York University
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies
School of Public Policy and Administration
PPAS 4070 6.0 A/B Sociology of Law 2011-12
Section A
Mondays, 2:30 – 5:30 pm
Location: 325 Bethune College
Section B
Wednesdays: 4 – 7 pm
Location: 219 Stong College
Instructor: Prof. Dagmar Soennecken
Office: 136 McLaughlin College
Office hours: Tuesdays (2:30-3:30 pm) and Thursdays (1 to 2 pm) or by appointment
e-mail: dsoennec@yorku.ca
Course Synopsis and Objectives
This course brings together classic contributions from the law and society literature with newer
works in the law and politics tradition to allow for a broad engagement with central questions
asked by writers in the sociology of law tradition. How does law structure society? How do
differently situated individuals experience and relate to law? How do policy makers use law?
What potential does law offer activists who want to bring about social change? How easy is it to
mobilize law and with what consequences?
The pedagogical goal of the course is it to offer students the opportunity to actively work together
in a seminar environment and to create a space where students can comfortably present work-inprogress (i.e. their final research project), including obtaining constructive feedback from their
peers. The intellectual goal of the course is it to get students to critically evaluate their own
perception and relationship to the law by engaging them in weekly conversations about core law
and social justice themes while they work on a major research project of their own.
Course Requirements in brief:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Class participation
Court Challenges Program Pro/Con Analysis
Take-Home Exam
A seminar presentation of their final research project
Final research paper
(25%)
(15%)
(15%)
(15%)
(30%)
100 %
Readings
1) Course Kit: A kit with the required course readings can be purchased from the instructor.
Price TBA. It was put together by the Keele Copy Centre to reduce cost to students. The kit
contains only the required readings that are not available electronically. Location: Keele St &
York Boulevard (4699 Keele Street, Unit 7, Toronto, ON M3J 2N8
(416) 665-9675)
2) Other required readings that are available electronically have been marked with a * on the
course outline. They are all available on our York moodle course page for viewing,
downloading and printing.
Access/Disability
Students with health-related, learning, physical, psychiatric, or sensory disabilities who require
reasonable accommodations in teaching style or evaluation methods should discuss their concerns
with the course instructor as soon as possible so that appropriate arrangements can be made.
Please make sure you also consult www.yorku.ca/secretariat/senate_cte_main_pages/ccas.htm for
additional information.
Academic Dishonesty (Plagiarism)
Plagiarism is representing someone else's ideas, writing or other intellectual property as your
own.
This includes:


Presenting all or part of someone else's published work as something you have written
(e.g. by forgetting to include quotation marks)
Paraphrasing someone else's writing without acknowledgement.
Any use of the work of others, whether published, unpublished or posted electronically (e.g., on
web sites), attributed or anonymous, must include proper acknowledgement.
For more:
Test and educate yourself using the ‘academic integrity’ tutorial:
http://www.yorku.ca/tutorial/academic_integrity/
Read the key points of York’s Senate policy on academic dishonesty:
http://www.yorku.ca/tutorial/academic_integrity/polpoints.html
Use the services of the various Writing Centres and Learning Skills Centres on
campus:
http://www.yorku.ca/yorkweb/currentstudents/academicsupport/writingcentres.html and
http://www.yorku.ca/cdc/lsp/index.htm
A COMPLETE SYLLABUS WILL BE PROVIDED IN CLASS
2