Fall 2007 Course Offerings
19AC: Moral Politics & Legal Culture
105: Foundations of Criminal Law
107: Theories of Justice **Canceled**
147: Law & Economics II
151: Law, Self & Society
155: Government & The Family
163: Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Justice
177: American Legal & Constitutional History
182: Law, Politics & Society
189: Feminist Jurisprudence
190.1: Law, Politics & Literature
190.2: Topics in Legal Theory
190.4: Federalism in American Law & History *CANCELED*
198: Honors Seminar
199: Independent Study
Subject to change.
Please check the Online Schedule of Classes (http://schedule.berkeley.edu) for the most up-to-date information.
Onwards to the Details!
19AC: Moral Politics & Legal Culture « NEW COURSE
Echaveste, Simon
W 4:00-6:00pm 1 Le Conte 3 units
(101) Wednesday, 9-10am, 115 Kroeber
(102) Thursday, 2-3, 115 Kroeber
(103) Monday, 9-10am, 115 Kroeber
(104) Monday, 8-9am, 115 Kroeber
(105) Tuesday, 11am-12pm, B56 Hildebrand
(106) Tuesday, 12-1pm, B56 Hildebrand
(107) Tuesday, 8-9am, 140 Barrows
(108) Thursday, 4-5pm, 103 Moffitt
This lower division course focuses on the use of the law to resolve major social and policy conflicts. It explores the question whether using the legal system to address these disputes may introduce elements of a common vision and common values into conflicts, affecting participants on all sides. This is a lower division course and cannot be used towards the Legal Studies major requirements.
ccn: 51578
105: Foundations of Criminal Law
Dan-Cohen
TuTh 1:00-2:00pm 120 Latimer 3 units, Area I or III
(101) Tuesday, 10-11am, 78 Barrows
(102) Wednesday, 3-4, 78 Barrows
(103) Thursday, 10-11am, 78 Barrows
(104) Thursday, 11am-12pm, 155 Barrows
Perhaps more than any other legal area, criminal law raises fundamental theoretical issues that have occupied philosophers over the years. This is not surprising in light of the obvious proximity between the enterprise of of using state coercion to punish the guilty on the one hand and central concerns of moral and political philosophy on the other. In the course we’ll discuss a selection of articles that bring to bear such a philosophical perspective on important aspects of criminal law. The topics include the justification of punishment, the foundations of blame and responsibility, the substantive values protected by criminal law, the significance of actual harm, the liability of groups and other collectivities, and the virtues and limits of the rule of law.
ccn: 51503
107: Theories of Justice **Canceled**
Probably won’t be taught Fall 2007. Check the OSOC for updates.
MWF 8am-9pm 106 Stanley 4 units, Area I
(101) Monday, 8-9am, 140 Barrows
(102) Wednesday, 8-9am, 115 Kroeber
(103) Friday, 9-10am, 115 Kroeber
(104) Monday, 1-2pm, 54 Barrows
This is a course in political philosophy, focusing on the particular tradition of liberal political theory. Liberal political theories emphasize, to varying degrees, the protection of individual freedom as against social demands, the maintenance of social and economic equality, and the neutrality of the state in conditions of cultural and religious pluralism. By studying a range of modern authors, we will attempt to understand the importance of these goals and the possibility of their joint fulfillment. Special attention will be paid to the work of John Rawls.
**Canceled**
147: Law & Economics II
Cooter
TTh 8:00am-9:30am 141 McCone 4 units, Area I or III
(101) Tuesday, 11-12pm, 80 Barrows
(102) Tuesday, 12-1pm, 2311 Tolman
(103) Thursday, 10-11pm, 80 Barrows
(104) Thursday, 11am-12pm, 80 Barrows
Microeconomic theory will be applied to government and regulation. Topics include the economic analysis of constitutional law, administrative law, regulation, corporations, and environmental law. To illustrate, the behavior of legislators who want to maximize the votes that they receive will be described and predicted. Similarly, the behavior of regulatory agencies who seek to maximize their own budgets will be predicted. The best forms of regulation will be identified assuming that parties subject to it minimize the cost of compliance, as when corporations try to satisfy environmental controls at least cost.
Law & Economics I (LS 145) is not a prerequisite.
ccn: 51533
151: Law, Self & Society
Dan-Cohen
MW 4:00-5:00pm 3 LeConte 3 units, Area I
(101) Wednesday, 2-3pm, 50 Barrows
(102) Wednesday, 1-2pm, 54 Barrows
(103) Monday, 10-11am, 54 Barrows
(104) Monday, 11am-12pm, 80 Barrows
Contemporary moral and political philosophy has been increasingly interested in how conceptions of the self relate to various aspects of our social and political life. These issues have an important bearing on legal theory as well. Law is shaped by certain implicit assumptions about the nature of individuals and collectivities, while it also actively participates in forming the identities of persons and in structuring collective entities such as families, corporations, and municipalities. This course will explore some theoretical approaches to this reciprocal relationship between law and the different social actors that it governs.
ccn: 51548
155: Government & The Family
Hollinger
TuTh 11:00am-12:30pm 50 Birge 4 units, Area III
(101) Tuesday, 9-10am, 2304 Tolman
(102) Tuesday, 8-9am, 115 Kroeber
(103) Wednesday, 8-9am, 54 Barrows
(104) Thursday, 9-10am, 45 Evans
How has the law constructed and deconstructed “family” relationships? What are the common law, statutory, and constitutional principles that affect the formation, regulation, and dissolution of families? How do these principles, as well as diverse cultural and social values, guide the State in determining who may or may not marry, who may or may not become a legal parent, and the circumstances that justify State intervention in otherwise private and autonomous families to protect children against neglect or abuse? Should children have legal “rights” and, if so, to what and against whom? Special attention is given to the laws, policies, and current debates concerning marriage and domestic partnerships, child custody and adoption, and the public child welfare system. These issues are explored through a variety of readings in the law and the social sciences.
ccn: 51563
163: Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Justice
Zimring
MW 4:00-5:30pm 155 Dwinelle 4 units, Area III or IV
(101) Wednesday, 9-10am, B56 Hildebrand
(102) Tuesday, 10-11am, 385 LeConte
(103) Tuesday, 9-10am, 246 Dwinelle
(104) Wednesday, 10am-11pm, 104 Barrows
(105) Thursday, 10-11am, 285 Cory (
106) Thursday, 9-10am, 285 Cory
This course examines the premises, doctrine, and operational behavior of juvenile courts, particularly in relation to the commission of seriously anti-social acts by mid-adolescents. Topics include the history of theories of delinquency; the jurisprudence of delinquency; the incidence and severity of delinquency; police response to juvenile offenders; the processes of juvenile courts and youth corrections; and reforms or alternatives to the juvenile court system.
ccn: 51605
177: American Legal & Constitutional History
Brown
TTh 8:00-9:30am 390 Hearst Mining Bldg. 4 units, Area II
(101) Tuesday, 2-3pm, 115 Kroeber
(102) Wednesday, 9-10am, 54 Barrows
(103) Wednesday, 8-9am, 50 Barrows
(104) Thursday, 3-4pm, 2326 Tolman
This course explores the history of American legal institutions and doctrine from colonial times to the present. It deals both with the history of American constitutional law (through the study of major U.S. Supreme Court opinions) and with the development of certain important bodies of non-constitutional law, such as the law of property, the law of torts (civil wrongs), and criminal law. In exploring how American law has developed over time the course may serve as something of an introduction to our current legal and constitutional order.
ccn: 51626
182: Law, Politics & Society
Feeley
TTh 8:00-9:30am 160 Kroeber 4 units, Area III or IV
(101) Tuesday, 11am-12pm, 175 Barrows
(102) Tuesday, 12-1pm, 175 Barrows
(103) Wednesday, 3-4pm, 80 Barrows
(104) Wednesday, 4-5pm, 54 Barrows
This course examines the theory and practice of legal institutions in performing several major functions of law: allocating authority, defining relationships, resolving conflict, adapting to social change, and fostering social solidarity. In doing so, it will assess the nature and limits of law as well as consider alternative perspectives on social control and social change.
ccn: 51656
189: Feminist Jurisprudence
Abrams
TTh 11:00am-12:30pm 102 Wurster 4 units, Area I
(101) Tuesday, 9-10am, 115 Kroeber
(102) Thursday, 9-10am, 115 Kroeber
(103) Tuesday, 10-11am, 115 Kroeber
(104) Thursday, 10-11am, 115 Kroeber
This course will explore the ways in which feminist theory has shaped conceptions of the law, as both an influence contributing to sex and gender inequality, and a vehicle for its amelioration. The course will examine a range of feminist legal theories, including equality, difference, dominance, intersectional, post-structural, postcolonial theories. It will ask how these theories have shaped legal interventions in areas including workplace/educational access, sexualized coercion, work/family conflict, cultural defenses, and globalized sweatshop labor. It will also consider how epistemological challenges that emerged from feminist theory in other disciplines shaped challenges to objectivist epistemology in law.
ccn: 51671
190.1: Law, Politics & Literature
M. Shapiro
M 3:00-6:00pm 101 Wurster 4 units, Area II
This course will examine some key issues of politics through the close reading of a number of literary works.
ccn: 51686
190.2: Topics in Legal Theory
Dan-Cohen
M 12:00-2:00pm 115 Kroeber 3 units, Area I
In this seminar we’ll discuss a number of texts that cover a wide range of issues in the theory of law. Roughly speaking, they fall into two main categories. Some of the readings look at law from the outside, posing the question, what is law and what is the source of its authority? The answers proposed concern the distinction between natural law and positivism, and the relationship between law and morality. The other set of readings adopt an internal perspective, focusing primarily on theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of substantive legal issues. The aim is to identify salient ideas and values that shape legal discourse and inform legal policy. Enrollment is restricted.
To receive permission to enroll, email Professor Dan-Cohen (dan-cohen@law.berkeley.edu) and include your major, any philosophy coursework you’ve done, and a short statement of interest in the course. He will email you back with either a Class Entry Code that allows you to register via TeleBEARS, or a message to put yourself on the waitlist. If you are instructed to put yourself on the waitlist, you will be notified during the first class meeting if you will be admitted into the course.
ccn: 51689
190.4: Federalism in American Law & History
Scheiber
M 2:00-4:00pm 80 Barrows 3 units, Area 2 *CANCELED*
Time and location to change soon. Please refer to the OSOC.
This seminar focuses on the constitutional law of federalism in historical and contemporary perspective. Attention is given, in common readings and class discussion, not only to the formalities of evolving constitutional law but also the realities of power in the various stages of American federal system’s development, 1790-present. Among the major topics will be the concept of republicanism in relation to federalism, the history of slavery and anti-slavery as it implicated constitutional issues in federalism, the post-Civil War nationalization of power and centralization of governance, the New Deal “revolution” in law and reform of policies, and modern developments related to the leading regulatory and welfare state innovations. The controversies concerning civil rights, race relations, and the “new federalism” during the Rehnquist Court period will receive full attention. Readings will include writings by historians, political scientists and legal scholars, and there will be a 90-minute exam in class at mid-semester; and the last weeks of the seminar will be devoted to discussion of students’ reports on the required research paper. No final examination.
For admission to this seminar, the completion of (a) a Legal Studies course in American legal or legal/constitutional history, or (b) an American History survey course or its equivalent is required.
Please e-mail the Legal Studies advisor with your full name, SID and the number and title of required course(s) already taken. Lauri@berkeley.edu
ccn: 51695 *CANCELED*
198: Honors Seminar
McClain
W 12:00-2:00pm 115 Kroeber 2 units, P/NP
Students contemplating writing an Honors thesis in the Spring must enroll in this seminar aimed specifically at preparing them for the task. The seminar will cover such important subjects as selecting a thesis topic that is both interesting and capable of investigation within the limits of a single semester, developing and implementing an effective research strategy, and completing the writing.
Though they will not have the benefit of the seminar beforehand, eligible students on the Fall 2007 degree list will be permitted to write a thesis during the Fall term. They must choose a thesis topic and seek out a supervising faculty member during the semester prior to the Fall term. For more information or to obtain a Course Entry code, please contact Lauri, the Undergraduate Advisor.
199: Independent Study
Legal Studies 199 is open to officially declared Legal Studies Seniors with a 3.0 GPA in the major. Independent study is a research paper the student produces under the direction of a faculty member. In order to enroll, the student must develop a proposal and find a Legal Studies faculty member who is willing to serve as director. Ideally, the student should have already taken at least one course from the faculty member in the area which s/he wishes to research. The student should submit a written proposal to the faculty member outlining the scope and length of the research project s/he would like to do. A general guideline is one unit of credit per ten pages of text in the final research paper, up to a maximum of four units. The consent of the supervising faculty member should be secured prior to the first week of the semester. Once a student has secured faculty permission, the student should see the Undergraduate Advisor for the requisite form. Note: LS 199 can only be taken P/NP, but it is applicable towards the 32 upper division units in the major.
H195 A/B: Independent Study
Legal Studies seniors with a 3.5 GPA in the major, and an overall UC GPA of 3.3 are eligible for the Legal Studies Honors Program and, if they successfully complete it, will graduate with honors in Legal Studies. Honors students must enroll in the two-unit Honors Seminar LS 198, usually offered in the fall, and will complete a substantial research paper, worth 4 units, under the supervision of a Legal Studies faculty member the following spring term. A general guideline is 10 pages of text per unit. All units are applicable toward the 32 upper division units required for the major.
Students are assigned a P/NP grade for the proseminar (LS 198), a letter grade for the thesis(LS H195A), and a level of honors upon graduation. The level of honors is determined by the Program based on the student’s final major GPA and on the quality of the completed honors thesis.
Interested students should contact the Undergraduate Advisor for details and paperwork.