Bok Course: Populism in Law and Politics (Sadurski)
Additional Information
Skills Training
Oral Presentations
Expository Writing
Grading
10% Participation,
90% Paper
No
Class meets in person.
Course Continuity
Students are encouraged to stay home if you are ill or experience flu-like symptoms. If you miss a class for any reason, it is still your responsibility to make up the work missed.
I offer the following to students who miss class due to illness:
- If you are absent, due to illness or some other unavoidable circumstance, email me and I can ask for volunteers among your classmates to share their notes with you.
- If you are absent due to illness or some other unavoidable circumstance, email me and I can make PowerPoint slides or other class materials available to you.
Meeting Times/Location
MW 1:30PM - 2:50PM
Tanenbaum Hall 253
Category
Upper-Level
Credits
1.0
Instructor: Professor Wojciech Sadurski
The special session course will meet on Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:30-2:50, from January 26 through February 18.
We will discuss the current rise of populism around the world, with an emphasis on the authoritarian variant, ruling in various countries such as (until recently) Poland and Brazil, and (still these days) Hungary, Turkey and India (inter alia). An assumption is that this form of populism constitutes a serious challenge to fundamental principles of liberal, constitutional democracy. The focus will be on legal tools used by populists in power, and on how to counteract them.
The course will be divided into four parts, corresponding to the four weeks of the course. In week one, we shall have an overview of the subject: the concept and varieties of populism, corresponding to the primary political/social sources of populism. In week two, the course will look at populist approaches to constitutions and constitutional design. The third week will be devoted to populist approaches to democratic institutions, in particular courts. The fourth week will be devoted to dominant populist political narratives (on day one of the fourth week) and to anti-populist remedies (on the last day of the course).
Background literature: Wojciech Sadurski, A Pandemic of Populists (Cambridge University Press 2022) Martin Krygier, Adam Czarnota & Wojciech Sadurski (eds.), Anti-Constitutional Populism (Cambridge University Press 2022) Additional recommended literature Nadia Urbinati, Me the People: How Populism Transforms Democracy (Harvard University Press 2019) Samuel Issacharoff, Democracy Unmoored: Populism and the Corruption of Popular Sovereignty (Oxford University Press 2023) Andrew Arato, Populism and Civil Society: A Challenge to Constitutional Democracy (Oxford University Press 2022)
International and Comparative Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of international and comparative law, both substantively and procedurally; Perform legal analysis in the context of international and comparative law; Communicate effectively on topics related to international and comparative law; Demonstrate an understanding of the role of international and comparative law, and their interconnection with domestic law.
Constitutional Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of constitutional law; Perform legal analysis in the context of constitutional law; Communicate effectively on topics related to constitutional law; Demonstrate an understanding of constitutional law affects other areas of law.
Courts and the Judicial System Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of both substantive and procedural issues in the operation of our legal system; Perform legal analysis in the context of procedural issues and the judicial process; Communicate effectively on topics related to procedure and the judicial process; Demonstrate an understanding of how procedural issues and the judicial process affect all other area of our legal system.
Perspectives on the Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of how the law affects, and is affected by, the individual course topic; Perform legal analysis in the context of the individual course topic; Communicate effectively on the legal and other aspects of the individual course topic; Demonstrate the ability to use other disciplines to analyze legal issues relevant to the individual course topic, including economics, philosophy, and sociology, as appropriate.
Textbooks
"A Pandemic of Populists" by Wojciech Sadurski |