G53.2358: Sociolegal Studies I: The Sociolegal Seminar (graduate). The central intellectual goals of the seminar are to: 1) survey approaches for understanding the relationship between social and legal thought; and 2) study their methodologies. The readings examine the extent to which social science and law have common theoretical and methodological foundations. We will focus on analytical, doctrinal, institutional, and philosophical perspectives and approaches to the study of law and society. The interface between legal and social, cultural, economic, and political phenomena is studied through critical debates and from historical and comparative perspectives. Students are expected to develop a competence in the languages and discourses of both law and social science and to begin working independently in this transdisciplinary field. The seminar provides students with a rudimentary knowledge of methodological issues, choices, and strategies, which will be supplemented with in depth methods training in subsequent courses. (Spring 2004)

G53.2355: Politics of the Legal Order (graduate). This course focuses on the role of law in politics and the politics of law.  It provides an overview of approaches that shape the theoretical and empirical contours of the public law field and contribute to multidisciplinary law and social science studies.  We examine institutional, judicial behavior, legal impact, dispute processing, ideological, and neo-institutional approaches.  We study multidisciplinary political movements and debates, such as liberal legalism, legal realism, legal pluralism, law and society, law and economics, feminist jurisprudence, critical legal race theory, and interpretive sociolegal theory.  In the course of studying these approaches and debates we focus on legal and political development, legal institutions, judicial politics, litigation, and legal-political mobilization.  Our objective is to investigate both the politics of law and the law of politics. (Fall 1998)

G53.2356: State, Law and Politics in Society (graduate). This seminar is concerned with relationships between law and state power. One central theme is how law can usefully be viewed as autonomous from state political powers, even when it is enforced through state institutions and is an expression of state policies, as well as other interests in society.  We examine a number of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to thinking about this large question.  We also turn to literatures on American Political Development and Comparative and Global Perspectives to ground, and analyze, state theory and law questions.  Specifically, we work through:  historical and comparative studies of law and state formation/development; scholarship on the institutional autonomy of the legal profession, administrative agencies, and the judiciary; and research on the mobilization of law by social movement.  In all these areas we examine the political economy of law, its jurisprudential tendencies, trends and regimes.  NOTE:  This seminar is taught in the Law School and thus follows the Law School Schedule (see  http://www.law.nyu.edu/newscalendars/ ).  For Fall 2004, the first class meets on Tuesday, August 31, 2004 at 4:05-5:44 in Furman Hall, Rm. 324, located at 245 Sullivan Street.

V53.0354: The Politics of Administrative Law (undergraduate). This course is about the law of administration and the politics of regulation it constitutes. Administrative law is a body of law governing the ways state institutions and regulatory agencies make, implement and enforce policy. Although in public discourse we tend to hear more about conflicts concerning judicial decision making, we daily interact with people who interpret, make and in some cases are even governed by administrative law. We are also increasingly finding that traditional administrative law issues involve constitutional claims, such as hiring and firing of government employees, the provision of social welfare benefits, implementation of deregulation policies, licensing nuclear waste dumps, etc. This class examines the legal ideology of administrative doctrine and processes. In particular, we focus on the political, social and economic disputes that shape and are shaped by administrative law. We study classic debates such as, the historical origins of regulation, the legal philosophy of administrative regulation, the relationship between courts, legislatures and agencies, and we examine the political, economic and social context that affects regulatory politics. (Spring 2004)

V53.0335: Law and Society (undergraduate). This course is an introduction to the study of law as a political practice. We treat law as a political practice from a multiple disciplinary standpoint, examining how law and a range of legal institutions embody and constitute political, cultural, economic and social forces. We examine the mobilization of rights, the use of litigation and vernacular legal discourse, largely within the context of the United States, but with reference to transnational struggles. In the course of doing so, we study the relationship between making social policy and the use of litigation by social movements. Specifically, we study litigation strategies at the appellate and trial levels by focusing on three sociolegal movements: the civil rights movement; the women's movement; and class action tort cases. What are the political dimensions of legal arguments and legal remedies for racial and gender discrimination and toxic torts? Under what conditions law is an empowering and/or effective political resource? What are the limits of legality in the making of social change? (Fall 2006)

V53.0330: The American Constitution (undergraduate). This course examines the Constitution, the legal construction of public-governing institutions and rights, and the politics of legal authority. We will also study constitutional interpretations of state power (national, state and local) and the role of constitutional law in the development of the American political economy. Particular attention will be given to how the Supreme Court interprets institutional powers and how it shapes constitutional politics. (Fall 2006)

V53.0332: Civil Liberties (undergraduate).  This course seeks to locate civil liberties issues in American politics by examining  political and legal debates about constitutional liberty and equality.  We will pay particular attention to the problem of tolerance in a constitutional democracy.  The course integrates political, social and doctrinal analysis.  You should read all the required materials before class and be prepared to discuss it and to raise questions you have about the readings or lectures.   When you study court cases, be prepare to discuss the facts of each case, the arguments and the reasoning applied by the justices.  Participation in class discussion is important not only for the final evaluation of your work, but it is one way of learning the "logic" of legal and political discourse. (Spring 1995)

V53.0336: Gender in Law (undergraduate).  This course analyzes the construction of gender politics in law.  The objective is to study the historical conditions and political effects of mobilizing law as an arena for protecting certain gender identities and not others.  The course examines the relationship between gender politics, legal theory and social policy. We will study social movement mobilization of law to reform notions of gender in law and society by focusing on:  the pay equity movement; the feminization of the legal profession; and reproductive regulation in toxic workplaces.  The course examines both bodies of law that gender social relations and how law regulates "the body" in the more literal sense of the word, such as regulation of reproduction and regulation of consenting sexual acts.  We will also study under what conditions law is and is not an effective political resource for identity politics.(Spring 1996)