Crim 2P33 2nd midterm-final class
John Locke: Why is Government Necessary
State of nature sometimes degenerates into a state of war under certain conditions:
- Disputes over property
- When one steals from another
- When one tries to enslave another
The benefit of creating a government
we gained:
- Laws
- Judges to adjudicate disputes
- The executive body to enforce laws
Civil Disobedience
A deliberate violation of a law generally perceived to be unjust in order to acheive a particular progressive objective/public good
- Must involve non-violent action
Debate over civil disobedience - opponents
- It causes chaos
- It undermines the authority of the government
- Its an incitement to commit crime
Debate over civil disobedience - Exponents
- It's a courageous act of nonviolent resistance to injustice
- Lawmakers have vested interests in maintaining unjust laws and thus will not willingly change them
- Whose 'order' is the law maintaining and in whose interest?
5 circumstances civil disobedience can be used in defense of social justice
1. Racial discrimination (Rosa Parks example)
2. Economic inequality
3. Freedom of speech
4. Environmental protection
5. Political oppression ( oppressive governments formulate laws to protect themselves, civil disobeidence can help ensure fair electoral campaigns
Relationship between law and social change
Law acts as a dependant and independant variable in social change (as an effect and a cause of social change)
What is Social Change?
- A change in the social sturcture and/or social relationships in society (a change in the stable social arrangements/patterned in society) (change in the structure of a family)
- Changes in the way people work, rear a family, educate their children, govern themselves or relate to each other with respect to government, economics, education, relgion etc.
2 major schools of thought
1. laws should be proactive (Jeremy Bentham) "laws should lead" social change/reforms
2. Law should be reactive (Fredrich Karl Von Savigny) legal changes should be preceded by social change
- Legal changes should be national and never universal because laws are codification of the customs of particular societies.
Crack vs. Opioid epidemic
- Crack users were mostly poor and racial minorities (race as a metaphor for class) state reaction was to criminalize and incarcerate
- Opioid users were mostly white middle-class. state reaction was to medicalize and rehabilitate users, including treatment and compassion (people were mostly fined)
Crack vs. Cocaine
- 5 grams of crack cocaine = 5 years mandatory minimum sentance
- 500 grams of powder cocaine = 5 years mandatory minimum sentance
- Growth of the prison industrial complex
- Fair sentancing act
1985 Divorce Act
Any of the partners could file for divorce solely on the ground of marital breakdown
- Both spouses have lived apart for at least 1 year
- Power to decide on divorce falls principally on the parties; courts limited only to administrative role
Implications of the Divorce Act
- High divorce rate
- Increase in single parent families
- new family forms (combined/blended/stepfamilies
- Divorce became less stigmatizing
- Social change in these contexts could manifest as transformed/modified values, attitudes, behaviors or institutions
Law as an instrument of social change
- 1 child policy in China (fears of the effects of an aging population on the economy)
- Canadian charter of rights and freedoms (as a basis for dismantling discriminatory practices embedded in customs
5 feminist legal theory arguements
1. Economic inequality
2. Inaccurate gender interpretation of the law
3. Cultural and traditional beliefs
4. Societal expectations
5. Influence of pornography
6. Intentional efforts by parents, teachers and society
5 civil disobedience arguments
1. Civil disobedience is especially important in promoting social justice against systemic racism
2. Economic injustice is exposed through strikes directed at unequal distribution of resources or exploiting working conditions among others
3. civil disobedience allows for society to engage in peaceful protest to rebel against certain notions and policies that governments produce
4. Within our society there at many environmental struggles that lead to protests all over the world, want to gain attention to lead to social change
5. Civil disobedience may help ensure fair electoral campaigns that end with governments that are