PSC 211 - Law and Society

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR (students beginning prior to Fall 2024): Meets general academic requirement SL.
This course is designed as a comprehensive examination of how law matters in American society and why law exists as a fundamental part of the lives of ordinary citizens. Students will learn that legal rules and legal language are important not just for America’s formal governmental institutions (e.g. courts, police forces) and actors (e.g. lawyers, judges), but also important for how ordinary citizens make sense of their daily experiences and their relationships with others. Key themes include: how law is shaped by, and reflects and interacts with, political, economic and cultural forces; legal consciousness; the centrality of rights in the American legal context; legal mobilization; and the legal system’s reliance on the threat and/or use of violence to be enforced.