***Always check the OSOC for the latest most up-to-date info.***
24: The Supreme Court & Social Change Frosh Seminar, Berring, 1 unit, Area N/A
**This course is lower division and will not count towards the major.**
Members of the seminar will read a series of Supreme Court opinions that lie at the juncture of law, morality and social change. We will seek to understand how judges act in these challenging instances.
39D: Current Political & Moral Conflicts & the Constitution Frosh/Soph Seminar, Pomerantz, 2 units, Area N/A
**This course is lower division and will not count towards the major.**
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.
39I: Punishment in America Frosh/Soph Seminar, Kutz, 2 units, Area N/A
**This course is lower division and will not count towards the major.**
This seminar will look at the theory and modern practice of criminal punishment in the United States: we will read and discuss materials from philosophy, history, law, anthropology, and sociology to discuss under what conditions state punishment could be justified, and how the American modern practice of mass incarceration does or does not meet those conditions. Along with some classic philosophy and criminology readings, we will read the On the Same Page book, Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy as well as excerpts from Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. The seminar will include a trip to San Quentin state prison. The requirements will consist of weekly readings and short, ungraded, written reactions, as well as two 5-6 page graded papers. This seminar is part of the On the Same Page initiative. You should be prepared to do 50-75 pages of reading per week (perhaps more if the reading is not dense), and you will be expected to contribute on the basis of that reading to class discussion during every session.
R1B: Reading and Composition (info to be added later)
**This course is lower division and will not count towards the major.**
100: Foundations of Legal Studies, Marshall, 4 units, 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.
103: Theories of Law & Society, Tomlins, 4 units, Core (H, SS) or Area II
Surveys leading attempts to construct social theories of law and to use legal materials for systematic social theorizing, during the period from the mid-eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. The course considers major discussions of such themes as the relationships between law, politics, society and economy; the connection between historical change and legal change; the role of law in the processes of social integration and social discipline; and the distinctive elements of legal ordering in the modern west.
109: Aims & Limits of Criminal Law, Perry, 4 units, 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?
LS 119 – Philosophy & Law in Ancient Athens, Hoekstra (4 units) Area V
This is an introduction to important aspects of the philosophical and constitutional thought of classical Athens. We will pay particular attention to accounts of the origins of the Athenian legal system; criticisms and defenses of the democracy; arguments about the nature of justice, law, and legal obligation; and the context of the Athenian way of organizing trials, taxation, and administration. Readings from Aeschylus, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato, Lysias, Aristotle, and others.
140: Property & Liberty, Brown, 4 units, 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.
145: Law & Economics I, Ben Chen, 4 units, Core (SS) or Area III
This course uses the concepts and tools of economics to analyze problems in law, focusing on contracts, property, torts, and legal process. Students will be expected to apply the analysis to broad array of legal issues.
151: Law, Self & Society, Dan-Cohen, 3 units, 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.
161: Law in Chinese Society, Stern, 4 units, Area II
This course examines the legal system of China, from its cultural basis to the implications for modernization and China’s participation in the international community. Philosophy, drama, and art will be used to understand the culture and major historical periods which influenced China’s legal traditions and key concepts. The 20th century will be reviewed in some detail, including the Republic both on the mainland and on Taiwan, and the People’s Republic in both the Maoist and current eras, leading to examination of current legal practices in both Taiwan and mainland China.
LS 163 – Adolescence, Crime & Juvenile Justice (title changed Fa12 from: Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Justice ), Zimring, 4 units, Area I
This course examines the premises, doctrine, and operational behavior of juvenile courts, particularly in relation to the commission of seriously antisocial acts by mid-adolescents. An introductory section will introduce the historical development and legal theory of adolescence as a semi-autonomous period with special policy goals and problems. The treatment of juvenile justice will 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, 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.
174: Comparative Constitutional Law: The Case of Israel, Tami Kricheli-Katz from Tel Aviv University, 4 units, Area IV or V
How do different societies solve common problems? What role do cultural, economic, and political attributes of nations play in the design of their legal systems, and what are the powers and limits of law in affecting societal changes such as promoting economic equality, mitigating racial and religious tensions, and ensuring basic freedoms for individuals and minority groups? What is the unique calling of constitutional law within legal systems and what lessons can we draw by comparing constitutional systems in studying the relations between law and society?
Israel serves as a fascinating case study for exploring these issues.
The course will explore the development of constitutional rights in view of the unique social, cultural, and religious features of Israel. The course will then discuss how other constitutional rights such as the right of political association, freedom of expression, right to equality, and the protection of property are developed, interpreted, and applied in view of Israel’s social, economic, and cultural setting, while constantly evaluating the similarities and differences vis-à-vis the U.S. Bill of Rights and other constitutional systems.
184: Sociology of Law, Edelman, 4 units, Core (SS) or Area IV
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, 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: Law, Politics & Literature, Shapiro, 4 units, Area II or V
This course will examine some key issues of politics through the close reading of a number of literary works.
190.3: Civil Rights in America, Penningroth, 4 units, Area IV, V
This course explores the history of an important American concept: civil rights. What are civil rights? Who can hold them? Who gets to decide these questions, and how? Those questions have been central to American history and law for nearly two centuries. We will consider the debates that surrounded the emergence of civil rights in politics and Constitutional law during the mid-1800s, and the ways that non-elite people struggled to impress their own visions onto “civil rights.” We will examine debates over federalism, political discourses about “rights” and “equality,” popular movements that marched under the banner of “civil rights,” strategies centered on courtroom litigation and their critics, and more. In exploring the history of civil rights, we will be less concerned with determining one formulation or strategy as the most inclusive or effective. Instead, we will seek to discuss what Americans’ debates about civil rights reveal about their changing conceptions of legal and Constitutional authority, and their senses of who was ‘in’ or ‘out’ of the community of citizens.
190.4: Legal Theory Seminar, Dan-Cohen, 3 units, 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.
H195A: Honors Seminar, Edelman, 4 units, Area N/A
Students contemplating an Honors thesis must enroll in LS H195A in the Fall of their senior year, which is aimed specifically at preparing them for the task. The seminar will cover such important subjects as selecting a thesis topic that is both interesting and capable of investigation within the limits of a single semester, developing and implementing an effective research strategy, and completing the writing. UCB GPA 3.5 Legal Studies GPA 3.5 required.
During the following Spring semester, students who continue with the Honors Program (LS H195B) will complete a substantial research paper under the supervision of a faculty member.
To obtain a Course Entry Code, please contact Lauri, the Undergrad Advisor once Spring grades have posted officially to the transcript.
199: Independent Study, 1-4 units, P/NP, (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.