Title: Legal Dimensions of Occupation: The Israel/Palestine Dispute
Course code: LAWS 4903 C
Semester: Fall 2018
Professor: Dr. Trevor Purvis
About: The dispute between Israelis and Palestinians is largely presented to us in quite starkly political terms – as questions of raw power politics played out in a violence-prone milieu. So palpable and totalizing are the manifestation of this politics that some have come to characterize the Occupied Palestinian Territories as operating in, or constitutive of, a ‘state of exception’: that the Occupied Territories are spaces of lawlessness where law has little or no place. There is however, a growing literature that reveals a complex web of legal relations governing various facets of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. While international law establishes many of the parameters of this relationship, the legal relations between these two communities are by no means limited to consideration of questions of international law. Rather, if international law frames much of the discussion, myriad, more ‘localized’, forms of legal administration govern the day-to-day operations of occupation and settlement.
This course seeks to examine in some detail the multiple elements of legality with a view to more clearly appreciating the complexities of a dispute governed not just by the threat of coercion, but by complex and often competing understandings of law and legality and their administration.
Title: Socio-legal Engagements in Film and Television
Course code: LAWS 5903 F
Semester: Fall 2018
Professor: Dr. Diana Young
About: The aim of this course is to examine how some of the theoretical concepts graduate students may encounter emerge in popular films and televisions shows. This course will be of interest to students whose research involves the intersection of legal and cultural studies, but many students have also found it to be quite useful in acquiring a deeper understanding of socio-legal theory by approaching it from the perspective of popular art. Students need not have a background in film or media studies in order to engage effectively with the course material. For more information, the complete syllabus is available on line, or you may contact the instructor, Professor Diana Young at DianaYoung@cunet.carleton.ca.