Admission requirements
This course is open to students enrolled in the Master Law and Society.
Description
While laws are made by lawmakers, it is civil servants who implement them vis-à-vis citizens. In applying the law, ‘street-level bureaucrats’ do not always treat similar cases in a similar manner.
This course shows how the ambiguity of legal rules, situations of legal pluralism (or the co-existence of multiple legal orders), and the allocation of discretion by lawmakers to bureaucrats allow for this kind of inequality to emerge. The course then explores the varied patterns of unequal treatment that arise and it considers explanations for this inequality. The course familiarizes students with explanations that operate at the level of institutions, such as organizational cultures, and individual decision-makers.
Case material will concentrate on different types of bureaucrats in different countries, including social workers, court clerks and law enforcers –public and private. In addition, the course will address frames for explaining non-compliance with rules, shifting the lens to the perspective of the addressees of executive institutions.
The course combines more theoretical orientated lectures, on the contours and frames within which to consider the rule of man, with classes centering om specific case-studies. In the latter, guest lecturers offer an example from their research or practice in the second hour of the class.
Course objectives
Objectives of the course
At the end of this course, student will be able to:
Distinguish the working of legal systems in practice, with regard to the principles of street-level application and enforcement of laws;
Evaluate institutional and organizational dynamics impacting the application and enforcement of laws;
Evaluate political and societal dynamics impacting the application and enforcement of laws;
Identify ‘rule of man in the rule of law’ issues in their own experience, information flows or cultural repertoire and analyze these issues with reference to the course materials;
Verbally and orally articulate an autonomous and substantiated opinion on the identified issues;
Write a concise fact sheet with talking points for someone else’s use;
Participate in a mock negotiation working from a provided fact sheet + talking points.
Timetable
The timetable of this course can be found here.
Mode of instruction
Lectures
Number of (2 hour) lectures: 4
Names of lecturers: dr. mr. Danielle Chevalier (FdR - VVI), dr. Nadine Raaphorst (FGGA) and 2 guest lecturers
Required preparation by students: reading assigned literature, preparing reflection papers.
Seminars
Number of (3 hour) seminars: 4
Names of instructors: dr. mr. Danielle Chevalier (FdR - VVI), dr. Nadine Raaphorst (FGGA)
Required preparation by students: reading assigned literature, preparing reflection papers and preparing a talking points exercise.
All students are required to attend and actively participate during lectures and seminars.
Assessment method
Examination form(s)
Evaluation is based on six thought pieces that students prepare for class (30%), two exercises focused on writing fact sheets with talking points (30%), and a final essay (40%).
Students who fail the course, can do a retake of the essay, on condition they have partaken in all examination forms.
Grades remain valid for the academic year in which they were attained.
Reading list
Obligatory course materials
Literature:
All information and reading materials will be distributed via Brightspace.
Registration
Students have to register for courses and exams through uSis.
Contact information
Coordinator: dr. mr. Danielle Chevalier
Work address: KOG (Steenschuur 25 Leiden), room B1.20
Telephone number: +31 71 5271039
Email: d.a.m.chevalier@law.leidenuniv.nl
Institution/division
Institute: The Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of the Law
Department: Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance & Society
Room number secretary: KOG (Steenschuur 25 Leiden), room B1.14
Opening hours: Mon – Fri, 9.00 – 17.00
Telephone number secretary: +31 (0)71 527 7260
Email: vollenhoven@law.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
None.