The University of New South Wales

go to UNSW home page

Handbook Home

PRINT THIS PAGE
Law, Society & Power - LAWS8337
Law Books

 
Faculty: Faculty of Law
 
 
School:  Faculty of Law
 
 
Course Outline: See below
 
 
Campus: Kensington Campus
 
 
Career: Postgraduate
 
 
Units of Credit: 6
 
 
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
 
 
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2
 
 
Enrolment Requirements:
 
 
Prerequisite: Academic Program must be either 9200, 9210, 5740 or 9230
 
 
Fee Band: 3 (more info)
 
 
Further Information: See Class Timetable
 
 

Description

This course will explore the relationships between its three key concepts - law, society, and power - and seek to further our understanding of the complexity and variety of their interactions. It will do it by way of an introduction to 1. some of the great traditions of thinking about law, society and power, 2. contemporary sociological discussions of these relationships, 3. some of the central practical, theoretical, empirical and normative issues that surround the interactions of law, society and power in the contemporary world; 4. contemporary accounts of large-scale shifts in the character of legal orders and their social and political environments. The course will seek to encourage us to see the complex and varied relations that exist in modern societies between law, society and power. More complex and varied than is at first apparent.


LLM Specialisation

Human Rights and Social Justice

Recommended Prior Knowledge

No prerequisites. Some background in a social science would be helpful.

Course Objectives

  • Furnish students with an awareness of some of the central and continuing traditions of thought about law/society/power interactions
  • Enable them to think both within the paradigms of such traditions, as well as critically about them
  • Encourage them to step beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries to take in the variety of sources that focus on common problems, among them from sociology, law, history, political science and philosophy
  • Focus the general themes on the course on contrasts between characterizations of law that emphasize its role as the servant of power, and those that see it as a force that constrains it
  • Focus them also on those who see society as an inert recipient of law and those that emphasize it as an active source of law
  • Examine the ways these different conceptions play out in the context of communist and post-communist societies
  • Acquaint students with major shifts and changes in the character of law and its social and political environment in the West and in the world

Main Topics

  • Central questions about law, society, and power
  • Law and State Power: Hobbes; Foucault
  • Law as a servant of Social Power: Marxism and Feminism
  • Law as a source of social solidarity: Emile Durkheim
  • Law in Society: precursors of the law and society movement
  • State, Law and Society. What's the Interaction?
  • Law as Restraint on Power. The Rule of Law
  • Society and the Rule of Law
  • Law: Power or Constraint? Modern Controversies
  • Communism, Post-Communism; Law and the Rule of Law

Assessment

Reading summaries and class participation Preparation and engagement in class; completion of reading summaries each week 30%
Research essay 4,000 words 70%
 

Course Texts

Prescribed
There is a course reader which contains the reading listed in the syllabus.

Recommended
There is a course reader which contains the reading listed in the syllabus.

Resources

There is a course reader which contains the reading listed in the syllabus.

URL for this page:

© The University of New South Wales (CRICOS Provider No.: 00098G), 2004-2011. The information contained in this Handbook is indicative only. While every effort is made to keep this information up-to-date, the University reserves the right to discontinue or vary arrangements, programs and courses at any time without notice and at its discretion. While the University will try to avoid or minimise any inconvenience, changes may also be made to programs, courses and staff after enrolment. The University may also set limits on the number of students in a course.