Mar 29, 2024  
Course Catalog 2014-2015 
    
Course Catalog 2014-2015 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Law and Society


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Ronald Charles Kahn, Chair/Erwin N. Griswold Professor of Politics

 

The Curricular Committee on Law and Society administers a cross-disciplinary Law and Society major, fosters the general study of issues regarding law and society throughout the college, and encourages public presentations by visiting scholars, jurists, and lawyers. The recommended core introductory and intermediate law and society courses, core research seminars, and law-related courses explore philosophical, political, economic, historical, sociological, ethical, scientific, and religious issues that are central to understanding the role of law and legal institutions in society.

Core introductory courses and intermediate law and society courses and seminars are selected with the following objectives in mind: 1) center on law and legal institutions directly; 2) explore the historical, philosophical, and ethical underpinnings of the development of law, thought, and institutions; and/or 3) provide the analytic skills necessary to understand the logic and bases of legal thinking as a language in legal institutions, the broader society, and the profession of law. Core research seminars and private reading/research courses provide to students forums to undertake research papers which meet the above objectives. Law-related courses have sections within them that meet at least one of the three objectives that are listed above or provide students an opportunity to write a term paper in which the scholarly issues of the course may be applied to legal institutions, thought, and/or the logic of legal inquiry.

Information About Declaration of a Major/Minor and Current Committee Members


Students wishing to discuss the Law and Society major, obtain a list of current curricular committee members, or to gain approval for major or minor, should contact Professor Ronald Kahn, Chair, Law and Society Curricular Committee, Department of Politics, Rice 232. Law and Society Majors must complete the Law and Society Major Registration Form (a copy of which stays in Committee files) as well as the College’s Major Declaration Form which can be picked up at the Registrar’s Office in Carnegie. Prof. Kahn can be reached at: Phone: 440-775-8495.  Email: ronald.kahn@oberlin.edu

Special Note: The On-Line Oberlin College Catalog lists courses that are to be taught during the academic year of that catalog.  Unlike the On-Line Catalog, we list courses for the Law and Society major that have been offered during the prior three years or may be offered beyond the two-year window of the On-Line Catalog.

Major


The major consists of at least 9 full courses, of which no more than 1  full course may be taken at the introductory level. Requirements include: a minimum of five core introductory and intermediate courses; at least 3 additional core and/or law-related courses; and at least one core research seminar. No more than 5 of the first 9 courses in the major may be taken in one department. Core courses and seminar(s) must be chosen from at least three departments, and no more than 3 full courses may be taken away from campus.

It is recommended that majors take a second core seminar or a private reading/research course which centers on law and society. 

Courses in which a student has earned a letter grade lower than a C-/P cannot be used to fulfill the requirements of the major.

Minor


Students may pursue a minor in Law and Society by completing at least 5 full courses. At least 3 core courses (in at least two departments) and 2 additional law-related and/or core courses must be completed as part of the minor.  At least 3 full courses must be completed at Oberlin College.

 

Core Introductory Courses


Chemistry (CHEM)


      ● CHEM 145 Chemistry and Crime (now CHEM 045)

 

First Year Seminar (FYSP)


     

 

      ● FYSP 119   The First Amendment and the Internet

Politics (POLT)


  • POLT 103 - Political Change in America

Sociology (SOCI)


  • SOCI 123 - Deviance, Discord and Dismay

Core Intermediate Courses


African American Studies


     

 

      ●  AAST 220  Doin’ Time: A History of Black Incarceration

Anthropology


Comparative American Studies


     • CAST 316 - Equal Rights to Human Rights:Feminist Perspective on Social Justice

      CAST 235 - Debating Citizenship:Identity and Belonging in US Cultures
 

Economics


  • ECON 217 - Anti-Trust Economics

History


  • HIST 217 - Women and Gender in Islamic Law and Arab Legal Codes
  • HIST 259 - Revolutionary America and the Early Republic
  • HIST 303 - Seminar:Posession  and Property in Medieval Europe

 

Jewish Studies


         JWST 258 - Introduction to the Talmud

Politics


 

  • POLT 201 - Constitutional Interpretation
  • POLT 204 - Criminal Law
  • POLT 233 - American Political Thought
  • POLT 270 - Law and Supreme Court in American Political Development

Religion


       •  RELG 245 – Modern Moral Issues in Religious Perspective
         RELG 249 – Issues in Medical Ethics

Sociology


  • SOCI 215 - Sociology of Immigration and Race: Asian American Experience
  • SOCI 258 - Security, Secrecy, & Spectacle
  • SOCI 271 - Sociology of Law and Legal Institutions
  • SOCI 304 - Loose Canons:Constructing the Classics in Law and Society
  • SOCI 356 - Censorship and Silencing

Core Research Seminars


Economics (ECON)


History (HIST)


  • HIST 442 - Democracy and Human Rights in China

Jewish Studies (JWST)


Philosophy


  • PHIL 345 - Law, Liberty, Privacy and Property:Libertarianism and its Critics

Politics (POLT)


 

  • POLT 302 - Seminar: American Democracy:Law and Policy
  • POLT 303 - Seminar: Equal Protection and Implied Fundamental Rights

Religion (RELG)


       

      RELG 340 - Seminar: Ethical Issues in Death and Dying

Sociology (SOCI)


 

  • SOCI 365 - Law, Literature and Society
  • SOCI 406-  Gender and the State in Middle East and North Africa
  • SOCI 426 - Alcohol and Culture:Social Control Under the Influence
  • SOCI 442 - Seminar on Censorship and Silencing (replaced by SOCI 365)
  • SOCI 446 - Seminar: The City the Social and Environmental Policy
  • SOCI 472 - Sociology of Law Seminar 

 

Law-Related Courses


Economics (ECON)


    

       ECON 317 - Industrial Organization 

 

      ● ECON 331 -  Natural Resource Economics

 

     

History (HIST)


  • HIST 263 - American Civil War and Reconstruction
  • HIST 267 - Nineteenth Century American Women

Philosophy (PHIL)


  •  PHIL 204 - Ethics
  •  PHIL 227 - Feminist Philosophy: Ethics and Politics

Politics (POLT)


     •  POLT 412 - Street Law and Community Development
    
  POLT 413 - Advanced Street Law and Community Development

Psychology (PSYC)


  • PSYC 240 - Environmental Psychology

Sociology


      •  SOCI 450 - Beyond Margins Vs.Mainstream

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