The School of Mind & Society · the social sciences
Law & Justice
What law is, how courts reason, and what justice costs when the system works — and when it fails.
Where rules come from, how courts read them, and what to do when they collide.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~20 hours
Unit I — Sources of Law
Statutes, cases, and constitutions · Common-law and civil-law traditions · Courts and their hierarchy
Unit II — Legal Reasoning
Precedent and analogy · How to read a case · Interpretation: text, purpose, history
Unit III — Law in Daily Life
Contracts you already sign · Torts: accidents and responsibility · Your rights in an encounter with the state
Powers, rights, and the document that referees them — read through the great cases.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~34 hours
Unit I — Structure
Judicial review: Marbury and after · Federalism and the commerce power · Separation of powers
Unit II — Rights
Speech and its boundaries · The religion clauses · Due process and equal protection
Unit III — The Court Itself
How cases reach the Court · Interpretive schools in conflict · Landmark reversals and what they teach
The pipeline of punishment, examined stage by stage — with the evidence for and against it.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~28 hours
Unit I — Crime & Its Measurement
Defining crime · Crime statistics and their blind spots · Theories of offending, briefly
Unit II — Police & Prosecution
Discretion at every desk · Search, seizure, and interrogation · Plea bargaining: the real system
Unit III — Courts & Corrections
Sentencing and its disparities · Prisons, probation, parole · Reentry and recidivism
Unit IV — Reform Debates
The evidence on deterrence · Wrongful convictions · Diversion and restorative justice
Natural law, positivism, and realism: the argument over what makes a rule a law at all.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~26 hours
Unit I — Classical Questions
Natural law from Aquinas · Legal positivism: Austin to Hart · The Hart–Fuller debate
Unit II — The Realist Challenge
American legal realism · Law and economics · Critical legal studies
Unit III — Law & Morality Today
Dworkin's interpretive turn · Civil disobedience · Unjust laws and the duty to obey
Treaties, customs, and courts without sheriffs: how law works between sovereign states.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~28 hours
Unit I — Sources & Subjects
Treaties and customary law · States, organizations, individuals · Sovereignty and its limits
Unit II — The Use of Force
The UN Charter regime · Self-defense and intervention · The laws of war
Unit III — Courts & Compliance
The ICJ and the ICC · Human rights regimes · Why states obey, when they do