Required Course Descriptions
AS/SOSC 1210 9.0 HUMAN RIGHTS AND
CANADIAN MINORITIES
This interdisciplinary course examines Canadian attitudes, institutional practices, and government policies affecting opportunities for full participation in Canadian society for various Canadian minorities, ethnic and religious groups, homosexuals, women, the aged, disabled and poor. Strategies for change are critically analyzed. Course credit exclusions: None.
This course analyses issues and policies associated with minority status in Canada from an interdisciplinary perspective. Using International Human Rights principles as a framework, the course examines both inferiorized and stigmatized minorities, the forms of prejudice and discrimination responsible for their unequal treatment and disadvantaged life conditions, as well as strategies for change designed to gain recognition for minority rights to dignity, power and equality. Minorities such as women, the aged, aboriginal peoples, racialized minorities, immigrants/refugees, and gays and lesbians will be examined in this context.
This course is structured as a Foundations course with an additional tutorial hour devoted to the development of analytical skills pertinent to the social sciences. It will focus on the critical reading of texts (including relevant documentary films), the development of logical argument, and writing skills.
Course Director: t.b.a.
Format: Two-hour lecture and two-hour tutorial.
Evaluation: In-lecture test, 5%; library research assignment, 15%; essay question test, 20%; essay, 20%; test, 20%; tutorial participation, 20%.
Projected Enrolment: 225
Reserved Spaces: most spaces are reserved for incoming first year students and for some Law & Society Majors.
AS/SOSC 1350 9.0 WOMEN AND THE LAW
This course examines the relationship between gender inequity and the legal system. The law is analyzed as a form of social control, and this discussion forms the backdrop for exploring a series of current issues that highlight gender inequality. The topics explored include: abortion, reproductive technologies, marriage, divorce, custody, pay equity, equal pay, sexual harassment, rape, pornography, and prostitution.
The course begins with an introduction to the Canadian legal system. The structure of the courts, the role of both common law and statutes, as well as fundamental legal concepts are examined. Throughout the course students are introduced to basic legal research tools such as statutes, regulations, cases and legal literature.
This course is part of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Foundations Program. It is intended to assist students in the development of essential university-level skills in reading and writing through the careful analysis of selected scholarly texts in the Social Sciences.
Course Director: t.b.a.
Format: Two-hour lecture and one two-hour tutorial.
Evaluation: t.b.a.
Projected Enrolment: 225
Reserved Spaces: Most spaces are reserved for incoming first year students and for some Law & Society Majors.
AP/SOSC 1375 3.0 (Fall) Introductory Socio-Legal Studies
This introductory course will provide an overview of several major themes in the field of socio-legal studies, including law and social justice, social science and legal knowledge, law and social change, and law, culture and diversity.
Within these broad themes, substantive topics will differ from year to year in order to reflect both the breadth and diversity of research areas in the field. Students will be introduced to different interdisciplinary approaches to the study of law and society, to basic concepts relating to the functions of law in society, and to different forms of normative order. While this course is required for all students in the Law and Society Program, its overarching objective will be to promote the interdisciplinary study of law in/as culture and will be of interest to a range of undergraduate students, whatever their career plans may be.
Course Director: Kimberley White
Format: Two-hour lecture and one-hour tutorial
Evaluation: t.b.a
Projected Enrolment: 150
Reserved Spaces: Most spaces are reserved for incoming first year students and for Law & Society Majors.
AP/SOSC 1375 3.0 (Winter) Introductory Socio-Legal Studies
This introductory course will provide an overview of several major themes in the field of socio-legal studies, including law and social justice, social science and legal knowledge, law and social change, and law, culture and diversity.
This three credit introductory course will provide an overview of several major themes in the interdisciplinary field of socio-legal studies, including law and social justice, social science and legal knowledge, law and social change, and law, culture and diversity.
Within these broad themes, substantive topics will differ from year to year in order to reflect both the breadth and diversity of research areas in the field. Students will be introduced to different interdisciplinary approaches to the study of law and society, to basic concepts relating to the functions of law in society, and to different forms of normative order. While this course is required for all students in the Law and Society Program, its overarching objective will be to promote the interdisciplinary study of law in/as culture and will be of interest to a range of undergraduate students, whatever their career plans may be.
The specific learning objectives will focus on critical reading and will work toward developing the following skills:
- reading for meaning (understanding what you read)
- summarizing what you have read
- identifying the argument in a reading
- evaluating what you have read
Course Director: Les Jacobs
Format: Two-hour lecture and one-hour tutorial
Evaluation: t.b.a.
Projected Enrolment: 150
Reserved Spaces: Most spaces are reserved for incoming first year students and for some Law & Society Majors.
AP/SOSC 2350 6.0 LAW
AND SOCIETY
As of September 2009 Pre/co-requisite: AP/SOSC 1375 3.0
NOTE: As of September 2009, students must achieve a C+ or higher in this required course in order to continue in the Law and Society Program.
This is not a pre-law course; it does not lead to law school admission.
Founders of Law & Society have said that “law is too important to leave to lawyers”. It is from this point that the course jumps off: together we will examine law using a variety of eclectic and interrelated disciplines including sociology, anthropology, history, political science, criminology philosophy, and psychology. Using these social science disciplines, the interaction between Law & Society will be evaluated. Among the topics to be discussed are aspects of social control, both in legal and non-legal modes, the influence of societal change and social differentiation, the broad functions of law in society and types of legal systems and thought. The course also examines law, policy and values in Canada with emphasis on specific issues that illustrate the interaction between law and social change.
This course examines the interrelationship between law and the social sciences with emphasis on types of legal thought, the function of law in society, legal systems, and a variety of specific issues involving Canadian society and law, such as the legal profession, the criminal process, civil and political rights and family law.
This course is required of all students registered in the Honours Program in Law & Society.
Course Director: Allyson Lunny/t.b.a.
Format: Two one-hour lectures and one-hour tutorial.
Evaluation: First term assignments and exam, 25%; second term assignments and exam, 65%; tutorial participation, 10%, includes both terms.
Projected Enrolment: 325
Reserved Spaces: most spaces are reserved for Law & Society Majors.
AP/SOSC 2652 6.0 CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Course credit exclusion: AS/SOSC 3381 6.0
This course is affiliated with the Criminology Program.
This course examines selected practices within the criminal justice system, exploring issues from a combined historical, sociological and legal perspective. Although the focus of the course is the administration of criminal justice in Canada, it also investigates the broader range of crime control practices that exist or have existed across time and place.
Students will be expected to link patterns of criminal justice decision-making to contemporary political debates about law in Canadian society, particularly as these debates affect and are affected by issues of class, race and gender.
The course will explore issues related to discretionary powers and public accountability at different stages of the system. Examples of the topics to be covered include policing (history, discretionary powers, accountability), pre-trial and trial practices (bail, plea-bargaining, legal aid, juries), roles and powers of various legal actors (prosecutors, defence lawyers, lay magistrates, judges), correctional dispositions (probation, prison and community alternatives, parole and mandatory supervision).
Course Director: t.b.a.
Format: Two-hour lecture and one-hour tutorial.
Evaluation: t.b.a.
Projected Enrolment: 100
Reserved Spaces: Spaces are reserved for Law & Society Students and Criminology Students.
AP/SOSC 3360 6.0 THE CHARTER OF RIGHTS
AND
FREEDOMS
Course credit exclusions: AS/POLS 3605 3.0, AS/AK/GL/POLS 3136 3.0 Public Law II
This course examines the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms from an interdisciplinary perspective. The course begins by discussing various theories regarding the legitimacy of judicial review. This approach is carried forward in detailed analyses of sections 1, 2, 7, 15, 25, 33 and 35 of the Constitution Act. These analyses are done through studying decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada and examining them from sociological, political science and other social science perspectives.
Course Director: t.b.a.
Format: Two -hour lecture; One-hour tutorial
Evaluation: t.b.a.
Projected Enrolment: 150
Reserved Spaces: Spaces are reserved for 2nd,3rd, and 4th year Law & Society Students.
AP/SOSC 3361 6.0 DISABILITY AND THE LAW:
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON DISABILITY RIGHTS AND LEGISLATION
This course examines disability rights legislation, exploring the trajectory from civil rights to human rights frameworks, and critical perspectives from legal studies, disability studies, and feminist and critical race theory.
Course Director: t.b.a.
Format: Three-hour seminar
Evaluation: t.b.a.
Projected Enrolment: 35
Reserved Spaces: Most spaces are reserved for Law & Society Students.
AS/SOSC
3362 6.0 LAW, MEDICINE AND MADNESS
*not offered 2009-10
We are a culture fascinated with the concept of “madness.” The mad person has been simultaneously represented in popular culture as genius, artistic, comedic and dangerous. There is something profoundly stable about the historical positioning of individuals identified as mentally 'disordered' at the outer boundaries of Canadian social and political life. This interdisciplinary course traces the conceptual and political history of madness, explores the social meanings of madness and mental illness at key historical moments in Canada, and highlights the interface between the social institutions of law and medicine. The themes of the course aim to contextualize the rise and practices of psychiatric medicine and the psychiatric ‘expert’ in a political climate preoccupied with concerns about of social decent, qualities of citizenship and National identity. Against this broader context, the course also addresses a number of important ongoing/current issues surrounding mental health/illness, including scientific racism, eugenics, law and public policy, poverty/homelessness, discrimination and human rights, and the mentally disordered offender.
Course Director: Kimberley White
Format: Three-hour seminar
Evaluation: t.b.a.
Projected Enrolment: 35
Reserved Spaces: Spaces are reserved for 3rd and 4th year Law & Society Majors.
AS/SOSC 3370 6.0 SOCIAL JUSTICE AND
LAW
Course credit exclusions: AP/POLS 3250 6.0, AP/HREQ 3450 6.0, GL/SOCI/SOSC 3920 6.0.
Issues of social justice have a prominent place in our society. Legal institutions are the most common forum for addressing these controversial issues. Yet, it is not entirely clear that legislation or the courts are always an effective instrument of social policy. When should the law be used to promote the ends of social justice? What are the alternatives? The course has two principal parts. The first part involves introducing the student to different contemporary theories of social justice. The second involves examining a range of legal and social issues in light of these theories. The general objective is to bridge the gap between the philosophical literature on social justice and the legal and social science literature on questions of social policy.
Course Director: Les Jacobs
Format: Three-hour seminar.
Evaluation: t.b.a.
Projected Enrolment: 35
Reserved Spaces: Spaces are reserved for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year Law & Society Majors
AP/SOSC 3375 3.0 SOCIO-LEGAL THEORIES
*not offered 2009/10
This course offers an overview of the major contemporary theoretical perspectives on law and society. Among the different approaches we consider are those that define law as a source of social and moral regulation, as ideology, and as discourse.
Course Director: t.b.a.
Format: Three-hour seminar.
Evaluation: t.b.a.
Projected Enrolment: t.b.a.
Reserved Spaces: Spaces are reserved for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year Law & Society Majors.
AS/SOSC 3380 6.0 LAW, LABOUR AND THE
STATE
Affiliated with the Business and Society Program.
Please contact the Business & Society Program regarding enrolments 416-736-2100 x77805
Courts have traditionally viewed the relationships between employers and employees in terms of contracts, and have developed a set of doctrines about the rights and obligations of "masters" and "servants" at common law. While legislatures have from time to time passed statutes regulating the employment relationship in various respects, the past half century has seen a dramatic expansion of state activity in this area, and the proliferation of special administrative and quasi-judicial tribunals concerned with one or another aspect of the employment relationship. Since World War II, compulsory collective bargaining has supplanted some important aspects of individual contract making for a substantial proportion of Canadian workers.
Employment is so significant a form of social relations for such a large portion of Canadians that these developments are worth studying in their own right. Beyond that, it is fertile ground for considering a range of questions about the role of the state in modern economic and social life, and about the interrelations of various state agencies and institutions.
The main focus of the course is on contemporary Canada. A principal theme is the extent to which the modern compulsory collective bargaining regime represents a break with the "master and servant" tradition of the common law.
Course Director: Paul Craven
Format: Two-hour lecture and one-hour tutorial.
Evaluation: t.b.a.
Projected Enrolment: 100 spaces.
Reserved Spaces: Some spaces are reserved for 3rd and 4th year Law and Society Majors.
AS/SOSC 3382 6.0 CRIMINOLOGICAL THEORY
*No longer offered.
This course compares and contrasts the philosophical roots of theoretical explanations about the existence of crime in society. It examines each of the major theories that have influenced criminological thinking and research. Students learn to identify both the assumptions that particular theories make and the questions that they leave unasked. Course material demonstrates how theoretical explanations about crime are related to class, race, and gender within specific historical contexts. It also illustrates how different explanations suggest different criminal justice responses and explores how they have influenced professional practices within law and social work. Since some theories are linked with methodological strategies, the course also examines the strengths and weaknesses of different methodologies for answering different kinds of questions.
AS/SOSC 3391 6.0 Social Diversity and the Law
Formerly AS/SOSC 3390 A
Around the world different peoples have distinct notions of right and wrong. Custom, crime and punishment in one culture may vary greatly from another. These differences are often points of contention, within and between culture groups, and provide exciting material for critical and comparative studies of law and legal systems. This course will examine social diversity and law in North America and around the world. We will focus on a comparative study of the social and cultural processes involved dispute management, social justice, social control and social deviance. Through this comparative study we will learn about themes, theories and methods central to the study of law in the social sciences. We will consider the complex processes through which laws shape social life and how social life shapes the creation, transformation and elimination of laws. We will explore how people invoke law and their daily struggles to resist gender, racial, ethnic, religious, and class based domination.
Course Director: t.b.a.
Format: Three-hour seminar.
Evaluation: t.b.a.
Projected Enrolment: 35
Reserved Spaces: Spaces are reserved for 2nd, 3rd and 4th year Law & Society Students.
AS/SOSC
3392 6.0 INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES IN
LAW AND SOCIETY: ETHNOGRAPHIES
OF RIGHTS
This course examines the contribution of legal anthropology to the study of contemporary socio-legal issues, in general, and human rights struggles, in particular. Historically, anthropologists were reluctant to delve into international human rights law given their perception that human rights could not transcend moral diversity. While some anthropologists maintain this point of view, it is generally acknowledged that such an argument is premised on a static conception of culture. Once one sees culture as dynamic and productive as well as interpenetrated with other systems of meaning, then cultural relativism in human right loses some of its weight.
This course examines these questions through theoretical writings on human rights and anthropology as well as ethnographies of human rights struggles. Legal anthropologists increasingly are turning their skills to the study of human rights at the local and international levels.
Course Director: Annie Bunting
Format: Three-hour seminar
Evaluation: t.b.a.
Projected Enrollment: 35
Reserved Spaces: Most spaces are reserved for Law & Society Students.
AS/SOSC 3992 6.0 POPULAR TRIALS
This course focuses on popular trails-or judicial proceedings that engage the interest of a general audience usually sustained by some form of mass communication. Such trials-whether or not they result in establishing new legal norms–are public events that can serve as cultural reference points for beliefs that unite or divide the community. The first part of the course introduces the conceptual tools and theoretical orientations that will later be applied for specific popular trials. We will draw upon works in cultural studies and interpretive sociology to look at trials as social enactments that make use of ritual and dramaturgy to achieve the effects. Popular trials will also be approached from the vantage point of communication studies and critical semiotics to show how these events filter experience and how they generate representations of social reality that in turn become the focus of intense public debate and discussion.
Each of the specific trials that we consider will be looked at in historical context and in relation to the legal culture of the period. Second, we will look at the meanings that contemporaries assigned to the trials and, where applicable, the meaning that these events have been given by later generations. Third, we will analyze each trial in terms of its social representation, its use of ritual and dramaturgy, its narratives, and its competing discourses. Finally, we will search for features that invite comparisons with other trials.
AS/SOSC 3993 3.0 A and B STRATEGIES OF SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
(formerly 3990C 3.0)
This is a course in critical social science methodology, designed to improve students' abilities to read and evaluate social research. The major research methods will be studied in the course using exemplary texts and hands on assignments. This course examines the contribution of legal anthropology to the study of contemporary socio-legal issues, in general, and human rights struggles, in particular. Historically, anthropologists were reluctant to delve into international human rights law given their perception that human rights could not transcend moral diversity. While some anthropologists maintain this point of view, it is generally acknowledged that such an argument is premised on a static conception of culture. Once one sees culture as dynamic and productive as well as interpenetrated with other systems of meaning, then cultural relativism in human rights loses some of its weight.
This course examines these questions through theoretical writings on international human rights and anthropology as well as ethnographies of human rights struggles. Legal anthropologists increasingly are turning their skills to the study of human rights at the local and international levels. Among the methods considered and compared are: quasi-experiments, surveys, ethnography, historical method, case studies, text analysis, and action research.
The course is not primarily about how to conduct a research project, although the skills developed in the course are essential for researchers as well as for those who rely on social science knowledge in support of public policy and social action. Rather, the emphasis is on acquiring the ability to understand and evaluate research findings and reports. This ability is essential in any career or undertaking that relies on empirical evidence and analysis as the basis for rational decisions.
This course is jointly mounted by the Labour Studies, Law and Society, and Health and Society Programs in the Division of Social Science. A number of places are reserved for majors in these Programs.
AS/SOSC 3993 3.0 M, N and P (Winter) STRATEGIES OF SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH
(formerly 3990C 3.0) Section P is on back up
This is a course in critical social science methodology, designed to improve students' abilities to read and evaluate social research. The major research methods will be studied in the course using exemplary texts and hands on assignments. Among the methods considered and compared are: quasi-experiments, surveys, ethnography, historical method, case studies, text analysis, and action research.
The course is not primarily about how to conduct a research project, although the skills developed in the course are essential for researchers as well as for those who rely on social science knowledge in support of public policy and social action. Rather, the emphasis is on acquiring the ability to understand and evaluate research findings and reports. This ability is essential in any career or undertaking that relies on empirical evidence and analysis as the basis for rational decisions.
This course is jointly mounted by the Labour Studies, Law and Society, and Health and Society Programs in the Division of Social Science. A number of places are reserved for majors in these Programs.
AS/SOSC 4350 6.0 - AS/SOSC 4356 6.0
LAW AND SOCIETY SEMINAR SERIES
Please note that the course descriptions are subject to change.
These course are reserved for 4th year Law and Society Majors only.
These courses are designed to integrate
the Honours program in Law and Society at the upper level.
Selected themes centred around a few key problems will be
examined in depth. Various faculty members may be invited
to discuss recent research. In addition to seminar presentations
in the first term, students will prepare a major research
paper in the second term. This course is offered
in sections A, B, C, D, E and F.
These courses are subject to change.
2007/08
AS/SOSC 4350 6.0 Section A: Empire of Law: Colonialism, postcolonialism, and the problem of difference
Course Director: Dr. David Sealy
Law and Society Program
Division Social Science
416-736-5054
email: dsealy@yorku.ca
“We live under Law’s Empire” says Ronald Dworkin, echoing what has come to be an important interpretation of the key role of law in the lives of those of us living in the modern Western world. Dworkin, however, ignores how law’s empire may be related to the empire of law, and what, according to Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, can be deemed to be the place of law in Empire. This course will explore the place of law in Empire. The course is divided into three sections. In the first part of the course we will explore some conventional liberal understandings of the place of law in modern liberal societies. In the second, longest, part of the course we will turn to what can be called the problem of difference. Here we will examine critiques of the conventional place of law that has emerged out of critical left scholarship, such as marxist legal studies, critical legal studies, the law and society movement, American critical race theory, and postcolonial legal studies. We will then connect these interpretations of the problem of difference and the law to questions of the empire of law as articulated in book 2 of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s Empire: Multitude.
2007/08
AS/SOSC 4350 6.0 Section B: Human Rights – A Canadian Focus
Course Director: t.b.a.
Law and Society Program
Division of Social Science
This course examines Canadian human rights within the framework of international human rights documents and the protection for individual and collective rights. Its focus is on the legal regimes intended to protect and/or implement our rights and how effective they are in the context of the economic, legal and political systems within which Canada operates. The social groups/categories examined are: aboriginal peoples, immigrants and refugees, racialized minorities, gays and lesbians, women, senior citizens, and the disabled. 2007/08
AS/SOSC 4350 6.0 Section C: Legal Consciousness and Social Change
Course Director: Les Jacobs
Law and Society Program
Division Social Science
416-736-5054
email: Jacobs@yorku.ca
This course is designed as a research seminar for fourth year honours students in law and society. The objective is to facilitate students to undertake a major research project in the field of law and society. The seminar is organized around the efforts in socio-legal research to explain the impact of litigation on society and its potential to affect social change. The key themes revolve around the idea of a rights revolution in the United States and Canada, the increased prevalence of litigation, legal consciousness, and the role of lawyers.
2007/08
AS/SOSC 4350 6.0 Section E: Health, Bodies and Law
Course Director: t.b.a.
What is ‘health’? Through which lenses are our bodies defined/understood within legal discourse? How/why do they intersect? How is law used to define, maintain, protect, and provide for/deny health/healthcare? What vision(s) of ‘dignity,’ ‘autonomy,’ ‘choice’ and ‘equality’ affect the relationship(s) between health, bodies and law? How do visions of ‘the healthy body’ stand in for ideals about the (normative) composition of our society/culture?
The overriding focus of the course will be to examine the use of, and limits to, law as a means of regulating both the body, and medical developments – primarily in the Canadian context. Students will become familiarized with ethical theories and principles, and will begin to critically apply them to historical and current ‘medical/health’ issues. Students will also critically examine the institutional, theoretical and policy frameworks, within which ‘healthcare’ and bioethical decision making occurs.
2007/08
AS/SOSC 4350 6.0 Section F: t.b.a.
These courses are designed to integrate the honours Program in Law and Society at the upper level. The focus of each section will reflect he particular interests of individual course directors. Details about each section will be available on the Law and Society website in August, 2007. This section is now full!
AS/SOSC 4351 6.0
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND LAW
From treaties, to land claims, to over representation in the Canadian legal system, within First Nation, Inuit and Métis communities, public perceptions of the Canadian justice system are generally negative as aboriginal peoples are discriminated against and disadvantaged. Across Canada Indigenous peoples, as groups and individuals, resist and reject the hegemonic processes of the dominant society as they vie for control and ownership of their lives, their cultures and their practices. This course examines the traditional foundations of aboriginal law, the impact of colonization on Indigenous law ways, and current sociolegal issues in aboriginal communities.
Our study focuses on the social and cultural processes involved in dispute management, social justice, social control, social change and community health. Through a comparative framework we consider the themes, theories and methods central to the study of law in the social sciences as they pertain to aboriginal peoples. We analyze the complex processes through which laws shape social life and how social life shapes the creation, transformation and elimination of law ways. We explore how people invoke law in their daily struggles to resist gender, racial, ethnic, religious, and class based inequalities.
Topic areas include colonization, treaty making, Aboriginal title and Aboriginal rights, Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian Constitution, Section 35 issues, land claims, resource use, community based justice, restorative justice, justice as healing, Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations, self government, corrections, legislation, and court cases.
While the main focus is on Indigenous peoples of Canada, other Indigenous groups worldwide will be considered in a comparative format.
This course is open only to Law and Society majors in their final year of study.
AS/SOSC 4352 6.0 Section A and B SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF CRIMINAL LAW
This course is designed to equip students with the conceptual and methodological tools necessary to read and interpret legal discourse not just as a set of technical rules but as a language that has social, political, and moral dimensions. Cases drawn from Canadian criminal law(but also American and British law) are used to illustrate tensions between doctrine and policy as well as to make explicit what is at stake in judicial interpretations for differently positioned social groups based on gender, class, ethnicity, and culture.
Section 1 introduces students to basic concepts in criminal law such as culpability, voluntariness, intent, and motive and situates these concepts in historical context and in relation to other bodies of knowledge. Sociological concepts derived from critical semiotics are used to analyze case law in terms of its underlying political and social dimensions.
Section 2 looks more closely at the concept of culpability as it is formulated in four different areas of criminal law, namely, provocation, sexual assault, self-defense, and negligence. In each of these areas, students are enabled to understand the legal text but, even more importantly, to analyze cases in terms of how they demonstrate the tension between doctrine and policy and how they affect differently situated social groups.
Section 3 focuses on those areas of criminal law that touch directly on how law defines the boundaries of responsibility- namely, the defense of mental disorder, automatism, and intoxication. Current legal formulations of these defenses are placed in historical context and case law is analyzed in terms of the profound tensions between doctrine and policy.
Section 4 builds on the previous sections to look at one of the most contentious areas of criminal law – namely, the designation of political acts or acts by persons acting in official capacities as crimes. Here, a critical semiotic approach is used to analyze the varied meanings of motive and intent in what are constituted as political crimes, crimes of obedience, and wrongful convictions.
Finally, the course looks more closely at how legal discourse itself acknowledges a social dimension in criminal acts by looking at the defenses of duress, compulsion, and necessity as well as recent amendments to the criminal code affecting the sentencing of aboriginal offenders.
This course is open only to Law and Society majors in their final year of study.
Section A and B are now full.
AS/SOSC 4353 6.0 Narratives of Legal Responsibility
This interdisciplinary course uses the complimentary tools of narrative studies and textual analysis to examine the relationship between art, science and law in cultural representations of legal responsibility. We begin with reflections on the performative nature of law as both art and science as a way of contextualizing popular theories about the (ir)responsible legal subject. We then turn to focus more sharply on themes such as order/disorder, madness, authority/resistance, danger and disease as they are (re)produced at various cultural sites. For example, we might look at how narratives of dangerousness can be traced through legal defences to criminal responsibility (defences such as intoxication, provocation, self-defence and mental disorder), as well as through the production of crime films and pulp fiction. We might also consider the form and function of narratives of order/disorder and authority/resistance in the production of graffiti art as well as in anti-graffiti legislation. In each area of study we will be concerned with the effects of narrative and the cultural meaning of particular representations of responsibility. Throughout the year we will draw inspiration from a range of materials including legal doctrine, case law, archival documents, media, film, fiction and resistance writing, visual arts and scholarly literature. The expectation is that students will work toward producing an original piece of interdisciplinary socio-Iegal research.
This course is open only to Law and Society majors in their final year of study.
AS/SOSC 4354 6.0 Paradoxes of Rights
This course is designed to integrate the Honours Programme in Law and Society at the upper level. Selected themes revolve around issues of human rights and social change. Specifically, we examine how rights discourse is employed by and applied to various communities in society as part of socio-political struggles.
The course is organized into four modules. The first five weeks of the course is a (re)introduction to social theories of legal rights. The next section of the seminar examines particular issues at the national level and explores the utility and complexity of human rights claims in those debates. The third portion of the course takes up these concerns at the international level. The final module will include student presentations of their research papers as well as selected readings on social change.
The participants in this seminar will have an opportunity to critically reflect on the themes of identity politics, cultural autonomy and equality while also exploring concrete issues in law to which these larger themes apply.
This course is open only to Law and Society majors in their final year of study.
AS/SOSC 4355 6.0 Gender, Sex and the Supreme Court
This course is designed to integrate the Honours Programme in Law and Society at the upper level. Selected themes revolve around issues of human rights and social change. Specifically, we examine how rights discourse is employed by and applied to various communities in society as part of socio-political struggles.
The course is organized into four modules. The first five weeks of the course is a (re)introduction to social theories of legal rights. The next section of the seminar examines particular issues at the national level and explores the utility and complexity of human rights claims in those debates. The third portion of the course takes up these concerns at the international level. The final module will include student presentations of their research papers as well as selected readings on social change.
The participants in this seminar will have an opportunity to critically reflect on the themes of identity politics, cultural autonomy and equality while also exploring concrete issues in law to which these larger themes apply. This course is open only to Law and Society majors in their final year of study.
AS/SOSC 4356 6.0 Globalization, Law and Democracy
This course aims to assist students to understand the effects that globalization is having on law, legal authority, and democratic governance. The course focuses on the influence of globalization on state regulation and on the international system. It is also intended to provide an overview of contemporary efforts at transnational law-making in a number of different arenas. Together, these components are intended to demonstrate how globalization presents actors, whether public or private, with a mixture of new opportunities and constraints with regard to legal ordering. Analysis and class discussion will return to the issue of the implications that these various developments have for democratic theory and practice. Students will be asked to reflect upon the meaning of democratic governance in a world in which globalization and interdependence are deepening.
This course is open only to
Law and Society majors in their final year of study.
EXTENDED LIST OF COURSE DESCRIPTIONS:
SOCIAL SCIENCE
AS/SOSC 4210 6.6 Collective Bargaining Simulation
This course provides students who have some academic or experiential background in industrial relations with the opportunity to expand their knowledge of collective bargaining by participating in a year-long simulation of contract negotiation and administration. Prerequisite: A university-level course in the labour relations field, or permission of the instructor. Course credit exclusions: None.
Labour Studies students in their final year have priority for spaces; all other enrollment is by permission of the course director; see "How to Enrol" at http://www.arts.yorku.ca/ca/sosc/pcraven
AS/SOSC 4918 6.0 Freedom, Rights, Community
This course revisits two traditions of social and political thought. One affirms the primacy of the individual as bearer of universal rights and freedoms. The other vindicates community as ground of the whole and guarantor of particular human rights. Course credit exclusions: AS/SOSC 4990V 6.00 (prior to Fall/Winter 2003-2004)
History
AS/HIST 3830 6.0 CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN WESTERN SOCIETIES (Same as AS/SOSC 3030 6.0, Course Credit Exclusion AS/SOSC 3030 6.0)
This course focuses on the way different societies over time have endeavoured to deal with perceived criminality. It encompasses a wide range of criminal justice issues, including definitions of crime, criminological theory, the role of the courts, legal codes and policing. Course credit exclusions: None.
For additional information regarding this course, please contact the History Department 416-736-5123
AS/HIST 3845 6.0A The Law and Custom of War, 1600-1994
This course examines the law and custom of war. Wars within North America and international conflicts involving Canadian and U.S. forces are examined. Attention is on customary and judicial regulation of the military. Course credit exclusions: None.
Philosophy
AS/PHIL 2050 6.0A PHILOSOPHY OF LAW
A. Crime and punishment: What is the criminal law for? What should be prohibited and why? What excuses allowed? B. The concept of law: What is a law? What is a legal system? Positivism, realism and natural law theories. Course credit exclusions: AK/PHIL 3530 6.0.
Political Science
AS/POLS 3075 3.0 LAW, JUSTICE AND JURISPRUDENCE
This course deals with the theories and principles of law and justice which underlie legal systems, with an emphasis on how these theories and principles impact on the political process. Readings draw from a variety of classical and contemporary sources. Course credit exclusions: None..
AS/POLS 3135 3.0 PUBLIC LAW I: THE CONSTITUTION AND THE COURTS IN CANADA
An examination of the Canadian court structure, judicial review of federalism, the role of courts and lawyers, and the relationship between law, politics and public policy. Using technology-enhanced learning, students participate in electronic discussions and mock trials.
Course credit exclusions: AS/POLS 3600 3.00 (prior to Fall/Winter 2006-2007), AK/POLS 3405 6.00, (prior to Fall/Winter 2006-2007), AK/SOCI 3405 6.00 (prior to Fall/Winter 2006-2007), AK/SOCI 3900C 6.00 (prior to Fall/Winter 2005-2006).
AS/POLS 3136 3.0 PUBLIC LAW II: THE CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS AND THE LIMITS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
We focus on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including freedom of expression, legal rights, equality rights, language rights, aboriginal people's rights and judicial review of public administration.
Course credit exclusions: AS/POLS 3605 3.00 (prior to Fall/Winter 2006-2007), AS/SOSC 3360 6.00, AK/POLS 3405 6.00, (prior to Fall/Winter 2006-2007), AK/SOCI 3405 6.00 (prior to Fall/Winter 2006-2007), AK/SOCI 3900C 6.00 (prior to Fall/Winter 2005-2006). NCR Note: No credit will be retained for this course for students who successfully completed AK/POLS/SOCI 3561 6.00 in Fall/Winter 2005-2006.
AS/POLS 3165 6.0 PROBLEMS IN CANADIAN BUSINESS LAW
same as AS/SOSC 3165 6.0
This course describes the legal rules that govern the conduct of business in Canada and samples the extensive normative commentary on these issues. Students also develop their capacity to present written arguments reflecting their own views on the law.
Course credit exclusions: AS/ECON 4500 3.00, AS/ECON 4510 3.00, AK/ADMS 3610 3.00 (prior to Fall/Winter 2005-2006), AK/ADMS 3620 3.00, SB/MGMT 3100 3.00.
Sociology
AS/SOCI 3810 6.0 Sociology of Crime and Social Regulation
Crime and delinquency are examined from the perspectives of deviance theory, social psychology and social organization. The police, the courts and the penal system are examined; research from different countries is considered. Course credit exclusions: AK/SOCI 3630 6.00, AK/SOSC 3603 6.00.
AS/SOCI 4440 6.0 Racialization, Discrimination & the Law
This course critically examines the relationship between law and social inequality, treating law and justice as contradictory. The focus is on the place of law in forming racialized groups, but also deals with gender, sexual orientation, class and age stratification. Course credit exclusions: None.
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