Introduction to Law, Letters, and Society

Undergraduate / Graduate

This is an introductory lecture course intended especially for second-years considering the Law, Letters, and Society (LLSO) major. The course will consider law from a wide range of methodological perspectives. Unifying the methodologically disparate lectures will be two main questions. First, to what extent can law be-and in what ways should law be-autonomous, which is to say, separate from the rest of society? Second, supposing a degree of autonomy (i.e., government/society separation), what is-and what should be-the relationship between the government that enforces law and the society in which law is enforced? The course will explore these questions across five main modules: Social Theory and Law, Jurisprudence, Constitutionalism, Law and Politics, Law and Contemporary Society.