NEW!
Most recent video lectures
New Module on Cause & Accusation
Searching, Seizing & Charging, October 15, 2021
New Module on Constructing a Criminal Defense
Elements, Excuses & Theory, Setpember 30, 2021
Students learn the legal elements of crime and how lawyers rely upon them to construct theories of defense. Covered topics include mental state, actus reus, affirmative defenses and popular tactics to negate scienter. Students also learn about the different types of crimes and how the proliferation of criminal codes in the 1900s greatly enhanced charging options and made criminal defense much more difficult.
New Module on Trial & Truth
The Social Pageant and its Legitimacy, September 10, 2021
How the criminal trial arose as a social pageant for legitimate public consequence, and the degree to which the modern adversary system retains the social elements of its past. Does the trial reveal truth or does it manufacture a social conclusion? What are the rules that govern a lawyer's theory of the case: must the underlying basis be true? Particular attention is paid to witch trials, the trial of Socrates and Jesus, and to the modern spectacles involving the OJ Simpson double murder case, the Casey Anthony case, and other controversial verdicts
New Module on The Constrained Supreme Court
Attitudinal Versus Institutional Theories About Judicial Choice, April 25, 2021
This module examines theories of judicial choice on the Supreme Court. The two basic theoretical approaches, attitudinal and institutional, are examined. The Court's unanimity and agreement rates are used as a background for assessing the theories, as are individual accounts of famous judicial personalities and cases. At the end a complex and integrated model of judging is provided.
New Module on Judicial Ideology and Party Regimes
The Supreme Court Data Set and Liberal Voting, March 25, 2021
This module is almost exclusively focused upon measures of liberal voting on the Supreme Court and the degree to which political parties have established judicial regimes on the high court. Most of the empirical attention is given to the binary indicies in the Supreme Court Data Set. What do these measures say, and how flawed are they? To what extent do they show that political party voting regimes occur on the Supreme Court?
Dr. Wilson
I'm a tenured full prof at an American university teaching in the areas of American politics, law & courts, and political theory. I am an internationally recognized scholar of Ludwig Wittgenstein and am well published in the field of legal theory.
Latest Lectures
A quaint and rational theory for why American politics became crazy
Conservative Radio Politics
A case study in how effective platforming can be
The Cross Examination
Understanding form, technique & strategy
The Direct Examination
Understanding form, technique & strategy
The Power of Legal Relevance
How the law gives discretion to the trial judge
The Law of Privilege
The secrets that even truth will not out
New Democrats and Third Way Politics
What it means, how it came about, why it matters and how to spot it
Republican v. Democratic Imaginations
Which party has an easier time selling its message in the policy game?
Can the Republican Party be a Majority Party?
Looking at national voting data at multiple levels of analysis
Defense Lawyers and Prosecutors
Understanding the lawyers in the system