Mar 28, 2024  
Course Catalog 2018-2019 
    
Course Catalog 2018-2019 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Law and Society


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Harry Hirsch, 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 Harry Hirsch, Chair, Law and Society Curricular Committee, Department of Politics, Rice 209. 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 Academic Advising Resource Center/Registrar’s Office in Carnegie. Prof. Hirsch can be reached at: Phone: 440-775-6855.  Email: harry.hirsch@oberlin.edu

Special Note: The Schedule of Classes lists courses that are to be taught during the academic year of that catalog.  Unlike the Schedule of Classes, the Catalog lists courses for the Law and Society major that have been offered during the prior three years or may be offered beyond the one-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. 

Students must earn minimum grades of C- or P for all courses that apply toward 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 045/145 Chemistry and Crime 

First Year Seminar (FYSP)


FYSP 119   The First Amendment and the Internet

Philosophy (PHIL)


PHIL 121 - Philosophy and Morality

PHIL 122 - The Nature of Value

Politics (POLT)


  • POLT 103 - Political Change in America

Sociology (SOCI)


  • SOCI 123 - Deviance, Discord and Dismay

Core Intermediate Courses


Comparative American Studies


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

Economics


  • ECON 217 - Anti-Trust Economics
  • ECON 224 -Law and Economics

Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies


GSFS 339 - Prostitution and Social Control

History


  • HIST 217 - Women and Gender in Islamic Law and Arab Legal Codes
  • HIST 242 - American Revolution
  • HIST 259 - Revolutionary America and the Early Republic
  • HIST 289 - Japanese American Internment
  • HIST 303 - Seminar: Posession  and Property in Medieval Europe

 

Jewish Studies


Philosophy


PHIL 200 -

Deductive Logic

PHIL 201 -

Reason and Argument

PHIL 226 -

Legal Philosophy

PHIL 235 -

Biomedical Ethics

PHIL 237 -

Mind and Morals

Politics


  • POLT 201 - Constitutional Interpretation
  • POLT 202 - American Constitutional Law
  • POLT 203 - The First Amendment
  • POLT 204/275 - Criminal Law
  • POLT 207 - Political Change in America
  • POLT 226 - International Law
  • POLT 233 - American Political Thought
  • POLT 270 - Law and Supreme Court in American Political Development
  • POLT 271 - Gender, Sexuality, and Law
  • POLT 275 - Criminal Law
  • POLT 277 - Imgrn, Refugee & Asylm Policy
  • POLT 278 - Ideal vs Practice of US Demcy
  • POLT 413 - Advanced Street Law and Community Development

 

The following courses are offered in the 2018-2019 Academic Year.

Religion


  • RELG 245 - Modern Moral Issues in Religious Perspective
  • RELG 249 - Issues in Medical Ethics
  • RELG 271 - Islamic Authorities: Law & Soc

The following courses are offered in 2018-2019:

Sociology


  • SOCI 215 - Sociology of Immigration and Race: Asian American Experience
  • SOCI 241 - American Urbanism
  • SOCI 256 - Social Orders and Disorders
  • SOCI 258 - Security, Secrecy, & Spectacle
  • SOCI 271 - Sociology of Law and Legal Institution
  • SOCI 273 - Criminology & Legal Policy
  • SOCI 275 - Enacting the Law
  • SOCI 304 - Constructng Classics Law & Soc
  • SOCI 331 - Torts, Trials and Trouble
  • SOCI 338 - Prostitution & Social Control
  • SOCI 348 - Constructing Immigrant Cmties
  • SOCI 356 - Censorship & Silencing
  • SOCI 365 - Law, Literature & Society

The following courses are offered in 2018-2019:

Core Research Seminars


Economics (ECON)


   ♦ ECON 404 - Seminar in Economics Analysis of Law

History (HIST)


  • HIST 442 - Democracy and Human Rights in China

Jewish Studies (JWST)


      ♦ JWST 353 - Moses Maimonides:Philosophy and Law

Philosophy


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

Politics (POLT)


  • POLT 301 - The First Amendment
  • POLT 302 - Seminar: American Democracy: Law and Policy
  • POLT 303 - Seminar: Equal Protection and Implied Fundamental Rights
  • POLT 308 - Constitutional Interpretation an Individual Rights
  • POLT 309 - Justice
  • POLT 334 - Theories of Justice and Democracy in Contemporary America

Religion (RELG)


    RELG 340 - Seminar: Ethical Issues in Death and Dying

    RELG 353 - Moses Maimonides: Philosophy and Law

Sociology (SOCI)


  • SOCI 304 - Loose Cannons: Constructing the Classics in Law and Society
  • SOCI 356 - Censorship and Silencing
  • 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


Africana Studies


Comparative American Studies


Economics (ECON)


  • ECON 317 - Industrial Organization 
  • ECON 331 -  Natural Resource Economics

Environmental Studies


History (HIST)


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

Philosophy (PHIL)


  •  PHIL 204 - Ethics
  •  PHIL 225 - Environmental Ethics

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 277 - Race and Ethnic Relations
  • SOCI 450 - Beyond Margins Vs.Mainstream

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