Tentative Schedule
Law and Society Honours Seminars
SOSC 4350, A-F
2004-05
AS/SOSC 4350A 6.0: Law and Society Seminar: Responsibility and Criminal Law
Course Director: Dr. Kimberley White
This section of the Law and Society Seminar is directed toward students interested in the study of
criminal law, criminal justice history, and the concept of criminal responsibility. This
interdisciplinary course examines different theories and philosophies about criminality that have
influenced legal interpretations of responsibility in Canada. Criminal law defences such as mental
disorder, provocation, self-defence and intoxication will be examined in relation to the broader
cultural and political contexts in which they developed and are applied. As well, we will critically
examine social and scientific assumptions about human nature and individual difference that
continue to shape our social policies and legal practices. Throughout the year students will have
an opportunity to engage with a range of materials including legal doctrine, case law,
primary/archival documents and scholarly literature, and, in the end, will produce an example of
original socio-legal research.
AS/SOSC 4350B 6.0:
Course Director, Gail Kellough
This course is designed to integrate the Honours Program in Law and Society at the upper level.
Selected themes centre around issues of governance and inequality. Specifically, we will
examine the relationship between the concepts of democracy and the practices of the criminal
justice system. The first half of the course explores the ways in which criminal justice practice is
influenced by and influences social inequity for particular groups. We will also examine
theoretical perspective concerning the changing nature of the relationship between the state and
the community as this relationship affects (and has affected) the operation of the justice system.
This first section of the course deals with historical and current realities of the criminal justice
system. By contrast, the second half of the course examines theoretical possibilities for the
future. We will explore a variety of theoretical perspectives from critical criminology that
suggest alternative methods for providing social justice and community security.
AS/SOSC 4350C 6.0: Transnational Crime and Policing
Course Director, James Sheptycki
This course will draw on the specialist literature concerning the emergence of transnational
policing and transnational organized crime in order to explore how the discipline of criminology
intersects with globalization. It will consider some central attributes of the legal and institutional
nexus that circumscribes these phenomena and the relationships between them. Students will be
invited to critically engage with a variety of theoretical perspectives on transnational crime and
policing (including functionalism and conflict approaches) and with a number of substantive
problem areas (for example internet based crime or crimes against the environment) in order to
develop their own ideas about criminology in a global context.
Tentative Schedule
AS/SOSC 4350D 6.0: Sex and the Supreme Court
Course Director, Patricia McDermott
This course seeks to look at concepts and principles that underlie the norms of contemporary
common 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 from the Supreme Court
of Canada that highlight gender relations and focus on the concept of ‘sex’.
AS/SOSC 4350E 6.0: Aboriginal Law
Course Director: Jane McMillan
Within First Nation communities, public perceptions of the Canadian justice system are generally
negative. There is a great deal of mistrust and fear that encounters with any level of the system,
aboriginal peoples are greatly disadvantaged. Across Canada aboriginal people resist and reject
the hegemonic legal processes of the dominant society as they vie for control and ownership of
systems deemed uniquely indigenous, culturally appropriate and traditionally based. This course
will examine the traditional foundations of aboriginal law, the impact of colonization on
aboriginal law ways, and current socio-legal issues in aboriginal communities across Canada.