those who are thinking about attending law school. I also would\u00a0 love to have future teachers in my courses. One of my students who is a 2L tells me his teacher was in my course years ago.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n A. Increase Students Understanding of:<\/strong><\/p>\n B. Expand Students Ability:<\/strong><\/p>\n C. Do A and B above in a challenging and interesting environment<\/strong><\/p>\n We will find many tensions and cross cutting purposes in the institutional structures on which the judicial process is built. We will analyze the “who”, “how” and “why” of their resolution. Here are some examples:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n We will also be constantly searching for the unspoken or assumed premises of judges, prosecutors, juries, etc., and even ourselves as we study these materials.<\/strong> <\/a> B. Know the cases before coming to class. Ve able to recite facts, issues and holding from memory. C. A willingness to be an active participant in the class.<\/p>\n D. A willingness to go beyond any self imposed academic limits. <\/a> SUGGESTION<\/strong>\u00a0 As in law school, students\u00a0 have found that study groups with 4 to 8 classmates are extremely helpful\u00a0 in mastering this course. We will organize these in class on the 2nd day of class.<\/p>\n Highlights:<\/strong> Gov 357L\u00a0 Judicial Process and Behavior Unique number: 38470 Room\u00a0\u00a0 Mezes B 0.306 Welcome to Dr. Alan Sager’s Spring 2025 course. Course Overview | Course Goals | Requirements | Grading | Office Hours | Suggestions About Dr.Sager I look forward to teaching and working with you this semester. In case you do not know me, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":443,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.la.utexas.edu\/judpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.la.utexas.edu\/judpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.la.utexas.edu\/judpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.la.utexas.edu\/judpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/443"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sites.la.utexas.edu\/judpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"http:\/\/sites.la.utexas.edu\/judpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1143,"href":"http:\/\/sites.la.utexas.edu\/judpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5\/revisions\/1143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sites.la.utexas.edu\/judpro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h4>\n
About Dr.Sager<\/h4>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n
\nOverview<\/h2>\n
\nCourse Goals (promises)<\/span><\/h2>\n
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\nthis task, e.g. both normative and empirical approaches to judicial behavior.<\/li>\n
\nthe civil and criminal justice system.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n
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\nA. Making the law versus interpreting the law
\nB. Policy makers versus disinterested weighers,\u00a0 recall the statute of a blind justice\u00a0 holding a set of assayers scales
\nC. Justice vs. law<\/li>\n
\nA. Fight theory vs. truth theory
\nB. Lawyers responsibility to client vs responsibility to society<\/li>\n
\nA. Public participation by “competent” citizens versus alleged “lemmings and
\nday time T.V. viewers”
\nB. “Fair” versus “efficient” juries<\/li>\n
\nA. Protecting the public welfare versus protecting their personal position
\nB. Justice v. law<\/li>\n
\nBringing such premises to light will sharpen and enhance your analytical skills and ability to create distinctions. Seeing and creating distinctions is the building block of learning and most efficient way to expand what you see in the world<\/p>\n
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\nWhat is required of students in the course:
\n<\/strong>A. Keep up with reading and briefing for each class. Take notes on assigned movies and videos<\/p>\n
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\n<\/a>
\nCourse Requirements and Grading
\n<\/strong>Grades will be based on a plus and minus system<\/span>.<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
Office Hours and Location\u00a0 My Monday Office Hours:\u00a0 Texas Union 1:15-2:15<\/strong>
\nWednesday Office Hours:\u00a0 Texas Union\u00a0 1:15-2:15<\/strong>
\nWednesday After Class Office\u00a0 Hours:\u00a0 Cactus Cafe\u00a0 4:00(after class) until around 5:30 p.m.<\/strong>
\nIf per chance Cactus is closed for a special event, an alternate site will be annouced
\nI may also have after class office hours on Mondays if there is demand. These may be
\nat one of pubs across Guadalupe from campus<\/strong>
\nAvailable by appointment at other times via zoom. Generally only on campus Mon and Wed
\nafternoons
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\nWho Should Not Take This Course?<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnyone prone to putting everything off until the exam and not being willing to keep up with daily assignment–that is unrepentant and unchangeable PROCRASTINATORS<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
\nHow Can Students Make This Course Easier?<\/span><\/strong>
\nSpend all the time necessary in the first few weeks to do good to excellent briefs and put together a study group.<\/p>\n
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\n(Current News & Opinion)<\/em><\/span>
\nThis section<\/a> contains articles that directly or indirectly relate to this course. course. If any will be covered on the exam, it will be so noted in class.<\/p>\n\n
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