Doctoral studies

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

To pass this course, the student should:

• Demonstrate advanced knowledge of sociology of law through discussion of how justice is mediated in society.
• Critically understand different theoretical approaches to the relationship between law and society, including law as separate from, embedded in, and co-constitutive of social processes across global contexts.
• Demonstrate familiarity with Nordic sociology of law as it is situated in global traditions.
• Understand how knowledge is structured in socio-legal studies, including decolonial critiques of epistemic hierarchies.
• Demonstrate knowledge of key analytical lenses for understanding law and society relationships, including class, caste, race, racism, Indigenous knowledge, global legalities, and queer perspectives.

Competence and skills

To pass this course, the students should show competence and skills to:

• Analyse how justice is mediated in different socio-legal contexts using theoretically informed frameworks.
• Critically apply multiple lenses of understanding (e.g., class, race, Indigenous epistemologies, and queer perspectives) to socio-legal problematics.
• Evaluate different global and Nordic approaches in law, justice, and society.
• Integrate decolonial and plural epistemological perspectives into socio-legal analysis.
• Develop and communicate theoretically grounded interpretations of socio-legal issues in relation to one's own research projects.

Judgement and approach

To pass this course, the students should:

• Demonstrate critical and independent judgement in sociology of law through assessing how justice is constructed, mediated, and contested, as well as law/society relationships.
• Reflect on the implications of different knowledge structures and epistemologies for the study of law and justice.
• Show sensitivity to global inequalities and power relations shaping legal institutions and normative orders.
• Critically assess the use and limitations of different analytical lenses in understanding socio-legal phenomena.
• Engage constructively with diverse perspectives and approaches to justice, including those emerging from marginalised and Indigenous contexts.
• Synthesise course insights to formulate and justify one's own approach to socio-legal problematics.

Course content

This course introduces sociology of law through discussions of 1) how justice is mediated in society. Justice is approached not as a fixed ideal but as a socio-legal problematic emerging through competing normative orders in global contexts; and 2) the relationships between law and society, and different understandings of their interrelations – from the “gap problem” to the embeddedness of law in social processes. These approaches are situated within Nordic and global traditions through discussions of how justice is mediated and how law/society relations emerge in practice. The themes of justice and law/society relations will function as a grounding when the course further addresses the structure of socio-legal knowledge through decolonial critiques. Drawing on analyses of epistemic hierarchies in Westernised universities, it examines how dominant knowledge formations privilege a limited canon while marginalising alternative ways of knowing. Emphasis is placed on plurality, the geopolitics of knowledge, and the shift from a “uni-versal” to a “pluri-versal” understanding of law and justice. These perspectives are developed through key analytical lenses: class, caste, and hierarchies; race and racisms; Indigenous knowledge and legalities; global legalities; and queer perspectives.

Course design

The teaching consists of lectures and seminars. Active participation in the course is required. Unless there are valid reasons to the contrary, compulsory participation is required in the seminars. Students who have been unable to participate due to circumstances such as accidents or sudden illness will be offered the opportunity to compensate for or retake compulsory components. This also applies to students who have been absent because of duties as an elected student representative.

Assessment

The students submit an essay at the end of the course where they utilise the course content to reflect on their own doctoral project, demonstrating that they meet the learning outcomes.

Three opportunities for examination are offered in conjunction with the course: a first examination and two re-examinations. Within a year of a major change or discontinuation of the course, at least two further re-examinations are offered on the same course content. After this, further re-examination opportunities are offered but in accordance with the current course syllabus.

The examiner, in consultation with Disability Support Services, may deviate from the regular form of examination in order to provide a permanently disabled student with a form of examination equivalent to that of a student without a disability.

Grades

Pass/Fail

Entry requirements

To be admitted to the course, students must have at least a Master’s degree with 90 credits in the sociology of law or other relevant disciplines such as sociology, criminology, law, political science, social work, or the equivalent. The student must also be admitted to a doctoral program to be admitted to the course.

Oral and written proficiency in English equivalent to English 6/B at a Swedish upper secondary school is required. International qualifications will be assessed in accordance with national guidelines. International students are exempt from the general entry requirements on to master Swedish.

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Darian-Smith, Eve (2013) Laws and Societies in Global Contexts: Contemporary approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7. 314 pages.

Fanon, Frantz (2021): Wretched of the Earth. Black Cat. 315 pages.

Grosfoguel, Ramón (2013) “The Structure of Knowledge in Westernized Universities” Human Architecture, XI:1, pp. 73-90. 17 pages.

Gupta, Dipankar (2005) “Caste and politics: Identity over System”, Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 34, pp. 409-427. 18 pages.

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Razack, Sherene (2022): Nothing has to Make Sense: Law, Global anti-Muslim Racism and White Supremacy. University of Minnesota Press. Pages: 1-50, 177-198. 71 pages.

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Walsh, Cathrine E. (2018) “Part 1 – Decoloniality In/As Praxis.” In: Mignolo, Walter D., & Walsh, Catherine E. On decoloniality: Concepts, analytics, praxis. Duke University Press. 99 pages

Werbner, Pnina and Werbner, Richard (2022) African Customary Justice: Living Law, Legal Pluralism, and Public Ethics. Routledge. Introduction and part 1. 130 pages.