Law and American Society

Harvard FAS

The course will examine law as a vehicle of resolving political conflict and a defining force in American society in four dimensions: 1.) as it establishes individual rights, liberties, and the limits of toleration; 2.) as it attempts to resolve differences among competing constituencies; 3.) as it sets out terms of punishment and social control having effects on race and class, and 4.) as a source of informing images and ideological meaning. We will examine these themes with close attention…