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Law, Letters, and Society
Program Chairman: Dennis J. Hutchinson, LBQ 411, 702-9575
Secretary: Delores Jackson, C 330, 702-7148
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--other than those entering as sophomores--ordinarily are
not eligible to register as concentrators.
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; candidates for
special honors are expected to produce further written work under the close
supervision of a faculty member whose area of scholarly concern is related
to the broad objectives of the program.
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 an annual basis, and final approval of additional required course work
is made on the basis of consultations between the student and the program
chairman.
The Introductory Course. The introductory course must precede all other
course work in the concentration, 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 tends to be different
every year--but on its approach to the nature of law. In 1995-96, for example,
the introductory course is 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, presentist 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 in primarily 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 above (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 concentrator
must produce evidence of sustained research in the form of two substantial
papers. Normally, this requirement is satisfied during the junior and senior
years by papers prepared on the basis of work done in conjunction with courses
offered in the program (although the paper may or may not be part of the
routine requirements of the 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
Concentration 1 Introductory Course
2 Letters courses
2 Society courses
6 other complementary courses
11
Honors. In Law, Letters, and Society, the primary requirement for honors
is a distinguished senior paper. After completion of the first half of the
writing requirement in the junior year in conjunction with regular course
work, the student chooses an instructor to decide mutually whether the student
does research and submits a paper for honors. Papers submitted pursuant
to such agreements are examined by a second reader, who must agree with
the primary instructor that special honors are merited. No formal grade
requirement supplements these conditions.
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 graded, like other NCD 298 courses, on a
Pass/Fail basis. Such courses may not be used to satisfy the requirements
of either the two-course Letters or two-course Society requirements, but
up to two such courses 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.
Grading. Two of the six supplementary courses required in the program
may, with the consent of the instructor, be taken on a Pass/No Credit
basis.
Advising. Students who wish to concentrate in Law, Letters, and Society
should notify their College adviser early in spring quarter of their first
year, at which time the students arrange to consult with the program chairman
on their course of study in the program. Students should continue to consult
their College advisers with respect to general degree requirements.
Faculty
JOHN W. BOYER, Professor, Department of History and the College; Chairman,
Council on Advanced Studies in the Humanities & Social Sciences; Dean
of the College
JOHN COMAROFF, Professor, Departments of Anthropology and Sociology and
the College; Chairman, Department of Anthropology
ANN DUDLEY GOLDBLATT, Lecturer, Social Sciences Collegiate Division
CHARLES M. GRAY, Professor, Department of History and the College; Lecturer,
the Law School; Master, New Collegiate Division
DENNIS J. HUTCHINSON, Associate Professor, Social Sciences Collegiate Division
and New Collegiate Division; Senior Lecturer, the Law School; Master, New
Collegiate Division; Associate Dean of the College
BARRY D. KARL, Norman and Edna Freehling Professor, Department of History
and the College
JULIUS KIRSHNER, Professor, Department of History and the College
RALPH LERNER, Professor, Social Science Collegiate Division; Cochairman,
Committee on Social Thought
WILLIAM NOVAK, Assistant Professor, Department of History and the College
MARTHA NUSSBAUM, Professor of Law and Ethics and in the College
WENDY RAUDENBUSH OLMSTED, Associate Professor, Division of the Humanities
and the College
GERALD N. ROSENBERG, Assistant Professor,
Department of Political Science and the College
RICHARD SALLER, Professor, Departments of Classical Languages & Literatures
and History and the College; Chairman, Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean
World
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