Introduction to Law and Society

 

How to read for this class:

1.       Find the main argument of the article (the basic idea)

2.       Find the evidence used to support the main argument (including key assumptions)

3.       Think about potential criticisms of the author’s argument and evidence

 

Unit 1

Legal Systems of the World: Common Law, Civil Law, Socialist Law and Religious Law

Exemplary systems: U.S., France, China, Saudi Arabia 

 

Unit 2

Constitution of the United States (focus particularly on Article I)

Bill of Rights

14th Amendment

Mapp v. Ohio

Death Penalty Information Center

The Drug Policy Alliance

Miranda v. Arizona

Furman v. Georgia

Bjerk, The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion

Adams v. Texas

The Saints and the Roughnecks

Police Discretion Outline  

 

Unit 3

Constitutional race provisions

Civil Rights Cases

Plessy v. Ferguson

Delgado, Critical Race Theory

Racialism

Segregated proms

Is White the only color of success?

Human Rights Watch

Brown v. Board of Education

Thompson, DNA Evidence in the OJ Simpson Trial

Myrdal, An American Dilemma

Bell, Interest Convergence

Brown v. Board II

Rosenberg, The Hollow Hope

Williams, A Colorblind Future

Bobo, Laissez Faire Racism

 

Unit 4

Note: if the type is too small to read, click “view” and then “zoom” on the menu bar.

The U.S. Legal System

Marger, Pluralism

Marger, The Elite Model - Section 1 and Section 2

Parenti, Democracy for the Few - Section 1 and Section 2

Declaration of Independence

Stoessel, Congressional Lies

Schlafly, The subversive plan to ditch the Electoral College

Outline of the U.S. Legal System

Herman & Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent - Section 1 and Section 2

Voting Rights Act

South Carolina v. Katzenbach

Bush v. Gore

Florida Probe into Election 2000

Johnson v. Bush

Gomillion v. Lightfoot

Bias at Polls

What Congress Should Consider Before Renewing the Voting Rights Act

Unit 5

Wikipedia, Capitalism

Marger, The Class Model

Kamel, The Global Factory

Hister, The Money in Misery

Wikipedia, Globalization

Ten Top Reasons to Oppose the FTAA

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund

Selections from the State of the Union Address, 1901

The Sherman Anti-trust Act

Edelman, Organizational Internalization of Law

Top Reasons to Oppose the WTO 

Piercy, He, She and It

The World Trade Organization and the Prison Industrial Complex

International Monetary Fund, Globalization: Threat or Opportunity?

 

Unit 6

Giddens, A Brief Introduction to Sociology

Foucault, The Birth of the Prison

Tracking sex offenders

Bowers vs. Hardwick

Niven, The Jigsaw Man

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

Privacy Group Sues AT&T

Modernity - Definitions

Pope condemns geneticists 'who play at being God.'