LAW7 848 - Legal Meaning of Money

What is the meaning of money? How is it, for example, that seemingly valueless pieces of paper can be exchanged for goods and services? What is the connection between modern paper money and the long tradition of using gold and silver, or paper backed by gold or silver, as money? And what is the role of law in generating the meaning of money? This seminar will pursue these questions along two paths: We will read sociological and philosophical accounts of money, including texts by Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Georg Simmel, and others; and we will read cases whose outcomes turn on the meaning of money, including the Legal Tender Cases and the Gold Clause Cases decided by the Supreme Court. The course will devote special attention to the period between the Civil War and World War I, during which the legal meaning of money seems to have changed fundamentally.

Credits: 3