MVV167K Government Law: An Overview of Decision Making and Transparency in American Government

Faculty of Law
Spring 2015
Extent and Intensity
0/1. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
Alison Perdue Rogers (lecturer), doc. JUDr. Jiří Valdhans, Ph.D. (deputy)
Guaranteed by
doc. JUDr. Jiří Valdhans, Ph.D.
Department of International and European Law – Faculty of Law
Contact Person: Mgr. Věra Redrupová, B.A.
Supplier department: Department of International and European Law – Faculty of Law
Timetable of Seminar Groups
MVV167K/01: Mon 20. 4. 15:05–16:35 038, Wed 22. 4. 15:05–16:35 038, 16:40–18:10 038, Mon 27. 4. 16:40–18:10 038, 18:15–19:45 038, Tue 28. 4. 18:15–19:45 038
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 30 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/30, only registered: 0/30
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 31 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
The purpose of this course is to become familiar with the most common concepts encountered in practicing government law in America and to see how the concepts cross all boundaries in American government, being relevant to federal, state and local governments. Government law touches the things that are part of everyone’s daily life, including trash pickup, utilities, emergency response, roads, public safety and the way your community looks. Transparency and accountability are cornerstones of government law that affect the lawyer advising the mayor of the smallest town all the way to the lawyers advising the President of the United States.

At the end of the course, each student should be able to understand and explain the general types of laws put in place to ensure transparency in governmental decision making and work with information on when those laws apply. Further, each student should be able to create fact patterns in which a government official is presented with an ethical dilemma and make reasoned decisions about whether an official has broken general ethical standards. Finally, the student should be able to make deductions based on acquired knowledge related to governmental liability and decision making.
Syllabus
  • TOPIC I: The basic structure of government in America
  • A. Federal, state and local government bodies
  • B. Federal and state constitutions
  • C. Separation of Powers: The Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches
  • D. Preemption, both federal and state
  • a. Explicit Preemption
  • b. Implicit Preemption
  • E. Home rule powers
  • TOPIC II: Making Decisions
  • A. Laws and ordinances
  • B. Parliamentary Procedure and Robert’s Rules of Order
  • C. Public Participation
  • D. Strategy and Voting Blocs
  • E. Liability
  • F. Immunity
  • 1. Sovereign Immunity
  • 2. Qualified Immunity
  • 3. Absolute Immunity
  • 4. Legislative Immunity
  • TOPIC III: Open Government and Transparency
  • A. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and public records laws
  • 1. Definition of records
  • 2. Compare to providing information and explanations
  • 3. Exemptions and examples of exemptions
  • 4. Rights of privacy
  • B. Sunshine Law
  • 1. Legislative bodies
  • 2. Matter reasonably likely to come before the body
  • 3. Exemptions
  • 4. Practical challenges
  • 5. Pamphlet from the First Amendment Foundation
  • C. Ethics
  • 1. Codes of Ethics: statutes and policies
  • 2. Commissions on Ethics
  • 3. Gifts, Conflicts of Interest and Financial Disclosures
  • 4. Corruption; examples
  • 5. Criminal charges to combat Corruption: bribery, honest services fraud and Quid Pro Quo
  • D. Television, Internet and Other Media
  • TOPIC IV: Miscellaneous Government Law Issues
  • A. Infrastructure and Services
  • B. Revenue Sources
  • C. Emergency Responses
  • 1. States of Emergency
  • 2. Police Powers
  • D. Government as Employer
  • TOPIC V: Issues of Interest to the Class and Test
Literature
  • Reading materials will be provided before and during the course.
Teaching methods
lectures, discussions, reading
Assessment methods
A multiple choice test
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/law/spring2015/MVV167K