ILRLR 2060

ILRLR 2060

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2018-2019.

Topics change depending on semester and instructor.

When Offered Fall or Spring.

Permission Note Enrollment limited to: 15 ILR sophomores or permission of the instructor.

Satisfies Requirement Satisfies the ILR Advanced Writing requirement.

View Enrollment Information

Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session. 

  • 3 Credits GradeNoAud

  • Topic: Law and Society

  • 17238 ILRLR 2060   SEM 101

  • This course examines the experiences of workers attempting to navigate the labor standards enforcement bureaucracy. We begin by reviewing the conditions of post-industrial labor in an era of declining unionization and weak federal and state protections. Next we review theories of legal consciousness and legal mobilization, which help explain the conditions under which low-wage workers learn about their rights and come forward to demand justice. We walk through claimsmaking in an array of federal and state administrative bureaucracies, including wage and hour, health and safety, and discrimination. We also look at how the immigration enforcement regime intersects with the tenets of at-will employment to grant employers wide latitude in retaliating against undocumented workers and stifling attempts at legal mobilization. We next assess how these formal protections are filtered through various institutional gatekeepers (including legal advocates and medical experts) and how organizational compliance structures (such as human resources and mediation programs) have limited workers’ ability to make claims on their rights. We consider how intersecting bases of inequality (such as gender, race, and national origin) are processed by administrative bureaucracies, and how lay versus legal conceptions of workplace justice often diverge. We end by considering the fallout of workplace abuse on individuals and their families.

Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session. 

  • 3 Credits GradeNoAud

  • Topic: Disability and Ethics

  • 14170 ILRLR 2060   SEM 102

  • This sophomore writing seminar considers questions of ethics and justice in thinking through contemporary issues in law and everyday practice concerning people with disabilities and the disability experience, including discrimination in the workplace, education, and public sphere. Beginning with an interrogation of the relationship between the law and ethics, we will then explore the history of disability policy and law, and in doing so, closely examine the implications of a number of Supreme Court decisions. We will conclude by evaluating global perspectives on the contemporary state as well as future of disability rights, particularly as they intersect with bioethical debates. As a writing-intensive seminar, this course will allow for the development of critical thought and reasoning in both oral and written communication. Fulfills the ILR Advanced Writing Requirement. Enrollment is restricted to sophomores or others with permission who have not satisfied their ILR Advanced Writing Requirement.