POLS 140 Law and Society

Lawyers who advocate for a more equal sustainable and participatory society are practicing in a new context today. These lawyers use different techniques and play different roles than those of the litigation impact lawyers of the 1960s or 1970s. In this course students will explore the role of law in the context of social change across the political spectrum. Students will be introduced to central role of law in social processes as they critically examine cultural economic political and social aspects of law and legal systems. Topics in the course may include: competing definitions of social change lawyering and the relevance of such definitions; critical legal studies; historical perspectives of American law and its role in hindering or furthering social change; human rights; transnational advocacy; comparative cases studies of rights claiming; and progressive/conservative ideologies in social change lawyering.