Legal Studies Courses Fall 2014

***Always check the OSOC for the latest most up-to-date info.***

R1B:   Racial Identity & the Law, Bruce, MWF 12-1:00pm, 4 units, Area N/A

**This course is lower division and will not count towards the major.**            

This course will examine three of the most important institutions in our lives (not necessarily in order of importance): school, work and family. We will read memoir and drama that recounts how individuals have experienced and understood changes to their legal rights within those institutions. To what extent have changes in the law been able to secure equality for members of minority groups? What kinds of costs have individuals borne in exchange for formal legal equality? To explore these questions, we will conduct a close examination of three case studies: school desegregation, women in the workplace, and the evolving legal status of same-sex marriage. In writing a series of essays, students will develop their ability to critically read and analyze the written word. A central focus of the course will be investigating the research process, and coursework will culminate in a research portfolio.

We will read Supreme Court cases, as well as political and legal commentary from across the political spectrum, and consider not only the opinions of the Justices, but also why they hold those opinions. We will seek to discover the way in which courts use authority and craft law.

39F: Civil Disobedience Frosh/Soph Seminar, Song, F 10am-12:0pm, 2 units, Area N/A

**This course is lower division and will not count towards the major.**

In this seminar, we will examine historical and contemporary examples of civil disobedience to think about the value of free speech and the relationship between law and morality. We will read a range of classic texts, from Socrates and John Stuart Mill to Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. as well as examine contemporary legal cases and theories of free speech. We will also devote some time to thinking about Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement by reading Robert Cohen’s book on Mario Savio, Freedom’s Orator, and watching Frederick Wiseman’s documentary, At Berkeley.

Some of the questions we’ll explore include:  What is the value of freedom of speech for a democratic society? For what reasons might freedom of speech and expression be restricted? How has U.S. law approached conflicts over free speech? What should be the response to a speech or expressive act that violates the law? To what kind of “higher law,” if any, can a speaker who is in violation of the law-on-the-books appeal to?

This seminar will involve lots of close reading, constructive participation by everyone, and weekly writing assignments.  The goal of this seminar is to provide students with experience in close reading and interpretation of texts and practice in writing short argumentative, conceptual papers.

100: Foundations of Legal Studies, Kutz, TTh 11am- 12:30pm, 4 units, Area I or II or III (New Plan: Core,  H,SS)

This is a liberal arts course designed to introduce students to the foundational frameworks and cross-disciplinary perspectives from humanities and social sciences that distinguish legal studies as a scholarly field. It provides a comparative and historical intro to forms, ideas, institutions, and systems of law and sociological ordering. It highlights basic theoretical problems and scholarly methods for understanding questions of law and justice.

109: Aims & Limits of Criminal Law, Perry, MWF 1-2:00pm,  4 units  Area III or IV (New Plan: Area I)

This course focuses on the analysis of the capacity of criminal law to fulfill its aims. What are the aims of criminal Law? How are they assigned relative priority? What principles can be identified for evaluating the effort to control disapproved activities through criminal law?

138: The Supreme Court & Public Policy, Quinn, TTh 8-9:30am, 4 units, Area III or IV (New Plan: Core or IV or V,  SS)

An analysis of the policy consequences of Supreme Court decisions. Particular attention will be paid to to the Court’s interaction with other branches of government and the mass public.

140:  Property & Liberty, Brown, TTh 3:30-5:00pm, 4 units, Area I or III  (New Plan: Area II or III)

The course will explore the relation between property law and limits of liberty in different cultures and at different times.  The course will cover theories of property law, slavery, the clash between aboriginal and European ideas of property, gender roles and property rights, common property systems, zoning, regulatory takings, and property on the internet. Readings will include legal theorists, court cases, and historical case studies.

151: Law, Self & Society, Dan-Cohen,3 units, MW 1-2:00pm, Area I (New Plan: Area II)

Contemporary moral and political philosophy has been increasingly interested in how conceptions of the self relate to various aspects of our social and political life.  These issues have an important bearing on legal theory as well.  Law is shaped by certain implicit assumptions about the nature of individuals and collectivities, while it also actively participates in forming the identities of persons and in structuring collective entities such as families, corporations, and municipalities.  This course will explore some theoretical approaches to this reciprocal relationship between law and the different social actors that it governs.

158: Law & Development, O’Connell, MWF 10-11:00am, 4 units, Area II (New Plan: Area III or IV)

Focusing on developing countries, this course considers the relationship between legal institutions and rules – including informal and traditional ones – and development – defined by different actors by economic growth, education, health, or a wide spectrum of freedoms. It examines efforts by national leaders, international organizations, foreign aid agencies, and NGOs to “reform” law to promote development, along with the resistance and unplanned consequences that often ensue.

163: Adolescence, Crime & Juvenile Justice, Zimring, 4 units, TTh 12:30-2:00pm, Area III or IV (New Plan: Area I)

This course examines the premises, doctrine, and operational behavior of juvenile courts, particularly in relation to the commission of seriously anti-social acts by mid-adolescents. Topics include the history of theories of delinquency; the jurisprudence of delinquency; the incidence and severity of delinquency; police response to juvenile offenders; the processes of juvenile courts and youth corrections; and reforms or alternatives to the juvenile court system.

170: Crime & Criminal Justice,  Perry, 4 units, TTh 3:30-5:00pm, Area IV (New Plan: Area I)

This course examines the scope and causes of the crime problem in America, and the uses and limits of our criminal justice system in dealing with it. The class will look at recent trends in crime and at how our crime problem compares with that of other countries. Topics include the massive expansion of the American prison system in recent years and its effect on the crime rate, critical analyses of different theories of the causes of crime, strategies for preventing and controlling crime, death penalty, gun control, white-collar crime, and crime in the family.

180: Implicit Bias, Plaut, MW 4-5:30am, 4 units, Area III (New Plan: Area IV)

Implicit bias—automatic or unconscious stereotyping and prejudice that guides  our perception of and behavior toward social groups—is one of the fastest growing areas of law and psychology.  It also lies at the heart of one of the raging debates in American Law: whether the results of psychological studies showing the operation of unconscious gender, racial, and other biases can be used as courtroom evidence to prove discrimination.  Students will be introduced to cutting edge research that bears not only on the highly relevant substantive areas of employment discrimination and criminal law, but also on questions regarding other legal contexts, such as communications, voting, health care, immigration, and property.  Students will learn how implicit bias works, how to interpret and use empirical research findings from psychology, how to understand the major critiques of implicit bias research, and how to understand courts’ use of implicit bias findings. Remedies to implicit bias will be discussed throughout the course.

182: Law, Politics & Society, Feeley, 4 units, TTh 8:00-9:30am, Area III or IV (New Plan: Core or Area IV or V,  SS)

This course examines the theory and practice of legal institutions in performing several major functions of law: allocating authority, defining relationships, resolving conflict, adapting to social change, and fostering social solidarity. In doing so, it will assess the nature and limits of law as well as consider alternative perspectives on social control and social change. 

184: Sociology of Law, Hillary Berk, 4 units, TTh 2-3:30pm, Area III or IV (New Plan: Core or Area IV,  SS)

This introductory course explores major issues and debates in the sociology of law.  Topics include theoretical perspectives on the relationship between law and society, theories of why people obey (and disobey) the law, the relationship between law and social norms, the “law in action” in litigation and dispute resolution, the roles of lawyers, judges, and juries in the legal system and in society, and the role of law in social change.  The course will examine these issues from an empirical perspective.

190.1: Surveillance, Privacy & the Law, James Rule, 4 units, Tu 2-5:00pm, Area I or IV(New Plan: I or IV)

This seminar will examine tensions surrounding efforts to observe, monitor, track and record personal information.  Such tensions between privacy interests and those of surveillance will be understood as universal elements of social life, from intimate face-to-face interactions to government surveillance activities like those of the NSA.  Of special interest will be the repercussions of such tensions in the realm of law—including law-enforcement, civil liberties, tort law, and privacy codes aimed at drawing the line between privacy “rights” and prerogatives of surveillance.

190.2: Legal Theory Seminar, Dan-Cohen, 3 units, M 5-7:00pm, Area I (New Plan: Area II or IV)

In this seminar we’ll discuss a number of texts that cover a wide range of issues in the theory of law. Roughly speaking, they fall into two main categories. Some of the readings look at law from the outside, posing the question, what is law and what is the source of its authority? The answers proposed concern the distinction between natural law and positivism, and the relationship between law and morality. The other set of readings adopt an internal perspective, focusing primarily on theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of substantive legal issues. The aim is to identify salient ideas and values that shape legal discourse and inform legal policy.

190.3: History of Punishment, Lieberman, 4 units, Th 3:30-6:30pm, Area II  (New Plan: Area I)

The seminar will examine several leading programs for the reform and systematic overhaul of criminal punishment in the U.S. and western Europe during the period from the late-18th to the early-20th century.  Readings will focus on the original presentations of these reform projects, rather than on contemporary scholarship in which they are discussed.  A major area of attention is the emergence in the early-19th century of the penitentiary as the standard sanction for the treatment of the most serious crimes and to subsequent efforts to adapt imprisonment to new penal purposes.

190.4: Criminal Law & the Regulation of Vice, 4 units, Zimring, Tu 5-7:00pm, Area  III, IV    (New Plan: Area I)  ***CANCELED***

This course will examine the changing nature of government policy toward what have traditionally been called “Vice” crimes. Included in this term are prohibitions of gambling, pornography, drugs, prostitution and “unnatural” sexual acts between adults. The criminal law status of most of these behaviors was liberalized during the past half century, but drug offenses were a spectacular exception to this pattern.  The seminar will focus on drug control issues but use the parallel histories of other vice crimes as a point of contrast.  The seminar will use this year’s new edition of Criminal Law and the Regulation of Vice as a text, and students may choose between writing a research paper and as take home examination for grade credit.  ***CANCELED***

190.5: Law, Politics & Literature, Shapiro, 4 units, W 10am-noon Area II (New Plan: Area II or V)

This course will examine some key issues of politics through the close reading of a number of literary works.

190.6: Business Law in Japan and the U.S., Shishido, 1 unit, TTh 6:25-8:15pm 136 Boalt, 5 week course beginning August 26th, Area II (New Plan: Area III)

This is an intensive course taught at the law school with law students in the comparative study of Japanese and American business systems, law, and regulation. Rather than study the subject through traditional legal categories (e.g., contracts, torts, corporations), this course takes a topical approach. In each class, we will discuss a specific Japanese topic or phenomenon, many of which are well known (albeit often misunderstood) in the United States, such as, administrative guidance, keiretsu, and main banks. The readings will consist of basic materials on both Japanese and American law and business behavior, and have been selected to stimulate class discussion. At the same time, this course will cover most of the important areas of business law. By participating in the discussion, students will not only deepen their understanding of Japanese business, but learn important distinctions between Japanese and American legal systems, and, by extension, between US and other non-Anglo-American ones. This is a 5 week course. There are only 4 spaces for declared Legal Studies undergrads who are either juniors or seniors.

199:  Independent Study, 1-4 units, P/NP, Area N/A (New Plan: 4 units of 199 can be used as one of the two courses taken in one Area.)

Legal Studies 199 is open to officially declared Legal Studies Seniors with a 3.0 GPA in the major and 3.0 UCB GPA.  Independent study is a research paper the student produces under the direction of a faculty member.  In order to enroll, the student must develop a proposal and find a Legal Studies faculty member who is willing to serve as director.  Ideally, the student should have already taken at least one course from the faculty member in the area which s/he wishes to research.  The student should submit a written proposal to the faculty member outlining the scope and length of the research project s/he would like to do.  A general guideline is one unit of credit per ten pages of text in the final research paper, up to a maximum of four units. The consent of the supervising faculty member should be secured prior to the first week of the semester.Once a student has secured faculty permission, the student should see the Lauri for the requisite form.  Note: LS 199 is P/NP only, but will count towards the 32 upper div units for the major.