The course will examine the relationship between law and social change. We will examine the impact of Western Law on Third World countries, the ways in which legal strategies can and have challenged inequality based on class, race, sex, religion and sexuality, and the impact of international human rights treaties. Students will become knowledgeable about different types of legal systems and will learn to analyze the ways in which the law contends with issues of difference and inequality. Students will also be able to analyze the interrelationships between the law, social structure, and the ways in which nations are linked globally.
In this course, students examine:
- Theoretical perspectives and empirical studies relating the type of law found in a society to its social structure
- How the law figures into fundamental social change
- Anthropological studies of dispute processing in societies that are structured primarily on the basis of kinship
- What impact the introduction of Western Law into Third World countries has had on economic growth, democratic political development, and human rights protections
- Cross-national influences on law in the post-colonial world
- The ways in which legal strategies can and have challenged inequality based on class, race, sex, religion, and sexuality
- The critiques and limits of legal approaches to social change
- What is the impact of international human rights treaties on the legal systems of different countries?
- To what extent are international treaty obligations relevant in domestic court proceedings?
- What is the relationship between social movements and the law?
Note SOCI 3823 is coded at the catalog level as “open to sophomores or higher” but other Honors students may contact Prof. Bernstein for a permission number. In your email, confirm that you are a member of the Honors Program, provide your PeopleSoft number, and very briefly explain your interest in taking the course.