Law, Society and Morality - Contemporary Controversies in the Courts London School of Economics and Political Science

Overview

Key facts

London School of Economics and Political Science's Law, Society and Morality - Contemporary Controversies in the Courts course will introduce the students to a range of high-profile controversies by viewing them through the prism of the law. It will enable the students to transcend the culture wars by critically engaging with the moral, political, and legal issues at stake and by becoming skilled participants in the respective debates.

We will engage with some of the most important and controversial political issues of our time, including abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, religious symbols and religious dress in the public sphere, hate speech, social rights, life imprisonment, gender identity, populism and democratic backsliding, biopolitics in the age of Covid-19, climate change and the courts, and states of emergency.These issues will be approached by studying and comparing landmark judgments from the world’s most influential and powerful courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, the Canadian Supreme Court, the South African Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights, the U.K. Supreme Court, and the German Federal Constitutional Court. The courts’ decisions serve as a springboard for a critical and analytical discussion of the respective issue.