SOC 5640 - Law in Societies

Explores the fundamental roles that law plays in organizing contemporary social life. Considers various ways of understanding law’s complex presence: how law shapes and enables routine social interaction, how law constructs differences among people and their actions, how law mediates and enforces power relationships, and how law matters for the kind of societies we have. Our inquiries will examine official legal institutions and actors, but the class will emphasize how law works as a complex array of norms, symbols, discourses, and practices that infuse and shape all aspects of social life, from everyday social interaction to social movements and official legal institutions and actors. The course draws from the U.S. experience as well as historical, international, and transnational perspectives.

Requisites:
Credit Hours: 4
Repeat/Retake Information: May not be retaken.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,CR,PR,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Learning Outcomes:

Students will consider the role of law in social change, social control, and political contestation.
Students will explore how law shapes and enables routine social interaction.
Students will law constructs differences among people and their actions.
Students will learn general theories of law.
Students will understand how law mediates and enforces power relationships.