PHIL 4305 JUSTICE IN THE U.S. 
CRN 12858 Section 501 

John Q. Stilwell, J.D., Ph.D., Lecturer II, Instructor

Thursdays 7PM – 9:45PM

GR2.302

Course Description

This course will be conducted in seminar fashion: that is, much of the work will be accomplished independently by students working on research papers which will account for a large part of the final evaluation. Students will have reading assignments to be responsible for in connection with class discussions and projects suggested by Dr. Stilwell’s work Just Conversation: The Rhetoric of Justice in Post World War II America, which is available in the Library. Portions of this work, along with other materials, will be distributed to students for study from time to time as class progresses. Two major areas of justice in contemporary American life will be examined: The fairness of distribution of (1) economic justice and (2) criminal justice. No texts are required for purchase; references for required reading will be provided. I will also have a reserve list of books from which brief assignments will be made, primarily, but not exclusively, from John Rawls’ works on the theory of justice, especially his Justice as Fairness - A Restatement and The Law of Peoples. Students will be given the opportunity to choose from several topic areas to concentrate their work in the course and to prepare a term paper for final evaluation in the course. The paper will be not more than about 15-20 pages, including notes and bibliography. and will be in the nature of a research paper on the chosen topic. Students may also be given shorter written exercises in class on specific topics in the course which will form a part of the evaluation. A Midterm exam will account for about 35% of evaluation, class work will account for about 10% and the final term paper for about 55% of evaluation weight. This allocation of evaluative work may change depending upon several factors, chief among them the expressed interest of students in topical matters for class presentation. Attendance is mandatory and will be monitored. Failure to attend and participate will result in deductions from the amount of points allocated to classwork.

The course is devoted to the study of what justice should encompass in modern U.S. society, at a time when U.S. military forces are engaged in hostilities, and U.S. economic, political and military dominance throughout the world, complicated by global communication networks of all forms of electronic media, render the country vulnerable to terrorism. Focusing on distributive and retributive justice, the class will examine allocation of resources and treatment of individuals in a time characterized by war rhetoric, if not wartime conditions as traditionally experienced. Various responses of the U.S. since September 11, 2001, including the Patriot Act, the Military Tribunal Order and Justice Department and Immigration Department treatment of suspected enemy combatants and detainees for various other reasons asserted to be in connection with the war on terror, will be examined in detail. Students will be asked to consider all issues in the course in the context of what the nation's social contract requires of government in the way of safety and security, education and health. Selected readings from applicable U.S. Supreme Court opinions will be assigned, as will a number of readings and the instructor's lectures, designed to familiarize the student with the importance of law and rhetoric in our society.

Other assigned readings will serve as critical thinking viewpoints to aid in the evaluation of the conclusions and arguments made in the text material, and in class work. Students will be given basic instruction in the historical context and philosophical underpinnings of the areas of subject matter covered in the course, and will also be given basic instruction in legal method, in order better to equip them to understand the reading of legal materials such as statues and judicial decisions. In addition, students will be asked to study and understand some basic materials on the history and use of rhetoric as a fundamental human communication art, and also as the foundation of ethics and justice. Prospective students and those already registered should visit the Instructor’s web site to view the course materials from prior renderings of the course and to read the Introductory Lecture on Justice.

The web site is http://www.PowersOfTen.org which contains the entire syllabus for the course.