 | The semester at the School of Law starts and ends approximately one week earlier than that of the Graduate School of Arts and Science. Contact Law and Society for specific dates.
Course numbers listed in the course descriptions below refer to the following:
Law and Society Course: Open to law and society (Ph.D., J.D.-Ph.D., J.D.-M.A.) and other GSAS students.
Cross-Listed Law and Society/Law Course: Open to law and society (Ph.D., J.D.-Ph.D., J.D.-M.A.) and School of Law students.
Law Course: Open to law and society (Ph.D., J.D.-Ph.D., J.D.-M.A.) students with permission and School of Law students.
Cross-Listed Law and Society/GSAS Course: Open to law and society (Ph.D., J.D.-Ph.D., J.D.-M.A.) and other GSAS students.
GSAS Course: Open to law and society (Ph.D., J.D.-Ph.D., J.D.-M.A.) and other GSAS students.
Cross-Listed Law and Society/Law/ GSAS Course: Open to law and society (Ph.D., J.D.-Ph.D., J.D.-M.A.), GSAS, and School of Law students.
The Sociolegal Seminar
G62.1001 (Law and Society)/L06.3570
(Law) Merry.
This seminar (1) surveys approaches for understanding the
relationship between social and legal thought and (2) examines their
methodologies. Readings examine the extent to which social science and law have
common theoretical and methodological foundations. Focus is on analytical,
doctrinal, institutional, and philosophical perspectives and approaches to the
study of law and society. The interface between legal and social, cultural,
economic, and political phenomena is studied through critical debates as well
as from a historical and comparative perspective.
Law and Social Policy
G62.1002 (Law and Society)/G93.3534
(Sociology)/L06.3580 (Law) Dixon.
Scholars have debated for centuries the relationship between
law and social policy and whether law leads or follows social change.
Regardless of one’s position on these issues, most agree that law and society
are interwoven such that law constitutes a field where social policies are
created, reinforced, and transformed. This course utilizes the lens of the
courts to examine the relationship between law, social policies, and social
change. The first part of the course analyzes how social policies are created,
reinforced, and transformed in constitutional courts. Students begin by examining
the consequences of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in both creating and
eliminating race and gender segregation. Next, they explore the role of
constitutional courts in transforming social welfare polices in transitional
societies such as postcommunist Central Europe. The second part of the course
analyzes how social policies are created, reinforced, and transformed in trial
courts. Students consider the relationship between social policy and the
transformation of criminal courts in the progressive era; they then investigate
this relationship in the contemporary context. In particular, the relationship
between social policies and current criminal court transformations involving
plea bargaining, sentencing guidelines, and the recent creation of problem-solving,
specialized drug and domestic violence courts is explored. The third and final
part of the course examines how social policies are created, reinforced, and
transformed in international courts. In particular, students explore human
rights policies and the development of the International Criminal Court.
Introduction to Legal Philosophy
G62.1003 (Law and
Society)/L06.3005 (Law) Murphy.
Survey of 20th-century contributions to legal philosophy. In
addition to the central debate between H. L. A. Hart and Ronald Dworkin over
the concept of law, students discuss natural law theory, legal realism,
critical legal studies, feminist jurisprudence, critical race theory, and some
aspects of postmodern legal theory. The course begins with an introduction to
the methods of moral and political theory.
Sociology of Law
G62.1103 (Law and Society)/G93.2434
(Sociology) Dixon, Garland, Greenberg.
Designed to provide a broad theoretical framework for
analyzing and interpreting the interrelationships between law, politics, and
society. This course begins with a consideration of the intellectual and
methodological differences between law and social science; it then examines the
interface between law and social science from two perspectives. First, the
relationship between law and society is traced from the point of view of the
influence of norms and customs, social structure, and class and power on the
development, form procedure, and substance of law. Second, the impact of law on
society is examined in the areas of rights and social movements, race
discrimination, gender discrimination, and crime and justice. Critical race
theory and critical gender theory receive special attention here. A section on
law, courts, and the administration of justice examines the institutional structure
and transformation of the American legal and judicial system, and a final
section on the legal profession, legal education, and critical legal theory
deals with the contradictory role of lawyers as agents of the status quo and of
social change.
Seminar in the Sociology of Law
G93.3534 (Sociology) Dixon, Garland, Greenberg.
This course is designed to allow students to conduct
research on a topic covered in
G62.1103. Students are required to enter the
course with a well-formulated research proposal.
Law and Modern Society
G62.1004 (Law and Society)/L06.3560
(Law) Garland.
This seminar explores the changing forms and functions of
law in modern society and the sociological theories that seek to interpret
these developments. The concept of modernity forms the background for the first
half of the course, in which the work of Durkheim, Marx, and Weber are reviewed
in some detail. Thereafter the class addresses a body of work, by writers such
as Foucault, Selznick, and Teubner, that argues that the character of modern
law—and modern society—is changing in ways that require us to revise our
understanding of the relationship of “law” to “society.” Themes include the
decline of the rule of law; the emergence of responsive or reflexive law; law
in the welfare state; laws, norms, and discipline; the relation between law and
other systems of regulation; and the idea of postmodernity as it applies to the
legal sphere. The course does not presuppose any prior knowledge of social
theory.
Classic Sociological Theory
G93.2111 (Sociology) Garland, Lukes.
Examines major figures of modern sociology, including Marx,
Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, Mead, Freud, and Parsons. Focuses on the conditions
and assumptions of social theory, the process of concept formation and theory
building, general methodological issues, and the present relevance of the
authors examined. An effort is made to speculate on the nature of the growth of
knowledge in sociology.
Advanced Theory Seminar: Foucault
G62.1010 (Law and
Society)/ G93.3112 (Sociology) Garland.
This seminar is concerned with developing an in-depth
understanding of the work of Michel Foucault and its implications for social
and historical research. The class studies several of his substantive
historical studies (Discipline and Punish, Madness and Civilization, The Birth
of the Clinic, and The History of Sexuality) and explores key concepts in
Foucault’s work, such as archaeology and genealogy, power/knowledge,
governmentality, and subjectification. Critical responses to Foucault’s work
are discussed, as are attempts by other authors to put Foucaultian concepts to
their own use.
Law, Culture, and Power
G62.1012 (Law and Society)/G14.3391
(Anthropology)/L06.3701 (Law) Merry.
Anthropologists view law as basic to social life but highly
variable in different cultural and historical contexts. This course examines
theoretical and methodological issues in legal anthropology, looking at some of
the classics in the field as well as contemporary work concerning the cultural
dimensions of law and their relationship to forms of power and governmentality.
It focuses on ethnographic methods for studying law and legal institutions. The
first part of the course examines early work that grappled with the question of
defining law in contexts that lacked formal legal systems. The second part
explores legal pluralism, law and the colonial process, law and culture, the
relationship between law and discipline, and law and everyday life. As students
read ethnographic studies of everyday legal phenomenon, they discuss how to
carry out ethnographic research and experiment with mini-research projects. In
each of the readings, students consider ethnographic approaches to legal
phenomena and discuss how each author has done his or her ethnographic research
and the techniques involved.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
L09.3523 (Law) Chase.
This course concerns “alternate” methods of dispute
resolution. By this is meant the processes used to resolve disputes that are
different from, and therefore alternative to, formal civil litigation. These
“alternate” processes include arbitration, mediation, and negotiation. This
course focuses on the legal rules that regulate the use and methodology of
these processes. It also explores the policy justifications and the problems
that are raised by these alternatives: To what extent should such alternatives
be permitted, encouraged, or required by government? Further, the course tries
to understand the social forces that further or impede their adoption.
State, Law, and Politics in Society
G62.1102 (Law and
Society)/L06.3565 (Law)/G53.2356 (Politics)
Chevigny, Harrington.
Examines the relationship between law and the state by
asking whether and how law is autonomous from the political powers of the
state. Studies the institutional powers of the legal profession and the
judiciary, doctrinal, and legal rights. Examines sociolegal theories of
interpretation. Investigates the ideology of law in legal formalism, both
contemporary and in the past; law and society; and critical legal studies.
Current Constitutional Issues
G62.1201 (Law and Society)/
L01.3536.01 (Law) Bell.
Students learn best by doing, that is, by active
participation in the subject matter. Using simulation models, students perform
the functions of both justices of the U.S. Supreme Court and attorneys handling
litigation before that Court. By simulating the Court’s perspective, on the
litigation in which it grants or denies remedies, students better understand
the often opaque reasoning the Court provides in adopting or rejecting
principles, doctrines, and standards. This structure enables participants to
gain a good understanding of how factors, neither stated nor even recognized,
can influence the judicial process.
Constitutional Theory of Emergency Powers
L01.3533 (Law) Ferejohn, Pasquino.
The seminar discusses from a historical perspective models
of constitutionalization of emergency power, specifically: the Roman
dictatorship; Machiavelli, Rousseau, and the revival of the constitutional
emergency power in the republican tradition; Locke and the king’s prerogative;
Montesquieu, the “veil on liberty,” and the “suspension” of the constitution
during the French Revolution (the Revolutionary government); Lincoln and the
suspension of habeas corpus during the American Civil War; Carl Schmitt and the
Diktaturgewalt of Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution; De Gaulle and Article
16 of the constitution of the French Fifth Republic; Article 115a of the Bonner
Grundgesetz; emergency power in India, Israel, Northern Ireland, and Latin
America. The seminar considers, moreover, the recent American debate:
Guantanamo and after.
State and Local Government
G62.1105 (Law and Society)/L01.3016 (Law) Jacobs, Viteritti.
Explores the power that state and local governments have to
regulate, provide public services, redistribute wealth, spend, finance private
projects, tax, and borrow, and ways in which law tries to keep that power
accountable. Some of the doctrinal issues considered include conflicts between
state and local authority, controls imposed as conditions on federal or state
grants, limits on borrowing and deficit spending, direct democracy,
nondiscriminatory access to services, and local government liability for
damages for violations of civil rights and antitrust law.
Law and Economics
G62.1024 (Law and Society)/L06.3020 (Law) Kornhauser.
The first part of this course is a survey of intermediate
microeconomic theory, with an emphasis on welfare economics. It provides a
framework for the second part of the course, which is an economic analysis of
tort and property rules and consideration of similar problems in law and
economics.
Voting, Game Theory, and the Law
G62.1025 (Law and Society)/L06.3035 (Law) Benoît.
This course first addresses the properties of various voting
methods and procedures. It considers desirable properties that a voting method
might possess and determines which methods, if any, have these properties. The
ideas developed are used to analyze practical problems, such as voting in union
elections and the provision of minority representation within the context of
the Voting Rights Act. Next, the course considers the concept of power and
examines the distribution of power among voters in different states and within
voting bodies, such as the United Nations Security Council and congressional
committees. Finally, the course develops concepts related to strategic thinking
used in game theory and applies these concepts to voting situations and legal
problems.
Law and Social Science
G62.1403 (Law and Society)/L06.3008 (Law) Tyler.
Introduction to the interface between law and the social
sciences. Explores the use of social science research findings in a variety of
areas of the law. These areas include jury decision making; the use of profiles
in identifying suspects; evidence such as lie detectors, eyewitnesses, and
repressed memories; trademark confusion; psychological assumptions underlying
constitutional law; citizen dissatisfaction with the law and legal authorities;
and a variety of other topics.
American Legal History
G62.1202 (Law and Society)/L06.3010 (Law) Reid.
Beginning with the colonial period and emphasizing the 19th
century, this course covers the formative era of American law in early
Massachusetts Bay; the constitutional controversy leading to the American
Revolution; the growth of law in the early republic; the law of the clan and of
the blood feud among the Cherokees; the American law of slavery; and the
fugitive slave controversy.
Readings in American Legal History
G62.1203 (Law and Society)/L06.2521 (Law) Prerequisite: U.S. Constitutional Law or permission of instructor. Reid.
Readings in the history of American law, with emphasis on
studies casting light on the nature of law and its relationship to society.
Assigned books and articles are reported on, reports are distributed, and class
hours are devoted largely to discussion. Students are asked to submit two-page
evaluations of works read.
Seminar in Sociology of Law: Gender Politics and Law
G62.1021 (Law and Society)/G93.3534 (Sociology) Dixon.
More than statutes, rules, and court cases, law constitutes
a discursive field where structured inequalities and shared cultural
understandings are defined, reinforced, and transformed. This course focuses on
the development and changes in U.S. legal discourses and how these debates
produce the context for the development, administration, and interpretation of
gender relations. Students explore the historical development of the liberal
legal system in the United States as it relates to gender as well as critiques
of liberal legalism from the standpoint of legal realism, critical legal
theory, and literary criticism. In addition, students examine legal debates in
various substantive areas, such as constitutional law, abortion, reproduction,
homosexuality, domestic and sexual violence, employment discrimination,
divorce, and custody.
Gender Issues in Law and Culture
G62.1028 (Law and Society)/L06.3567 (Law) Bruner, Gilligan, Richards.
This seminar explores, from both a historical and
contemporary perspective, the role of various interpretive perspectives on
gender in law and culture as tools for the understanding, diagnosis, and remedy
of racism and sexism as interlinked evils that afflict both men and women,
heterosexuals and homosexuals. Its central topic is the terms of the struggle
to introduce unconventional, gender-subversive voices and topics into public
discourse, criticizing cultural racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Race and Legal Scholarship
G62.1022 (Law and Society)/L06.3545 (Law) Caldwell.
This seminar considers how concepts of prejudice and
theoretical work on the operation of racial ideology affect developments in the
law concerning the protection against racial discrimination afforded by
specific constitutional and statutory laws as well as interpretations of the
impact of race generally in other substantive legal areas. Recent developments
in the study of race in the social sciences are considered. Students examine
contemporary problems in race relations in light of the theoretical foundations
of classical legal scholarship, law and economics, critical legal scholarship,
and the emerging critical scholarship on race—much, but not all, of which is
written by legal scholars of color.
Race, Values, and the American Legal Process
G62.1023 (Law and Society)/L06.3512 (Law) Higgenbotham Jr.
This seminar examines the use of the law to both perpetuate
and eradicate racial injustice in the United States from the inception and rise
of slavery during the colonial period through the U.S. Supreme Court decision
in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. The major institutions studied are the
courts and the legislatures (predominantly at the colony or state level). The
course explores both criminal and civil law and focuses particularly on their
role in the preclusion or allowance of traditional family relations, education
options, due process in the courts, and other “rights” for blacks.
Law and Literature
L06.3510 (Law) Gillers, Stimpson.
How does literature use law as a source of structure and
theme? How does literature view law and legal institutions? What can literature
and literary imagination bring to the performance of legal tasks, including
“telling stories” about cases? What different (or similar) interpretive rules
do lawyers and literary critics employ in construing a text? How are human
passions and the human condition differently described and treated in law and
literature?
Criminology
G62.2021 (Law and Society)/G93.2503 (Sociology) Dixon, Garland, Greenberg.
This course provides a critical evaluation of the historical
development of the study of crime. The readings offer a variety of theoretical
and methodological approaches to the analysis of various areas of crime
(violent—property—victimless—white collar). The class provides a forum for critically
discussing the variety of theoretical frameworks, issues, research
methodologies, and findings used in examining the construction, violation, and
punishment of crime.
Seminar in Criminology
G93.3513 (Sociology) Dixon, Garland, Greenberg.
This course is designed to allow students to conduct
research on a topic covered in
G62.2021. Students are required to enter the
course with a well-formulated research proposal.
Juvenile Justice
L04.3019 (Law) Jacobs.
This course covers the full range of criminal procedures
applicable to juveniles: searches and seizures, pretrial interrogation,
confidentiality, diversion, pretrial detention, transfer to adult court, right
to counsel, sentencing, conditions of confinement, etc. In addition, the
casebook is augmented with some materials on juvenile crime, juvenile criminal
records, and the handling of juvenile offenders in other countries.
Child, Parent, and State
L08.3030 (Law) Guggenheim.
The legal rights, responsibilities, and disabilities of
parents and children in the American legal system, including the historical and
philosophical background and development of juvenile court; issues relating to
juvenile delinquency, abuse and neglect laws, foster care, and students; and
issues relating to adolescents, including sex-related medical treatment and
informed consent to medical care.
The Sociology of Punishment
G62.1020 (Law and Society)/ G93.2508 (Sociology) Garland.
This seminar discusses the literature of the sociology of
punishment and the various theoretical traditions through which the
institutions of penality have been understood. It is particularly concerned
with developing a sociological account of contemporary patterns of penal
practice in the United States and elsewhere.
Criminal Sanctions
G62.2022 (Law and Society)/L04.3525 (Law) Garland.
This seminar examines current issues in the sentencing and
sanctioning of offenders. Using historical, sociological, and philosophical
approaches, it aims to develop a critical understanding of contemporary
policies and practices of punishment. Readings deal with policies such as
incapacitation, just desserts, expressive justice, and retribution and look at
the decision making and practices of the institutions that implement them. The
aim is to ground normative analysis (as developed by the philosophical
literature) in a more empirical knowledge of how penal institutions actually
work.
Death Penalty
G62.2028 (Law and Society)/L06.3577 (Law) Garland.
The aim of this seminar is to develop an in-depth analysis
of the institution of capital punishment and to address a series of questions
to which it gives rise. Using historical and sociological research, the seminar
explores how the forms, functions, and social meanings of capital punishment
have changed over time and what social forces have driven these changes.
Thereafter, the course focuses on the modern American death penalty and the
specific characteristics of the institution that has taken shape in the
post-Furman era.
Race, Poverty, and Criminal Justice
G62.2027 (Law and Society)/L04.3512 (Law) Stevenson.
Examines the influence of race and victim-offender economic
status in the administration of criminal justice. Conscious and unconscious
racism as well as overt and more complicated mechanisms for creating bias against
the poor are explored. Students study racial disparities in charging,
discretionary judgments in the prosecution of criminal cases, sentencing, and
the formulation of crime policy in the United States and discuss issues of race
and class in criminal case court decisions. Students assess the effectiveness
of antidiscrimination law in the crime and punishment area and review data and
empirical studies on a variety of issues that impact the poor and people of
color in the criminal justice system. Particular attention is paid to the role
of legislators, prosecutors, state and federal judges, defense attorneys, and
jurors, and litigation and other reform strategies aimed at bias against racial
minorities and the poor are discussed.
Policing in Democratic Societies
G62.2023 (Law and Society)/L04.3533 (Law) Skolnick.
What are the origins of democratic policing? How are police
organized, and how do they function? Why do law enforcement officials act the
way they do, in patrolling, searching, seizing, interrogating? What are the
occasions, explanations, and remedies for police brutality, corruption, and
perjury? What kinds of rules, organizations, and institutions are appropriate
and effective for maintaining police accountability in a democratic society?
Although students discuss some constitutional cases, this is not a systematic
seminar in the doctrine of police practices. Rather, the focus is on the
history, sociology, and politics of the police. Police accountability through
politics and law is a major concern.
Gun Control
G62.2025 (Law and Society)/L04.3525 (Law) Jacobs, Noble.
This seminar examines the problem that firearms and other
weapons pose for contemporary society and the constitutional, statutory,
administrative, and court-made laws relating to the regulation of firearms and
other weaponry. Topics include firearms and crime; firearms and self-defense;
the Second Amendment as a limitation on congressional regulation; federalism
and the federal role in the regulating of firearms; the role of the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; the conflict between state and local government
in regulating firearms; criminal law issues (including aggravated offenses,
prophylactic offenses, and presumptions); sentencing law issues (bootstrapping
and other enhancements for crimes committed with firearms); the prohibition and
regulation of subcategories of firearms (e.g., “Saturday night specials” and
“assault rifles”); products liability and gun control; controls on ammunition;
controls on less lethal weaponry (knives, mace, and brass knuckles); and
controls on more lethal weaponry (explosives and military weapons).
Regulation of Vice
G62.2024 (Law and Society)/L04.3559 (Law) Skolnick.
What is vice and how does it differ from crime? If we
criminalize it, can we regulate it? And if we decriminalize it, how shall we
regulate it? This seminar discusses a range of “vices” and regulatory
strategies that might be applied. Because students need to know much about the
nature of the “vice” in order to sensibly discuss policy options, there is
considerable reading, some of it required, others recommended.
Corruption and Corruption Control
G62.2026 (Law and Society)/L04.3510 (Law) Goldstock.
This seminar examines the pervasive problem of official
corruption and the various bodies of law and legal institutions that exist to
prevent, detect, and punish corruption. Topics include bribery and antigratuity
statutes; the federal role in investigating and prosecuting state and local
corruption under the Hobbes Act and mail statutes; conflict of interest and
financial disclosure laws; government contracting; campaign financing;
regulating lobbyists; inspectors general; auditing and accounting controls; and
civil service and administrative enforcement strategies and sanctions.
Deviance and Social Control
G62.2020 (Law and Society)/ G93.2160 (Sociology) Dixon, Duster, Greenberg, Horowitz.
Broad, introductory course in the sociology of deviance and
social control. Students read and analyze classical and contemporary texts
representing different theoretical and research traditions, dealing with the
designation of some types of behavior and conditions as deviant; ideologies and
methods of social control; the etiology of deviance; deviant subcultures; and
the politics of deviance. An attempt is made to examine a wide range of
normative violations, such as crime, mental illness, witchcraft, scientific
deviance, alcohol and drug use, and various types of sexual deviance.
Health Law
G62.2002 (Law and Society)/L13.3525 (Law) Law.
Considers how the law influences the availability, quality,
and cost of medical care and demands a sophisticated understanding of many
bodies of law, including the Constitution; state and federal administrative
law; the regulation of insurance; the Byzantine statutes defining benefit and
regulatory programs; tort principles of duty, consent, confidentiality, and
malpractice; corporate law (profit and not-for-profit); labor law; tax law; and
more. However, the focus is not primarily legal. Rather, the effort is to grapple
with defining life experiences and to explore the political, philosophical, and
personal values that shape these experiences. Statutes, regulations, and
judicial decisions are primary source materials, but these are placed in an
empirical policy context.
Empirical Issues in Land Use and Environmental Law
G62.2004 (Law and Society)/L10.3501 (Law) Been.
This seminar explores the empirical assumptions that
underlie leading theoretical justifications for various aspects of land use and
environmental law, surveys and critiques existing empirical evidence bearing
upon those assumptions, and formulates research plans for further tests of the
assumptions. Particular attention is given to the empirical bases for various
theories regarding when compensation should be paid for environmental and land
use restrictions imposed upon property. The course does not assume statistical
or econometric knowledge, nor are students asked to conduct statistical tests.
Instead, the emphasis is on learning to identify often hidden empirical
assumptions, gaining rudimentary understanding of empirical methodologies, and
developing an ability to formulate research questions for persons (such as
expert witnesses) who do have the econometric skills necessary to actually
execute the studies. Students prepare short critiques of existing empirical
studies and present a proposal for an empirical study. Students who wish to use
the seminar for a part A paper may use the proposal as the springboard for a
longer analysis. The seminar lays the groundwork for developing a clinic in
which students provide empirical analyses necessary for informed land use and
environmental policy discussions. Although a background in land use or
environmental law is not an absolute prerequisite, some familiarity with at
least one of those areas is desirable.
Land Use, Housing, and Community Development in New York City
G62.1106 (Law and Society)/L10.3506 (Law) Schill, Upham.
Overview of the theory and practice of urban development in
low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Focus is on three specific subject
areas: land use, housing, and community development. Begins with background
readings on the growth of cities and urban economies, the interaction of
demographics and markets, and the legal framework of local government in
general. Then looks in detail at a series of case studies selected to
illustrate the fundamental legal, political, and economic issues in land use
and housing. The primary goal for the seminar is the familiarization of the
students with the legal and political frameworks within which development takes
place in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods in New York City. A second goal
is the explication in several concrete settings of the relationship between
legal doctrine—the presentations of “legal frameworks” that begin the seminar
and each case study—and what actually results from the interaction of legal,
political, and economic forces. A third goal is the training of students in
empirical fieldwork and sociolegal methodology. Fieldwork reports provide an
opportunity for students to integrate empirical investigation with theory
building.
Sex Discrimination Law
G62.2006 (Law and Society)/L08.3508 (Law) Ellis, Goldscheid.
Taught by feminist practitioners, this course seeks to
integrate feminist theory with the practice of women’s rights law by examining
a wide range of contemporary women’s rights legal issues. Beginning with the
development of constitutional protection for gender discrimination, the course
examines topics such as reproductive rights, educational equity, violence
against women, employment, and gender bias in the courts, with attention to how
women’s rights concerns intersect with issues of race, class, and sexual
orientation. The course discusses how litigation, public policy, and
legislative strategies have and can be used to achieve feminist visions of
equality.
Sexuality and the Law
G62.2007 (Law and Society)/L08.3509 (Law) Ettelbrick.
Begins with the development of constitutional, medical, and
theoretical constructions of sexuality. The question of how state regulations
and legal analysis promote or reflect certain views of sexuality, gender, and
sexual orientation is central to discussion and study. The latter part of the
course applies this background to three specific institutional contexts in
which the social rules of sexuality and gender are challenged and charged
through the legal process: the military, marriage and the family, and the
workplace.
Intimate and Family Violence
L08.3501 (Law) Mills.
Lawyers and social workers are often unprepared for the
unique emotional, legal, and cultural challenges posed by working with
survivors of intimate abuse. In part, the tension lies between the public
feminist discourse on domestic violence and the individual realities of battered
women’s lives. Drawing on legal and related social work research and methods,
this interdisciplinary course for law and social work students explores how to
reconcile cultural, political, mental health, and safety concerns as they are
reflected in the movement to address domestic violence. Using empirical studies
as a platform for exploring diverse approaches to working with battered women,
their batterers, and their children, this course develops a method that lawyers
and social workers can use to traverse such issues as the batterer’s recidivism
and the victim’s autonomy. Developing a critique of feminist theory from the
survivor’s point of view is key to improving existing strategies for addressing
domestic abuse.
Rights of the Mentally Disabled
G62.2008 (Law and Society)/L08.3535 (Law) Levy.
Study of the delicate balance between government benevolence
and individual autonomy. This seminar considers the rights of persons with
mental disabilities in institutional and community settings and explores issues
involving psychiatric expertise, involuntary commitment, the right to
treatment, the right to refuse treatment, discrimination, the rights of
newborns with mental disabilities (the “Baby Doe” cases) and medical decision
making for incompetent persons (Cruzan, et. al.). Students examine the
development of case law and statutes and the social policies underlying them,
analyze briefs and transcripts from selected cases, and attend a commitment
hearing.
Free Speech, Censorship, and Culture
G62.1204 (Law and Society)/L01.3502 (Law) Adler.
Examines the law of free speech and censorship from an
interdisciplinary perspective. Explores the following questions: What are the
roots of the impulse to censor? What cultural assumptions are embedded in First
Amendment law and theory? How does censorship law reflect or reinforce cultural
anxieties about certain subjects, such as gender and class, and about certain
forms of expression, such as technology and art? In what ways does censorship
law shape literature, art, and popular culture? Readings include First
Amendment case law and theory as well as selections from other disciplines
History and Theory of International Law
L06.3539 (Law) Kingsbury.
This course explores the intellectual foundations of
contemporary international law. The aim is to embed thinking about
international law in wider bodies of political and legal theory. The course
considers the competing approaches to international order developed by Grotius,
Pufendorf, Hobbes, and some of their modern successors, including fundamental
concepts of sovereignty, anarchy, and society, and rights and law in
international relations; the approaches to imperialism and colonial expansion
taken by Vitoria, Gentili, Locke, and 19th-century British liberals and the interaction
of international law with colonial and postcolonial projects; the vitality of
alternative models of international order and alternative histories of
international law; the theoretical underpinnings of the
positivist-progressivist mainstream of international law in the 20th century,
with a particular focus on Oppenheim and on the relations of law to power; the
imagination and problems of international law as law and as a discipline and of
the roles of international lawyers.
Indigenous Peoples in International Law
L05.3547 (Law) Kingsbury.
Issues concerning indigenous peoples (including descendants
of precolonial inhabitants in the Americas and Australasia and groups in Asia
and elsewhere) are increasingly significant in many countries and in the United
Nations, the World Bank, the Organization of American States, and other
international institutions. This seminar discusses challenges to the standard
liberal concepts and to democratic theory posed by such issues as the meaning
and problems of the concept of indigenous rights; the nature and meaning of the
right to self-determination (including native peoples’ self-determination if
Quebec secedes from Canada and important developments in indigenous peoples’
rights in Latin American states); tensions between individual rights and group
rights (e.g., in discriminatory membership rules); minority rights regimes in
international law; tensions between indigenous peoples’ rights and
environmental law; and indigenous peoples’ rights under international trade and
intellectual property regimes.
Children’s Rights in International Law
L05.3563 (Law) Alston.
This seminar focuses on the evolution of children’s human
rights within the context of international law and the extent to which they
have influenced the content and institutional arrangements for the promotion of
human rights. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the
most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, provides the framework for
discussions. The seminar considers the background drafting of the 1989
Convention and ways in which the broader international law framework impacts
upon children. It explores conceptual dilemmas involved in the recognition of
these rights; the content of the major principles enshrined in the Convention
(notably the principles of nondiscrimination; the best interests of the child;
and children’s right to participate). The focus is on key topics such as
abortion, juvenile justice, corporal punishment, child soldiers, intercountry
adoption, refugee children, and child sexual exploitation.
International Human Rights
L05.3034 (Law) Alston.
This course provides a general introduction to the role of
human rights in the 21st century. It examines the historical origins of the
concept, its international legal context, and its normative structure. Themes
that run throughout the course include cultural relativism, the relationship
between rights and duties, the “public-private” distinction, and the changing
conceptions of statehood and sovereignty. The course concentrates on the United
Nations system, dealing with both charter-based and treaty-based arrangements.
In order to illustrate the functions and processes of institutions, the course
looks at issues such as disappearances, arbitrary detention, female circumcision,
homosexuality, political participation, and democratization. The role of
nonstate actors, and corporations in particular, is examined.
Constitutional Justice and Comparative Perspective
L01.3528 (Law) Kramer, Pasquino.
This course focuses on the decision-making procedures, the
type of deliberation, and the reasons-giving rhetoric of constitutional courts
in different countries (notably France, Germany, Italy, Spain—other national
cases are considered according to the interest, the nationality, and the
linguistic competencies of the students). More specifically, students read and
discuss opinions of the courts and analyze the role these institutions play in
the structure of constitutional governments. The origins of judicial review and
tensions between democratic accountability and constitutional adjudication are
also discussed.
Law and Development
L06.3554 (Law) Holmes, Upham.
This course examines the various theories of the role that
law and legal institutions play in national economic, social, and political
development and use empirical evidence from selected countries to critique
these theories. Approaches range from neoclassical economics to cultural
determinism to institutional sociology and include the work of authors like
Douglas North, Amartya Sen, Chalmers Johnson, and Hernando de Soto. The course
considers themes such as the definition of the rule of law for developing
societies; the meaning of development; the impact and influence of economic
globalization; the role of external organizations such as the World Bank, the
WTO (World Trade Organization), or USAID (U.S. Agency for International
Development); and the role of factors such as culture, history, and race.
Race and the Law: The United States and South Africa
G62.3003 (Law and Society)/L06.3542 (Law) Higgenbotham Jr.
Comparative analysis of the legal process in South Africa and the United States. Focus is primarily on (1) the political leadership and in-court advocacy by lawyers and (2) the similarities and differences in the education laws and cases in South Africa and in the United States.
Law and Society in Japan
G62.3004 (Law and Society)/L05.3006 (Law) Upham.
Looks at the interaction of the legal system and legal
institutions with Japanese society, politics, and economics. The goal is to use
Japan as a case study of the role that law can play in contemporary advanced
democracies and thereby test current social theory of law and society against a
non-Western experience. Looks closely at several different areas of law in Japan,
including environmental protection, patients’ rights, freedom of religion,
civil rights issues in employment discrimination and affirmative action,
criminal procedure and police practices, HIV/AIDS, and family law. Readings
consist of translated cases, statutes, and other types of legal documents, and
secondary materials. Evaluation is based primarily on a take-home
examination/essay, although in particular circumstances permission is granted
to students who wish to write a research paper instead. No particular
background is required or recommended, and students with no previous interest
or experience in Japan are welcome.
Law and Society in China
G62.3005 (Law and Society)/L05.3009 (Law) Cohen, Scogin.
Deals with the development of the indigenous Chinese legal
tradition, within the context of the Confucian, legalist, and Taoist
philosophy; the reform of law in modern China; and the emerging legal framework
for foreign investment in China. The Confucian legal tradition is at the core
of the legal cultures of East Asia including Japan, Korea, and much of
Southeast Asia. The first part of the course serves as an introduction to that
tradition. Contemporary China has seen an effort to create a new legal system
within the context of transforming a communist command economy into a market
system. The second part of the course looks at the role of law in this process
from the perspective of domestic actors as well as foreign investors.
Islamic Law and Society
G62.3006 (Law and Society)/G77.1852 (Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies)/L05.3560 (Law) Haykel.
The aim of this seminar is to expose graduate students to a
variety of writings in and on Islamic law. The first readings consist of
introductory surveys. These are followed by recent studies on the theoretical
foundations of Islamic law (usul alfiqh). Students then sample some substantive
legal material as it is presented in the classical legal manuals. The aim here
is to give a sense of the way in which Islamic law was traditionally presented
and how these manuals were then used by scholars. This is followed by an
examination of the methods and forms of transmission of Islamic legal knowledge
and expertise. Students then look at a number of studies that depict Islamic
law as it was understood, practiced, and enforced. Next, students look at the
treatment of Islamic jurists of marginals and minorities in theoretical
writings as well as historical experience in order to explore how norms were
established and enforced and how those who did not fully fit these were conceived
and treated by the law. Finally, students survey the attempts to reform Islamic
law in modern times.
Women and Islamic Law
G62.3007 (Law and Society)/G77.1854 (Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies) Haykel.
Acquaints students with the ways Islamic law has treated
women in theory and practice. Students are exposed to medieval and modern texts
regarding the status of women as believers, daughters, wives, mothers, and
legal persons. Case studies from different periods of Islamic history as well
as writings from contemporary anthropology are read and discussed. The aim is
to examine the ways in which Islamic law has been variously defined, invoked,
implemented, or not implemented, in different contexts. Emphasis is on the
strategies women have sought to transgress “the law” in order to achieve a
better outcome for themselves. In addition, students look at the ways in which
modern legislation in the Muslim world has treated women and discuss the
debates over their rights and identity that have taken place amongst feminists
(both Muslim and non-Muslim) and Islamists and in international bodies such as
the United Nations.
Comparative Criminal Justice Clinic: Focus on Domestic Violence
L02.2504 (Law) Das Dasgupta, Maguigan.
Domestic violence occurs everywhere, with different
resonances in different cultures. Every country has a criminal justice system,
but the attempt to use arrest and prosecution as tools against domestic
violence is far from universal. Within each nation where domestic violence is
prosecuted, there is debate about whether a criminal-court approach will ever
make more than a marginal difference. This debate, examined in a comparative
and interdisciplinary context, is the focus of the weekly seminar. Specific
areas of inquiry include mandatory arrest, prosecutorial discretion, no-drop
policies, and mandatory reporting to law enforcement by health care providers.
The main points of comparison are India and the United States.
Legal Changes After Communism
L05.3522 (Law) Holmes.
This yearlong seminar focuses on the main issues of
postcommunist legal development, with an emphasis on Russia and the countries
of Eastern Europe, including problems of judicial review, federalism,
separation of powers, legislative oversight, rights enforcement, electoral law,
and corruption.
Transitional Justice in Times of Transition
L05.3536 (Law) Boraine, Van Zyl.
This course deals with the historical, political, social
and, especially, legal questions arising from transitions in countries emerging
from dictatorship or authoritarian governments to new forms of democracy. In
particular, the emphasis is on how countries deal with their past in building a
new future. Many countries have experienced grave violations of human rights,
and the course examines the various ways of addressing these violations. The
focus is on tribunals and truth commissions. The course considers the period of
the Nuremberg Trials until the contemporary conflicts in the Balkans.
Case Studies in Transitional Justice
L05.3540 (Law) Prerequisite: L05.3536. Boraine, Van Zyl.
Case studies, historical and contemporary, of countries
experiencing transition are discussed in this course. In each case study,
documents related to the specific country are made available to the students
prior to the class. Examples of some of the countries considered include Peru,
East Timor, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mexico, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Burma,
and Zimbabwe. Students select one case study for their semester paper.
Global Public Service Lawyering: Theory and Practice
L05.4510 (Law) Maguigan, Upham.
This seminar examines the history and theory of public
interest lawyering from a global perspective. Topics include the effectiveness
of impact litigation versus other approaches to social change, the
appropriateness of public interest law for non-Western societies, the impact of
economic markets on the developing world, the role of international legal and
political norms on domestic law, and the consideration of the role of lawyers
and legal institutions in addressing these issues.
The Empowered Self: Law and Society in the Age of Individualism
L06.3551 (Law) Franck.
This seminar examines the gradual emancipation of the
individual in national and international law, including the right to
nationality, religion, choice of career, and name. These and other issues of
personal emancipation are studied in the context of various legal systems and
cultures. The emerging rights pertaining to gender and political participation
are discussed by reference to the historic evolution of human rights and civil
rights.
Topics in Law and Society
G62.3300 (Law and Society) Staff.
Special topics.
Reading and Research
G62.3304 Staff.
Independent study.
Colloquium in Legal, Political, and Social Philosophy
L06.3517 (Law) Dworkin, Nagel.
Interpretation, the Human Sciences, and the Law: The Lawyering Theory Colloquium
G62.1401 (Law and Society)/L06.3555 (Law) Amsterdam, Bruner, Davis, Morawetz.
Colloquium on Constitutional Theory
L06.3501 (Law) Freedman, Kramer, Sager.
Colloquium on Law, Economics, and Politics I and II
L06.3531 and L06.3513 (Law) Full-year course. Ferejohn, Kornhauser.
Colloquium on the Law, Economics, and Politics of Urban Affairs
L10.3504 (Law) Been, Ellen, Schill.
Legal History Colloquium
L06.4515 (Law) Full-year course. Nelson.
Colloquium on Culture and Law
L06.3587 (Law) Bruner, Chase.
Globalization and Its Discontents Colloquium
L05.3557 (Law) Fox, Kingsbury, Stewart.
Colloquium on Innovation Policy
L12.3534 (Law) Dreyfuss, First. NONCREDIT COLLOQUIA
Law and Society Colloquium (Law and Society) Dixon, Kornhauser.
Law and Society Workshop (Law and Society) Dixon, Greenberg.
Hoffinger Criminal Justice Colloquium (Center for Research in Crime and Justice/Law) Jacobs, Garland, Skolnick.
 Back to Top
|
