| source Berkeley (X) |
level |
department Legal Studies (X) |
This lower division course focuses on the use of the law to resolve major social and policy conflicts. It explores the question whether using the legal system to address these disputes may introduce elements of a common vision and common values into conflicts, affecting participants on all sides. Students will collaborate to research policy questions behind major moral conflicts.
Score: 10.510983 Details | Listing | Web page
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Score: 10.510983 Details | Listing | Web page
An historical examination of major interpretations of law, morals and social development, with special emphasis on the social thought of the 18th and 19th centuries and including the writings of Marx, Maine, Durkheim, Weber and other contemporary figures.
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Criminal law raises fundamental theoretical issues that have occupied philosophers over the years. In this course we will discuss a selection of articles that bring to bear such a philosophical perspective on important aspects of criminal law. Topics include justification of punishment, foundations of blame and responsibility, substantive values protected by criminal law, significance of actual harm, liability of groups and other collectivities, and virtues and limits of the rule of law.
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Major perspectives in social and economic thought, e.g., natural law, natural right, laissez faire, "possessive individualism," contractualism, pluralism, and social equality as they affect contemporary discussion of "higher law," fairness, civic competence, and distributive justice.
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Analysis of the capacity of criminal law to fulfill its aims. What are the aims of criminal law? How are they assigned relative priority? What principles can be identified for evaluating the effort to control disapproved activities through criminal law?
Score: 10.510983 Details | Listing | Web page
Historical examination of the emergence of "constitutionalism" as an authoritative approach to the study of law and politics; coverage from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, concluding in discussion of the debate over ratification of the U.S. Constitution.
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This course focuses on the history of legal thought and discourse from the late medieval period to the Enlightenment. Topics to be considered include the relationship between legal thought and intellectual developments and the relationship between political and constitutional developments and legal discourse. Although the emphasis is on England, there will be some consideration of differences between English and continental European legal thought.
Score: 10.510983 Details | Listing | Web page
This is an introduction to important aspects of the philosophical and constitutional thought of classical Athens. We will pay particular attention to accounts of the origins of the Athenian legal system; criticisms and defenses of the democracy; arguments about the nature of justice, law, and legal obligation; and the context of the Athenian way of organizing trials, taxation, and administration. Readings from Aeschylus, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato, Lysias, Aristotle, and others.
Score: 10.510983 Details | Listing | Web page
A comparison of the ancient and modern understanding of punishment prevailing in Anglo-American thought and in former cultures such as Medieval Europe, Ancient Israel, and Ancient Greece. The topics include wrongdoing; suffering; deterrence, vengeance, purgation; excuses; volition; determinism, fate; collective responsibility. Most of the readings are in literary works such as the Greek tragedies.
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Topics include law as the divine commands, the divine ordering of the creation, God's historical plan, wise maxims for successful living, the superseding of law by grace and divine freedom. Nearly all of the assigned readings are in the Bible.
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We often hear that America is a "nation of immigrants." This representation of the U.S. does not explain why some are presumed to belong and others are not. We will examine both historical and contemporary law of immigration and citizenship to see how law has shaped national identity and the identity of immigrant communities. In addition to scholarly texts, we will learn to read and analyze excerpts of cases and the statute that governs immigration and citizenship, the Immigration and Naturalization Act.
Score: 10.510983 Details | Listing | Web page
This course will explore the relation between property law and limits of liberty in different cultures and at different times. The course will cover theories of property law, slavery, the clash between aboriginal and European ideas of property, gender roles and property rights, common property systems, zoning, regulatory takings, and property on the internet. Readings will include legal theorists, court cases, and historical case studies.
Score: 10.510983 Details | Listing | Web page
This course examines the intersection of law, social and economic change, and the construction of identity in 19th-century America. In particular, we will attend to legal and social constructions of race, gender, and individual privacy in relation to changing conceptions of property. Readings will include legal opinions and primary fiction and nonfiction sources.
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The law of torts governs when one person is liable to another for harming him. The law of concepts governs when he is liable for breaking a promise. This course will consider how the law of four countries, the U.S., England, France, and Germany, deals with key issue of tort and contract; and to what extent common and civil law systems are different. We will also ask to what extent all these legal systems are confronting the same problems, and if so, why they often arrive at different answers.
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The course will apply microeconomic theory analysis to legal rules and procedures. Emphasis will be given to the economic consequences of various sorts of liability rules, remedies for breach of contract and the allocation of property rights. The jurisprudential significance of the analysis will be discussed.
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Law and Economics I is not a prerequisite for Law and Economics II. Students may take either or both courses. Government uses many mechanisms to influence the provision of goods and services. Economists and lawyers have developed a critique of these mechanisms which has prompted substantial reforms in recent years, e.g., deregulation in transportation. The course examines this critique.
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Contemporary moral and political philosophy has been increasingly interested in how conceptions of the self relate to various aspects of our social and political life. These issues have an important bearing on legal theory as well. Law is shaped by certain implicit assumptions about the nature of individuals and collectivities, while it also actively participates in forming the identities of persons and in structuring collective entities such as families, corporations, and municipalities. This course will explore some theoretical approaches to this reciprocal relationship between law and the different social actors that it governs.
Score: 10.510983 Details | Listing | Web page
International human rights are at the forefront of national and international dialogue. These discussions reflect the evolution of human rights from declaratory statements to rights enforceable in courts. Using historic documents, timely current articles, and a new international human rights document being drafted at Berkeley, we will learn about the recognition of human rights, existing institutions to protect human rights, and look forward to the future of human rights.
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How has the law constructed and deconstructed "family" relationships? What are the common law, statutory, and constitutional principles that affect the formation, regulation, and dissolution of families? How do these principles, as well as diverse cultural and social values, guide the state in determining marriage, family, and child welfare policies?
Score: 10.510983 Details | Listing | Web page
This course will evaluate and assess modern theories of international law. We will examine the work of legal scholars and look to political science and economics to see how these disciplines inform the study of international law. We will also examine a host of fundamental questions in international law, including, for example, why states enter into international agreements, why states comply with international law, and what kind of state conduct is likely to be influenced by international law.
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Criminal punishment in the United States. (1) Forms, justifications, and relation to larger cultural and societal changes, colonial period to the present. (2) Speculation about the meaning and direction of current trends.
Score: 10.510983 Details | Listing | Web page
The course examines concepts that form the basis of the Chinese legal system, traditional theories and institutions of pre-1911 society, and the expression and rejection of the traditional concepts in the laws of the Nationalist period and the People's Republic.
Score: 10.510983 Details | Listing | Web page
This course examines the premises, doctrine, and operational behavior of juvenile courts, particularly in relation to the commission of seriously anti-social acts by mid-adolescents. Topics include the history of theories of delinquency; the jurisprudence of delinquency; the incidence and severity of delinquency; police response to juvenile offenders; the processes of juvenile courts and youth corrections; and reforms or alternatives to the juvenile court system.
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This course examines recent American legal and social history with respect to reproductive and sexual behavior. We will consider two theoretical aspects of the problem: first, theories of how law regulates social behavior and second, more general theories about how reproduction is socially regulated. Armed with these theoretical perspectives, the course will then examine closely a number of legal/social conflicts, including sterilization, abortion and contraception.
Score: 10.510983 Details | Listing | Web page