UW Bothell Course Descriptions
UW Tacoma Course Descriptions
Glossary
Detailed course offerings (Time Schedule) are available for
LSJ 200 Introduction to Law, Societies, and Justice (5) SSc
Explores the central role of law in social processes; investigates the primary types of legal regimes and compares them across different national and international contexts; contrasts legal with non-legal forms of social ordering; investigates the structure and practice of human rights law. Course equivalent to: BIS 279.
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LSJ 230 Introduction to Disability Studies (5) SSc, DIV
Introduces the field of disability studies. Focuses on the theoretical questions of how society predominantly understands disability and the social justice consequences. Examines biological, social, cultural, political, and economic determinants in the framing of disability. Offered: jointly with CHID 230/DIS ST 230.
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LSJ 301 Internship (1-5, max. 5)
Participation in an approved internship. Credit/no-credit only.
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LSJ 310 Research in Law, Societies, and Justice (1-5, max. 15) SSc
Supervised introductory individual and/or seminar-based research on some aspect of society and justice.
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LSJ 320 The Politics and Law of International Human Rights (5) SSc, DIV
Studies the international human rights movement in its legal and political context. Focuses on institutions which influence, enable, and constrain the international promotion of human rights. Course overlaps with: T LAW 424. Offered: jointly with POL S 368.
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LSJ 321 Human Rights Law in Culture and Practice (5) SSc, DIV
Introduces the complexities of issues surrounding human rights. Examines human rights concerns through critical analyses, taking into account legal, social, economic, and historical variables. Offered: jointly with ANTH 323.
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LSJ 322 Human Rights in Latin America (5) SSc, DIV
Overview of human rights issues and their recent evolution in Latin American history; military dictatorships; contemporary challenges in the region's democracies. Human rights concerns in relation to broader sociopolitical context. Course overlaps with: JSIS A 121. Offered: jointly with JSIS A 324.
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LSJ 327 Women's Rights as Human Rights (5) SSc, DIV
Women's rights in comparative perspective, focusing on varying settings that alter the meaning and practical application. Domestic level: areas including abortion politics to trafficking in women. International level: areas including equality claims before European supranational judicial bodies, rape as war crime in international law. Offered: jointly with POL S 327.
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LSJ 329 Immigration, Citizenship, and Rights (5) SSc, DIV
A sociological examination of citizenship. Focus on how immigration law and polices shape divers meanings, practices, and statues, of citizenship in varied context, Topics include migration theories, state control, stage of legal status, relationship to race and gender ideology, as well as labor and civil society, in shaping membership and rights.
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LSJ 331 The Politics of Race and Ethnicity in the United States (5) SSc, DIV
Introduction to the history and development of racial hierarchy, focusing on how race and ethnicity shape political institutions (e.g., the Constitution, political parties, voting systems). Examination of political relationships between Whites, African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans. Case studies of minority representation and the politics of welfare, crime, immigration, and terrorism. Offered: jointly with POL S 317.
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LSJ 332 Disability and Society (5, max. 15) SSc
Analyzes disability representations in literature, film, and other cultural texts; social science approaches to disability marginalization and empowerment; intersectionality of disability with other markers of diversity and identity. Offered: jointly with CHID 332/DIS ST 332; AWSpS.
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LSJ 346 Disability in Global and Comparative Perspective (5) SSc, DIV
Examines the meaning, politics, and experience of disability globally and locally in order to understand what is universal and what is particular to the disability experience in a diverse world. Human rights, inclusive development, and social movements approaches addressing the marginalization of disabled persons explored throughout. Offered: jointly with DIS ST 346/JSIS B 346.
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LSJ 347 Politics of International Law (5) SSc
Examines the development, design, and consequences of international law. Focuses on how international legal agreements constrain and enable both state and non-state actors across a range of issues, including economic affairs, the environment, human rights, and war. Course equivalent to: T LAW 423. Offered: jointly with POL S 347.
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LSJ 360 Introduction to United States Constitutional Law (5) SSc
Growth and development of the United States Constitution as reflected in decisions of the Supreme Court; political, social, and economic effects. Offered: jointly with POL S 360.
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LSJ 361 United States Courts and Civil Liberty (5) SSc
Cases and literature bearing on protection of constitutionally guaranteed private rights, with particular reference to the period since 1937. Course equivalent to: T LAW 361. Offered: jointly with POL S 361.
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LSJ 363 Law in Society (5) SSc
Inquiry into how law matters in social practice. Examines general theories of law, the workings of legal institutions, and the character of legally constituted practices and relationships in diverse terrains of social life. Course equivalent to: T LAW 363. Offered: jointly with POL S 363.
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LSJ 366 Comparative Law and Legal Cultures (5) SSc
Explores global issues of comparative law, societies, politics, courts, and cultures. Introduces theories and methods of comparing legal settings internationally and understating diverse responses to law. Covers what is comparative law; families of law; history of comparative law; judicial review; legal cultures; rights consciousness; and regulation. Offered: jointly with JSIS B 366.
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LSJ 367 Comparative Law and Courts (5) SSc
Introduction to comparative judicial politics, focusing on the relationship between law and politics in cross-national perspective, as well as on the functioning of supranational and international legal entities in the international system. Offered: jointly with POL S 367.
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LSJ 370 Privacy (5) SSc
Explores how individuals, corporations, and governments respond to privacy challenges in the digital age. Examines evolution of the idea of privacy using case studies of actual privacy policies, legal cases, and real-world situations. Covers legal, political, and social facets of this fundamental human issue. Offered: jointly with JSIS B 370/POL S 370; Sp.
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LSJ 375 Crime, Politics, and Justice (5) SSc
Examines role of police, courts, and corrections in criminal justice; investigates critical legal and sociological factors and perspectives that shape criminal procedure; considers the relationship between criminal procedure and wider concerns of justice and equality in society. Offered: jointly with SOC 372.
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LSJ 376 Drugs and Society (5) SSc
Explores the questions of drug use and abuse, social and political factors that shape response to their use, and the social conditions under which drug use is likely to have adverse consequences. Also covers U.S. drug control policy, the political economy of legal and illegal drugs, and political aspects of drug use. Offered: jointly with SOC 376.
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LSJ 377 Punishment: Theory and Practice (5) SSc
Examines the philosophical reasoning that underlies punishment practices such as sentencing, imprisonment, or capital punishment. Considers policy issues in these areas in light of theories about morality and human nature. Helps students learn how to analyze punishment policies from ethical and philosophical perspectives.
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LSJ 378 Policing the City (5) SSc
Investigates how and why formal and informal order is established in urban areas, how this order produces advantages and disadvantages, and possibilities of alternative visions of order. Topics include formal means of control (zoning, laws, policing, building codes) and informal means of control (gossip, ostracism, peer pressure, local politics). Offered: jointly with GEOG 378; A.
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LSJ 380 Contemporary Issues in Comparative Legal Institutions (5, max. 10) SSc
Covers theoretical, empirical, and comparative aspects of such topics as socio-legal concepts, justice, legal policies, and the institutions of law.
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LSJ 381 Contemporary Issues in Rights (5, max. 10) SSc
Studies the theoretical, empirical, and comparative aspects of such topics as human rights, civil rights, and legal change.
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LSJ 401 Field Experience in Law, Societies, and Justice (5)
Participant observation in a public or private agency relevant to the study of law, justice, human rights, or court systems.
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LSJ 410 Social Justice Through Philanthropy (5) SSc, DIV
Develops critical thinking skills and practical knowledge regarding philanthropic giving. Challenges thinking around what community support looks like and how to do so effectively. Focuses on inequality, power, privilege, and marginality. Recommended: coursework in either human rights, international development, civil society, non-profit management, or social movements. Offered: AWSp.
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LSJ 415 Juvenile Parole Project (5-) SSc
Prepares students to assist lawyers representing individuals at parole hearings, for convictions received as juveniles. Nature of juvenile criminal offending, the experience of incarceration, how individuals are assessed for parole, and how reentry can be successful. Offered: A.
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LSJ 416 Juvenile Parole Practicum (-[1-5], max. 10) SSc
Practicum which prepares students to assist lawyers representing individuals at parole hearings for convictions received as juveniles. Tasks include: accessing records; communicating with family members; developing reentry plans; preparing an individual for a parole hearing. Prerequisite: LSJ 415. Credit/no-credit only. Offered: WSp.
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LSJ 420 The Politics of Rights (5) SSc
Examines rights in practical and social interaction, rights as social conventions, relations of rights practices to official state policies, disputing practices, interest formation, and identity construction at individual and group levels. Explores how rights practices figure into the constellation of contested power relations within modern societies.
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LSJ 421 Women's Rights and Politics in Islamic Society (5) SSc, DIV
Human rights theory with women's legal rights and practice within context of the Islamic state. Introduction to debates regarding universality of human rights through examination of women's rights in Muslim context. Considers journalistic notions of homogeneity among Muslims, political nature of the Islamic state, and its mobilization of human rights. Offered: jointly with ANTH 498.
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LSJ 422 Immigrants, Labor, and Legality (5) SSc, DIV
Provides sociological examination of working immigrants in the United States. Focuses on how immigration and labor legislation shape context of working, worker identity, and rights. Topics include federal and state legislation, employee classification, division of labor, skilled/unskilled, flexibility, legal status, organizing, and relationship to race and gender ideology in shaping contexts of working and rights.
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LSJ 425 Domesticating International Human Rights: Perspectives on U.S. Asylum and Refugee Law (5) SSc, DIV
Examines the creation, production, and proliferation of law and legal categories relating to the status of refugees and asylum-seekers in the United States. Integrates anthropological perspectives of law's ability to create meaning in the examination of deeper implications of asylum and refugee law in American society. Offered: jointly with ANTH 497.
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LSJ 426 Reconciliation: The Politics of Forgiveness in a Global Age (5) SSc, DIV
Draws on history of post-World War II conflict. Analyzes international mechanisms for reconciliation alongside philosophical and moral consideration. Combines occidental moral philosophies of secular human rights rooted with local knowledge and value systems. Surveys faith-based epistemologies underlying reconciliation processes. Prerequisite: either LSJ 320/POL S 368, LSJ 321/ANTH 323, LSJ 322/JSIS A 324, or PHIL 338.
View course details in MyPlan: LSJ 426
LSJ 427 Sanctioned States: Law, Politics, and Practice of International Sanctions (5) SSc
Studies the humanitarian consequences of sanctions, the manipulation of humanitarian exemptions by authoritarian leaders, and the methods of "sanctions-busting" employed by economic profiteers as well as humanitarians. Analyzes the role that sanctions play in shaping international politics and bringing "rogue" states to heel. Recommended: either LSJ 200 and LSJ 321/ANTH 323, or coursework in human rights at the level of POL S 368/LSJ 320.
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LSJ 428 Women's Rights in an Integrated Europe (5) SSc
Examines the transformation in women's rights policy within the European community from the late 1950s through the present. Focuses on the legal rules and bodies that govern not only these policy domains, but also their evolution and impacts. Offered: jointly with POL S 415.
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LSJ 429 Global Perspective on Refugee Development: Seeking Refuge (5) SSc
Covers refugee hosting in countries of the Global South, resettlement in countries of the Global North, asylum-seeking, and return. Analyzes refugee policies and experiences. Teaches how refugees are embedded in a world system of control and humanitarian protection in which policymaking in one context is shaped by actors elsewhere. Offered: AWSpS.
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LSJ 430 Topics in Disability Studies (1-5, max. 15) SSc
Theoretical, critical, analytical, or comparative examination of an issue or issues in Disability Studies. Topics vary. Prerequisite: either DIS ST 230/CHID 230/LSJ 230, DIS ST 332/CHID 332/LSJ 332, DIS ST 433/CHID 433/LSJ 433, or DIS ST 434/CHID 434/LSJ 434. Offered: jointly with CHID 430/DIS ST 430.
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LSJ 431 Civil-Military Relations in Democracies (5) SSc
Explores issues of civil-military relations in the United States including debates about the garrison state hypothesis; military advice on the use of force; the civil-military "gap"; and issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation in the military. Offered: jointly with POL S 430.
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LSJ 433 Disability Law, Policy, and the Community (5) SSc, DIV
Addresses the history of legal rights of disabled people, U. S. disability policy, and the role of community activism and other forces in policy development and systems change. Introduces the existing social service system that affects disabled people. Offered: jointly with CHID 433/DIS ST 433.
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LSJ 434 Civil and Human Rights Law for Disabled People (5) SSc, DIV
Expands knowledge of civil and human rights for disabled people. Examines the American perspective (ADA) as well as various international models including the United Nations' International Human Rights treaties as they relate to disabled people. Offered: jointly with CHID 434/DIS ST 434; A.
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LSJ 437 Crime, Law, and Mental Illness (5) SSc, DIV
Explores experiences of those with mental illness in the criminal justice system and involuntary civil commitment system. Emphasis on societal responses including the emergence of therapeutic courts and specialized police training. Examines how courts, legislature, and communities balance public safety and civil liberties. Offered: jointly with CHID 437/DIS ST 437.
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LSJ 438 Human Rights and International Development (5) SSc, DIV
Focuses on recent theoretical debates and innovations in the practice of applying human rights principles to international development. Uses case studies of groups historically marginalized in development policies, such as persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and older persons to understand the usefulness of course concepts.
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LSJ 444 Ethics in Law and Justice (5) SSc
Applies ethical theories, research, and practice to the law and justice system, with the goals of: (1) analyzing the moral dimensions of criminal law; (2) studying ethical issues in law enforcement, adjudications, and corrections; and (3) examining a variety of controversial ethical issues associated with the justice system.
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LSJ 456 Institutional Failure (5) SSc
Examines why political institutions fail to achieve their goals or operate in a manner they were originally intended to, and the consequences of these failures. Topics include the national security establishment, the drug war, concentrated poverty, mass incarceration, and inner-city schools. Offered: jointly with POL S 456.
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LSJ 467 Law, Justice, and the Environment (5) SSc
Examines the role law plays in shaping environmental policy. Challenges student to understand how environmental concerns are translated into legal discourse, and covers several typical issues that emerge in environmental law. Centers on active discussions. Offered: jointly with GEOG 467.
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LSJ 469 Law and Rights in Authoritarian Regimes (5) SSc
Explores role of law and courts and nature of rights in authoritarian regimes. Questions addressed include why authoritarian regimes promote "rule-of-law", who is empowered by law, and the political consequences of "rule-of-law' promotion. Offered: jointly with JSIS B 469/POL S 469.
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LSJ 474 Geography and the Law (5) SSc
Examines the relationship between geography, law, and socio-legal analysis; reviews significant instances where law and geography intersect, such as the regulation of public space, the regulation of borders and mobility, and disputes over property and land use. Offered: jointly with GEOG 474.
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LSJ 476 Miscarriages of Justice (5) SSc
Examines legal and social factors that shape criminal case outcomes, analyzing how one type of miscarriage of justice - wrongful conviction - occurs. How can cases of wrongful conviction be explained? Why are some people, against whom there is only weak evidence, convicted-and sometimes even executed? Offered: jointly with SOC 476.
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LSJ 478 The Experience of Incarceration (5) SSc
The United States incarcerates people at a higher rate than any other country and these individuals' daily lives largely escape any form of public awareness. This course is designed to help illuminate those lives. While prisons vary significantly, there are sufficient commonalities across U.S. prisons to allow meaningful exploration of what it means to be in a contemporary penal institution. We will undertake such an exploration in this class. Course overlaps with: BIS 336. Offered: A.
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LSJ 480 Policing Modern Society (5) SSc
Explores institution and practices of police in context of the rise of modern society, and considers the expanding presence of the police in everyday modern life. Topics include: history of policing, changing roles of police, police reform, and ethical dilemmas intrinsic to the police function.
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LSJ 488 Honors in Law, Societies, and Justice (5-)
First of a two-course hyphenated sequence. To be completed with LSJ 489.
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LSJ 489 Honors in Law, Societies, and Justice (-[1-5], max. 5) SSc
Thesis research honors option. Second of a two-course hyphenated sequence. To be completed with LSJ 488.
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LSJ 490 Special Topics in Comparative Legal Institutions (1-5, max. 15) SSc
Focused, comparative examination of legal institutions.
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LSJ 491 Special Topics in Rights (1-5, max. 15) SSc
Focused, comparative examination of topics in rights.
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LSJ 495 Study Abroad-Law, Societies, and Justice (3-5, max. 15) SSc
Comparative studies abroad of legal institutions, rights, and justice as related to national settings. Specific course content determined by faculty member.
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LSJ 499 Readings in Law, Societies, and Justice (1-5, max. 10)
Individual readings in law, societies, and justice.
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LSJ 501 Law, Politics, and Society (5)
Provides a broad overview of, and introduction to, the interdisciplinary field of Law and Society Studies, including the historical development of law and society studies and an overview of its main concerns and questions.
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LSJ 510 Topics in Law and Society Studies (3-5, max. 20)
Current topics in law and society studies.
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