Law-Related Courses Offered by Other Departments Fall 2020

NOTE:  Areas listed are for the NEW PLAN only.

UGBA 107 Social & Political Environment of Business (3) Study and analysis of American business in a changing social and political environment. Interaction between business and other institutions. Role of business in the development of social values, goals, and national priorities. The expanding role of the corporation in dealing with social problems and issues. (Area III)

UGBA 175 Legal Aspects of Management (3) An analysis of the law and the legal process, emphasizing the nature and functions of law within the U.S. federal system, followed by a discussion of the legal problems pertaining to contracts and related topics, business association, and the impact of law on economic enterprise. (Area III)

English 165: Law & Literature in the U.S. (4) This course will introduce students to law and literature studies by exploring the legal and literary culture of the United States from the Declaration of Independence (1776) to Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission (2010). We will focus on issues pertaining to the aesthetics and politics of representation, personhood, private property, and, above all, interpretation. We will examine in particular how discussions and disputes about the right or best way to interpret texts has become central to American jurisprudence and politics as well as to literary study. Our approach will be both historical and theoretical and so our readings will range from transcripts of court hearings and congressional committees to contemporary literary theory and legal philosophy. The goal is to provide a combination of specific methodologies and broad historical sources that will allow students to pursue original research into problems and periods of their choosing. Central topics of discussion will be the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, the rise of corporate capitalism, and conflicts between notions of individual right and social justice. We will discuss texts by James Madison, Frederick Douglass, Margaret Fuller, Herman Melville, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, literary theorists Walter Benn Michaels and Barbara Johnson, philosophers Giorgio Agamben and Hannah Arendt, and others.  (Area II or IV)

ESPM 163 AC Environmental Justice: Race, Class, Equity & the Environment (4) Overview of the field of environmental justice, analyzing the implications of race, class, labor, and equity on environmental degradation and regulation. Environmental justice movements and struggles within poor and people of color communities in theU.S., including: African Americans, Latino Americans, and Native American Indians. Frameworks and methods for analyzing race, class, and labor. Cases of environmental injustice, community and government responses, and future strategies for achieving environmental and labor justice. (Area II or IV)

Hist 100D Legal & Constitutional History of the U.S. Since 1850 (4) This course explores some of the major questions and problems of United States legal history since 1850. As a course in legal history, this class weaves together historical and legal approaches, themes, and materials. Our themes will include federalism and the evolving nature of constitutional authority; citizenship and rights; law and economic change; and popular understandings of ‘the law.’ We will devote attention both to the “high” sphere of Constitutional jurisprudence and to other legal and extra-legal arenas where law was applied, argued over, and worked out. By the end of this course, you should be able to: read and analyze different kinds of legal texts; understand the meanings of legal concepts and doctrines by rooting them in specific historical moments; understand the distinct roles played by different actors (judges, legislatures, lawyers, reporters, litigants, voters, etc.) within our constitutional system; and make cogent, evidence-based arguments about these core themes in law and legal history. Course grades will be based on class participation, four short (1-page) assignments, a midterm, and a final exam. (Area IV or V)

Hist C187 The History and Practice of Human Rights (4) (Area IV or V)
This course examines the historical development of human rights to the present day, focusing especially (but not exclusively) on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. More than a history of origins, however, this course will contemplate the relationships between human rights and other crucial themes in the history of the modern era, including revolution, slavery, capitalism, colonialism, racism, and genocide. As a history of international and global themes and an examination of specific practices and organizations, this course will ask students to make comparisons across space and time and to reflect upon the evolution of human rights in international thought and action—from imperial beginnings to the crises of our time.

Media Studies 104D Privacy in the Digital Age (3) (Area I or IV)
This course examines issues of privacy in contemporary society, with an emphasis on how privacy is affected by technological change. Modern privacy is informed by a patchwork of overlapping constitutional rights, statutory laws, regulations, market forces and social norms. Thus, although the U.S. Constitution does not contain the word “privacy,” the concept remains an important part of our legal and cultural experience. After an introduction to features of the American legal system and the theoretical underpinnings of privacy law, we will consider privacy in the context of law enforcement investigations (including what it takes for the government to track your movements or read your email), national security (such as when the government can get a secret foreign intelligence wiretap), government records and databases (including how to get access to them), newsgathering torts, protections for journalistic work product, First Amendment limitations on privacy regulation, and international perspectives.

NATAMST 100 Native American Law (4) Historical background of the unique relationship between the United States government and Native American tribes, and examination of contemporary legislation, court cases, and federal, state, and local policies affecting Native American social, political, legal, and economic situations. (Area II or IV)

NATAMST 102  Critical Native American Legal and Policy Studies. (4)   Key contemporary issues in the critical study of tribal and federal policy pertaining to American Indians and Alaska Natives in the U.S. Topics include political and cultural sovereignty; religious, gendered, sexual, racial, and other tribal minorities, and civil rights within tribes; Native legal identity and tribal enrollment; the role of violence against women in the history of colonialism, and the struggle for justice and healing; and the movement for traditional or other culturally appropriate forms for tribal self-governance. (Area IV or V)

Philosophy 115 Political Philosophy (4) This course is devoted to some of the central questions in contemporary political philosophy: liberty, justice and equality. The course is focused particularly on the work of John Rawls. (Area V)

Political Sci 124C Ethics of Justice in Intl. Affairs (4) Should nations intervene in other countries to prevent human rights abuses or famine? On what principles should immigration be based? Should wealthy states aid poorer states, and if so, how much? Who should pay for global environmental damage? Answers to these moral questions depend to a great degree on who we believe we have an obligation to: Ourselves? Nationals of our country? Residents of our country? Everyone in the world equally? We will examine different traditions of moral thought including skeptics, communitarians, cosmopolitans, and use these traditions as tools to make reasoned judgments about difficult moral problems in world politics. (Area V)

Poli Sci 167AC Racial and Ethnic Politics in the New American Century  (4) Some of the most enduring and violent conflicts in America center on race. The goal of this course is to explore, discuss, and better understand the relationship between perceptions of racial identity, attributions of racial difference, and politics, broadly defined. We focus on the recent and persistent debates about racism, identity, rights, representation, citizenship, conflict, and coalitions. A repeated theme of this course is the question whether racial order and inequality are essential to, or an exception from, the liberal democracy in theU.S.This is a lecture course with intensive readings, written assignments, and in-class discussion.  (Area II)

Public Policy 160AC Work, Justice and the Labor Movement (4) (Area III or IV)
This course provides a broad, inter-disciplinary overview of the U.S. labor movement in the fight for social and economic justice. It will introduce students to critiques of racial capitalism and the power dynamics inherent in paid work, while considering why and how workers form unions in response. One of the primary objectives of this course is to develop a theoretical and analytical understanding of contemporary workers’ experiences of work in the U.S. shaped by race, class, gender, sexuality, immigration status, language, religion, and other social constructs. There will be a special comparative focus on the role of structures and the space for agency and mobilization in the Latinx, Black and Asian American communities.

Sociology 114 Sociology of Law (4) Selected legal rules, principles, and institutions treated from a sociological perspective. Influence of culture and social organization on law; role of law in social change; social aspects of the administration of justice; social knowledge and the law. (Area II or IV)

Sociology 137AC Environmental Justice, Race, Class, Equity, & the Environment (formerly 128AC) (4) (cross-listed w/ESPM 163AC) Overview of the field of environmental justice, analyzing the implications of race, class, labor, and equity on environmental degradation and regulation. Environmental justice movements and struggles within poor and people of color communities in theU.S., including: African Americans, Latino Americans, and Native American Indians. Frameworks and methods for analyzing race, class, and labor. Cases of environmental injustice, community and government responses, and future strategies for achieving environmental and labor justice. (Area II or IV)