20809218Law and Society
Course Information
Description
Law and Society examines the relationship between the law and civil society in the United States. Students (a) summarize common law system and American history, (b) analyze formal legal and social institutions, and (c) evaluate the relationship between law and society. Students will complete exams and written assignments. 
Total Credits
3
Course Competencies
  1. Summarize Association Between Law and Society
    Assessment Strategies
    Written Objective Test
    Essay
    Criteria
    Summarize approaches to defining law (authority, coercion, justice, social integration, custom).
    Analyze the families of law (common, civil, criminal) and functions of law (social control, dispute resolution, social change).
    Evaluate perspectives on law and society (consensus perspective, conflict perspective).

  2. Summarize Theories of Law and Justice
    Assessment Strategies
    Written Objective Test
    Essay
    Criteria
    Summarize the legal system (laws, legislation, enforcement, and dispute resolution).
    Analyze evolution of legal systems (pre-modern, transitional legal systems, and modern legal systems).
    Evaluate critical legal studies, critical race theory, and feminist jurisprudence.

  3. Analyze Structure and Function of Courts, Legislatures, and Administrative Agencies
    Assessment Strategies
    Written Objective Test
    Essay
    Criteria
    Summarize the structure and function of the American judicial system (federal judiciary and state judiciary).
    Analyze the constitutional and functional role of legislatures (participates, processes, procedures, interest groups and lobbyists).
    Evaluate the legal basis | organizational function of administrative agencies and law enforcement.

  4. Analyze Legal Profession
    Assessment Strategies
    Written Objective Test
    Essay
    Criteria
    Summarize the historical development of the English legal profession (Roman Empire, Norman Conquest, Blackstone's "Commentaries on the Laws of England").
    Analyze the historical evolution of the American legal profession (colonial period, constitutional institutions, academic and professional advancement).
    Evaluate the contemporary American legal profession (American Bar Association, solo / small firm practitioners, corporate law firms, government lawyers).

  5. Analyze Law School, Access to Justice, and Legal Ethics
    Assessment Strategies
    Written Objective Test
    Essay
    Criteria
    Summarize the American law school experience (law school admission, academic experience, bar examination and admission).
    Analyze the institutional role and conduct of lawyers, clients, and access to justice (legal problems, legal remedies, nature of needs, legal satisfaction).
    Evaluate the issue of legal ethnics (American Bar Association "Model Rules of Professional Conduct").

  6. Analyze Purpose and Methods of Dispute Resolution
    Assessment Strategies
    Written Objective Test
    Essay
    Criteria
    Summarize the stages of disputing (grievance stage, conflict stage, and dispute stage).
    Analyze the methods of dispute resolution (lumping, avoidance, coercion, negotiation, mediation, arbitration) and social condition influences (society and culture).
    Evaluate American attitudes toward the law to include legal consciousness styles (before the law, with the law, and against the law).

  7. Evaluate Criminal Courts
    Assessment Strategies
    Written Objective Test
    Essay
    Criteria
    Summarize the issues of crime control and due process (adversarial model, consensus model, due process model).
    Analyze the roles and responsibilities of defense attorneys and indigent defense systems (assigned counsel, contract attorneys, and public defenders).
    Evaluate the functions of prosecutors (discretion), the grand jury (proceedings), and plea bargaining (charge, count, sentence).

  8. Evaluate Juries
    Assessment Strategies
    Written Objective Test
    Essay
    Criteria
    Summarize the functions of criminal trials (values, legitimacy, security, symbolism, law).
    Analyze the development of the American jury.
    Evaluate the institutional and organizational responsibilities of judges and juries.

  9. Evaluate Association Between Law and Social Control
    Assessment Strategies
    Written Objective Test
    Essay
    Criteria
    Summarize various types of formal and informal social controls (deterrence, mechanical solidarity, and organic solidarity).
    Analyze the issue of legal control and why individuals obey the law (self-interest, sanctions, social influence, conscience).
    Evaluate the types of crime (instrumental offenses, expressive offenses) and types of criminal punishment (arrest, prosecution, incarceration).

  10. Evaluate Impact of Law on Society
    Assessment Strategies
    Written Objective Test
    Essay
    Criteria
    Summarize the impact of society on the law (folkways, mores) and the law as the cause of social change (social planning, legal deep defense, and legal slack).
    Analyze the institutional relationship between courts and social change (source of law, social values, groups, implementation, enforcement).
    Evaluate the impact of court decisions on criminal justice.