Law, Letters, and Society

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This is an archived copy of the 2013-2014 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit http://catalog.uchicago.edu.

Contacts

Undergraduate Primary Contact

Program Chairman
Dennis J. Hutchinson
LBQ 411
702.9575

Administrative Contact

Secretary
Delores Jackson
C 330
702.7148
Email

Program of Study

The program in Law, Letters, and Society is concerned with law in civilian and customary legal systems, both historically and contemporaneously. The program is designed to develop the student's analytical skills to enable informed and critical examination of law broadly construed. The organizing premise of the program is that law is a tool of social organization and control, not simply an expression of will or aspiration, and that it is best understood by careful study of both rhetorical artifacts and empirical consequences of its application. Program requirements are constructed to support the organizing premise, and, because of the nature of the requirements, transfer students are not eligible to register as Law, Letters, and Society majors.

The program requires course work in three areas, although there is a reasonably broad latitude both expected and permitted in satisfaction of the distributional requirement. There is a substantial writing requirement for all majors; majors are expected to produce substantial written work (sometimes called "the BA Paper") under the close supervision of a faculty member whose area of scholarly concern is related to the broad objectives of the program.

Application to the Program

Students must apply in Spring Quarter of their first year to enter the program in their second year. Application forms may be obtained from the Office of the New Collegiate Division in C 327. Applications are available in C 327 on Friday of tenth week of Winter Quarter and must be submitted to C 327 by noon on Friday of first week of Spring Quarter. Students are evaluated on the basis of the application statement and previous performance in the College. Because of the nature of the requirements of the program, no more than twenty-five students can be admitted per year.

Program Requirements

Course work is required in three areas. After successfully completing the Introductory Course, students must take two courses in Letters and two courses in Society. In addition, students must complete six other courses that, while not necessarily offered or listed formally under either rubric, are substantively supportive of the topics, areas, skills, or concerns of the two areas. Courses satisfying the additional requirement are identified on a quarterly basis, and final approval of additional required course work is made by consultation between the student and the program chairman.

The Introductory Course

The Introductory Course must precede all other course work in the major, because it establishes the intellectual moorings of the program. The importance of the Introductory Course lies not in its content (indeed, its precise focus and scope may be different from time to time) but on its approach to the nature of law. Recently, for example, the Introductory Course has been LLSO 24200 Legal Reasoning, a study, based primarily on cases, of the classic conventions of legal argument in the Anglo-American legal system. In other years, the Introductory Course might be Roman Law or Greek Law, Medieval Law, or a text-based course on ancient legal philosophy, or a comparison of modern legal categories and policies with those of former societies and cultures. The objective is not so much to establish a historical foundation for modern studies as to demonstrate that legal systems are culturally rooted; that urgent, present concerns may obscure important characteristics of legal ideas and behavior; and that many recurrent themes in Western legal thought are shaped or driven by both common and uncommon features. Unlike many legal studies programs that attempt to orient study of the law primarily in contemporary debates, usually in the field of American constitutional law, the program seeks to organize its exploration of law as a system rather than as a forum or an instrument.

Other Course Work

After completing the Introductory Course, students must take two courses each in the Letters and Society divisions of the program, plus six other courses complementary to the required work, as outlined previously (the other six courses may be ones cross listed in the program or may be from other disciplines). Letters and Society are not meant as fixed or self-defining fields, but instead as organizational categories emphasizing two fundamental modes of examining law in a systemic fashion. Courses under the rubric of Letters (whether based in the program or in English, philosophy, or political theory) tend to be based on the study of literary and historical artifacts, such as cases, tracts, conventional literature, or other texts, and emphasize the ways in which law formally constitutes itself. Questions of interpretative and normative theory, rhetorical strategy, and the like are central to such courses. Society serves to organize studies from a variety of different disciplines (including history, political science, economics, and sociology) that try to measure, with different techniques and at different times, the effect of law on society. The combined objective is to treat law as an intellectual activity and as a phenomenon, and to emphasize that both occur in contexts that help to shape them, whether ancient or modern.

Research

In addition to satisfying the course requirements, each student in the program must produce evidence of sustained research in the form of a substantial research paper during either the junior or senior year and obtain approval of a member of the faculty, although not necessarily a member of the program faculty. Papers may be written in conjunction with Law, Letters, and Society courses, under the auspices of reading and research courses, or in a Research Seminar. (The paper is an independent requirement, however, and need not be accomplished in conjunction with enrollment in a specific course.) The scope, method, and objective of the paper, as well as its length, are subject to negotiation between the student and the instructor.

Summary of Requirements

Introductory Course		100
Two Letters courses		200
Two Society courses		200
Six Complementary courses		600
Total Units		1100

Honors

Students who wish to be considered for honors must notify the program chairman and their faculty supervisor in writing no later than two quarters before the quarter in which they expect to receive their degree. Eligible students must maintain a GPA of at least 3.50 both overall and in the major, and they must write a distinguished research paper. The paper must be submitted by noon on Friday of fifth week in the quarter of proposed graduation (other papers must be submitted by noon on Friday of seventh week), and the student's faculty supervisor and a second reader must agree that honors are merited. It should be noted that honors are awarded sparingly.

Reading and Research Courses

For students with a legitimate interest in pursuing study that cannot be met by means of regular courses, there is an option of devising a reading and research course to be supervised by a member of the faculty and taken for a quality grade. Such courses may not be used to satisfy the requirements of either the two-course Letters or two-course Society requirements, but may be used to satisfy part of the other six required courses, with the written permission of the program chairman obtained in advance of initiation of the work. Only two research courses may be used within the major. LLSO 29400 Research Seminar may also be used as one of the six Complementary Courses.

Grading

Two of the six complementary courses required in the program may, with consent of instructor, be taken for P/F grading. Students who enroll in LLSO 29400 Research Seminar, offered annually, are graded on a P/F basis, and the seminar counts as one of the two P/F-graded complementary courses.

Advising

Students who wish to major in Law, Letters, and Society must register for LLSO 24200 Legal Reasoning in Autumn Quarter of their second year. This requirement is not negotiable. Students should note that, as an interdisciplinary major, the program has a strictly limited enrollment and that registration for the Introductory Course is determined during the preceding Spring Quarter. Upon deciding to major in Law, Letters, and Society, students should arrange to consult with the program chairman on their course of study in the program. Students should continue to consult with their College advisers on general education degree requirements.

Courses

I. The Introductory Course

LLSO 24200. Legal Reasoning. 100 Units.

This course introduces legal reasoning in a customary legal system. The first part examines the analytical conventions that lawyers and judges purport to use. The second part examines fundamental tenets of constitutional interpretation. Both judicial decisions and commentary are used, although the case method is emphasized.

Instructor(s): D. Hutchinson Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Open only to second-year students who are beginning the LLSO major.

II. Letters

LLSO 21710. Machiavelli: The Prince and Discourses. 100 Units.

This course is a reading and discussion of The Prince and the Discourses on Livy, supplemented by portions of Livy's History of Rome. Themes include the roles of princes, peoples, and elites; the merits of republics and principalities; the political roles of pagan and Christian religion and morality; war and empire; founding and reform; virtue, corruption, and fortune; the relevance of ancient history to modern experience; reading and writing; and theory and practice.(A)

Instructor(s): N. Tarcov Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 29300,PLSC 32100,SCTH 31710,PLSC 20800

LLSO 23501. History of Information. 100 Units.

'Information' in all its forms is perhaps the defining phenomenon of our age. But although we tend to think of it as something distinctively modern, in fact it came into being through a long history of thought, practice, and technology. This course will therefore suggest how to think historically about information. Using examples that range from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century, we shall explore how different societies have conceptualized the subject, and how they have sought to control it. We shall address how information has been collected, classified, circulated, contested, and destroyed. The aim is to provide a different kind of understanding of information practices—one that can be put to use in other historical inquiries, as well as casting an unfamiliar light on our own everyday lives.

Instructor(s): A. Johns Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 35415,CHSS 35415,HIST 25415

LLSO 24300. American Law and the Rhetoric of Race. 100 Units.

This course examines the ways American law has treated legal issues involving race. Two episodes are studied in detail: the criminal law of slavery during the antebellum period and the constitutional attack on state‐imposed segregation in the twentieth century. The case method is used, although close attention is paid to litigation strategy and judicial opinion.

Instructor(s): D. Hutchinson Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): LAWS 59800,LAWS 49801

LLSO 24711. Lincoln: Slavery, War, and the Constitution. 100 Units.

This course is a study of Abraham Lincoln’s view of the Constitution, based on close readings of his writings, plus comparisons to judicial responses to Lincoln’s policies.

Instructor(s): D. Hutchinson Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 24711,HIST 27102

LLSO 28200. Machiavelli's Political Thought. 100 Units.

This course is devoted to the political writings of Niccolò Machiavelli. Readings include The Prince, Discourses on Livy's History of Rome, selections from the Florentine Histories, and Machiavelli's proposal for reforming Florence's republic, "Discourses on Florentine Affairs." Topics include the relationship between the person and the polity; the compatibility of moral and political virtue; the utility of class conflict; the advantages of mixed institutions; the principles of self-government, deliberation, and participation; the meaning of liberty; and the question of military conquest. (A)

Instructor(s): J. McCormick Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Prior consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 27216,PLSC 52316,FNDL 28102

III. Society

LLSO 20601. American Revolution, 1763 to 1789. 100 Units.

This lecture and discussion course explores the background of the American Revolution and the problem of organizing a new nation. The first half of the course uses the theory of revolutionary stages to organize a framework for the events of the 1760s and 1770s, and the second half of the course examines the period of constitution-making (1776–1789) for evidence on the ways in which the Revolution was truly revolutionary.

Instructor(s): E. Cook Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 25300,HIST 35300

LLSO 20606. Early America in 1800. 100 Units.

This course surveys major themes in the settlement of the British colonies, the crisis of the American Revolution, and the growth of American society and politics.

Instructor(s): E. Cook Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 18710

LLSO 22104. Intellectual Property and Piracy. 100 Units.

Intellectual property presents some of the most pressing problems in modern science, industry, and law. This course helps students to understand why. It explains the principles of modern intellectual property, by examining their historical development over the last five hundred years. Using sources from the history of literature, art, and music—as well as from modern science and information technology—students will discover how piracy and property have clashed since the Renaissance, and still do so today. They will then be well-placed to address the central problem of intellectual property, and one of the most basic questions facing today's universities: What is the proper relation between creativity and commerce?

Instructor(s): A. Johns Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CHSS 31900,HIPS 26700,HIST 33000,HIST 23000

LLSO 22106. 19th Century Segment of the U.S. Survey. 100 Units.

This is where modern America begins. Before there was a Great Recession or an Occupy Wall Street, there was the nineteenth-century roller coaster of prosperity and panic, the robber barons and newfound workers' unions of the Gilded Age; the passionate public debates over the central bank, monetary policy, and the national currency. Before the Tea Party, the Founders themselves debated over which ways to make their Revolution realized, enduring, and meaningful in daily interactions as well as institutions. To understand the debates over the recently concluded Iraq War, we must return to the origins of American imperialism in the 1800s. To appreciate the significance and symbolism of the first African-American president, we have to revisit the nation's long history of slavery, racism, and segregation. The nineteenth-century survey will examine the experiences and the conflicts that made up the history of modern American society, as it unfolded over the course of the 1800s. Weather permitting, the class will take at least one short trip to relevant historical site in (or around) Chicago. Requirements include careful reading, active and thoughtful participation, and a series of short written assignments.

Instructor(s): A. Lippert Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 18804,GNSE 18804

LLSO 23100. Environmental Law. 100 Units.

This lecture/discussion course examines the development of laws and legal institutions that address environmental problems and advance environmental policies. Topics include the common law background to traditional environmental regulation, the explosive growth and impact of federal environmental laws in the second half of the twentieth century, regulations and the urban environment, and the evolution of local and national legal structures in response to environmental challenges.

Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing, or consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 23100,PBPL 23100

LLSO 23112. Northern Renaissance/Early Reformation. 100 Units.

In surveying the history of this period, attention is devoted to the relationships between the movements of Renaissance and Reformation in northern Europe from the late fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries. Primary texts are emphasized.

Instructor(s): H. Gray Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 23001,HIST 33001

LLSO 23114. Humanitarianism: History and Theory. 100 Units.

Humanitarianism in its most general form is an ethics of benevolence and sympathy extending universally and impartially to all human beings. Humanitarians understand the world as an affective community and insist that the world can be transformed and, if not transformed, suffering and ill-treatment can be alleviated by fearless vanguards of compassion. Lately, the entire concept has come under attack as deceptive, fraudulent, and useless. If anything, so it is argued, humanitarianism has failed, if it has not actively worsened humanitarian crises. Humanitarians promise relief and deliver a mess; they consort with the worst abusers of human rights; they have never changed anything. Well, one of the questions we will ask is what we make of this critique in light of the historical record. What do humanitarians do? What is their effect and when and where are they effective? Is it true that abolitionists have achieved the abolition of slavery? What about the struggle for social justice? About famine relief? About refugee aid? However, rather than chasing one case after another, we will focus on the humanitarian rationale for action and how it differs from other such rationales, say, Pacifist, Marxist, or liberal rights-based approaches.

Instructor(s): M. Geyer Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 33512,HMRT 23302,HMRT 33002,HIST 23512

LLSO 23402. History of Humanitarian Intervention. 100 Units.

The post–Cold War world has been seen a proliferation of so-called humanitarian interventions as well as of doctrines and agreements that guide them. R2P, the Responsibility to Protect, is the most prominent example for the latter. What do we make of these interventions for humanitarian ends? Should we denounce their backers as covert imperialists or their detractors as callous fellow-travelers for genocidaires? Should we give up humanitarian reasoning? There is no self-evident answer. However, there is quite a bit of material to work with. First of all, why this sudden rush toward humanitarian intervention? How do these interventions relate to the older (Cold War) history of (UN) peacekeeping? Second, forced humanitarian interventions have a surprisingly long history that makes a difference, if we want to understand the present. This is a history of interstate protection for (religious) minorities, a history of muscular, imperial meddling in other people's and, especially, in the Ottoman Empire's affairs, a history not least of securitizing relief operations, and only eventually a history of protecting against humanitarian and human rights abuses. In all of these instances it is a history of legitimating violence as the lesser evil in the face of grievous abuses and man-made disasters, which would suggest that the future of global politics is not with peacekeeping, but with internationally sanctioned warmaking.

Instructor(s): M. Geyer Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 22117,HIST 32117,HMRT 23301,HMRT 33001

LLSO 24901. U.S. Environmental Policy. 100 Units.

Making environmental policy is a diverse and complex process. Environmental advocacy engages different governmental agencies, congressional committees, and courts, depending on the issue. This course examines how such differentiation has affected policy making over the last several decades.

Instructor(s): R. Lodato Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 24701,ENST 24701

LLSO 25100. Human Rights I: Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights. 100 Units.

Human rights are claims of justice that hold merely in virtue of our shared humanity. In this course we will explore philosophical theories of this elementary and crucial form of justice. Among topics to be considered are the role that dignity and humanity play in grounding such rights, their relation to political and economic institutions, and the distinction between duties of justice and claims of charity or humanitarian aid. Finally we will consider the application of such theories to concrete, problematic and pressing problems, such as global poverty, torture and genocide. (V) (I)

Instructor(s): D. Holiday Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 20100,HMRT 30100,PHIL 21700,PHIL 31600,HIST 29301,HIST 39301,INRE 31600,LAWS 41200,MAPH 40000

LLSO 25610. Authority, Obligation, and Dissent. 100 Units.

What is the basis of political authority? What, if anything, makes it legitimate? Under what conditions are we obliged to follow the laws and orders of government authorities? Under what conditions can we legitimately disobey such laws or orders, or even engage in violent rebellion? How have some of the most influential political thinkers answered such questions historically and which of their theories are most helpful for illuminating these issues for us today? Readings include classic writings by Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Burke, Paine, Kant, Thoreau, Gandhi, Fanon, and Martin Luther King, Jr. (A)

Instructor(s): S. Muthu Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 25610

LLSO 25904. America in the Twentieth Century. 100 Units.

This lecture course provides an introductory survey of major developments in American history in the twentieth century. It is structured around a political history narrative, but we will examine events from a wide range of perspectives—legal, intellectual, social, economic, diplomatic, military, religious. The course is not encyclopedic, nor is it focused on mastering facts (although this is not discouraged). It is rather concerned with "big" questions about American history since ca. 1900, including the role and scope of government and the rights and obligations of citizens.

Instructor(s): J. Dailey Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 17805

LLSO 26201. Economics and Environmental Policy. 100 Units.

This course combines basic microeconomic theory and tools with contemporary environmental and resources issues and controversies to examine and analyze public policy decisions. Theoretical points include externalities, public goods, common-property resources, valuing resources, benefit/cost analysis, and risk assessment. Topics include pollution, global climate change, energy use and conservation, recycling and waste management, endangered species and biodiversity, nonrenewable resources, congestion, economic growth and the environment, and equity impacts of public policies.

Instructor(s): S. Shaikh Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): ECON 19800 or higher, or PBPL 20000
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 21800,PBPL 21800

LLSO 26802. Public Opinion. 100 Units.

What is the relationship between the mass citizenry and government in the U.S.? Does the public meet the conditions for a functioning democratic polity? This course considers the origins of mass opinion about politics and public policy, including the role of core values and beliefs, information, expectations about political actors, the mass media, economic self-interest, and racial attitudes. This course also examines problems of political representation, from the level of political elites communicating with constituents, and from the possibility of aggregate representation. (B)

Instructor(s): J. Brehm Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 22400,CRES 22400

LLSO 27100. Human Rights II: History and Theory. 100 Units.

This course is concerned with the theory and the historical evolution of the modern human rights regime. It discusses the emergence of a modern “human rights” culture as a product of the formation and expansion of the system of nation-states and the concurrent rise of value-driven social mobilizations. It proceeds to discuss human rights in two prevailing modalities. First, it explores rights as protection of the body and personhood and the modern, Western notion of individualism. Second, it inquires into rights as they affect groups (e.g., ethnicities and, potentially, transnational corporations) or states.

Instructor(s): M. Bradley Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 20200,HMRT 30200,CRES 29302,HIST 29302,HIST 39302,INRE 31700,JWSC 26602,LAWS 41301

LLSO 27200. Human Rights III: Contemporary Issues in Human Rights. 100 Units.

For U.S. students, the study of international human rights is becoming increasingly important, as interest grows regarding questions of justice around the globe. This interdisciplinary course presents a practitioner’s overview of several major contemporary human rights problems as a means to explore the utility of human rights norms and mechanisms, as well as the advocacy roles of civil society organizations, legal and medical professionals, traditional and new media, and social movements. The course may be co-taught by faculty from the Pritzker School of Medicine. Topics may include the prohibition against torture, problems of universalism versus cultural relativism, and the human right to health.

Instructor(s): S. Gzesh Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 20300,HMRT 30300,HIST 29303,HIST 39303,INRE 31800,LAWS 78201

LLSO 27306. U.S. Women and Gender. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): A. Stanley Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 37306,HMRT 27306,HMRT 37306,HIST 27306

LLSO 27307. Drugs, Guns, and Money: The Politics of Criminal Conflict. 100 Units.

This course examines armed conflict between states and criminal groups, with a focus on Latin America’s militarized drug wars. Why do states decide to crack down on cartels, and why do cartels decide to fight back? Are drug wars “insurgencies”? If so, can they be won? Why does drug violence vary over time, over space, and between market sector? We will study these issues from historical, economic, criminological, and cultural perspectives. Throughout, we focus on the interplay of domestic and international politics in formulating and enforcing drug policy. (C)

Instructor(s): B. Lessing Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 29500

LLSO 27601. Politics and Culture in African American History. 100 Units.

In this course we will explore historically the political implications of black cultural formations and expressions, focusing on the diverse ways in which culture has been explicitly invoked or deployed to political ends, has served as a means of political mobilization, and has marked African Americans as fit or unfit for citizenship rights. Through this debate-which has been sometimes explicit and at other times sub-rosa-we will probe the meanings and significance attributed to race, culture, and their interrelationship. Among the topics to be addressed in lectures and discussions are the debates on the relation between slave culture and resistance, the contrasting ways black and white performers have engaged the minstrel tradition, the social interpretations of black musical expression, the role to the state in promoting black cultural expression, and culture as a site of resistance. Each topic will be addressed through lectures and class discussions.

Instructor(s): T. Holt Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 20109

LLSO 27704. Political Leadership: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. 100 Units.

This course will examine both classical and contemporary analyses of leadership, with a particular focus on the relationship between executive authority and democratic politics. We will read traditional authors such as Cicero, Livy, Plutarch and Machiavelli as well as contemporary analyses of modern political leadership, especially of the American Presidency. (A)

Instructor(s): W. Howell, J. McCormick Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Limited enrollment.
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 37702,PLSC 27702

LLSO 28010. U.S. Legal History. 100 Units.

This course focuses on the connections between law and society in modern America. It explores how legal doctrines and constitutional rules have defined individual rights and social relations in both the public and private spheres. It also examines political struggles that have transformed American law. Topics to be addressed include the meaning of rights; the regulation of property, work, race, and sexual relations; civil disobedience; and legal theory as cultural history. Readings include legal cases, judicial rulings, short stories, and legal and historical scholarship.

Instructor(s): A. Stanley Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): AMER 27605,CRES 27605,GNSE 27605,HMRT 27061,HIST 27605

LLSO 28613. Politics and Human Nature. 100 Units.

This course explores commonalities among psychoanalytic theory, Buddhism, and studies of emotions and brain physiology, particularly as they relate to questions of the self and political life. In addition to exploring each of these theories, we investigate particular questions (e.g., inevitability of conflict, dynamics of obedience and authority, emotional power of ideology, and non-Western understandings of human consciousness). (A)

Instructor(s): E. Oliver Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing.
Note(s): Class limited to fifteen students.
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 28615

LLSO 28710. Democracy and the Politics of Wealth Redistribution. 100 Units.

How do political institutions affect the redistribution of wealth among members of a society? In most democracies, the distribution of wealth among citizens is unequal but the right to vote is universal. Why then have so many newly democratic states transitioned under conditions of high inequality yet failed to redistribute? This course explores this puzzle by analyzing the mechanisms through which individual and group preferences can be translated into pro-poor policies, and the role elites play in influencing a government's capacity or incentives to redistribute wealth. Topics include economic inequality and the demand for redistribution, the difference in redistribution between democracy and dictatorship, the role of globalization in policymaking, and the effects of redistribution on political stability and change. (C)

Instructor(s): M. Albertus Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 28710

LLSO 29000. Sport, Society, and Science. 100 Units.

This interdisciplinary course draws faculty from across the University to examine and to integrate important elements of the world of sport and competition, including sport and society; race and sport; legal, economic, and public policy frameworks; psychological and neurological aspects of competition, the physics of sports; and statistical measurements of performance.

Terms Offered: Winter

LLSO 29201. Ethnic Rights. 100 Units.

The aim of this undergraduate course is to examine the emergence of cultural rights within the broader human rights movement. Indeed, cultural or ethnic rights were part of a third generation of human rights which moves beyond purely civil and political rights, to definitions that include social, economic and cultural rights. Among the many rights embedded in the notion of cultural rights are the rights to political and cultural autonomy, natural resources, and territory, typically for indigenous peoples. In this course, we analyze how these cultural rights emerged in international human rights institutions and discourse, as well as how they have been translated back into, and transformed by, local political struggles around the world. Throughout the course, the students will have the chance to learn from and engage with a number of organizations and activists in Chicago that work on indigenous and cultural rights. (C)

Instructor(s): T. Paschel Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 29201