University of Colorado-Boulder
Dr. V. Baird, Professor
Office Ketchum 131D; Email bairdv@sobek.colorado.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 3-5; Wednesday 10-12
(also by appointment)
Tuesday August 28 Introduction
Thursday August 30 No Class
Tuesday September 4 Law, Politics and JusticeExcepts from Plato’s Republic(on webpage)
Thursday September 6 Injustice Excerpts from Hobbes’ Leviathan (on webpage)
Tuesday September 11 Inequality Excerpts from Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality (on webpage)
Thursday
September 13 Cooperation
and Public Goods Analyzing
Politics, Chap 10 (on reserve)
The next portion of the class has to do with the
rule of law, political tolerance and perceptions of the criminal justice
system.In the previous portion
of the class, we will have discussed the problems endemic to human societies
– we found that human beings disagree about what is comprises a good society.Therefore,
in forming a society, we must develop some manner of getting to some good,
or at least preventing what we agree is bad.There
are several ways of dealing with this: ensuring constitutionally that there
are realms that are unfettered by politics (rule of law), ensuring equal
access to the political process (political tolerance or the accepting that
even the most vile of political opponents ought to have the benefit of
freedom of speech), and a fair judicial process.We
will look at the relationship between our empirical observations of human
psychology and these three aspects of our political systems.The
two articles dealing with the rule of law juxtapose the importance of psychological
or symbolic attachments to the law (Gibson) with the importance of cost
benefit analysis (Weingast) in maintaining the rule of law.With
Malice Toward Some,
(Marcus, et al.) shows how people form their attitudes about allocating
civil liberties to individuals and groups that they do not like.“Prime
Suspects,” (Iyengar, et al.) deals with how people use information from
the media to form their opinions about criminal law and punishments.
Tuesday
September 18 The
Rule of Law: Costs and Benefits The
Rule of Law: Weingast (on reserve and web page): NOTE: YOU SHOULD PAY
PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE FIRST TWO PAGES AND THEN TO PAGES 251-262.
Thursday September 20 The Rule of Law: Psychological Attachments The Soviet Putsch: Gibson (on reserve and web page)
Tuesday September 25 Causes of Political Tolerance With Malice Toward Some Chapter 2
Thursday September 27 Political Tolerance and Contemporary Information With Malice Toward Some, Chapter 7
Tuesday October 2 Political Tolerance and Personality With Malice Toward Some, Chapters 8 and 10
ThursdayOctober 4 No class FALL BREAK
Tuesday
October 9 Perceptions
of Criminals and Punishments Gilliam
and Iyengar, “Prime Suspects” (on web page) link
to website
“What does a dog owe to a dog, and a horse to a
horse? Nothing, no animal depends on his like; but man having received
the ray of divinity called reason, what is the result? Slavery throughout
almost the whole world.” Voltaire (1694-1778)
The next portion of the class we will discuss the use of the law to achieve economic goods as well as social liberty and equality.We will read Hayek’s view that the exclusion of certain areas of economic policy from the political process engenders economic prosperity as well as liberty.We will discuss, but not read, John Rawl’s theory of justice that justifies some reasonable levels of redistribution.We will also look at excerpts from Trust, which discusses the effect of legal culture on economic performance.
Thursday October 11 The Rule of Law: Economic Regulation and Liberty Hayek, Chapter 16 (on reserve)
Tuesday October 16 Building Fences: Property Rights and Prosperity North and Weingast(on reserve and web page)
Thursday October 18 The Political Economy of Legal Culture Trust, Fukuyama, Chapters 24, 25 and 26 (on reserve)
Tuesday October 23 Review
Thursday
October 25 Midterm
People, in fact, seem to feel more strongly about
their legal wrongs than about the wrongs inflicted on them by violence.In
the first case they think they are being outdone by an equal, in the second
case they are being compelled by a superior (Thucydides).
Legitimacy, the voluntary relationship between the
citizen and the state, depends on public perceptions of the law, the state
or institutions.For legal institutions
with no formal power to enforce compliance, legitimacy is that much more
important.Because of this, it is
important to look at what drives people to believe that a law or the legal
process is legitimate.Tyler’s
Social
Justice evaluates the extent to which the psychology of justice differs
among groups in a diverse society.Hamilton
and Sander’s Everyday Justice develops cultural and contextual theories
of why people attribute differing levels of legal responsibility.You
will be expected not only to be familiar with the theories developed by
each of these works, but you will also be expected to integrate the controversies
inspired by these theories into a single theoretical understanding of these
phenomena.
Tuesday October 30 Psychology of Justice Social Justice, Chapters 1 and 2
Thursday November 1 Procedural Justice Social Justice, Chapter 4; Paper topic with Bibliography Due.
Tuesday November 6 Minorities and Procedural Justice Social Justice, Chapter 9
Thursday November 8 Justice and Democracy in a Diverse World Social Justice, Chapter 10
Tuesday November 13 Politics of Retribution Everyday Justice, Chapter 1
Thursday November 15 Context and Retribution Everyday Justice, Chapters 4 and 6
Tuesday November 20 Culture and Retribution Everyday Justice, Chapters 10 and 11
Thursday
November 22 No class
“The law will never make men free; it is men who
have got to make the law free.” - Henry David Thoreau, Mar 30, 1851
The next section deals with the effect of interest
groups and the litigant community on Courts, both here in the U.S. and
in other countries.The idea is that
the Court cannot hear issues based on abstract principle, but rather it
can only hear true cases and controversies; therefore, if it is to become
important politically, then it is dependent on the conflicts that arise
to provide them with important political issues.Epp’s
book, The Rights Revolution shows that courts are impotent without
an active litigant community that is interested in using courts to drive
public policy.We will also be discussing
the policy of regulating pornography.This
case study of the intersection of law and policy shows the importance of
framing policy issues in terms of jurisprudence, as well as evidence of
the use of social science evidence in legal opinions.
Tuesday November 27 Rights Revolution, United States Epp: Chapters 4.
Thursday November 29 Rights Revolution, India and Britain Epp: Chapters 5 and 7.
Tuesday December 4 Rights Revolution, Canada Epp: Chapters 10 and 11.
Thursday December 6 Pornography Policy Strossen v. Dworkin (on web page)
Tuesday December 11 Pornography Policy Childress Review Essay (on reserve)
Thursday
December 13 Review
Take home Final Exam Due: Monday, Dec. 17, 5:00
pm
Explanation of Paper.
You should find a research topic dealing with judicial politics.You should review the academic literature associated with your topic.From that literature, you should deduce your own theory from an idea that comes from a lacuna (something missing) in that literature.You should develop a research design that would answer the question that you have deduced is an important one and explain how you intend to go about doing this research and the implications of the findings that you expect.YOU ARE NOT EXPECTED TO DO THE RESEARCH DESCRIBED IN YOUR RESEARCH DESIGN.YOUR PROJECT OUGHT TO DESIGN RESEARCH THAT YOU COULD NOT POSSIBLY COMPLETE WITH YOUR RESOURCES.
Outline of your paper:
Research Question – First Sentence or Two.
Why the Question is Important – 2 pages.
Other Related Theories From the Literature – 4-6 pages.
Theory – 1-1.5 pages.
Hypotheses. One paragraph.
Testing the Hypotheses. 2-3 pages.
Discussion of the Implications of Expected Findings.2 pages.
You will be graded on the rigor of your use of the literature to deduce an important question, and to make an argument that your theory and hypotheses are sound.