The nature of the federal judicial function and its development; congressional authority to limit or expand the subject-matter jurisdiction of federal courts; constitutional and statutory extent of “arising under” jurisdiction; federal common law after Erie Railroad; distribution of power among federal and state courts; abstention doctrines and the Anti-Injunction Act; sovereign immunity and the Eleventh Amendment; significant treatment of civil rights actions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983; and some exposure to federal habeas corpus.

RECOMMENDED: Constitutional Law II (Law 822).