Social Dimensions of Criminal Justice
Social Science 4352.06
Instructor: Richard Weisman- Office- S739 Ross
Room: 215 McLaughlin Thursdays, 11:30- 2:30
Website: www.arts.yorku.ca/sosc/weisman/
2006-2007
This course seeks to look at the concepts and principles that underlie the norms of
contemporary criminal law to bring out its moral and social dimensions. These
concepts and principles will be illustrated by applying the tools of social science to
selected legal cases.
* refers to articles and cases that are available online or through my website. All
Supreme Court of Canada cases can be retrieved through
http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/index_en.html . Journal articles can be retrieved
through Hein online. US Supreme Court cases and US and Canadian cases at lower
courts can be retrieved through my website. I will indicate the source you should use
after each case.
**refers to materials contained in course kit.
September 7- Introduction and Overview of the Course
Part 1- Overview of Concepts-Criminal Law as Doctrine and Discourse
September 14- Popular and Judicial Representations of Law- legal and substantive
rationalityReadings: Collected news items on the case of Robert Latimer and additional items
on other recent similar cases**
R.v.Latimer(2001) SCC File no. 26980*- see website
http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/index_en.html for Supreme Court of Canada
cases(hereafter cited as Lexum) .
Kent Roach, “Crime and Punishment in the Latimer Case, ” Perspectives on the
Latimer Trials, in 64 Saskatchewan Law Review(2001), pp.469-490*(Use Hein onlinee-resources- York Library for law reviews where indicated. ;
Maricarmen Jenkins, “Moral Judgement and the Case of Robert Latimer,”
Perspectives on the Latimer Trials, 64 Sask Law Review(2001), pp.545-558*. (Hein
Online.)
Film: Inside the Jury RoomSeptember 21- Basic concepts in criminal law- culpability, voluntariness, and
punishmentReadings: Eric Colvin, “Criminal Justice and Criminal Culpability, ” in Principles
of Criminal Law, 2nd edition, 1991, pp.25-37.**
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David Bazelon, “The Morality of the Criminal Law,” 49 Southern Cal. L. R.(1976),
pp. 385-405.*(Hein online)
Robert Cover, “Violence and the Word,” Yale Law Journal, (1986) (Hein online) *
Documents on trial of Lieutenant William Calley regarding My Lai massacre*- see
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ftrials.htm - go to My Lai Courts
Martial 1970- go to Calley Court Martial Excerpts and then to Summations of
Defense Attorney George Latimer and Prosecutor Aubrey Daniel, Decision of US
Court of Military Appeals in Calley Case, and Letter of Aubrey Daniel to President
Nixon. Also read Douglas Linder, “My Lai- an Account” on first webpage of My Lai
Courts Martial.
September 28- Criminal law and criminal culpability- cultural dimensionsReadings: R. v. Naqiturvik(1986) 26 C.C.C.(3rd) 193*(on my website)
R. v. Gladue(1999) Supreme Ct. of Canada*- see R.v. Latimer above.(Lexum)
Naomi Mendelsohn, “At the Crossroads: The Case for and Against a Cultural
Defense to Female Genital Mutilation,” 56 Rutgers Law Review, Summer, 2004,
1011.* (Hein online)
News items on culturally sensitive sentencing- to be handed out in class.
October 5- Criminal law and criminal culpability- overview of social dimensions of
class and powerReadings: R. v. Hinch and Salanski(1968) C.R.(2nd) BCCA, 350*(My website)
Dragan Milovanovic,”Semiotic Perspectives on Law,” in A Primer in the Sociology of
Law, 1988, **
Constance Backhouse, “Rape,”in Petticoats and Prejudice: Women and the Law in
Nineteenth Century Canada, 1991, pp. 81-111.**
Harry Glasbeek, “Corporate Deviance and Deviants: The Fancy Footwork of
Criminal Law,”in Wealth by Stealth, 2002, pp.118-143. **
October 12- The position of the victim in criminal law- from trial form to restorative
justice- Readings: Paul Gewirtz, “Victims and Voyeurs: Two Narrative Problems at
the Criminal Trial,” in Peter Brooks and Paul Gewirtz, eds., Law’s Stories, 1996**;
Payne v. Tennessee, Supreme Court , USA, 1991.* (my website)
Film: Meeting with a Killer: One Family’s Journey
October 19- Social Dimensions of Sentencing and Punishment- The Case of Capital
PunishmentReadings: McCleskey v. Kemp(1987) 107 Supreme Court, USA, 1756.*(my website)
Austin Sarat, “Speaking of Death: Narratives of Violence in Capital Trials,” 27 Law
and Society Review(1993), pp.19-58.* (my website)
Film- 14 Days- if time permitsOctober 26- Visit to court-
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Part II- Subjective and Objective Standards in Deciding Culpability
November 2- Dilemmas of Rule-making- the case of provocationReadings: Thibert v. the Queen, SCC(1996) * (Lexum)
R.v.Parent, SCC(1999)*(Lexum)
Edward M. Hyland, “R. v. Thibert: Are there any Ordinary People Left?” 28 U. of
Ottawa Law Review(1996-1997), pp. 147-72.*(Hein Online)
November 9- Dilemmas of Rule-making: The case of sexual assaultReadings: R.v.Pappajohn(1980) SCC*(Lexum)
Sections 273.1, 273.2. 273.3 of Criminal Code, R.S.C., 1992.(to be given out in class)
R.v. Ewanchuk, SCC(1999)*(Lexum)
Toni Pickard and Phil Goldman, “Subjectivity/Objectivity Revisited- What’s at
Stake”- in Dimensions of Criminal Law,Emond Press, 1993, pp.400-409.**
November 16- Dilemmas of Rule-making: The case of self-defenseReadings: Cynthia Gillespie,”The Law in Action,” in Justifiable Homicide, 1989,
pp. 50-92.**
R. v. Lavallee, [1990] 1 S.C.R. 852*(Lexum)
Her Majesty the Queen and T.L., Alberta Provincial Court, April 27, 2004*(my
website)
November 23- Further dilemmas in deciding standards for culpability- the case of
Criminal NegligenceReadings: R.v. Tutton(1989)* SCC(Lexum)
Selected news items**
November 30- TBA
Part 3- The Boundaries of Responsibility
January 4- Defining the boundaries of responsibility- defense of mental
disorder(insanity) and automatism.
Readings: Newspaper articles and judgement in Q. v. McNaughton, from Lloyd
Weinrib, Criminal Law, 3rd edition, 1980, pp. 432-453.**
R.v.Oommen(1994) SCC*(Lexum)
Selected news items on defense of not criminally responsible.**
January 11- Automatism- non-insane and insaneReadings: R. v. Rabey(1980) SCC*(Lexum)
R.v.Stone(1999) SCC*
Patrick Healy, “Automatism Confined,” 45 McGill L.J. (2000) 87*(Hein online)
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January 18- Disposition of the Mentally Disordered Offender
Readings: C.S. Lewis, “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment,”and reply in 6 Res
Judicatae (1953), pp.224-230.**
Thomas Szasz, ed., “Psychiatric Justice in Canada,” in The Age of Madness, pp.217230. **
R. v. Demers(2004), SCC*(Lexum)
Michael Petrunik and Richard Weisman, “Constructing Joseph Fredericks:
Competing Narratives of a child sex murderer,” 28 International Journal of Law and
Psychiatry(2005), pp.75-96.*(go to e-resources and type in name of journal for website
to retrieve article)
Film: F Ward
January 25- Intoxication as a defense to criminal culpabilityReadings: R.v. Daviault(1994) SCC*(Lexum) with commentaries by Patrick Healy and
Don Stuart**
Bill C 72**
Part 4- Crimes against the State and Crimes of the State
February 1- Political Crime and Crimes of Obedience: the varied meanings of motive
and intentReadings: “Political Crime”- (contemporary accounts of the trial of Louis Riel) in
Pickard and Goldman, Dimensions of Criminal Law, pp.750-783.**
Jean-Paul Brodeur, “Legitimizing Police Deviance,”in Clifford Shearing, ed.,
Organizational Police Deviance, 1981.**
Edward Knappman, ed., Great World Trials, New England Publishing Associates,
1997, pp. 232-238(Moscow purge trials); pp.266-73(Nuremberg trials); pp.347354(Trial of Nelson Mandela.) ** (For more detailed background on trials, go to
Famous trials website- see above, September 21 or my website for direct access.
February 8- Wrongful conviction and wrongful accusationReadings: Richard Weisman, “Showing Remorse: Reflections on the Gap between
Expression and Attribution in Cases of Wrongful Conviction,” vol. 46, no.2 (2004)
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, pp.121-138.* (Go to e-resources
and indicate name of journal and then go to year for article.)
Shawn Armbrust, “The Case for Holistic Compensation for the Wrongfully
Convicted,” 41 American Criminal Law Review(2004), pp.157-182.*(Hein online)
Recommended- visit AIDWYC website- and exploreFilm- excerpts from hearing into wrongful conviction of Guy Paul Morin.
February 22- Crimes of Obedience and the StateReadings: Lon Fuller, “The Problem of the Grudge Informer,” in The Morality of Law,
Yale University Press, 1963, pp. 245-263. **
Sadakat Kadri, portion of chapter entitled “The War Crimes Trial,” pp. 216-243 in
The Trial: A History from Socrates to OJ Simpson, 2005. **
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Richard Weisman, “Showing Remorse at the TRC: Towards a Constitutive Approach
to Reparative Justice,” Windsor Access to Justice(2006)* (Access from my website)
March 1- Crimes of Obedience and the State- Part II
Film: Long Day’s Journey into Night- and, if time, excerpts from the TRC.
March 8- Defenses of Compulsion and DuressReadings: Q. v. Carker(no. 2) (1967) SCC*(Lexum)
US v. Bailey, 444 US 394 62 L. Ed. 2nd 575(1980)*( My website)
Leo Katz, “More Hard Cases,” pp. 62-81 in Bad Acts and Guilty Minds: Conundrums
of the Criminal Law, 1987.**
March 15- Defense of NecessityReadings: The Queen v. Dudley and Stephens(1884)**
Perka et. al., V.R. (1984) SCC*(Lexum)
Look over Latimer case againLeo Katz, “”Necessity, The Mother of Invention,” in Bad Acts and Guilty Minds, pp.838.**
March 22- Letting the social dimension in- Hate Crimes and Wilfully Promoting
HatredReadings: Joshua Geller, “Comment: A Dangerous Mix: Mandatory Sentences,
Enhancement, and the Use of Motive,” 32 Fordham Urban L.J., (2005)*(Hein online)
R. v. Ahenakew, (2006) Sask. Ct. of Queen’s Bench*(access from my website)
s. 718.2- to be handed out in class
March 29- Review of course and take-home to be given out in last classCourse requirements:
1. Summary of case- assignment to be given out on September 21 and due on
Septebmer 28- 3 pages maximum- 10%
2. Seminar presentation and major essay- 40% of final grade- topics to be given out in
second class- Oral presentation of major essay will count for 10% and written
presentation will count for 30%. In the oral presentation, I will be looking for an
understanding of the material, clarity in presenting it, and an ability to generate
discussion on issues that arise from the material. Dates and topics will be indicated in
the assignment. You are expected to choose the topic for your presentation by
September 28, 2006. There will be a maximum of two presentations on the same topic.
3. Take-home exam to be given out on November 23 and due on November 30, 2006this will count for 20% of the grade.
4.. Take-home exam to be given out on March 29, 2007 and due on April 6, 2007. This
will count for 20% of the grade.
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5. Class participation- 10%- Students are expected to come to the class having read the
required readings and having prepared at least one question to be raised in the
tutorial.
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