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Elective: Current Issues in Law and Society

Course
2020-2021

Admission requirements

This course is open to students enrolled in the Master Law and Society.

Description

Punishment, Governance, Society
This course studies the global role of punishment in the legitimation and operationalization of political regimes and state practices. We will seek to understand how states across the world use penal practices, broadly defined and including extralegal sanctions, to bolster their legitimacy, authority, and political programs. We will consider cases of global developments in modern neoliberal penality and ask what these changes mean for traditional liberal legal values including autonomy, due process, and the equality of law. To address these problems, our class will begin by considering two foundational questions: what is punishment/penality, and how have modern legal conceptions of punishment historically developed? We will then use this foundation to analyze cases of punishment and politics in South Africa, the Netherlands, the United States, and Indonesia. These settings invite a comparative discussion of punishment and politics across postcolonial, neoliberal, and social welfare state contexts.

Course objectives

After completing the course, students will be able to

  • critically compare and contrast the political economy of punishment in different contexts;

  • understand the historical development of penal systems and its relationship to the role of punishment in contemporary global politics;

  • apply theoretical frameworks for interpreting and explaining penality to specific policy reforms and proposed changes.

Timetable

The timetable of this course can be found here.

Mode of instruction

Lectures

  • Number of (2 hour) lectures: 5

  • Names of lecturer: Chase Burton

  • Required preparation by students: completion of assigned reading.

Seminars

  • Number of (2 hour) seminars: 4

  • Names of instructor: Chase Burton

  • Required preparation by students: completion of assigned reading and reflection on participation questions.

Assessment method

Examination form(s)

  • This course requires two reflection papers (30%), an individual research presentation (30%) and a final paper (40%).

  • Partial grades can be compensated.

  • Students who fail the course can do a retake of the final paper, on condition they have participated in the other assessments.

  • Grades are valid for the academic year in which they were attained.

Areas to be tested within the exam
The examination syllabus consists of the required reading (literature) for the course, the course information guide and the subjects taught in the lectures, the seminars and all other instructions which are part of the course.

Submission procedures
To be announced.

Reading list

Obligatory course materials

  • Course materials will be posted on Brightspace.

  • If you’re keen to get started, some optional books providing important ideas for our class to draw on: David Garland, Punishment and Modern Society; Jean and John Comaroff, The Truth About Crime, Michel Foucault, The Punitive Society.

Registration

Students have to register for courses and exams through uSis.

Contact information

  • Coordinator: Chase Burton

  • Work address: KOG, A1.57

  • Contact information: via secretariat, Ms Kari van Weeren

  • Telephone number: +31 (0)71 527 7493

  • Email: c.s.burton@law.leidenuniv.nl

Institution/division

  • Institute: Meta Juridica / Jurisprudence

  • Department: Van Vollenhoven Institute

  • Room number secretary: KOG room B1.14

  • Opening hours: Monday-Thursday 9.00-12.30 and 13.30-16.00

  • Telephone number secretary: +31 (0) 527 7260

  • Email: vollenhoven@law.leidenuniv.nl

Remarks

None.