Legal Studies Courses Summer 2021

NOTE: Legal Studies offers courses during the six week sessions: Session A and Session D.
NOTE: Areas listed are for the New Plan.

SESSION DATES:
Session A-Six Weeks: May 24 – July 2
Session B -Ten Weeks: June 7 – August 13
Session C-Eight Weeks: June 21 – August 13
Session D-Six Weeks: July 6 – August 13
Session E-Three Weeks: July 26 – August 13
Session F-Three Weeks: July 6 – July 23
Session 12W-12 Weeks: May 24 – August 13

Quick List of courses:
Session A: 132AC, 138, 145, 160, 161, 164
Session D: 100, 147, 157, 182

Session A (May 24 – July 2) six weeks

***CANCELLED ***LS 102 – Policing & Society, Eduardo Bautista-Duran, 4 units, Area I

This course examines the American social institution of policing with particular emphasis on urban law enforcement. It explores the social, economic and cultural forces that pull policing in the direction of state legal authority and power as well as those that are a counter-weight to the concentration of policing powers in the state. Special attention is given to how policing shapes and is shaped by the urban landscape, legal to cultural.

LS 132AC – Immigration and Citizenship, 4 units, Abigail Stepnitz,  Area II or IV

We often hear that America is a “nation of immigrants.” This representation of the U.S. does not explain why some are presumed to belong and others are not. We will examine both historical and contemporary law of immigration and citizenship to see how law has shaped national identity and the identity of immigrant communities . In addition to scholarly texts, we will learn to read and analyze excerpts of cases and the statute that governs immigration and citizenship, the Immigration and Nationality Act.

LS 138: The Supreme Court & Public Policy, 4 units, Brittany Arsiniega (Furman University), Core or Area IV or V

This course examines a number of leading U.S. Supreme Court decisions in terms of what policy alternatives were available to the Court and which ones it chose. Prospective costs and benefits of these alternatives and who will pay the costs and who gets the benefits of them are considered. Among the areas considered are economic development, government regulation of business, national security, freedom of speech and discrimination. Readings are solely of Supreme Court decisions.

LS 145:  Law & Economics I, 4 units, Mark Leinauer, 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.

LS 160: Punishment, Culture & Society, 4 units, Alessandro De Giorgi,
Core or Area I or II

This course surveys the development of Western penal practices, institutions, and ideas (what David Garland calls “penality”) from the eighteenth-century period to the present. Our primary focus will be on penal practices and discourses in United States in the early 21st century. In particular we will examine the extraordinary growth of US penal sanctions in the last quarter century and the sources and consequences of what some have called “mass imprisonment.” To gain some comparative perspective the course will also take up contemporary penality (or penalities) in Europe, South Africa, Central America, and Asia, as well as US penality and society at some earlier conjunctures.
In our analysis of penality, we will draw upon a range of social science theories with general relevance but with particularly rich application to the study of punishment. These theories provide the “tool kits” we will use to interpret and analyze multiplex implications of punishment and its relationship to changes in economic, social, and political relations associated with modernization and more recently the globalization of modern capitalism. The course will examine many examples of penal practices and the ideas associated with them including mass imprisonment, the death penalty, and restorative justice. In the last portion of the class we will examine the recent crisis in California’s juvenile prisons through the lenses both of different social theories and the examples of different national and historical penal patterns.

LS 161: Law in Chinese Society, Kristen Sangren4 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 164: Juvenile Justice & the Color of Law: The Historical Treatment of Children of Color in the Judicial System, 4 units, Trina Thompson, Area I or II or IV

We will investigate the profound role of law and legal institutions in shaping and defining racial minority and majority communities. Students will interrogate the definition and meaning of race in U.S. society (e.g., whether race is biological, cultural, environmental, based on White supremacy, or a social construct that is constantly being transformed) and will critically examine the connection between law, race and racism, both in the historical and modern context. The course is a collaborative effort to learn the truths of our collective history; to share the truths of our individual experiences and lives; and, to determine if we desire a more just society, and if so, how to create our own paths and contributions to this endeavor.

Session D (July 6 – August 13) six weeks

LS 100: Foundations of Legal Studies, Kyle DeLand, 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.

***Cancelled***LS 110.1 – Medical Ethics & Law, 4 units, Rivka Amado, Area II, or III, or IV

Law and morality have long shaped health decisions in health care and medicine: whose life to save: mother or child? Triage, mandatory treatment, required vaccinations, risk of intervention, blood transfusions, child-parent-state differences, confidentiality, informed consent, malpractice, and field experiments of new medications. With technological developments over the past fifty years, the field of bioethics has exploded: genome manipulation, definitions of life and parenthood, informed consent. The law is now an indispensable institution in defining issues, sorting out conflicts in medical ethics, assuring ethical practices, and regulating the delivery of health care. Now every clinic, every hospital, and every research laboratory is likely to have an ethics committee to assess research proposals protocols, medical procedures, health practices, and with research subjects and patients. Ethics committees, regulators, legislatures, and judges must now pass judgement on an increasing proportion of medical practices. This course will equip students with the skills to understand these developments. It should be useful to anyone who aspires to be a well-informed member of the community, and be of particular interest to those who are considering careers in medicine, health care, or the law. 

LS 147: Law & Economics II, 4 units, Bruno Salama, Area III

Note: Law and Economics I is not a prerequisite.
The economic analysis of law is one of the major theoretical perspectives in the study of law in American universities. Law and Economics I (Legal Studies 145) addresses core Common Law topics such as property, torts, contracts. Law and Economics II (Legal Studies 147) complements that introduction by addressing topics such as corporate, bankruptcy, labor, antitrust, family, and constitutional law, among others, as well as by surveying some of the debates that sustain the vitality of the field of Law and Economics.

LS 157: International Relations & International Law, 4 units, Daimeon Shanks, 4 units, Area IV or V

Public international law today is a dynamic and contested topic. This course offers an introduction to the wide array of topics and debates occupying international lawyers, states and organizations from various theoretical perspectives, including realism, global governance, critical and third world approaches. We will examine fundamental questions, for example, is international law actually law, why states comply with international law (when they do), how international practice is embedded and contested in global power relations, and what drives change in international law. We will develop an understanding of the work of global institutions and their connections to states and communities, the roles of the United States, non-state actors, civil society, individuals and peoples. We will then move to address more specifically areas of interest of international law such as human rights, international environmental law, the law of armed conflict, and international criminal law.

***CANCELLED ***LS 159 – Introduction to Law & Sexuality, 4 units, Elias Lawliet, Area II or IV

This course focuses on the legal regulation of sexuality, and the social and historical norms and frameworks that affect its intersection with sex, gender, race, disability, and class. We will critically examine how the law shapes sexuality and how sexuality shapes the law. Our subject matter is mostly constitutional, covering sexuality’s intersection with privacy, freedom of expression, gender identity and expression, equal protection, reproduction, kinship, and family formation, among other subjects. We will study case law, legal articles, and other texts (including visual works) that critically engage issues of sexuality, citizenship, nationhood, religion, and the public and private spheres domestically and internationally.

LS 182: Law, Politics & Society, 4 units, Malcolm Feeley, Core or IV or V

This course explores the nature and function of law and legal systems.  It asks:  What is the nature of legal authority?  Where does it originate? Why do we obey it?  From where does law come? How are laws made? How do judges reason?  It also focuses on law and conflict resolution:   How do people bring cases to court?  How do judges decide cases?  What alternatives are there to the legal process?  The course addresses basic question common to all legal systems, but draws most examples from Anglo-American legal systems.   Finally, a traditional conception of law is that it is a timeless set of principles, yet society is always changing.  So, how then does law change?  How do courts respond to social change?  To what extent can courts themselves bring about social change?  And, if they try, what resources are at their disposal?  Readings will be drawn from a variety of fields: philosophy, history, judicial opinions, and scholarly articles.  If you are attentive to these materials and engage during lectures and discussion sections, you will become knowledgeable one of society’s most important institutions, the legal system.  There are no prerequisites for this course. It should be of interest to Legal Studies majors; those thinking about going to law school; science majors; and visiting foreign students who are interested in getting a window onto an important institution—law– not only in the United States but everywhere—indeed anyone curious about one of society’s core institutions.

***NOTE: This course must have at least 22 students enrolled in order for it to continue. If the course has less than 22 students, it will be canceled, so have a back-up plan.***