Reproductive Rights and the Law (LAW-795-009B)
Bridgewater
Meets: 10:00 AM - 11:50 AM (W) - Room 351
Enrolled: 3 / Limit: 9
Notices
Class Partnership with The Modern American. The Modern American, WCL’s scholarly publication dedicated to diversity, has begun the Class Partnership Initiative to honor its commitment to publishing high-quality WCL student work. TMA regularly publishes legal articles and essays on intersectionality, politics, and under-examined issues as a non-traditional journal. Because this course is part of the Class Partnership Initiative, the three highest graded capstone papers for the course will be forwarded to TMA at semester’s end.TMA will review the entries as it does for other submissions, and make publication offers to exceptional papers that fall within the scope of TMA’s mission. Students are not at all required to accept a publication offer. Rather, the Class Partnership Initiative is meant to offer students a unique opportunity to adapt their academic papers into published, scholarly work, which is a great professional credential and skill-building experience. Lastly, it is important to note that all students are always encouraged to make submissions to TMA on a year-round basis.
Description
In the U.S., abortion as a wedge issue (second only to race and followed closely by gay marriage) that dramatically impacts the allocation of power. One’s position on abortion is one of the first assessments the public makes of candidates for offices in all branches of government. Moreover, new statutes seeking to regulate, protect or limit reproduction related activities are introduced in legislatures around the country on a weekly basis. Predictably, cases challenging those statutes are filed with equal regularity. Is this a new phenomenon in America’s political and legal landscape? What factors give rise to the predominant place this and other reproductive practices occupy in public discourse and jurisprudence? This is a socio-legal seminar designed to shed light on the relationship between law and reproductive processes by examining the ways in which the laws and policies related to reproduction arise from historically situated understandings of individual desire, technological advances and national projects. Additionally, seminar participants will also analyze the relevant doctrinal and theoretical frameworks in the U.S. for regulating and protecting individual interest in the reproductive process. In addition to the jurisprudential exploration, students will be introduced to a variety of interdisciplinary materials presenting the historical, political, economic and scientific components that inform the modern reproductive rights discourse in the United States.
Textbooks and Other Materials
The textbook information on this page was provided by the instructor. Students should use this information when considering purchases from the AU Campus Store or other vendors. Students may check to determine if books are currently available for purchase online.
Required text: The Reproductive Rights Reader, Nancy Ehrenrich ISBN 13 9780814722312 and From Abortion to Reproductive Freedom, Gerber Fried (ed., 1990) ISBN 0-89608-387-X
First Class Readings
Not available at this time.