Legal Studies Course Descriptions for Spring 2008

Legal Studies 444: Law in Action This course is a review of the interaction of law (judicial decisions, legislation, administrative actions) with public policy by studying the approaches used to resolve a number of significant issues by use of law and examining actual impact of such efforts. Team taught to undergraduates by members of the Law School faculty.

Legal Studies 400, Section 010 Human Rights, Politics and Society This course provides an introduction to the theory, the politics and the sociology of human rights. We begin with the question "what are human rights," and examine several theoretical perspectives. We will then examine the formal international legal regime that has evolved since World War II. In the third and final part of the course, we look at human rights in action, examining how human rights are used in social and political conflicts around the world. We will ask whom, in the end, do they really help, and what difference do they make.

Legal Studies 450, Section 011: Legal Pluralism (Satisfies "Capstone" requirement.) This course explores the multiplicity of rule-based systems we call law. The common law (the dominant body of law applied by state legal systems in most English-speaking jurisdictions) is only one of many systems. There are also normative orders lying beyond the state-of the family, club, church, school, ethnic group, and corporation. The course covers a wide array of non-state legal orders, drawing upon legal history and legal anthropology. We will examine everything from medieval English "forest law" to mafia law, "gypsy law" to modes of dispute resolution among orthodox Jewish diamond traders, and Australian aboriginal customary law to Asian and African immigrant norms in Euro-American contexts.

Enrollment by departmental consent only. Enrollment restricted to declared Legal Studies majors who are May 2008 degree candidates. Students who meet eligibility requirements should contact the Legal Studies Program Associate Director at lsp@ssc.wisc.edu (262-2083).

Legal Studies 450, Section 012: Lawyers and Judges in the British Empire This course explores British colonialism through the prism of lawyers and judges, both European and non-European. The legal profession did much of the work of running the British Empire--and of dismantling it. Lawyers, particularly from colonized communities, also served as cultural "translators" or middlemen in interpreting colonized cultures for the colonial state. Among other themes, the course explores racialized and gendered lawyering; material culture and everyday life; mobile and diasporic lawyering; and debates over collaboration and professional monopolization. The use of primary source material will be emphasized.

Legal Studies 650, Section 003: Legal Process (Legal Studies consent required; restricted to Legal Studies majors with Sr standing) This course is expected to address the following texts: The Lost Lawyer (Kronman); Theory of the Modern State (Hegel); Lawyerland (Joseph); Strange Career of Legal Liberalism (Kalman); Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and Law (Scalia); Legal Canons (Balkin & Levinson); The Essential Communitarian Reader (Etzioni, ed.).

Registration is by "Departmental Consent" only. Students wishing to enroll in the course for Legal Studies credit should contact the Legal Studies Program Associate Director at lsp@ssc.wisc.edu (262-2083); information about on the Associate Director's office hours can be found at http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/lsls/lsphome.html.

Legal Studies 650, Section 004: Law, Theology, and the State (Legal Studies consent required; restricted to Legal Studies majors with Sr standing). This course is expected to address the following texts: Writings of St. Paul; Ethics (Bonhoeffer); Nine Talmudic Readings (Levinas); Reflections of the Revolution in France (Burke); Amos - Introductory & Commentary (Lerman); Treatise on Law (Aquinas); Intro. to Code of Maimonides (Twersky).

Registration is by "Departmental Consent" only. Students wishing to enroll in the course for Legal Studies credit should contact the Legal Studies Program Associate Director at lsp@ssc.wisc.edu (262-2083); information about on the Associate Director's office hours can be found at http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/lsls/lsphome.html.

Legal Studies 650, Section 016, Selected Problems in Policing (Legal Studies consent required; restricted to Legal Studies majors with Sr standing). In this seminar students will explore a range of legal and policy issues relating to policing in an open, democratic, and complex society. Students will select specific public safety problems that police must commonly address (e.g., domestic violence, robbery, youth gangs, drunk driving, sexual assault, human trafficking, speeding vehicles, noise complaints) and explore those problems in depth. This exploration will consider, among other things, the proper police role with respect to the problem, the roles and responsibilities of individuals and groups other than the police, the adequacy of existing legislation, the range of possible responses to the problem, and the factors that should be considered in determining how best to address the problem. The seminar does entail substantial research, writing, and oral presentation of research. Each student will write a paper and make periodic oral presentations on a specific problem of their choosing. There will be assigned supplemental readings as needed. Satisfactory completion of "The Role of the Police in a Free Society" is recommended, but not required.

Registration is by "Departmental Consent" only. Students wishing to enroll in the course for Legal Studies credit should contact the Legal Studies Program Associate Director at lsp@ssc.wisc.edu (262-2083); information about on the Associate Director's office hours can be found at http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/lsls/lsphome.html.

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