Topics in Legal Theory

Catalog description

This course examines the principal ideas, methods and critiques of selected legal scholars and/or approaches to legal reasoning. This semester, the course will focus on the writings of Judith Butler and the implications of her work for the law. Judith Butler is an important contemporary scholar of gender and sexuality. Her groundbreaking work Gender Trouble (1990) opened the way for the rethinking of the categories of sex, gender, sexuality and desire. Other writings include Undoing Gender (2004) and The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere (2011). Her work has broad application to anti-discrimination law, human rights, marriage, family life, pornography and free speech, among other areas. This intense, 1-credit course will meet in a traditional classroom format six times over a three week period at the beginning of the semester. There will be a seventh distance education session that students can complete at their own pace during the three week period. After the week of January 27, there will be no additional class meetings or course work. Students will read, discuss and critique the works of Judith Butler and others, including scholars who question Butler’s theories of gender, performance and sexuality. Professor Crawford will teach each session of the class. Other members of the Pace faculty may join as guest teachers for one or two sessions. Grades will be determined on the basis of class participation (20%), two short, non-anonymously-graded response papers (10% each) and a single, anonymously-graded, take-home final examination (60%) that will be limited strictly to seven (7) pages. The take-home exam will be due three weeks after the last class meeting. This class may not be used to satisfy the upper-level writing requirement