Legal Studies 397P - ST-Makin' It & Fakin' It

Law assumes facts, creates entities, and conceals aspects of its operation in order to extend or limit the power of courts in deciding cases. Law creates and deploys fictions (e.g. corporate persons, reasonable persons, equal protection, compelling interests) in that endeavor. This social construction of law and legal phenomena may be construed as proper or improper depending upon the power of competing stories and story tellers, as well as how we the audience receives and give life to them. Critical examination of some operational fictions, or scripts of law, as they are constituted in courts and social life more generally is the backbone of this course.

Prerequisite: LEGAL 250

Legal Studies Majors only. Pre Req: LEGAL 250