Syllabus - Remedies - Spring 2025

 Remedies - Tuesdays and Thursdays - 2:00 - 3:25 Room 201A

Prof. George W. Conk, Senior Fellow, Stein Ctr. for Law & Ethics

gconk@fordham.edu

Office 8-108

Office hours by appointment in person or Zoom

You have free access to this ebook 

 for two weeks at  eproducts.westacademic.com

Access problems? go to:  1-877-888-1330 (option 4) or support@westacademic.com

Principles of Remedies Law - Russell L. Weaver and Michael B. Kelly

4th Edition - West Academic ISBN: 978-1-6408-408-0

What is law?

Benjamin Cardozo in The Nature of the Judicial Process :

A judge “legislates only between gaps. He fills the open spaces in the law. . . [R]estrictions . . . are established by the traditions of the centuries, by the example of other judges, his predecessors, and his colleagues, by the collective judgment of the profession, and by the duty of adherence to the pervading spirit of the law.”

Article III, Constitution of the United States

Section 2

The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;—to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public ministers and Consuls;—to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;—to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;—to Controversies between two or more States;—between a State and Citizens of another State;—between Citizens of different States;—between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.

Week 1

Thursday, January 16

Read PRINCIPLES - Chapter 1 - Overview - Introduction (pages 1-5) SLIDES - OVERVIEW

What would Alexander Hamilton say to John Roberts about Trump v. U.S. -  the majority ruling that even a former  President is in some respects absolutely immune from prosecution?

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 69

The President of the United States would be liable to be impeached, tried, and, upon conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors, removed from office; and would afterwards be liable to prosecution and punishment in the ordinary course of law. The person of the king of Great Britain is sacred and inviolable; there is no constitutional tribunal to which he is amenable; no punishment to which he can be subjected without involving the crisis of a national revolution. 

John Roberts, C.J., Trump v. United States (2024) 

We conclude that under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power requires that a former President have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office. At least with respect to the President’s exercise of his core constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute. As for his remaining official actions, he is also entitled to immunity. At the current stage of proceedings in this case, however, we need not and do not decide whether that immunity must be absolute, or instead whether a presumptive immunity is sufficient.  

 

Tuesday, January 21 

Read PRINCIPLES Chapter 2 - Equity and Equitable Remedies (pages 7-15) SLIDES - intro to equity

The Law Courts and the Chancery Courts –  

 

How  should Judges decide: Precedent, Equity, and the Common law; the Common Good and the public interest.