“Neither legal interpretation nor the violence it occasions may be properly understood apart from one another.”
Robert Cover, “Violence and the Word” (Reading provided)
The above claim assumes that law’s violence is closely connected to legal interpretations of texts, logics, and
principles. Does this make legal violence unique, different from other types of violence outside, against, or above the
law? If so, how, or in what ways?
In answering those core questions, you should consider other secondary but closely related questions, including: What
makes law’s violence or coercion legitimate? Does law in practice live up to its own codes or ideals? At what cost do
legal officials fail to restrict their actions to legitimate uses of violence?
Assignment: Write a single integrated essay paper (8-10 page total, typed, double spaced) addressing the quote from Cover
above and the question(s) about its meaning that follow it.
1. First, develop a clear argument that can be summarized succinctly in the first paragraph of the paper. Your
argument should address directly the core questions above that follow the quote and one or more of the secondary
questions, all of which will be explored in this class.
2. Second, develop your general argument through discussions of two specific sites of legal violence that we have
studied in the second half of the course. One of the specific sites of legal violence that your paper must focus on is
our nation’s current process of capital punishment. Select the second specific site of legal violence from the following
list of topics addressed in the second half of the course: *Lectures/readings have details about below topics, so please
read.
A. Immigration detention
B. Police Coercion and Excessive Force
C. Legal Coercion and the Prosecution of Criminal Cases (the police interrogation and grand juries materials)
D. Mass Incarceration
E. Punishment vs. Systemic Torture in Prisons
Greater attention may be given to one of these two primary topics over the other, but you must discuss both to some
degree (the shorter topic discussion should be at least half the length of the longer topic discussion). Moreover, you
should endeavor to connect clearly your discussions of the two topics to each other and to the overall themes of the
essay.
3. Third, your essay should integrate a wide array of selected materials assigned in the course syllabus. This
includes especially the thematic essay we read by Robert Cover (“Violence and the Word”). However, you should integrate
other materials from the class (book, essays, court cases, news articles, film, videos, etc.) into your essay as well.
Even though this paper focuses on the second half of the course, you may use materials from the first half of the course.
Paper Assessment: The assignment allows you much discretion in formulating your analysis(s). There is no one correct
answer, but there are standards for distinguishing among stronger and weaker analytical efforts. Specifically, your paper
will be graded according to the accuracy, clarity, comprehensiveness, coherence, rigor, and thoughtfulness of your
engagement with the questions and materials. Feel free to be critical and independent in developing your position; you
need not agree with the analyses offered in lecture.
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