California-CCB: PS322-The Judiciary

GS222/PS322: The Judiciary

California Hall of Justice, San Francisco

Last Offered: Spring 2026

This partially off-campus course examines the roles and responsibilities of the courts in the United States as legal and governmental institutions. It begins with the historical development of the trial courts and the adversarial system, and then considers the organization and function of state and federal appellate courts and the Supreme Court of the United States.

We will spend weeks two and three in San Francisco, observing at the Superior Court of California courthouse some functions and phases of the criminal trial process – arraignment, preliminary hearing, jury selection, trial, sentencing – and discussing these processes with a currently serving trial judge. We will also observe proceedings at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and (schedules permitting) the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The course concludes on campus during week four with an examination of legal reasoning, including the significance of legal sources, the doctrine of precedent, analogical reasoning, and the method and purpose of judicial decision-making. 

Course led by Prof. Doug Edlin