Course Syllabus

SPEA V450: Law and Social Justice

T,TH 12:45-2:00

SPEA A335

Professor : Sean Nicholson-Crotty

Office: 410G

Phone: 812-855-0563

Email: seanicho@iu.edu

Office Hours: Tuesdays 11:45-12:45 and By Appt.

Course Objectives

Social justice is used in modern discourse to mean many things, but at its root it is about the distribution of benefits and burdens among the members of a society and the degree to which affected groups feel that current arrangements are  fair.  Those distributions are determined in part by things like tradition (“we’ve always done it that way”) or prejudice (“group A does not deserve/isn’t ready for/can’t handle the same stuff as group B”).  They are also determined by mobilization among groups demanding a new status quo and the changes in law and policy those groups are able to secure. That is going to be the focus of this class. More specifically, we will focus on those instances when the benefits and burdens enjoyed by particular groups of citizens in the United States changed in meaningful ways. We are most interested in the role that social movements, the courts, and elected policy making institutions (i.e. legislatures and executives) had in bringing about those changes. It is important to recognize that our definition of social justice applies equally well to the question of gay marriage and to the expansion of gun rights. In both cases, groups within American society felt that their rights were being  limited and sought to use the courts, legislatures, and executives to gain benefits they sincerely felt were being unfairly denied. By the end of the semester, I will want you all to have formed an opinion about the degree to which these various mechanisms, or some combination of them, are capable of bringing about lasting social change.

Readings

Rosenberg, G. N. (2008). The hollow hope: Can courts bring about social change?. University of Chicago Press.

 Other assigned readings are available on the Canvas site except those for which a link is included in the syllabus.

For more information about the course, including policies, assignments, and outline, see "Course Information" under the Modules Tab