Admission requirements
This socio-legal course is suitable for 2nd and 3rd year students in Law, Social Sciences (anthropology, international relations, development sociology, public administration), and Humanities (history, philosophy, area studies, arts, international studies). The course looks at both law in the books and law in practice. Hence, non-law students should be willing to familiarize themselves with the outlines of law, whereas law students should be willing to engage in socio-legal subjects beyond the rules of black letter law. As this is a 300-level advanced course, students are expected to independently study the course material, and arrive prepared to engage in discussions and interact with their classmates. For this course a sufficient command of English (IELTS 6.5 or higher) is recommended.
Description
How do law and justice relate? Should the law always be just? How do we determine what is truly just? And how have different societies throughout history understood justice? These are some of the key questions we address in this course, using philosophical, sociological, and legal lenses.
We examine political philosophers’ attempts to determine which social and legal order could lead to a just society. Then, we consider an alternative approach: what can be achieved by starting from observed injustice and organizing the legal system to effectively address it? This approach raises key legal questions, such as whether law can be so unjust that it ceases to be law or whether fundamental principles like legality can be set aside when genocide perpetrators claim to have acted within the law.
With the rise of the nation-state in the 19th and 20th centuries, national and international law increasingly became tools for achieving justice and addressing injustices, including global ones. How do legislators and judges across various legal systems and countries worldwide navigate injustices, such as poverty, gender and ethnic discrimination, environmental degradation, and impunity for gross human rights violations, in a context where perceptions of what is just and unjust may differ among people, social groups and cultures?
This course does not aim to provide a definitive answer to what justice means. Instead, it guides students in exploring how justice is understood in selected countries and time periods and how legal systems can be used to realize it.
Course objectives
By the end of the course students will be able to:
Understand the complexity of the concept of justice.
Reflect critically on the question to what extent the law meets the requirements of justice.
Analyze the factors that contribute to the complex relationship between law and justice in different countries and historical time periods.
Apply legal and social justice concepts to real-world contexts, i.e. identify how law and social (in)justice manifest in public spaces and everyday life.
Critically engage with academic literature and other sources of information, comparing different perspectives and assessing their credibility and persuasiveness.
Timetable
Check MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
*Interactive classes
Number of (2 hour) classes: 10
Name(s) of lecturer(s): Nadia Sonneveld, Janine Ubink, and guest lecturers
Required preparation: Students must review assigned literature and audio-visual materials before each class. Additionally, they should prepare a photowalk output—such as a slideshow, blog post, or PDF—for in-class discussion.
Required participation: in order to assess students’ knowledge throughout the course, students must be prepared to actively participate in class.
Assessment method
*Examination form(s)
Photowalk assignment (pass/fail)
Written exam (100%)
Students need to pass the photowalk assignment to be allowed to do the written exam. If the written exam grade is lower than 5,5 students can do a retake of the exam. If a student has not passed the course by the end of the academic year, passed assignments/exams are no longer valid.
*Areas to be tested within the exam
Selected articles, subject matters taught in the lectures, and all other instructions which form part of the course.
Reading list
Obligatory course materials Literature:
- Required readings and other materials will be made available on Brightspace.
Course information guide:
- Not applicable
Recommended course materials:
- None
Registration
Check the website under “course and exam enrollment” for information on how to register for the course.
Contact information
Coordinator: Dr. N. Sonneveld
For administrative information: vvi-secretariaat@law.leidenuniv.nl
For information about the content of the course: n.sonneveld@law.leidenuniv.nl
Institution/division
Institute: Metajuridica
Department: Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance, and Society
Room number secretariat: KOG, room B1.14
Opening hours: Monday – Friday 9.00 – 12.30 and 13.30 – 16.00 h.
Telephone number secretariat: +31 (0) 71 527 7260