Week 4 - Contemporary Theories of Law

Question 1

What is Positivism?

Answer 1

taking the methods that are used in the sciences, and apply them to the social worlds.

Question 2

What is the criteria for a goof theory?

Answer 2

1. Testable
2. General
3. Parsimonious - Cheap
4. Valid
5. Original

Question 3

What is Geometry of Law?

Answer 3

Mathematical in nature. Basis of variations of social space in terms of the 5 variables of social life

Question 4

What are the 5 variables of social life?

Answer 4

Stratification, Morphology, Culture, Organization, Social Control

Question 5

What is the stratification variable of social life?

Answer 5

vertical structure of society - how equal, unequal is our social world in terms of wealth. Vertical space can be either high or low. The law will be dictated by stratification. More laws will be needed in a more stratified society

Question 6

What is the Morphology variable of social life?

Answer 6

horizontal structure of society - comparing amongst groups. Division of labor, who is responsible for what, degrees of intimacy/distance. As people are less integrated, the more we need the law to regulate behaviors

Question 7

What is the Culture aspect of social life?

Answer 7

symbolic dimension of social life - Thing in culture such as beauty science, art, religion, creates diversity

Question 8

What is the organization aspect of social life?

Answer 8

degree to which a society is formally organized

Question 9

What is the social control aspect of social life?

Answer 9

How we control the norms of everyday life. Formal types of social control like the law, but also informal such as relationships, customs

Question 10

What is the functionalism intellectual movement in law?

Answer 10

needs the law because it serves a function in our society

Question 11

What is the conflict intellectual movement in law?

Answer 11

Based on the assumption that social behavior can be best understood when we look at the conflict between groups

Question 12

What is Libertarianism?

Answer 12

Core principles of maximizing individuals freedoms, governments should be limited in its use of law, people should get to do whatever they want, as long as it does not cause harm

Question 13

What is Critical Theory?

Answer 13

Involves being critical of established beliefs within societies
Looking closer at the beliefs that might favor people who are privileged (rich, white men)

Question 14

What is CLS? (Critical Legal Studies)?

Answer 14

A theory that challenges and overturns accepted norms and standards in legal theory and practice, sees the law as a collection of beliefs and prejudices that covers the injustices of society with a mask of legitimacy

Question 15

What are the 3 main themes of feminist legal theory?

Answer 15

1. Women’s struggle for equality
   
   2. Male bias in every feature of law
   3. Law is nit value neutral, objective rational, dispassionate, and consistent

Question 16

What are the feminist frameworks?

Answer 16

Conservatism - They believe that traditional gender relationships and the inequalities that come from them are natural and functional
- Generally considered anti-feminist
Liberal Feminism - Women are unequal, want to assure that women have all the same abilities

Question 17

What are the feminist appraoches

Answer 17

Radical feminists - Belief in innate or essential differences
- Fought for the right for protection under the law, because they ARE different
- Focuses on oppression
Socialist Feminism - emerged in response to Marxism, incorporated gender into traditional Marxism
- Differences between “women’s work” and “men’s work”

Question 18

What is Critical Race theory?

Answer 18

It is a specific set of principles and theories that actively engage general racial theories of particular times and/or social contexts.

Question 19

What is CRT’s defining features?

Answer 19

1. Group identities - the group that you identify with (gender, SO, or race)
   
   2. Social systems - Education, media health care and law, mechanisms for advantageous opportunity for some groups and oppression for others

Question 20

Who is Viola Desmond?

Answer 20

Black woman, rich, sat in theater, kicked out, later cleared of her crimes and is on 10$ bill

Question 21

What are the two explanations of overrepresentation of minorities in the CJS?

Answer 21

Differential Offending Hypothesis and Differential Treatment Hypothesis

Question 22

What is Differential Treatment Hypothesis?

Answer 22

It is more the structural inequality that exists in the justice system that targets these groups which makes them more likely to end up there

Question 22

Why are indigenous people overrepresented in the CJS?

Answer 22

• Cultural theories
  Indigenous cultures are inherently violent and different from the dominant culture

Question 22

What is Differential Offending Hypothesis?

Answer 22

there’s a difference between racial groups in terms of arrest rates because they commit more crime/more likely to be persistent offenders, that’s why we see higher rates