JJUA55078U Anthropology of Law - NOTE: THE COURSE IS CANCELLED IN THE SPRING SEMESTER 2017
The course intends to provide a basis for understanding and
analyzing the role of law in society from the perspective of
anthropological theory and method. Over the past few decades,
anthropological theory has been paying increasing attention to law,
while lawyers and policy makers have become more attentive to the
cultural contexts of legal rules. International laws, human rights
issues and the intensification of migration and thus presence of
large ethnic minority groups within nation states are but some of
the developments that have contributed to this increasingly
overlapping interest between anthropology and law. While the
traditional project of legal anthropologists has been the study of
non-Western settings, often pointing to the logic and moral sense
of their seemingly “exotic” practices, research is now additionally
considering the socio-legal aspects of the modern state, and in
this process often deconstructing taken-for-granted assumptions
about the objectivity and rationality of Western law. Against this
background, the course aims to develop the capacity of students to
formulate critical analyses of legal practices, and to understand
the social and cultural context of legal institutions in both
Western and non-Western societies. The course will be thematically
centred on analysing law as conflict, law as process, law and
rights, and finally, law as power. This will be done both at a
theoretical and a methodological level. Fieldwork methods are at
the core of anthropological inquiry into legal matters, asking
specific questions in specific settings about the distribution of
power, control and justice in relation to law – how are legal norms
established, and how are they enforced, justified, or even evaded?
The course will consist of three major components:
• An introduction to the field of legal anthropology. The aim is to
enhance the students’ assessment of the development of theoretical
discussions and focal points within the field.
• A thorough analysis of present issues at the core of anthropology
of law with an emphasis on ethnicity, gender, human rights, and the
relation between law, language and power. Students will identify
and critically discuss these topics, especially focusing on
competing claims and contested norms and values within larger,
formal law systems.
• A study of methodological aspects within legal anthropology.
Empirical data will be analyzed and discussed in order to enhance
students’ ability to use and evaluate this type of data in their
social analysis of legal issues. During this component, students
will be called for to work on an empirical project, preferably in
groups. This can be done either by collecting qualitative data
themselves, by analysing empirical material from the curriculum, or
in the form of interviews and field notes from the teacher’s own
fieldwork. This part will end with a short report and an oral
presentation by the students in class. The written exam (essay) can
take its point of departure in this project.
• Obtain knowledge about the historical development and
core issues within the field of legal anthropology
• Analyse and critically discuss the relation between law
and society, as well as the cultural context of legal institutions
• Use and critically evaluate qualitative data about legal
settings
• Work independently with a socio-legal topic in the form of a
shorter, group oriented, empirical project
The syllabus will consist of socio-legal articles as well as
excerpts from monographs. All course material is in English and
will be uploaded on Absalon.
Number of pages: 700
-To be able to identify and discuss legal and societal problems in a national as well as an international context
-To critically reflect on law's role in society
- Category
- Hours
- Guidance
- 1
- Preparation
- 364,5
- Project work
- 11
- Seminar
- 36
- Total
- 412,5
Enrolling as a Single Master Level/ Credit Student:
For Single Master Level Courses – click here!
For Single-subject credit students - click here!
For further
information
- Credit
- 10 ECTS
- Type of assessment
- Written assignmentIndividual written assignment
- Exam registration requirements
- one presentation in class of a syllabus text,
- carrying out a short, empirical project which will result in a short report and a presentation in class.- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
- Exam period
June 21, 2017
- Re-exam
August 10, 2017
Criteria for exam assesment
The essay exam form is intended to give students the possibility
of working in-depth with a chosen topic within the confines of the
course.
The essay should reflect students':
- knowledge of the field of legal anthropology,
- their skills in identifying and critically reflecting upon a
socio-legal problem,
- their ability to discuss this problem by independently drawing
upon syllabus texts as well as qualitative data from the course
project.
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- JJUA55078U
- Credit
- 10 ECTS
- Level
- Full Degree MasterFull Degree Master choice
- Duration
- 1 semester
- Placement
- Spring
- Schedule
- Please see timetable for teaching time
- Continuing and further education
- Price
DKK 10.000
- Study board
- Law
Contracting department
- Law
Course responsibles
- Louise Victoria Johansen (24-7073796d7769327a6d677873766d65326e736c6572776972446e7976326f7932686f)