UMass Amherst Legal Studies Blog

The following courses are open for Fall 2008:
Legal 391B, Law and Social Activism, Tuesdays 4 - 6:30
Legal 397M, Law, Society and Islam, Wednesdays 3:35 - 6:05
Legal 491P, Borders, Immigrants and Refugees, Wednesday 2:30 - 5:00
Legal 491W, Muslim Women and the Law, Mondays 2:30 - 5:00
Legal 497C, Who Owns Equality?, Wednesday 7:00 - 9:30
Legal 497K, Human Trafficking, Tuesdays 4:00 - 6:30

To: Undergraduates
Subject: Progressive Summer Campaign Jobs!
There is a lot at stake for our country in 2008. We’re stuck in a war we shouldn’t be in, we’ve lost many of our bedrock civil liberties, and we’ve lost critical time debating global warming instead of doing something about it. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We have a unique opportunity to put the people back into power and turn this country around. Grassroots Campaigns is launching one of the biggest field operations in history. We are teaming up with the Democratic Party and progressive organizations like the ACLU to tackle these huge problems our country is facing today.

If you are upset with the direction that our country has headed over the last seven years, and you’d like to have a job for the summer that will allow you to impact the world each and every day—join us at our information session:

CAMPUS VISIT INFORMATION SESSION:
Date: Wednesday May 7th & Thursday May 8th;
Info session times: 3pm, 5pm, 7pm
Location: The Blue Wall
Ask for: Dan Pomeroy

Interested in attending a session?
Just let me know by emailing here: dpomeroy@grassrootscampaigns.com
Bring a friend!

Or if you can’t join us there, call us here to find out more:
1-888-999-8852
WEBSITE: www.bringchange2008.org

Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. (GCI), is a national organization that specializes in building grassroots support for progressive political candidates and causes. We are currently hiring students across the country to take part in our campaigns for the summer. Grassroots Campaigns’ current and past clients include MoveOn.org, the Democratic National Committee, the ACLU, Save the Children, Amnesty International, and the League of Conservation Voters. Locations: Albuquerque; Amherst, MA; Ann Arbor; Austin; Berkeley; Boston; Chicago; Columbus, OH; D.C.; Denver; Hartford, CT; Los Angeles; Madison, WI; Morristown, NJ; Nashville; New Haven, CT; New York City; Pasadena, CA; Philadelphia; Portland; Raleigh/Durham; Santa Cruz; CA; San Diego, CA; San Francisco and Twin Cities, MN!

***Seniors***
Grassroots Campaigns is hiring graduating seniors to work full time running our campaign offices as Citizen Outreach Directors and Field Organizers through the election across the country! If you are interested, please email your resume and cover letter to Sarah Marini:
smarini@grassrootscampaigns.com or visit our website
www.grassrootscampaigns.com and you can apply online. For more
information contact: Sarah Marini, (617)338-7800. OR – Join us at one of
our info sessions above to apply!

Applying to Law School: The Nuts and Bolts of the Process

A workshop with Pre-law Advisor Matthew Light

Among the topics that will be covered:

· LSAC, the LSAT, and the LSDAS

· Application procedures and deadlines

· Required forms and documents

· Mistakes to avoid

Rising seniors are encouraged to attend!

Thursday, May 1, 2008, 3:00 to 5:00 pm
Campus Center 803

Refreshments will be served

Free and open to all U Mass and Five College students and alumni
Sponsored by the U Mass Pre-law Advising Office

Commonwealth College is organizing a “Meet the Law” event that will bring to campus attorneys who are U Mass alumni and who come from a diversity of law practice backgrounds to network with interested students.

The event is happening on Thursday, April 17, 2008 from 6:00 - 8:00 pm in Memorial Hall. Pizza will be served.

The guests will include the following:

• Gary Marchese (’78 BDIC), sole practictioner in Waltham
• Frederick Augenstern (’75 English), Assistant Attorney General in the Mass Attorney’s Environmental Protection Division
• Dwight Merriam (’68, Sociology), partner at Robinson&Cole (real estate law, zoning issues, development law)
• David Sullivan (’81, Management), Register of Probate, Hampshire Probate and Family Court
• Elizabeth Silver (’75, Psychology), Supervising Attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services, Lynn and Lawrence
• Charles DiMare (’74, Political Science, ‘83 MPA) Director of Student Legal Services, UMass Amherst

Please contact Jacqueline Brousseau-Pereira (jackie@sbs.umass.edu) if you have any questions.”

Keep checking Spire, two last minute additions are coming (in fact, there is rumor of a 3rd so stay tuned):

Legal 297D, Youth Violence and Justice
Schedule # TBA, TuTh 2:30 - 3:45, taught by Liz Brown

High profile reports of youth violence have led many to question the underlying presuppositions of the juvenile justice system and prompted many lawmakers to encourage the use of punitive and adult sanctions for youthful offenders. These changes have resulted, according to some observers, in a juvenile system distinct from its original premises even prompting one scholar to describe the system as a ‘second-class criminal court.’ This course will examine the cultural and political significance of youth violence in the contemporary period and the impact on the regulation of youthful offenders through the juvenile court. This course will cover topics ranging from gang violence, school violence, and popular culture representations of youth crime to the social construction of childhood, the legal basis and regulation of the juvenile justice system, and the unique position of child soldiers in international conflicts. Throughout each of these topics, we will want to understand the concomitant development of the juvenile justice system and social concerns about youth, community, nationhood, and modernity. At the conclusion of the course, we will reflect on the future of the juvenile justice system and its place in a just society.

Legal 497G, Geography and the Law
Schedule # TBA, Wed 3:35 - 6:05 taught by Liz Brown

Geography and the Law Human social life is fundamentally spatial. This reality is produced in large part by legal distinctions that regulate social spaces and people, such as territorial boundaries, citizenship status, and zoning legislation. Yet, the law is often also used to regulate social conflicts and thus has a hand in shaping the social spaces that we all inhabit. In this way, the law is not only spatial but also helps to produce the spatial realities we encounter. This often unforeseen dimension of the law forms the basis for the exploration of the intersection between geography and the law in this course. This course will introduce students to the variety of ways in which the spatiality of law is expressed and the role of law in regulating social spaces. Specific topics covered include the regulation of public space, the policing of cities, the regulation of private property, questions of sovereignty, the regulation of terrorism, and the impact of globalization on borders and mobility. In each topic, we will pay particular attention to the way in which law and space intersect to produce social inequalities based in race, class, gender, and sexuality.