LS 401
St Jerome’s University at the University of Waterloo
“I absolutely loved this seminar! I liked the structure of seminars, the seminar topics were nicely interconnected, and the topics were super important. I definitely hadn't learnt about environmental law, immigration law & Indigenous legal traditions prior to this class.”
— graduating year student, LS 401. Winter Term 2020
“This truly was an engaging class and felt welcome enough for us introverts to speak once in a while. Seriously, it really takes a lot to make a university class that memorable, and we all only have nice things to say about the way you teach and the lasting impression you all had on us.”
— 4th yr student, LS 401. Winter Term 2020.
Legal Studies 401: Law, Rights, Culture
How can we speak about Law Rights and Culture? What do these three terms even mean? I have organised this senior year seminar into 4 topic components:
Those who have Law, have Rights
Topics in Immigration Law: Canada & International
Indigenous Law, or Law and Indigenous Peoples
Ecologies of Law
All Rights Reserved. A. Tataryn 2020.
SCHEDULE (subject to change)
WEEK 1: Law, Culture and Rights: Introduction to an Idea and a Field
No readings.
WEEK 2: Law: sources, history, culture
How do we know it? How is it represented? These readings will give us an insight into the idea of modern law, its scope and history, as well as different methods and modes through which we can study, analyse and critique the law.
Graham, Nicole, Margaret Davies & Lee Godden. 2017, ‘Broadening law’s context: materiality in socio-legal research’ Griffith Law Review, 26:4, 480-510.
Antony Anghie. 2006, ‘Reshaping Justice: International Law and the Third World’ Third World Quarterly 27: 5, 739-753
WEEK 3: Law, deconstructed
What are the gaps of law? Who is written out of the law, or denied access?
Marks, Susan. 2011, Human Rights and Root Causes. The Modern Law Review 74, 57-78.
Grear, Anna. 2011, ‘‘Mind the Gap’: One Dilemma Concerning the Expansion of Legal Subjectivity in the Age of globalisation’ Law, Crime and History 1.1
WEEK 4: Special Topic 1a: Immigration Law in Canada
Who has the ‘the right to have rights’? How are these rights beholden to the nation-state and ones’ citizenship?
Macklin, Audrey. 2014, ‘Citizenship revocation, the privilege to have rights and the production of the alien’ Queens Law Journal 40:1, 1-54.
Atak, Idil, Graham Hudson & Delphine Nakache. 2018, “The Securitization of Canada’s Refugee System: Reviewing the Unintended Policy Consequences”, Refugee Survey Quarterly, 37:1, 1-24.
WEEK 5: Special Topic 1b: Immigration Law, internationally
Trafficking, forced labour and modern-day slavery
Columb, Seán. 2017, ‘Disqualified Bodies: A Sociolegal Analysis of the Organ Trade in Cairo, Egypt’ Law & Society Review, 51: 282-312.
Fudge, Judy. 2018, ‘Modern Slavery, Unfree Labour and the Labour Market: The Social Dynamics of Legal Characterization.’ Social & Legal Studies, 27:4, 414-434.
WEEK 6: Special Topic 2a: Indigenous issues in Canadian Law
Memory, trauma and the violence of colonialism
Bhandar, Brenna. 2016, 'Status as Property: Identity, Land and the Dispossession of First Nations Women in Canada.' darkmatter Journal, 14.
James, Matt. 2012, ‘A Carnival of Truth? Knowledge, Ignorance and the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, International Journal of Transitional Justice, 6:2, 182–204.
WEEK 7: Special Topic 2b: Indigenous Law and Decoloniality
Decoloniality and the law
Napoleon, Val & Friedland, H. 2016, ‘An Inside Job: Engaging with Indigenous Legal Traditions through Stories’ McGill Law Journal / Revue de droit de McGill, 61:4, 725–754.
Quijano, Aníbal. 2007, ‘Coloniality And Modernity/Rationality’ Cultural Studies, 21:2-3, 168-178.
WEEK 8: NO SEMINAR
Essay Plan and Annotated Bibliography Due
WEEK 9: Special Topic 3a: Environmental Law
Jurisdiction, economy and rights: how concern for the environment and climate change became a social movement
Nevitt, Mark. 2020, ‘On Environmental Law, Climate Change & National Security Law’ (September 12, 2019). Harvard Environmental Law Review, 44.
Borràs, S. 2019, ‘Colonizing the atmosphere: a common concern without climate justice law?’ Journal of Political Ecology, 26:1, 105-127.
WEEK 10: Special Topic 3b: Ecology, Environment and Law
Ecology, value and the 4th world
Anker, Kirsten. 2017, ‘Law As…Forest: Eco-logic, Stories and Spirits in Indigenous Jurisprudence’, Law Text Culture, 21, 191-213.
Walsh, Catherine. 2010, ‘Development as Buen Vivir: Institutional arrangements and (de)colonial entanglements’, Development 53:1, 15–21.
WEEK 11: Thinking Law Alternatively
What are the limits of law, culture and rights?
Louzidou, Elena. 2018, ‘Law, Love and anarchism’ in T. Zartaloudis (ed) Law and Philosophy: Critical Intersections London: Rowman and Littlefield.
Mignolo, Walter D. 2007, 'Delinking', Cultural Studies, 21:2, 449 – 514.
WEEK 12: Course Review, no readings
WEEK 13: Final Essay Due