Course in the Module "Main Issues in Contemporary Sociology of Law" (3 ECTS)
The course focuses on central issues in the sociology of law in contemporary perspective. A core theme is the law as such, e.g., in relation to power, knowledge, violence, inequality, and resistance. In this regard, critical theories of law provide an important input. Moreover, questions of law and modernity, law and the state, law and the legal subject, democracy, authoritarianism, constitutionalism, (post-)colonialism, and human rights are addressed in the philosophy and sociology of law alike. Another key theme related to these issues is the possibility of progress or effect of social change. This course leverages sociological theories to offer a state-of-the-art account of the role of law in contemporary societies. This includes law´s power and authority as well as its effective limits and legitimacy crises.
By completing this course, students gain a deeper understanding of the role of law in the world of today, its potential and shortcomings in providing justice as it is ideally understood. They will be able to specify the relations of law with (other) modern institutions, political objectives, and social phenomena, and to elaborate on the functioning of the law and its limits in this regard. They will be able to discuss whether law is an agent, object or impediment of social change and illustrate this with hypothetical or empirical examples.
