Session: Two
Prerequisites: None
Dr Kristen Rundle
This course presents an opportunity for students from diverse academic backgrounds to be introduced to, and to critique, key legal ideas by reference to the concrete events that marked the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Students will explore the lessons for the philosophy and practice of constitutionalism, legality, and the relationship of law to justice that emerge from a study of Hitler's rise to power, the legalisation of the Nazi racial-biological worldview through eugenics and anti-Jewish legislation (in Nazi Germany as well as other European countries), as well as from the apparent movement from law to terror that occurred when the SS assumed primary jurisdiction over Jewish affairs. We will also explore the challenges to our conceptions of legal and moral responsibility that are presented by the role of bureaucracy in the implementation of the Nazi project.
In addition to introducing key concepts of law, the course offers a fascinating opportunity for students to develop a multidisciplinary approach to their studies through the use made of film presentations, as well as through collaboration with personnel at London's Wiener Library Institute of Contemporary History, which houses Britain's largest collection of original archival material pertaining to the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
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There will be electronic resources for this course containing links to most of the essential reading.
Lectures: 36 hours Classes: 12 hours
Assessment: One written assessment (1500 words) and one written exam.