Fall 2022
The Constitution Beginning to End
Allan A. Ryan JD, Director of Intellectual Property, Harvard Business School Publishing
We thoroughly examine the US Constitution, every part, beginning to end, enlivened with historical and legal insights.
Prerequisites: Pre-course reading is listed on the syllabus.
Spring 2023
International Human Rights Law
Diana Buttu MBA, JD, Lawyer
This course is an introduction to international human rights law. This course looks at the relationship between human rights and international action. By examining various international mechanisms and cases, students are able to critically assess the efficacy of the international human rights law system. Throughout this course we examine topical issues in international human rights law.
Fall 2022
Voting Rights, Race, and the Supreme Court
Allan A. Ryan JD, Director of Intellectual Property, Harvard Business School Publishing
In 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution prohibited the states from denying the right to vote "on account of" race. But the states of the former Confederacy devised ways to evade this prohibition, and beginning in 1890 they adopted new constitutions that effectively disfranchised Black Americans for 75 years. With few exceptions, Congress and the Supreme Court did not interfere. Not until the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 did the Fifteenth Amendment come alive, vigorously enforced by the US Department of Justice and upheld by the court. But the tide has turned in the twenty-first century. The Supreme Court in 2013 nullified a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, enabling states to impose new impediments on access to the polls in 2022 and to dilute minority voting strength through partisan redistricting (gerrymandering). We examine the history of race and voting rights in US law, from antebellum laws and the Fifteenth Amendment to the Voting Rights Act, and the retreat from those rights by Congress and the Supreme Court, first in the era of Jim Crow and again now.
Fall 2022
Disability, Law, and Medicine
Michael Stein PhD, JD, Visiting Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
This course is an introduction to bioethical questions raised in the context of health care provision to people with disabilities. Students are encouraged to think critically, openly, ethically, rationally, and collegially about often difficult, delicate, and controversial topics involving issues of medical ethics, autonomy, dignity, civil and human rights, stigma, personal integrity, culture, public health, and informed consent, among others, as expressed through interactive discussion, a research project, application of case studies, and role playing. The instructor draws from the fields of disability studies, bioethics, medicine, law, social science, and history. The first half of the course introduces some core theoretical questions in the study of disability and bioethics. The second half of the course analyzes how theories apply across case studies and vary between particular patients. Students leave with a social science, legal, bioethical, medical, and cultural immersion into the study of disability and the normative issues arising in the lives of persons with disabilities. Also provided are a practical set of concerns to orient students as they interact with healthcare systems throughout their lives, whether as patients, physicians, policy makers, lawyers, advocates, or caregivers.
Spring 2023
Criminology and Justice: An Exploration of Crime, Courts, and Sentencing
Michael Livingood MS, Federal Law Enforcement Official
Substance addiction, mental health, youth, and poverty. How do these elements influence criminal behavior? How are criminal justice systems responding to such issues? What causes people to commit crime, and why do people choose to commit specific types of crime? This course explores the most challenging issues facing the criminal justice system today and in the future. The course consists of an examination of theories related to crime causation, crime typologies, and special considerations such as substance addiction, mental health, youth, and poverty. Facilitated in part by a reading of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, students are given the unique opportunity to synthesize their learning to create pre-sentence reports, which are used in modern-day courts to inform sentencing decisions. Students gain a deep appreciation of the challenges courts and judges face in assessing criminal behavior. Students are challenged to consider the changing landscape of criminal justice and how rehabilitation and alternative sentencing can and will play a vital role in the future of our court systems. This course is not limited to those who work in the field of criminal justice or the courts and would benefit students from a variety of disciplines.
Fall 2022
Censorship: Legal, Ethical, and Policy Issues
Ellsworth Lapham Fersch PhD, JD, Lecturer on Psychology, Harvard Medical School
This course explores how America's legal and social systems cope with moral ambiguity and controversial ethical questions. The course analyzes major cases and issues concerning attempted or actual censorship of sexually explicit, religiously proscribed, and politically volatile written and visual materials. In addition, it focuses on more recent developments concerning censorship by what is termed big tech, by social media platforms, by corporations and universities, and by individuals and groups themselves. The course examines original documents as well as the commentaries, arguments, and actions about them. The course evaluates accompanying ethical, social, and policy implications and assesses various approaches to fundamental ethical dilemmas and the impact of law in contemporary society.