Each student will be required to write a paper comparing the U.S. Supreme Court to the high court of another country (approximately 6-8 pages, double spaced).
You will need to cite at least four references (Wikipedia is actually a fine start, as are the official websites for the courts/judiciary in your country).
The paper is more of a “report” than a research paper. By that, I mean you are not really posing a research question or developing hypotheses, but rather describing the conditions and institutions and comparing them with the United States Supreme Court.
Here are the components to the paper. Each country is different, but Ive tried to describe the features you should be looking for to describe and compare below:
Describe the legal system of the country (i.e., common law, civil law, traditional law, a mix, etc), describe the similarities and/or differences with the US common law system.
Describe the structure of the judiciary (district courts, appellate courts, supreme court/s). Are the courts arranged like the US in a hierarchical system or is the system specialized by topic? Is it a federal system? Etc.
How judges for the high court are selected and are there any qualifications? Term limits? Etc.
Conclude about some interesting aspect of the court. This could be a very controversial decision, something about the independence of the courts, controversies, impeachments, etc.
You may use whatever citation method you are comfortable with (MLA, APA, etc)
The paper is worth 25 percent of the class grade. For each of the above four sections, students can earn up to 20 points. The amount of points will depend on the quality of the information provided and the quality of the comparison (section 4 does not require a comparison). The remaining 20 points will be awarded based on the overall quality of the writing and that at least 4 citations are used.
