INTRODUCTION TO LAW AND SOCIETY The Ohio State University Sociology 2309 Spring Semester, 2015 M W F 12:40 1:35pm, Jennings Hall #40

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1 INTRODUCTION TO LAW AND SOCIETY The Ohio State University Sociology 2309 Spring Semester, 2015 M W F 12:40 1:35pm, Jennings Hall #40 Professor: Ryan D. King Office: 110 Townshend Hall Phone: king.2065@osu.edu Open office hours: Tuesdays, 10:00-11:30am; Wednesdays, 10:30-Noon; and by appointment COURSE DESCRIPTION Law plays an integral role in modern societies. It dictates how fast we drive, how harshly we punish, and how much privacy we have in our dwellings. Activists turn to the law when they desire social change and politicians preach about the rule of law as the backbone of a stable democracy. Yet laws do not spontaneously appear and they are not uniformly enforced. Laws are created, interpreted, enforced, and indeed broken by people who exercise discretion and sometimes act on their prejudices. As such, the same law can be implemented differently in one place compared to another. Law, we might say, is variable, and one aim of law and society scholarship is to understand this variation. This class is the first of two courses offered in the Sociology Department that delve into the connection between law and society (the sequel to this course is Sociology 4509 Sociology of Law). Our objectives here are to learn about legal institutions and how they relate to other aspects of society, such as the socio-economic environment, intergroup relations, and politics. In Part I, we review some basic legal concepts, such as the principles of criminal liability, criminal procedure, reading court cases and writing legal briefs. In Part II we look at ways in which law and society influence each other, and in Part III we examine the justice system and how sociological factors influence criminal justice decision-making. Course Objectives in Brief 1. Develop a working understanding of the rule of law, criminal procedure, and criminal liability; 2. Understand the organization of the American legal system, including how laws are made, why they aren t always enforced, and when they can be challenged in the appellate courts; 3. Provide a rudimentary understanding of ways to evaluate whether laws meet their stated objectives and how to determine whether laws influence behavior; 4. Understand how legal institutions are influenced by other facets of society. Books and Readings Anthony Walsh and Craig Hemmens Law, Justice and Society, Third Edition. Oxford University Press. Donald Black (or newer edition). The Behavior of Law. Academic Press. Additional readings are available on Carmen. 1

2 COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING Grades are determined based on your performance on three exams, a quiz, a writing assignment, and a series of in-class assignments. The in-class assignments consist of short answers to questions posed by the instructor and occasionally a quiz on the reading. The exams include multiple choice and short answer questions. DISTRIBUTION OF POINTS AND DUE DATES Assignment Percent Date Constitution Quiz 5% January 30 th Legal brief 10% February 4 th Exam #1 20% February 13 th Exam #2 30% March 27 th Exam #3 (Final Exam) 30% May 5 th In-class writing 5% Regularly in class WEIGHTED PERCENTAGE OF POINTS AND LETTER GRADES A B D A C D B C D B C E <60 POLICIES ON LATE WORK, MISSED CLASS, INCOMPLETES AND SCHOLASTIC MISCONDUCT Conduct and integrity. Students will not be penalized for late work or absences if they show documentation of a reasonable excuse for missing the class (e.g., funeral; surgery; jury duty). Documentation can be shown directly to the professor. I realize that sometimes students get sick but do not require a trip to the doctor's office (e.g., a bad cold or minor case of the flu). In these situations documentation is not required, but it is important to let me know of your impending absence by phone or prior to the lecture or exam. Late work including exams will result in a 10 percent deduction for each two business days beyond the deadline or exam date. If you miss a lecture, I recommend getting the notes from a fellow student or downloading the power point slides from Carmen, and then see the instructor for clarification. Any student caught cheating, plagiarizing, or engaging in any other form of scholastic misconduct will be given an automatic zero for the assignment. Students are encouraged to review the University s policies concerning academic integrity at Note on . Please practice professional etiquette when writing s. That is, include a greeting (Dear ), write your name at the end of your messages, identify the course in the subject line, and use proper capitalization and grammar. In short, do not write like a text message. These are good habits to develop as you prepare for the job market, and in the absence of a good faith effort to follow these guidelines I will politely reply and ask that you rewrite and resend the message using proper grammar. I appreciate your attention to these details. Statement regarding disability. Students requiring accommodations based on the impact of a disability should contact the instructor privately to discuss specific needs. Please also register with Student Life Disability Services. After registration, make arrangements with me as soon as possible 2

3 to discuss your accommodations, so they may be implemented in a timely fashion. If you have any questions about this process, please contact Disability Services at or at orslds@osu.edu. CLASS SCHEDULE Part I: The U.S. Constitution and Its Interpretation An Introduction Week 1 (January 12-16) Introductions; Four ways to study law Monday Course introduction Wednesday Approaches to studying law, part I - Reading: John Sutton, Chapter 1 (pages 1-10) in Law/Society (CARMEN) Friday Approaches to studying law, part II - Reading: Walsh and Hemmens, Chapter 1 (pages 1-16) Week 2 (January 19-23) Interpreting the law Monday No Class; MLK Day Wednesday Positivism and Natural Law - Reading: [1] The U.S. Constitution (pages in Walsh and Hemmens); [2] Walsh and Hemmens, page 63-top to page 79 in on the Bill of Rights; [3] Pages in Lon Fuller s The Morality of Law (CARMEN) Friday Debating The Speluncean Explorers - Reading: The Case of the Speluncean Explorers, by Lon Fuller (CARMEN) Week 3 (January 26-30) Finish interpretation; Constitution Quiz Monday Perspectives on interpreting the law, part I Wednesday Perspectives on interpreting the law, part II - Reading: Kelo v. City of New London Wikipedia page ( Background and Opinion sections; CARMEN) Friday Principles of criminal liability; Quiz on U.S. Constitution - Reading: Walsh and Hemmens, Chapter 2 up to page 49; also Chapter 5 Note: We will not discuss chapter 2 in class, but be familiar with the perspectives on justice. Week 4 (February 2-6) Criminal procedure Monday Criminal procedure, part I - Reading: Walsh and Hemmens, Chapter 6 Wednesday Criminal procedure, part II - Legal Brief due today Friday Finish liability/procedure and review for exam - Reading: Walsh and Hemmens, Chapter 4, pp Note: We will discuss these pages only briefly in class. Be familiar with basic jurisdiction of U.S. courts. 3

4 Week 5 (February 9-13) Free expression: Sociological and legal viewpoints Monday 1 st Amendment: legal and social science issues - Reading: Jon Gould, Background and Chronology, pp (top) in Speak No Evil (CARMEN) Wednesday 1 st Amendment: legal and social science issues, part II Friday Exam #1 Part II: The Reciprocal Relationship between Law and Society Week 6 (February 16-20) Do court decisions matter for social change? Monday Do court decisions matter? Part I - Reading: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (CARMEN) Wednesday - Do court decisions matter? Part II - Reading: [1] Walsh and Hemmens, pages ; [2] Gerald Rosenberg, 1991, pages in The Hollow Hope (CARMEN) Friday - Do court decisions matter? Part III Week 7 (February 23-27) Equal protection issues Monday Issue I: Race and education today Wednesday Issue II: Affirmative action - Reading: [1] Who Supports Affirmative Action, an ACLU Report (CARMEN); [2] The Case Against Affirmative Action, The Stanford Alumni Magazine (CARMEN) Friday Issue III: The courts and capital punishment - Reading: Walsh and Hemmens, pages Week 8 (March 2-6) Legislation and its impact Monday Part I: felon disenfranchisement - Reading: Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen, The Racial Origins of Felon Disenfranchisement, Chapter 2 in Locked Out (CARMEN) Wednesday Legislation and its impact, part II: Voting rights - Reading: The Impact of the Voting Rights Act on Black and White Voter Registration in the South, by James E. Alt. Pp in Quiet Revolution in the South. o Note: Skim beginning and end; focus mostly on pp (top) Friday Legislation and its impact, part III: The VRA and its aftermath Week 9 (March 9-13) Law and stratification Monday Law and stratification, part I - Reading: D. Black, The Behavior of Law, Chapters 1, 2, 5 Wednesday Law and stratification, part II Friday Law and stratification, part III - The Echo Chamber, a Reuters Special Report (CARMEN) Week 10 (March 16-20) Spring Break ****NO CLASS THIS WEEK**** 4

5 Week 11 (March 23-27) Alternative dispute resolution; Overview of juvenile law; Exam #2 Monday ADR Wednesday Law and juveniles - Reading: Walsh and Hemmens, Chapter 8; Behavior of Law, Chapter 6 Friday Exam #2 Part III: The Justice System and Its Agents Week 12 (April 1-4) Law and social distance; criminal sentencing Monday Law and social distance, part I: Durkheim s ideas on punishment - Reading: Walsh and Hemmens, pp Wednesday Law and social distance, part II: Black s theory of law and distance - Reading: Behavior of Law, chapters 3 and 4 Friday Law and distance, part III: application to sentencing - Reading: King, Ryan D., Kecia R. Johnson, and Kelly McGeever Demography of the Legal Profession and Racial Disparities in Sentencing. Law and Society Review 44: 1-32 (CARMEN). Week 13 (April 6-10) Court actors and decision-making Monday Sentencing, continued; selecting judges - Reading: Should judges be elected rather than appointed?, pp in Taking Sides, 15 th ed. (CARMEN) Wednesday Prosecution Friday Plea bargaining, part I - Reading: Walsh and Hemmens, ; OPTIONAL (a great resource if you re looking for more information on the basics of plea bargaining). Week 14 (April 13-17) Eyewitness testimony Monday Plea bargaining, part II Wednesday Common beliefs about eyewitness accounts - Reading: Elizabeth Loftus, Common Beliefs about Eyewitness Accounts, Chapter 9 (pp ) in Eyewitness Testimony (CARMEN) Friday The science of recollection Week 15 (April 20-24) Juries as social and legal institutions Monday Legal and policy issues concerning eyewitness testimony Wednesday Juries, part I - Reading: Walsh and Hemmens, pp Friday Juries, part II Week 16 (April 27) The legal profession; review Monday A snapshot of the legal profession today - Reading: Tracking the Bubble, pp.3-14 in The Lawyer Bubble by Steven J. Harper (CARMEN). Final Exam. May 5 th, Noon 1:45pm, Jennings Hall #40 5