Political Violence and the Law

Catalog description

This course addresses how the United States and South Africa have shaped domestic and international law related to political violence. The first half of the course offers a comparative law perspective on the U.S. and South African post-World War II experience, including the development of the national security state in the United States, the institutionalization of apartheid in South Africa, and the way in which race and identity define conceptions of national security across societies. Classes will explore the struggles of movements in both countries to dismantle racial domination, the creation and use of terrorism and national security laws, and debates over justice and accountability for racial and state violence. The second half of the course turns to international law and security, with a focus on the role of both the United States and South Africa in debates over international law, terrorism, and war crimes from the 1970s to the present. Students will leave with a deeper appreciation of how legal concepts and institutions emerge not simply from abstract principles or age-old documents, but from struggles over power within and across nations.