1 - 10 of 13 results for: LAWGEN

Trigger Warning: Over the past three years, the issue of campus sexual assault has exploded into the public discourse. While definitive figures are difficult to obtain due to the necessarily private nature of these events, several recent studies estimate that between 20-25% of college women (and a similar proportion of students identifying as transgender and gender-nonconforming, as well as around 5-10% of male students) experience sexual assault. Survivors have come forward across the country with harrowing stories of assault followed by what they describe as an insensitive or indifferent response from college administrators. These survivors have launched one of the most successful, and surprising, social movements in recent memory. As a result, the federal government has stepped up its civil rights enforcement in this area, with 124 colleges and universities under investigation for allegedly mishandling student sexual assault complaints as of July 2015. This courses focuses on the legal, policy, and political issues surrounding sexual assault on college campuses. The class is rigorous and includes substantial reading over the summer and during the course. We will spend the first week of the course learning some background about sexual violence and the efforts to implement legal protections for survivors. We will study the basic legal frameworks governing campus assault, focusing on the relevant federal laws such as Title IX and the Clery Act. During the second week we will travel to Washington, D.C., where we will meet with journalists, activists, experts, policymakers, elected officials, and others who are actively involved in shaping the national response to this issue. Expected guests speakers include Catherine Lhamon, the Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights; Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA); lawyers from the National Women's Law Center; the Legislative Director for Senator Kristin Gillibrand (D.N.Y.); Kirby Dick, the director of the acclaimed documentary the Hunting Ground; and many of the activists who appear in the film, as well as journalists, policymakers, and theorists. We will also visit sites and museums with relevant exhibits. On our return to campus students will create and present final projects. Travel expenses to DC (except incidentals) are provided by Sophomore College. Students are expected to do all readings, and participate in all class sessions, meals, field trips, films, and discussions. Requirements include 2-3 reaction papers, preparing for discussions with outside speakers, and the development and presentation of a final paper or final group-designed project which can include a multi-media or artistic component. The subject matter of this course is sensitive and students are expected to treat the material with maturity. Much of the reading and subject matter may be upsetting and/or triggering for students who identify as survivors. There is no therapeutic component for this course, although supportive campus resources and Title IX staff are available for those who need them. Please consider this prior to enrolling in the course. Sophomore College course, application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu.

This seminar will study and examine the varied environmental and resource challenges facing Indian reservations in the western United States. Over 360 Indian reservations, the majority of which are in the western United States, encompass over 56 million acres - a land total approximating the size of the State of Idaho While Indian treaties and executive orders often relegated tribes to isolated and unwanted lands, Indian reservations frequently contain valuable natural resources such as oil, gas, hard minerals, and forests. Many Indian tribes, moreover, enjoy special fishing rights and the legal right to vast amounts of water. At the same time, Indian reservations face serious environmental challenges, including water contamination, habitat decline, and climate change. To examine these questions, we will start with a week of classroom study and discussion. During this week, we will examine the nature of the environmental and resource challenges facing Native American tribes today, the relevant ins and outs of federal Indian law and the legal rights of tribes, Native American governmental systems, and the approaches that tribes are currently taking to these challenges. We will then move into the field and spend approximately ten days in the states of Washington, Montana, and Wyoming, meeting with tribal officials and seeing firsthand the environmental and resource challenges that they face. On our return to Stanford, students will break into groups, and each group will analyze a particular challenge facing a Native American tribe and how best to address that challenge. The course will culminate in student presentations on these analyses. Over the summer, students also will be responsible for assigned readings, online interactive materials, and relevant recent news articles. The class begins on-campus and then travels to Washington, Montana, and Wyoming. Travel expenses during the course will be provided (except incidentals) by the Bill Lane Center for the American West and Sophomore College. Application required, due noon, April 5, 2016. Apply at http://soco.stanford.edu. Cross-listed with Earth Systems ( EARTHSYS 15SC), Native American Studies ( NATIVEAM 15SC) and Political Science ( POLISCI 26SC).

Pre-field course for undergraduates participating in the Alternative Spring Break program.

Focus is on the structures and theories at play in the criminal court nnsystem, emphasizing court procedures, structures, constitutional nnguarantees, and the trial process. The roles of individual agents, nnincluding the police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, nnprobation officers, and corrections officials. Note: This is an Introductory Seminar and is not open to Law students.

This course will study the main international human rights declarations, treaties, covenants, committees, courts and tribunals. It will look at the effect of nation states, regional bodies, and key economic and military organizations upon human rights. Categories of rights -- civil, political, social, economic and cultural -- will be analyzed, with a particular focus on the rights of women and children, and the right to culture.

Most Americans know that discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and religion is unlawful. Seems simple enough. But advertisements in the back of newspapers still announce: "Single White Female Seeks Single White Male?" Isn't that discrimination on the basis of race and sex? Most businesses don't consider men for women's locker room or bathroom attendant. And why aren't those men and women's bathrooms and locker rooms illegal segregation? After all we know what would happened if some business set up separate bathrooms for blacks and whites. Isn't it discrimination for an employer to insist that men wear a jacket and tie and women wear nylons and a skirt? Why are some forms of discrimination unlawful and others not? Why is discrimination against short people, overweight people, or people with annoying personalities not against the law? We will answer these and many other questions by looking at court cases, legal theory, and philosophy. We may also have conversations with guest lecturers who work in civil rights enforcement, and the seminar may include a field trip to visit the offices of civil rights lawyers (lawyers tend to be busy people so these opportunities will depend on their schedules). Class participation and a short final paper are required, but here are no prerequisites other than an open mind and a willingness to delve into unfamiliar material.

Is race an irrelevant characteristic to which we should all be blind? Do only racists pay attention to race? Or must we take account of race, as one Supreme Court Justice has urged, in order to get beyond it? Indeed, is race something that we should want to "get beyond"? This seminar will consider the nature and extent of racial inequality, and how we as a society might and should respond to it. We will consider specific dilemmas regarding the propriety of taking account of race, in, for example, placing children with adoptive parents, selecting individuals for police investigation, hiring and college admissions. Readings will be drawn from law, history and social science. The goal of the course is to enable you to think more deeply about the moral, social and practical dimensions of how to regulate race in specific settings.

What are the origins of the human rights movement and where is it headed? What does it mean to be a human rights activist? What are the main challenges and dilemmas facing those engaged in human rights advocacy? In the space of 60 years, human rights advocates have transformed a marginal utopian ideal into a central element of global discussion, if not practice. In this seminar we will examine the actors and organizations behind this remarkable development as well as the vast challenges faced by advocates in the recent past and today. Together, we will learn to be critical of, as well as to think, and act, like human rights advocates. This seminar will introduce you to some the main debates and dilemmas within the human rights movement. We will consider and understand the differing agendas of western international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) and their counterparts in the frequently non-western) developing world, as well as tensions between and among rights advocates along other important dimensions (civil and political vs. economic, social and cultural rights; rights promotion through engagement of powerful actors vs. challenging structures of power, etc.). The seminar seeks to develop your ability: 1) to understand human rights and social justice issues as contested political, legal and cultural phenomena; 2) to review advocacy texts, videos and other interventions critically; 3) to appreciate the political dimensions of efforts to promote human rights; 4) to understand how recent history constrains and structures options and possibilities for social intervention to promote rights and justice. During the course of the quarter you will be required to submit several short reflection papers and develop a human rights advocacy campaign.

Guns, Drugs, Abortion, Capital Punishment, Policing and Prisons, and Other Uncontroversial Topics in the Empirical Evaluation of Law and Policy Do guns make us safer? Can mass shootings be stopped? What is the true cost of the war on drugs and is legalization the answer? Why does the US have the most prisoners in the world and what are the social ramifications? Did the legalization of abortion reduce crime in the 1990s? Did capital punishment? Is the criminal justice system racially biased? These are some of the questions we will address by reading major empirical studies evaluating the impact of law and policy in the arena of criminal justice. This course has been modified from my law school course so that it is accessible to those with little or no statistical or economic background but who are willing to grapple with the intuitions behind such studies, which will be a main focus of the course readings. The seminar should appeal to anyone interested in understanding core issues in criminal justice policy, the challenges in answering empirical questions with data, and the intuition behind the statistical techniques that define the credibility revolution in empirical evaluation. The goal is to help students be more aware that many beliefs and policy positions are based on factual premises for which the empirical support is weak or nonexistent, or even directly contradictory, and how better to empirically ascertain truths about the world and align them with our policy preferences. Successful completion of the course will enable students to more effectively understand and critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the empirical studies that constantly appear in the media and policy discourse, to comprehend the challenges in establishing true causal relationships in the fields of law, policy, and medicine, and to better understand how ideologues and motivated researchers contribute to the vast array of conflicting studies in these domains.