PLSC 3280 - Comparative Law, Politics and Society

5 credit hours
The law is not just the law. We interact with the law everyday while filing tax forms, renting a car, crossing a border, or simply watching The Good Wife or Judge Alex. This course presents a variety of approaches to understanding law as a political and social reality by surveying legal systems around the world. The main objective is to compare and contrast different legal systems in order to highlight differences as well as similarities, and discover the ways in which political and social realities complicate our understanding of law and justice. Together we are going to understand how and why law in action may be quite different from law on the books, in the United States and beyond. The following questions will be addressed: What are the major legal traditions? How does a law get legislated, amended or revoked in different countries? What is the function of courts in enforcing or implementing the law? In what ways do ordinary citizens follow, question, interpret, avoid or disobey laws? If law is not just law on the books, then what is justice?