Spring 2015

Critical Legal Geographies

Listed in: Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought, as LJST-226

Formerly listed as: LJST-26

Faculty

David P. Delaney (Section 01)

Description

The spatiality of social life is a fundamental element of human existence, not least through its involvement with power of various sorts. Spatiality is also a significant--and problematic--dimension of law (think of sovereignty, jurisdiction, citizenship). At the same time, law is a significant force through which spatiality is produced, reinforced, contested and transformed. Law literally constitutes social spaces through constitutions, treaties, statutes, contracts, modes of surveillance and policing, and so on. As it does so, it constitutes itself as a force in the world. Law may also be an arena in which other social-spatial conflicts are played out and, provisionally, resolved. The course will consider both the changing spatiality of law (its scope, scale, limits; its vectors and circuits) and the changing legal constitution of other social spaces. This will be done through an engagement with contemporary socio-spatial and legal theories and through a survey of exemplary events and situations. Among the more specific topics we will consider are privacy and property; public space of speech and dissent; migration, displacement and sanctuary; colonialism and occupation. The contexts of our study will not be limited to/by American law but will include examples involving international law, forms of legal pluralism, and other legal-cultural contexts. The course will conclude with an investigation of globalization and the emergence of cyberspace and their posited effects on the very possibility of law as we have come to understand and experience it.

Requisite: LJST 110 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer Delaney.

If Overenrolled: Priority to LJST majors, and then by seniority.

Cost: $37.00 ?

LJST 226 - L/D

Section 01
Tu 01:00 PM - 02:20 PM CLAR 100
Th 01:00 PM - 02:20 PM CLAR 100

Offerings

2024-25: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2008, Spring 2010, Fall 2012, Spring 2015, Spring 2018, Spring 2021