Social justice is often marked as the goal to be achieved by those aiming to reform society to be more equitable. Legal reform is often promoted as the tool for such reform. By examining a variety of successful cases of legal reform and discussing what can be learned from it, students will gain a deep understanding of the complexity of social structures and their often-invisible impact. Through interactive lectures, discussions, video clips and field observations, the class will examine how redlining and mass incarceration have resulted in the current rates of racial inequality and how the corporate veil led to significant economic growth, often at the expense of those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. Students will learn how to ask sociological questions, think critically about their academic work, select the appropriate research method, and create presentations about a form of social inequality that interests them.
