LAW-2581 Civil Disobedience
This course examines civil disobedience, non-violent resistance, and protest from legal, philosophical historical and psychological perspectives. Issues discussed include: reasons for obeying or disobeying the law; the relation between law and ethics; the relation between free-speech and disobedience, varieties of civil disobedience; arguments used to justify civil disobedience; the use of civil disobedience in social change and protest movements; the role of lawyers in representing those engaged in civil disobedience; whether lawyers can participate in civil disobedience. The course examines the use of civil disobedience and non-violent resistance in Gandhis South African Rights and Indian independence movement, the American civil rights movement, opposition to the war in Viet Nam, the environmental movement, and in contemporary social movements in the United States, South America, Eastern Europe and elsewhere. We will examine the writing of authors who seek to justify civil disobedience and their critics starting with Henry Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and contemporary writers on non-violent resistance including Gene Sharp, Erica Chenoweth, Mark Engler and others. Grades will be based on a mid-term and final exam, and class participation. Students may elect to write a paper in lieu of the final exam. Students who wish to fulfill the law school legal writing requirement may after completing the course enroll in a directed study for credit with Professor Rodwin and write an extended paper that builds work in this class. 10 Nov 2022 5:11 PM