Law, Culture and Rights in a Transnational World (P02567)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : LAW-P-P02243

This course explores socio-legal and anthropological approaches to the study of law in a transnational world. It covers key theoretical, empirical and methodological issues involving the nature of law and legal process, the relationship between legal and social science approaches to legal phenomena and the interpretation of law in a social context. It examines the impact of transnational relations and globalisation on law, culture and rights both within nation-states and beyond their boundaries and at a number of levels, incorporating local, national and international domains. Topics to be covered include legal pluralism and human rights, property relations and indigenous people, democracy and governance, citizenship, and gendered perspectives on law.

Entry Requirements

? This course is not available to visting students.

? Pre-requisites : None

? Co-requisites : None

? Prohibited combinations : None

? Costs : None

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Law, (School of Law, Schedule F)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
12/01/2009	09:00	10:50	Lorimer Room, Old College	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

The course will help students develop:
(a) a critical analysis of the way law operates at multiple levels, in an age where law and legal institutions now cross local, regional and national boundaries;
(b) conceptual tools for scrutinizing the ways in which states regulate and respond to pluralism in contexts where they can no longer be viewed as the central standpoint from which to analyse law ; and
(c) a more nuanced understanding of how local communities and social actors engage with law and how universal categories of rights are implemented, resisted and transformed in ways that take account of the fact that state law is not the only source of power and that “culture” is a dynamic concept.
deeper understanding of the ethical implications and commitments of spending a professional life helping to enforce private law and its main institutions.

• the role of international human rights as perceived and utilised by various constituencies, including indigenous people, minorities, states, non-governmental organisations and individuals

• how local communities and social actors engage with law and how universal categories of rights are implemented, resisted and transformed.

By the end of the course students will have the following:
• An advanced understanding of social science approaches to research into legal process, and their distinctiveness in relation to more narrowly legal approaches.
• An advanced understanding of the nature and implications of legal practices for wider social, political and cultural processes.
• An advanced understanding of a variety of methodological techniques and their implications for Law and Society research.
• An advanced understanding of the relationship between research methods, substantive issues and theoretical approaches.
• An advanced understanding of the implications of alternative epistemological frameworks for theory construction, research questions and analytical techniques.