For a complete list of course offerings in Racial, Economic and Social Justice, including full descriptions and faculty who will be teaching the offerings in 2008-2009, refer to the online Curriculum Guide.
Over 120 years ago, speaking on the occasion of the 24th anniversary of emancipation in the District of Columbia, the great abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass observed that "Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe."
Notwithstanding the passage of time, racial economic and social justice remain unfinished projects today and present complex challenges for lawyers in the twenty-first century. Columbia Law School's curriculum accordingly reflects a deep commitment to addressing the myriad ways in which persisting inequality interesects with legal, political and social arrangements, both domestically and globally. At the same time, courses in this area explore the possible meanings of inequality and justice, as these values remain contexted both within the law and in the larger society. A variety of courses are devoted to studying the historical and present-day roots and causes of structural inequality in multiple contexts, including the workplace, schools, the criminal justice system, the media, politics, housing, the environment and the provision of public benefits.
In addition, over the last twenty years, Columbia Law School has been one of the central homes for the development of scholarship and teaching in the dynamic field that has come to be known as Critical Race Theory. Critical Race Theorists have examined the entire edifice of contemporary legal thought and doctrine from the viewpoint of law's role in the construction and maintenance of social domination and subordination. Law students at Columbia will find ample opportunity to explore this form of analysis across a range of courses in our curriculum.
