Discussion (1L): Monuments, Counter-Monuments, and the Law and Politics of Memory

In this reading group we will examine the intimate connection between the nation's retreat from Reconstruction in the 1870s, the constrained interpretation of the Reconstruction Amendments adopted by the Supreme Court, and the development of national and regional rituals that embedded a specific understanding of the Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction in public spaces, most prominently, monuments to Union and Confederate military officers and Civil War battlefields. We will examine 20th century resistance to the forms of historical consciousness embedded in the architecture of these public spaces, 21st century movements to remove and replace this architecture and associated cultural representations of white supremacy, as well as longstanding debates in this and other cultures about how atrocities are remembered, and the socio-legal aspects of holding perpetrators to account. A central objective will be to interrogate the relationship between collective memory, identity, and legal interpretation, including "monumental" and "hagiographic" styles of legal reasoning. This discussion seminar will meet four times during the Fall quarter. Meeting dates and times to be arranged by instructor. Elements used in grading: Attendance and class participation.