Spring 2010 Senior Seminar
JUST 701.01 - Great Legal Cases in History
Monday 3:10PM - 6:00PM
Professor Molly Girard
This course will study some of the great, international, modern legal cases from the Dreyfus espionage affair to the Nuremberg trials, the M’Naghten insanity defense, and the Brown v. Board civil rights appeal. The selected cases are all noteworthy because they have had an impact, sometimes an unexpected one, on societies or the lives of numerous individuals. Examining criminal and civil cases with the assistance of primary and secondary sources using an historical approach, we will discover what happened in each case, why it is significant, and what kind of consequences it has had. The course is organized so that we will focus on four areas of the law, studying two cases in each: criminal law, American constitutional rights, discrimination, and war crimes. Discussing pairs of cases in each section will allow for chronological or international comparisons. The seminar will emphasize class discussion and will culminate in a research paper. Since each discipline has its own writing requirements, part of the course will be devoted to learning how to craft a history paper.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
JUST 701.02 - Male Youth Violence
R 9:40AM - 12:30PM
Professor Donna Perkins
This course is designed to examine individual factors (e.g., resiliency, emotional development; hypermasculinity, spirituality) and environmental factors, both familial (e.g., parenting, discipline, abuse) and extra-familial (e.g., peer relationships, neighborhood) associated with violence and delinquency in adolescent males. Because Justice Studies is a very broad and interdisciplinary field of study, this topic can be approached from many perspectives. The overarching perspective that will be adopted here comes from developmental psychology. However, other perspectives may be introduced.