Project #1: Ideology of Law – Compare two cases/laws
OVERVIEW:
For this project, compare and contrast two specific legal and/or criminal cases which, through their contrast, reveals fundamental differences, contradictions, or insidious consistencies between two laws, or how differences of application of the same law reveals implicit values. The aim is to discover, uncover, and “deconstruct” the ideologies latent in our laws or application of laws. Examine these cases for what they suggest about particular subjectivities of race, class, gender orientation, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, nationality, relation to capitalism, etc.
Discuss the ways these cases – when put side-by-side — demonstrate unequal valuation of certain subject positions (or that objects are more important than certain subjects) or propose a narrow view of what counts as a particular subject (for example, woman=wife). These cases should be relatively contemporary, meaning in the last 30 years
EXAMPLE SUMMARY:
For example, I might compare and contrast George Zimmerman’s lack of conviction for murder of Trayvon Martin under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law vs. Marissa Alexander’s 20 year prison sentence for attempted murder (she fired warning shots towards her abusive husband) in the same state, at relatively the same time, to discuss the implicit messages about who (what kinds of subjects) is allowed to be “reasonably afraid for their lives” from who? These cases side-by-side suggest white-seeming men can be reasonably afraid for their lives with regards to an unarmed black teenager, but women, in this case a black woman, cannot “reasonably” be afraid for her life regarding an abusive spouse or domestic violence situation.
ASSIGNMENT DETAILS:
There are two parts: an informal in-class presentation and a write-up about your cases:
Write up:
is due in Canvas (TurnItIn) Oct 10, by EOD (11:59 pm). You may follow the format below answering questions directly – no formal essay is required. Use complete sentences where appropriate and general citations where needed.
Presentation OCTOBER 8 – 10 – in class
In class, you will give a short and generally informal presentation to the class regarding your cases and your findings (2-5 minutes).
You may use PowerPoint to present visually compelling information or key facts from cases but should be limited in number and content (like 2 slides total)
If there are at least some pairs and groups, we can complete all of these during class time. If we run out of time, I may ask some of the solo presenters to post a video as an alternative.
Write-up Format:
Topic of Analysis: Overall law/issue/topic such as sentencing discrepancies, definition of certain crimes, etc. Such as “Comparing laws about drug use” or “comparing sentences around property crime,” or “who is tried as an adult/considered an adult vs. a child”
Ex. In this case I am interested in the “Stand your Ground” Law in Florida, especially as it isn’t applied to everyone equally.
Description of two cases/case study: Describe the details of the two cases/case studies (who, what, when, where, outcomes of trials, etc). Even for high profile cases, assume your reader has no prior knowledge of the case. You can put these side by side or one after the other.
Ex. Here I would give the who, what, when, outcomes, etc around the two separate cases using “Stand your ground” law in florida – George Zimmerman’s non-guilty verdict in the murder of Trayvon Martin, and Marissa Alexander’s 20-year sentence for firing a gun towards her abusive husband. I would briefly describe the details of each case and what the outcomes were.
Claim: What element/subject position should we notice is being valued differently here? (and how do you know that? i.e. explain what aspects of the case or what differences/similarities lead you to believe that race or gender or economics, etc were relevant factors here)
Ex. In this particular situation I would look at both race and gender. There are implicit messages about who (what kinds of subjects) is allowed to be “reasonably afraid for their lives” from who? These cases side-by-side suggest white men can be reasonably afraid for their lives with regards to an unarmed black teenager, but women, in this case a black woman, cannot “reasonably” be afraid for her life regarding an abusive spouse or domestic violence situation.
What is your overall conclusion from comparing the two cases? (essentially, what is your thesis or overall take away here?)
Ex. The Stand your Ground law has implicit racial and gendered biases underlying the principle, i.e. that Women cannot stand their ground, and black teenagers are inherently scary to white-passing people and thus fair game.
Format:
I’m very loose about citations, I want the exploration part to be the most fun. That said, do let us know generally when using quotes or other specifics where you are getting your info, and beware of websites that are clearly ideologically driven as your sole source of information,
In-speech citation is fine. For example, “According to a New York Times article, blah blah blah.”
EVALUATION:
This Write-up and presentation is graded based on the completeness and quality of the argument. I am particularly looking for your ability to:
Choose appropriate, interesting, and/or compelling cases / laws to illustrate the ideas
Make an interesting claim or argument about your cases that is relevant to the course concepts
Choose sufficient and clear examples from your cases to support your claims
Convey the message in writing and oral presentation in a clear, efficient, and effective way.
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