LEAP 1150: The Role of Law in Society Pre-Law LEAP 3 credits MWF 8:35 OSH 237

Transcription

1 Dr. Ann Engar Esabelle Khaosanga (Ezzy) Sill Center MW 11:45-12:45 + by appt. esabella.9449@yahoo.com ann.engar@utah.edu LEAP 1150: The Role of Law in Society Pre-Law LEAP 3 credits MWF 8:35 OSH 237 Requirements Fulfilled By This Course General Education: Humanities Course Description The purpose of this course is to gain a basic understanding of how the American legal system works and what its relationship to American society is. The course will focus on the evolution of our modern legal system, current intellectual movements in law, the interplay between law and social changes, and the main concerns and issues in the profession and practice of law. Course Objectives From this course students will 1. Gain a critical understanding of the American legal system and its place within American society from a humanities perspective. The study of law has been named a humanities discipline by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Students will read, discuss and write about the following issues: a. the need of laws in order to function b. the relationship between the branches of our government in affecting social change c. the difference between legislative and judicial processes d. the appropriate allocation of responsibility between the legislature and the judiciary e. the advantages and disadvantages of an adversarial system of justice f. the role(s) of lawyers in our society g. due process and the need for its protection h. the role of the jury and the controversy over whether they should continue to be used i. the ways in which society creates changes in law or policy (such as the environmental, women s rights, and corporate accountability movements) j. the effect of law and policy on individual rights and behavior. 2. Learn to succeed in university classes through networking with students, faculty and peer advisors

2 3. Actively participate in a learning community composed of first-year students 4. Acquire knowledge of library technologies a. by participating in a sequence of library instructional classes designed for firstyear students b. by learning appropriate search strategies in appropriate databases c. by researching databases for appropriate sources for specific assignment d. by learning to evaluate information sources 5. Develop written and oral communication skills a. through informal writings and formal essays b. by completing sequenced assignments of increasing difficulty c. by producing specific types of writing, e.g., summary, comparison/contrast, critical analysis d. by participating in class and small group discussions in a free interchange of ideas e. by learning to identify and use effective strategies for oral presentations and written assignments f. by integrating library resources into a research project g. by understanding the appropriate use of intellectual property 6. Develop critical thinking skills a. by learning how to read for main ideas b. by discovering the best note taking style c. by reading with an open mind to weigh and evaluate ideas d. by reading to discover the assumptions upon which ideas are based and the consequences of such ideas 7. Learn to work effectively in groups a. by negotiating tasks within groups b. by completing group research projects c. by planning and executing effective group presentation based on research Activities, Assignments and Grading Course will be in discussion and lecture format and will also include films and oral presentations. Grades will be based upon the following assignments: five library assignments, 2 points each 10 points total in-class examination 20 participation and attendance 5 paper 1, 4-6 pages 15 paper 2, 4-6 pages 20 group oral presentation and paper (20-25 pages) 30 Total 100

3 Group presentations will be held in the last two weeks of class. Each presentation will be forty minutes long (plus questions) and will include a written portion (purpose statement, outline, progress reports and bibliography). No late work will be accepted without approval before due date. Required Texts Lewis, Anthony. Gideon s Trumpet. New York: Vintage, Vago, Steven. Law and Society. 10 th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, electronic readings Reading Schedule Reading must be completed before the class session on the date indicated. Students should come to class having read the material carefully, written down the most important ideas and questions about the reading, and prepared to discuss the assignment. As part of a learning community, each student has an obligation to the other students to be well prepared and to help in the learning of the group. Students are expected to spend two hours studying for every hour spent in class. Week beginning: Jan. 6 Jan. 13 Jan. 20 Jan. 27 Feb. 3 Feb. 10 Introduction M Introduction W Vago 1-12 F Vago Theoretical Perspectives M Vago W Vago F Vago The Organization of Law M Martin Luther King Holiday W First library visit. Marriott Library room Vago F Vago, The Organization of Law (Continued) M Vago First library assignment due.w Marc Holzer and Kaifeng Young, Administrative Discretion in a Turbulent Time, Public Administration Quarterly 29.1/2 (spring-summer 2005): Access through JSTOR. F Paper 1 due. Vago Lawmaking M Vago W Second library visit. Vago F Vago Law and Social Control M Second library assignment due. Vago W Vago F Vago

4 Feb. 17 Feb. 24 Mar. 3 Mar. 10 Mar. 17 Mar. 24 Mar. 31 Apr. 7 Law and Dispute Resolution M Presidents Day Holiday W Third library visit. Vago F Vago Law and Social Change M Third library assignment due. Vago W Vago F Vago The Legal Profession M Vago and Review W Fourth Library Visit. Vago F Exam Spring Break Deterrence and Legal Communication M Fourth library assignment due. Dane Archer, Rosemary Gartner, and Marc Beittel, Homicide and the Death Penality: A Cross-National Test of a Deterrence Hypothesis, Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology (1993). Access through JSTOR. W Fifth library visit. Chad Flanders, The Case Against the Case Against the Death Penality, New Criminal Law Review (2013). Access through JSTOR. F Austin Sarat and William F. Felstiner, Law and Strategy in the Divorce Lawyer s Office, Law & Society Review (1986). Access through JSTOR. Divorce M Silent Revolution by Herbert Jacob (electronic reserve) W Fifth library assignment due. The Divorce Revolution by Leonore Weitzman (electronic reserve) F Stephan Mechoulan, Divorce Laws and the Structure of the American Family, The Journal of Legal Studies 35.1 (Jan. 2006). Access through JSTOR. Media and the Law M Stewart Macaulay, Images of Law in Everyday Life: The Lessons of School, Entertainment, and Spectator Sports, Law and Society Review (1987). Access through JSTOR. W Connie L. McNeely, Perceptions of the Criminal Justice System: Television Imagery and Public Knowledge in the United States, Journal of Criminal Justice & Popular Culture (1995). Kimberlianne Podlas, Funny or No Laughing Matter?: How Television Viewers Interpret Satire of Legal Themes, Seton Hall Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law 21.2 (2011). F Elliot Slotnick (electronic reserve) Right to Counsel

5 M Paper due. Lewis, chapters 1-3 W Lewis, chapters 4-5 F Lewis, chapters 6-8 Apr. 14 Apr. 21 Right to Counsel M Lewis, chapter 9. Group 1 presents. W Lewis, chapter 10. Group 2 presents. F Lewis, chapters Group 3 presents. Right to Counsel M Finish Lewis. Group 4 presents. W Party Final papers are due on Canvas, Wednesday, April 30. ADA Statement The University of Utah seeks to provide equal access to its programs, services and activities for people with disabilities. If you will need accommodations in the class, reasonable prior notice needs to be given to the Center for Disability Services, 162 Union Building, (V/TDD). CDS will work with you and the instructor to make arrangements for accommodations. Student and Faculty Responsibilities All students are expected to maintain professional behavior in the classroom setting, according to the Student Code explained in the Student Handbook. Students have specific rights in the classroom as detailed in Article III of the Code. The Code also specifies proscribed conduct (Article XI) that involves cheating on tests, plagiarism, and/or collusion, as well as fraud, theft, etc. Students should read the Code carefully and are responsible for the content. According to Faculty Rules and Regulations, it is the faculty s responsibility to enforce responsible classroom behaviors, and I will do so, beginning with verbal warnings and progressing to dismissal from class and a failing grade. Students have the right to appeal such action to the Student Behavior Committee. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to, cheating, misrepresenting one's work, inappropriately collaborating, plagiarism, and fabrication or falsification of information, as defined further below. It also includes facilitating academic misconduct by intentionally helping or attempting to help another to commit an act of academic misconduct. 1. Cheating involves the unauthorized possession or use of information, materials, notes, study aids, or other devices in any academic exercise, or the unauthorized communication with another person during such an exercise. Common examples of cheating include, but are not limited to, copying from another student's examination, submitting work for an in-class exam that has been prepared in advance, violating rules governing the administration of exams, having another person take an exam, altering one's work after the work has been returned and

6 before resubmitting it, or violating any rules relating to academic conduct of a course or program. 2. Misrepresenting one's work includes, but is not limited to, representing material prepared by another as one's own work, or submitting the same work in more than one course without prior permission of both faculty members. 3. Plagiarism means the intentional unacknowledged use or incorporation of any other person's work in, or as a basis for, one's own work offered for academic consideration or credit or for public presentation. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, representing as one's own, without attribution, any other individual s words, phrasing, ideas, sequence of ideas, information or any other mode or content of expression.