This course examines American constitutional development from the eve of WWI through the second Obama administration. Topics include the growth of the New Deal and a Great Society regulatory and redistributive state, struggles for equal rights for racial and ethnic minorities, women and GLBT Americans, contests over freedoms of religion and expression, criminal justice issues, the Reagan Revolution and the revival of federalism and property rights, and issues of national security powers after September 11, 2001. Lectures are on videos and class time is devoted to in-depth discussions.

The focus is human rights in global, political, and developmental contexts, especially since 1945. Human rights are part of a wide range of academic disciplines, engineering, history, law, philosophy, and religion being among the obvious. These disciplinary perspectives will be touched upon; politics will be the central one. Some of the main topics include justifications; cross- cultural perspectives; global and international institutional developments and foreign policy. Selected topics will include war, hunger, life, reproduction, servitude, consent, information and the environment.