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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: July 27, 2003
Latest Update: October 9, 2007
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

CRMJ/SOCA 359 Law and Society

You will be held accountable for the readings and discussion questions listed here. There will be no "testing." That means that you will not have to live in anxious anticipation of what we will ask and how much you will have to know. Instead, we will provide weekly discussion questions, lectures, essays, and concepts we feel that you should know as a result of having taken this course. You will assure us of that learning and receive your grade for the questions and concepts about which you choose to write and talk with us. In addition you will find detailed explanations and examples on our grading policies in the first week's reading.

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Week 7: Week of October 14, 2007

October 15th through October 22nd -- First Meetings. If you do not have your "First Meeting" scheduled, see me ASAP!!.

Wednesday, October 24th -- Midterm Visual Projects due

Friday, October 26th -- Last Day to Drop a Semester-long Class

Topic: Interactionism & Other Perspectives/Law & Popular Will

Preparatory Readings

• Bonsignore . Before the Law. Chapter 6 & 7.
  
  
• Bellow and Minow. Law Stories. -- .
• Curran and Takata. Sociology of Law Handbook:
  -- Introduction
  -- Chapter 1, part 1
  -- Chapter 1, part 2
  -- Chapter 2
  
  

Lecture related links:



• "Who's Habermas? Why Habermas?"
• W.I. Thomas "Definition of the Situation
  
  
• Those Infamous Grades and Letters of Recommendation
• "The Case Against Gold Stars" by Alfie Kohn.

Concepts to be covered:



• labeling
• societal reaction
• moral entrepreneur
• Howard Becker
• feminist theory
• intersectionality
• fact
• norm
• tension between facts and norms
• private autonomy
• public autonomy



Discussion Questions:

Note: In order to answer these questions, you must do the assigned readings for this week.

1. Make an inventory of articles from a newspaper relating to state law or institutional rules and policies. Assess whether the writers are calling for more law, less law or different law. How anarchical does your inventory suggest people to be? (Bonsignore, p. 163, Q.10).
2. Return to the epigram at the start of this chapter that describes a peasant who bows deeply and then silently farts. What does this epigram tell us about power relationships? What might the king's reaction to learning that the peasant's bow was followed by a fart? (Bonsignore, p. 167, Q.2).
3. There is also tension between the medical community and drug law enforcers. Does marijuana have proven therapeutic uses, or is the California referendum just a way to begin to legalize marijuana? ( Bonsignore, p. 173, Q.2).
4. There is a battle over sexual preferences taking place in churches, in schools, and in the courts. What should be the place of legal institutions in cultural battles? Before concluding that the courts should stay out of them, remember from our earliest case study that nonintervention is never neutral. (Bonsignore, p. 178, Q.4).
5. ... How can legal regulation or company policies be drawn in order to both take into account manifest industrial hazards AND avoid discrimination based on gender or the possibility of pregnancy? (Bonsignore, p. 202, Q.1).
6. What transformation in the judicial approach to cases at the intersection of race and gender would be required for Crenshaw's criticism of the cases to be met? (Bonsignore, p. 213, Q.1).
7. According to Habermas, what is a fact and a norm? What is the tension between facts and norms? In Bonsignore's Chapters 6 and 7, what are some examples of the tension between facts and norms?



Suggested Creative Measures/Visual Projects:




Note: Start thinking about ideas for your creative measures. Must relate to "law and society" Must be approved before starting your creative measure. Cannot be something that you are doing or have done for another course. Research cannot be 100% online (i.e., google, askjeeves). Must conduct library research using scholarly works, (not the popular press -- Time Magazine, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated). A bibliography must be attached to your visual presentation. No term papers! Allow time to dialogue and present your creative measure in class. Email me your ideas ASAP.



• Make an explosion boxes , and decorate it to reflect Haberma's tension between facts and norms.
• Explore the "labeling" that goes in schools, at the workplace or within a family?
• Study both positive and negative stereotypes and stereotyping.



Recommended Readings:

• Howard Becker. Outsiders.
• Harriet Ziskin. Blind Eagle.
  

  --- Jurgen Habermas. Between Facts and Norms.
  --- Martha Minow. Making All the Difference: Exclusion, Inclusion and American Law. Check out this link Martha Minow on the Dear Habermas site.

  
  
  

Course Syllabus for CRMJ/SOCA 359 "Law and Society"

takata@uwp.edu