LAW 647LEC - Law, Advocacy & Social Change

This course broadly explores the role of law and advocacy in the process of social change. Despite two-plus centuries of legal reforms and social changes, everyday headlines make clear that many of the most important issues currently confronting American society are systemic in nature. Further, our constitutional commitment to ?justice? and ?equality? under the law for all remains illusory for many persons, and for some entire communities, living in the United States today. Oftentimes, as history and current affairs show, systemic injustice correlates consistently to social identities (like race, sex, class or creed) and to related ideologies (or belief systems) of superiority and inferiority, which distort individual lives, society as a whole, law as a system, and perceptions of reality. The overarching question we will be grappling with over the course of the semester is, ?What role, if any, does, can and should the law play in effectuating social change?? We will interrogate this question from an intentionally bottom-up approach, one that explicitly considers groups, identities, and power. This bottom-up approach will differ from and therefore challenge conventional understandings of the law found in the traditional approach to law as expressed in most casebooks. One of the course?s primary goals is to have students question and examine the law?s relationship to power and subordination in society and exercised through legal regimes. To better understand the role of law in social change, we will discuss theoretical perspectives on the relationship between law and society, power, and equality. We will also discuss the limits of the law and explore alternatives to law that also effectuate social change. To make the theoretical discussions more tangible and accessible, we will examine contemporary issues and events that will allow us to apply theory to practice. Requirements include attendance and two graded assignments: A Personal Statement and a take-home Final Exam Essay. The course will also require several short pass/fail assignments.

Credits: 3