This course examines some of the many intersections between law and resistance and several related themes. Resistance has played a role in helping to shape law, as well as legal and political systems. Law has also served to legitimize some forms/acts of resistance. The course draws upon and examines numerous sources including international law, national legislation and case law, in addition to a variety of secondary sources including legal, social science and interdisciplinary, scholarship, newspaper articles and audio-visual material. The course also explores various ways in which resistance has been waged.
Students delve into a plethora of subjects and themes including some of the following:
- Defining resistance and legitimacy
- This includes:
- Definitions of resistance
- The relationship between resistance and the concept of “political opinion” in refugee law
- The legitimacy of resistance
- This includes:
- Gender, law and resistance
- This includes:
- Agency and victimhood
- Refugee law, Resistance and domestic violence
- The use of litigation to resist sexual violence
- This includes:
- Armed resistance, political crimes and terrorism
- This includes:
- International law and national legislation endorsing and diminishing armed resistance
- Armed slave rebellions
- Armed resistance and the concept of “political crimes”
- Legal conceptualizations of terrorism and the impact on resistance
- This includes:
- Indigenous Peoples’ resistance and the law
- This includes:
- Indigenous resistance to colonialism in historical context
- Resistance to the residential “school” system in Canada
- Indigenous armed resistance and political crimes – the Ts’Peten/Gustafsen Lake Standoff in 1995
- This includes:
- Resisting anti-Black racism
- This includes:
- Resistance to slavery in Canada and the United States
- Resistance to segregation and systemic discrimination
- Resistance in the era of Black Lives Matter
- This includes:
- Disability rights and resisting ableism
- This includes:
- Envisioning an accessible world
- Diversity of resistance engaged by people with disabilities
- Litigation as a tool to challenge barriers and discrimination
- This includes:
- 2SLGBTQ+ resistance
- This includes:
- Instances of 2SLGBTQ+ resistance in Canada
- Instances of 2SLGBTQ+ resistance in the Global South
- Trans resistance
- This includes:
- Resisting Detention
- The includes:
- Political prisoners and resistance within carceral spaces
- Escaping detention
- Resisting prison conditions
- The includes:
The foregoing themes may intersect with various doctrinal areas of law, including: criminal law and defences, refugee law, extradition law, military law, constitutional law, and human rights law.
This course will be offered during the Fall 2022 semester. Subject to other considerations, the plan is for this course to be delivered in person at Robson Hall.