| LWJS 222-01 |
Constitutional Law
Instructor: Matthew Draper
Course Description:
Cross-listed with POSC 220-01. This course provides an overview of Constitutional Law. We will first examine the roots of the American Constitution in English common law and existing political arrangements. We will cover the different ways scholars interpret and read the Constitution, and how social movements use the Constitution. The Constitution has been interpreted to the ends of inclusion or exclusion over time, and we will be guided by questions such as the legal scholar, Dahl, asked: "How democratic is the American Constitution?" Prerequisite: POSC 120, or permission of the instructor. This course is cross-listed as POSC 220.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF
DENNY 211 |
| LWJS 290-01 |
Politics of Migration
Instructor: Natalie Chwalisz
Course Description:
Cross-listed with POSC 290-01. Currently, both forced and voluntary migration is at historic highs. Simultaneously, immigration control is becoming a global phenomenon. The rise of border control contrasts with the vulnerability of many migrants today. This course will give an overview of migration and forced migration and then look at issues and rationales in migration control from a comparative perspective. The questions we will ask are: What drives migration? What are the historical roots of migration? What is the purpose of immigration control? What are the politics of migration control in comparative perspective? This course incorporates various levels of analysis (international, national, subnational, transnational) and draws on interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks. Students will gain an understanding of migration and the legal frameworks governing the process. Students will then explore how migration relates to state sovereignty, human rights, and international law. Students will also interrogate the process of creating immigration policies, and the actors and stakeholders driving this process.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
DENNY 311 |
| LWJS 290-02 |
International Law
Instructor: Natalie Chwalisz
Course Description:
Cross-listed with POSC 290-02. Permission of Instructor required. This course introduces students to the foundations and evolution of international law, from early laws of war and sovereignty to contemporary legal regimes governing human rights, migration, environmental protection, accountability after conflict, and global economic relations. Rather than treating international law as a fully enforced system, the course emphasizes law as a contested set of rules shaped by power, inequality, and historical legacies. Using comparative perspectives and real-world case studies, students examine how international legal norms are created, interpreted, and challenged across different political and legal contexts. Central themes include sovereignty and jurisdiction, mobility and borders, environmental responsibility, and the political economy of international legal regimes.
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09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR
DENNY 204 |
| LWJS 390-01 |
War and Justice
Instructor: Toby Reiner
Course Description:
Cross-listed with POSC 390-01. Permission of Instructor Required. "All's fair in love and war," goes the common saying, suggesting that standards of justice or morality are inapplicable to military conflict, which is a realm of survival in which anything goes. Others hold that no war can possibly be just, at least in the contemporary era in which weapons of mass destruction mean that wars wreak a human and environmental impact that cannot possibly be sustainable or legitimate. In this class, we consider both these approaches - realism and pacifism, respectively - and juxtapose them to the just-war tradition, which holds that defensive and limited wars may be justified so long as they follow certain moral guidelines such as proportionality and non-combatant immunity. We will consider when it might be just to go to war, how just wars must be waged, and what, if anything, justice after war consists in. We will approach these questions using both the laws of war and philosophical works about war. We will consider military conflicts from across the globe, including the World Wars, Vietnam, Rwanda, Cambodia, the former Yugoslavia, and more, and from ancient Greece through the Middle Ages to the present day. We will consider topics such as humanitarian intervention and the protection of human rights during war, the moral status and responsibility of ordinary combatants, war crimes tribunals, genocide and ethnic cleansing, civil war, emerging technologies of war, and the possibility of moving towards a world in which war is no longer necessary.
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01:30 PM-04:30 PM, T
DENNY 204 |