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The
Law and Society Program Curriculum
The LSP curriculum combines
courses from the Law School and various departments in the Graduate School
of Arts and Science. These integrate theoretical and empirical approaches
to studying law and legal institutions.
The LSP curriculum is organized
into the following three sub-fields. For a complete description of these
and other courses, please consult the Graduate
Course Directory.
I.
Sociolegal Theory
Students attend courses covering sociolegal theory, feminist theory, critical
race theory, and legal history. The Sociolegal Seminar focuses
on analytical, doctrinal, institutional, and philosophical perspectives
and approaches to the study of law and society. The Sociology of Law
and The Politics of the Legal Order provide students with a foundation
in social theory and the institutional structures that shape law's place
in society. Law in Modern Society explores the changing forms and
functions of law in modern society and the sociological theories that
seek to interpret these developments. Introduction to Legal Philosophy
presents the concept of law as viewed through the work of 20th-century
philosophers and discusses the relationship among law, coercion, morality,
politics and legal reasoning. Law and Economics examines how basic
economic concepts can be applied to legal problems. Culture and Disputing
uses readings from sociology and legal anthropology to explore how disputes
and dispute processing are imbedded in distinct forms of social life.
Gender Politics and Law focuses on debates within legal discourses
on gender and how these debates produce a context for the development,
administration and interpretation of gendered policies.
II.
Social and Legal Policy
Students also take courses on social and legal policy such as Law and
Social Policy, which examines the relationship between law and policy
through the study of landmark Supreme Court cases, state court decisions,
and determinations by regulatory agencies. Criminology gives students
a background in the historical development of criminology, criminal behavior
systems, the etiology of crime and delinquency, and crime control. Corruption
and Corruption Control examines the problem of official corruption
and the various bodies of law and legal institutions that exist to prevent,
detect and punish corruption. Deviance and Social Control provides
a framework for analyzing different theoretical and research traditions
about so-called deviant behavior and conditions, and the policies used
to control them. The Lawyering Theory Colloquium looks at legal
thinking and institutions through the lenses of epistemological and humanistic
disciplines such as psychology, ethnology, linguistics and literary criticism.
Expert Evidence analyzes the process by which expert advice, testimony
and publications are used to inform judicial interpretation of law. Law
and Science examines how courts and administrative agencies have both
generated and mediated conflicts between the legal and scientific communities.
Policing in Democratic Societies focuses on the origins, sociology
and politics of democratic policing, as well as the mechanisms of its
organization and function. Health Law considers how the law influences
the availability, quality and cost of medical care.
III.
Comparative and Global Perspectives
Courses on comparative law and global practices are the third group of
courses available to students. Law and Society in Japan uses Japan
as a case study of the role that law can play in contemporary advanced
democracies, testing current social theory of law and society against
a non-Western experience. Comparative Law and Social Change is
a seminar on theoretical and comparative frameworks for analyzing and
interpreting the interrelationships between law and society in contemporary
Eastern Europe. Race and the Law: U.S. and South Africa is a comparative
analysis of the legal process in South Africa and the United States, with
emphasis on the similarities and differences in education law in those
countries. Islamic Law and Society exposes graduate students to
a variety of writings on Islamic law, exploring its theoretical foundations,
methods and forms of transmission, and reform. Law and Society in China
traces the development of the indigenous Chinese Legal tradition, within
the context of Confucian, Legalist, and Taoist philosophy, the reform
of law in modern China, and the emerging Chinese legal framework for foreign
investment.
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