Courses:

I. Introduction
   What is Law? What Does Law Do? What Does Law Not Do?
   Natural Law, Legal Positivism, and Legal Realism

  "Justice?--You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law."
   --William Gaddis, A Frolic of His Own (1994: 13)

Jurisprudential Paradigms (PDF)

Sutton, John. Law/Society. Pp. 135-160.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell. "The Path of the Law."

II. Law as a Social Process: The Organization of the Criminal Justice System

"To what degree was the law a thing apart from people - an abstract system laid over the messy reality of individuals and their specific situations - and to what degree did the law emerge from the texture and character of people and the details of their cases?"
--D. Graham Burnett, A Trial By Jury (2001: 137)

Civil Justice System (Lec #6) (PDF)

Civil Justice System (Continued) (Lec #7) (PDF)

Harr, Jonathan. A Civil Action.

Engel, David. "The Over Bird's Song: Insiders, Outsiders, and Personal Injuries in an American Community." In The Law and Society Reader.

Merry, Sally. "Going to Court: Strategies of Dispute Management in an Urban Neighborhood." In The Law and Society Reader.

Felstiner, Abel, and Austin Sarat. "The Emergence and Transformation of Disputes: Naming, Blaming and Claiming."

Galanter, Marc. "Why the 'Haves'' Come Out Ahead." In The Law and Society Reader.

Tanase, Takao. "The Management of Disputes: Automobile Accident Compensation in Japan." In The Law and Society Reader.

Players in the System: Judges (Lec #9, 10) (PDF)

Legal Profession (Lec #11, 12) (PDF)

Carter, Lief, and Thomas Burke. Reason in Law. Pp. 1-126, 158-162.

Paul, Jeremy. "Changing the Subject: Cognitive Theory and the Teaching of Law."

Sutton, John. Law/Society. Pp. 221-278.

Sarat, Austin, and William Felstiner. "Law and Social Relations: Vocabularies of Motive in Lawyer/Client Interaction." In The Law and Society Reader.

Conley, John, and William O'Barr. "Lay Expectations of the Civil Justice System." In The Law and Society Reader.

First Paper Due (3 days before Lec #9)

Mid-Term Exam (Tentative Date - 3 days before Lec #11)

Alternatives to Law: Varieties of Dispute Processing (Lec #13, 14) (PDF)

Burke, Thomas. Lawyers, Lawsuits and Legal Rights: The Battle over Litigation in American Society. (Excerpts)

Hensler, Deborah. "Suppose It's Not True."

Silbey, Susan. "The Emperor's New Clothes: Mediation Mythology and Markets."

Cobb, Sara. "The Domestication of Violence in Mediation."

Evolutionary Theories of Social Change: Maine and Durkheim (Lec #15, 16) (PDF)

Sutton, John. Law/Society. Pp. 23-60.

Telpner, Brian. "Constructing Safe Communities: Megan's Law and the Purposes of Punishment."

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Pp. 75-88. (Excerpts)

Berman, Paul. "An Observation and a Strange but True 'Tale': What might the Historical Trials of Animals tell us about the Transformative Potential of Law?"

Law and the State: Weber (Lec #19, 20) (PDF)

Law and Social Change (Continued) (Lec #21) (PDF)

Sutton, John. Law/Society. Pp. 99-132.

Hall, Jerome. Theft, Law and Society. (Excerpts)

Sutton, John. Law/Society. Pp. 161-220.

Ekland-Olson, Sheldon, and Steve J. Martin. "Organizational Compliance with Court-Ordered Reform." In The Law and Society Reader.

Gilboy, Janet. "Penetrability of Administrative Systems: Political 'Casework' and Immigration Inspections." In The Law and Society Reader.

Silbey, Susan. "The Consequences of Responsive Regulation."

Ewick, Patricia, and Susan S. Silbey. The Common Place of Law: Stories from Everyday Life.

Carter, and Burke. Reason in Law. Pp. 127-157.

Sherwin, Richard. When Law Goes Pop:The Vanishing Line Between Law and Popular Culture. (Excerpts)