LAW 501 - Law and Social Justice Seminar

This seminar will discuss whether and to what extent our legal system, including its law schools, perpetuates or counteracts social injustice. Many of the readings derive from modern critical legal theory, particularly critical race theory and radical feminism, and from liberal and non-liberal responses thereto. These readings primarily address the subordination of particular groups in our society and ways in which taken-for-granted legal categories–such as objective/subjective, public/private, and negative rights/postive rights–serve to entrench hierarchies of power and wealth. Other readings include foundational political theories (e.g., Mill, Rawls, Nozick) and classic texts on topics such as civil disobedience and justified revolution. Discussions will mostly be student-directed.