1 Lecture 2 The Creation of Crime How do we create crime How do different kinds of texts represent crime What do those representations reveal about the nature of crime What do they leave hidden distorted or unspoken Crime is ontologically real that is it exists truly purpose of CJS is to get close to crime Our theoretical approach to crime determines our practical response to it One theoretical Approach Borges Article an astonishing view of the emotional moral and social essence of murder crime is real yet every approach to it is an imperfective narrative mathematical entity or disease but its not McDowell Article McDowell treats murder as if it were an abstract from here we can see how depending upon the approach that although both narratives draw on the reality of homicide to tell a story one gets closer to the actual of reality of murder while one does not Expressing how you approach crime determines the response to it Wender s article attempts to reveal what gets lost in translation when it comes to crime 2 Lecture 3 The Tragedy of Power among crime politics and justice What is the tragedy of power and how does it related to the relationship Tragedy of Power when you exercise power you are never going to get it right accomplish as a set of political course on people or it wouldn t be a CSJ violence literally or figuratively even with the best intentions political activity will mess up what it is set to There is no way you can have a CSJ system that does not inflict harm or pain even with the best intentions there is no way of getting away from the He who lets himself in for politics that is for power and force as means contracts with diabolical powers and for his action it is not true that good can follow only from good and evil from evil but that often the opposite is true Weber 123 It is related to crime Because the tragedy of power allows judges and courts to inflict pain on individuals individuals deter from committing crime knowing that pain is the likely outcome Because the political arena is an arena of pain and violence and there is no way to keep your hands clean of that aspect of the political realm It is related to politics It is related to justice Because law inflicts pain to achieve justice violence is the outcome of justice for some 3 Lecture 4 What is the Law Why is it so important to understand different theories of law How do these theories produce radically different practical outcomes How can I decipher legal citations and look up court cases Legal Positivism the validity of law derives solely from political power Natural Law the validly of law transcends goes beyond mere political power 4 Lecture 5 The Relationship between Law and Justice What is the practical relationship between written laws and unwritten social customs How and why do legal decisions reflect unwritten social norms and values The main legal conflict in DeShaney is between formalism and activism Formalism Judges follow the letter of the law and make strict literal logical interpretations even in the face of tragic consequences the law does not have a whole lot of stretch we cant stretch the law because we feel bad We have to interpret the law for what it is literally reading the letter of the law Activism Judges follow the spirit of the law and interpret the law in light of its supposed underlying intent you cant just follow what the letter of the law is because times and values change Can t just read what is on the page but need to stretch the law to consider things that weren t considered by people when they made the law not every custom is a formal legal right but custom is a powerful influence on the act of crating boundaries excludes and includes and there s no way around persistence of custom despite conviction of a citizen for pig owning pigs remained in the city laws and decisions mean different things to different social groups and these meanings are subject to interpretation and debate Hence it is difficult to identify in a single constant fact what the law the law that means 5 Lecture 6 The Social and Political Roots of Law What is the relationship between law and political order What are the practical implications of differing theories of the nature and role of law How does the law enact different notions of sovereignty Rather than thinking about law as a fixed object think of it as an arena of conflict where alternative social visions different ideas about how people think the world should map out contend bargain and survive these meanings are neither fixed nor certain The law always exists in a given cultural context which changes over time Remember society changes law and law changes society Hobbes argues that law is the command of the sovereign and that this is where it originates Hobbes argues that left to our own devices it is not law and the state gets them to do what they would never do with their own self interest Hobbes argues we need the sovereign so we don t have a state of nature where people are individually seeking and violent because people left to their own devices wont do the right thing How may law be understood as a form of language and rhetoric and as a 6 Lecture 7 Law and Language living form of social discourse How are law and language related helps with the interpretation of law law fundamentally involves reading speaking and writing without language there is no law James Boyd is saying law is related to custom and culture The law is just not some bland set of rules it is an active process through which community is established It maintains that community and transforms it Law is a form of rhetoric he means to use rhetoric in its classical definition as part of one of the classic legal arts the art of persuasion Rhetoric is the art of using language to persuade others A living form of social disclosure modern society has come to view the law as a mere tool or machine this doesn t reflect the richness or complexity of our closeness to the the instrumental model law He is trying to explain there is a constant deeper relationship between you and the law that is not captured in the instrumental model In this way we come to think incorrectly that the law is an object for society and that society is an object of the law But by reducing law to policy choices and techniques of implementation we isolate it from society and misunderstand its deeper nature we need to read legal documents decisions laws etc as creations of meanings rather than as orders directions