Law and Society

Catalog description

Law is pervasive and shapes our daily lives in a multitude of ways. This course examines the relationship between law, social institutions, and society using an interdisciplinary social scientific approach. Students will examine theoretical frameworks used to understand how law shapes society and how society, in return, can shape the law and legal institutions. Consensus and conflict perspectives of the origins and formation of law will be contrasted and applied to an understanding of the practical applications of law. Throughout the course the role of law as an instrument of political and social change will be examined with a particular focus on historical and contemporary issues including topics like, privacy and surveillance, the tension between public social control and civil liberties, and the disparate application of law and its relationship to racial and economic inequality.