LS 665 - The Law as a Tool for Social Change

(3.00 cr.)

The law (legal theory and practice) serves as a powerful tool of suppression, both maintaining unjust status quos and motivating social legitimacy. The course examines whether law is an appropriate tool of social reform or a harmful distraction reaffirming existing hierarchies. In seeking to refine the possibilities and limitations of this tool, the class examines ancient and current appeals to the law by outsiders, ranging in diversity from Socrates to Martin Luther King, Jr. to Supreme Court decisions from the present term.