LSTU 115 (Section 001)
Law and Human Behavior
Required LSTU course for majors/minors/certificate seekers
Social Science University Studies course
Instructor:
Dr. Maria Stalzer Wyant Cuzzo, Professor of Legal Studies, Swenson 3142, 3rd Floor Swenson Hall
Instructor: Dr. Maria Stalzer Wyant Cuzzo has a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota (1995) with specializations in Judicial Politics and Process, American Government and Political Theory. She also has a J.D. (1984) from the University of Minnesota Law School and is a Qualified Neutral and Trained Mediator in the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota. She practiced law in Wisconsin for five years specializing in civil litigation, family law and appellate practice. She was a mediator with Douglas County Circuit Court and offers mediation/conflict resolution trainings/educational seminars around the region. Dr. Cuzzo publishes in the field of conflict resolution and law. Her greatest joy is teaching and learning! She is proud to view herself as a life-long learner.
Office Hours: Monday-Friday, 2-3 p.m. except when meetings conflict (look for notice by doorway); by appointment or request as schedule permits. Cancelled or shortened office hours will be posted and alternative office offered, when necessary. Office hours are held in Swenson 3142. I am always happy to make a specific appointment to talk with you, if necessary. Open door policy with instructors---meaning you are welcome to stop by anytime the door is open. Feel free to drop by to say hello and visit! I enjoy talking with students outside of class!
Phone Access: (715) 394-8482—please use voice mail as needed. In emergency, feel free to contact me on cell at (218) 591-8488 before 9:30 p.m.
NOTE THAT I DO NOT RESPOND AS QUICKLY TO VOICE MAIL AS EMAIL. FOR PROMPT RESPONSE, EMAIL IS ALWAYS BEST.
Email: (preferred mode of communication)
Commitment to You: Legal Studies is committed to providing a quality program with a personal touch. We, your staff people, work hard to ensure that. Please, if you have any problems or just want to talk and share, feel free to drop by and see us about anything that is important to you.
Policies of the University are integrated into this syllabus. These policies set the “rules of the game” for life at UW-Superior. There is important information in these policies and I encourage you to read them. They are attached to the back of this syllabus and can be located at .
Note these additional policies relating to academic misconduct and nonacademic disciplinary procedures:
Academic Misconduct Disciplinary Process (Chapter 14) can be found at
Student Nonacademic Disciplinary Procedures (UWS Chapter 17) can be found at .
The University of Wisconsin-Superior is dedicated to a safe, supportive and non-discriminatory learning environment. It is the responsibility of all undergraduate and graduate students to familiarize themselves with University policies regarding special accommodations, academic misconduct, religious beliefs accommodations and absence for University sponsored events. For details, refer to the appropriate sections in the UW-Superior Class Schedule or the UW-Superior General Catalogue and the “Student Disciplinary Procedure” (UWS Chapter 14) and the “Student Nonacademic Disciplinary Procedures” (UWS Chapter 17).
Also note that there are great resources available on this campus. Here is a link to campus resources that might help you:
One example of a great resource is the Writing Center which provides you help in improving your writing. The University of Wisconsin-Superior Writing Center, located in Swenson 1030, offers support to student writers in one-on-one sessions with peer consultants. The Center's philosophy is that all writers can benefit from receiving feedback on their work and from revising their work. With this in mind, consultations are available free of charge to any UW-Superior student at any skill level from any class in any discipline. Writing Center consultants help writers brainstorm, find topics, incorporate and document sources, organize drafts, develop revision strategies, and more. Both in-person and online consultations are available. When you visit the Center, take a copy of your assignment, any drafting or notes you may have, as well as any sources you’re working with. Have these items on hand for online consultations, too. To make appointments and learn more about the Center's hours and services, visit the Writing Center webpage:
“Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”
Franz Kafka
WELCOME TO LEGAL STUDIES!
On behalf of UW-Superior and the Legal Studies & Criminal Justice Program, WELCOME to this course and this field of study! We are very pleased to have you with us and look forward to assisting you in achieving your academic and career dreams and goals. You are helping to build one of the “quality programs with a personal touch” here at this University—part of a marvelous array of people and programs here that are designed to prepare people to live, work and learn in the next century. So thanks for choosing this institution and this field of study. We APPRECIATE you!
We will have an opportunity to talk more about your specific goals and plans during Spring Advisement in March/April. You can also catch me anytime during the semester to discuss any concerns you might have.
LSTU Learning Outcomes
The Legal Studies & Criminal Justice Program has passed student learning outcomes that indicate the skills and competencies that we expect our students to gain by graduation. Our learning outcomes include:
1) Ability to analyze and interpret texts
2) Ability to write well
3) Ability to effectively convey ideas orally
4) Ability to critically think and analytically reason
5) Understand and practice public service
This course, LSTU 115, will focus on outcomes 1, 2, 4 and 5. You will learn to critically read multiple kinds of texts from textbooks to argumentative non-fiction books and skills based books. You will learn to write well via several writing assignments. You will learn to critically think about the many communication skills of law. And we will explore some key concepts of public service.
This course meets requirements established for the University Studies Program. As such, this course will foster the student’s growth in the following skills and habits of the mind:
- Communication
- Personal and Social Responsibility
- Critical Thinking and Creative Expression
This course focuses on social science and will explore communication and critical thinking from the University Studies Goals. See the section below for more detail on how this course meets the Social Science category.
By the end of your four years of academic work, you should possess some level of competence in each of the above listed areas of academic outcome.
The Paralegal Certificate curriculum is designed to achieve certain educational outcomes at the end of two years of academic work including:
- Knowledge of the key ideas/concepts of several substantive areas of law
- Understanding of the role, importance and operation of legal procedures
- Skills in how to construct an argument
- Ability to read, brief and use a court case
- Ability to write a memorandum of law
- Ability to research and write a brief
- Ability to engage in advanced legal research
- Basic comprehension of the liberal arts tradition of law
- Ability to research documents/forms within specific areas of law
LSTU 115 is the BASE course: the place where you will be exposed to concepts, vocabulary, ideas, possibilities, challenges and opportunities of the law. This course also sets into place a set of skills and capacities that you will build on throughout your academic career. This course emphasizes the importance of the following course objectives, all designed to build your competencies over four years of study.
UNIVERSITY STUDIES CONTRIBUTION OF THIS COURSE
LSTU 115 Law and Human Behavior is part of the University Studies program at UW-Superior. University Studies is core to your liberal education here at the university and invites you to expand your discipline and academic knowledge by exposing you to many different ways of thinking and being in the world. It enhances your ability to live a well educated life, practice an informed profession and contribute to your community. The purpose of University Studies is as follows:
The University Studies Program advances engaged learning so that students actively pursue and acquire knowledge from a variety of disciplinary perspectives; develop intellectual capacities to be creative, flexible, and critical thinkers; and develop academic skills to succeed in major/minor fields and life in an increasingly diverse society with global challenges and opportunities.
LSTU 115 Law and Human Behavior meets the Social Science category of UW-Superior’s University Studies program. Social science is the exploration of individual and society relationships, interactions and institutions from a research based or interpretivist viewpoint. Law and jurisprudence have long been academic disciplines that have a social science view. Some social science courses are like natural sciences: based on a research question using data gathering and interpretation to find answers or seek new questions. The interpretivist social science perspective uses social critique and contrasting interpretations of social experiences to deepen one’s understanding of themselves and others. This class will work in that domain. You will be asked to question your assumptions, identify your biases and explore alternative viewpoints that are different than your own. You will also be asked to expand your ideas, theories and knowledge of law and justice. You will be asked to engage in creative processes, primarily of discussion and writing, as well as critical thinking about many different law and justice topics. These three objectives match the Student Learning Objectives of the Social Science Knowledge category in our University Studies program:
Social Sciences
Creative and Critical Thinking: Students will articulate important questions, theories, and creative processes.
Creative and Critical Thinking: Students will evaluate assumptions and biases associated with a project, practice, or process.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
This introductory course is designed to provide a general framework of knowledge, ideas and thought—both mainstream and critical—regarding the assumptions, structures, actors, operation, intentions and outcomes of the American legal system. It is an interdisciplinary course in that we examine the wide-sweeping effect law has on our society from past (history), present (sociology and politics) and future (critical and social change) perspectives. The readings are designed to stimulate your thinking to recognize different ways that law exists and affects arenas of thought and practice in life. The days of law being relegated or restricted to limited domains are gone. Law now pervades most of what we do, think and believe in the United States, to a greater or lesser extent. This course will help illuminate why and how that happens.
This is also the introductory course to the Legal Studies undergraduate liberal arts major, a required course in the Criminal Justice concentration as well as the foundations course for the Paralegal Certificate program. This course also is in the Social Science category of University Studies. Because of our strong commitment to liberal arts education, this course should enable you to:
(1)Understand the mainstream and critical theories and assumptions that shape and influence our American legal system.
(2)Learn how to sort out relevant facts from non-relevant facts or opinions
(3)Build an argument from legally relevant facts
(4)Practice good, thoughtful writing and oral skills.
(5)Wrestle actively and effectively with the “big issues and challenges” of the law in our society using social science methods and research to analyze these questions and to identify new questions to pursue.
Academic Service Learning (AS-L) Project
This course is one of the Academic Service Learning (AS-L) courses in the LSTU/CJUS curriculum. Our academic service learning partner will likely be the Center Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse (CASDA) in Superior, Wisconsin. Here is some information about CASDA from their website at
“The Center Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse is a private, non-profit celebrating its 27th year of service in 2015. Our mission is to provide supportive services to individuals hurt by domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse while advocating for a community effort to end violence.
The agency was founded in 1988 when the Rape and Incest Victim Advocacy group and Coalition Against Domestic Violence combined efforts to provide more comprehensive, coordinated help to survivors of sexual and domestic violence.
Since its inception, CASDA has grown from a staff of 3 to a roster of 11 full-time employees and 10 part-time employees. All staff members as well as a caring group of dedicated volunteers are trained to provide services to survivors of violence.
CASDA’s daily operations are led by Executive Director Kelly Burger, who is supervised by the Board of Directors. Together, they oversee two CASDA locations.The main office is located in Superior, WI and an outreach office is based in Washburn, WI. The area primarily served by CASDA includes the twin ports of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin plus Ashland, Bayfield and Douglas counties in Wisconsin. However, we have no set borders when it comes to helping victims. Whether someone is calling our help line from California or coming to our office from across the bridge in Minnesota, we will help that person as best we can.”
More details on the AS-L Portion of this class will be coming in the 3rdor 4th week of the semester.
COURSE MATERIALS
This is a liberalarts, academically demanding program in Legal Studies, Criminal Justice and Paralegal Education. Mastering the arts and skills of reading large amounts of materials accurately, fairly and efficiently is an important and valuable life skill. What better place to practice than here in the classroom where we can identify and refine what we will need to successfully practice later in our lives—whether in our citizenship, our workplaces, our homes or our broader inter-relationships? Also, the field of Legal Studies is an emerging field so there are no standard texts that easily pull together all the divergent and intriguing approaches. This Introduction course is designed to set the foundational ideas in place so that you can build your academic house on solid and complete ground. To do that, you need to be exposed to an array of ideas. The readings for this class were chosen for their contribution to your foundation construction—each piece is critical to a coherent, solid whole.
The following three texts were ordered for this course and are available through the bookstore:
- Bonsignore, Katsch, d’Errico, Pipkin, Arons, Rifkin, Before the Law: An Introduction to the Legal Process, Houghton-Mifflin Press (current Edition): This is a collection of readings about the law that will serve as our basic text throughout the class. Varying from legal philosophy, literature, politics, economics, history and sociology, this collection will expose you to a broad array of ideas, with excellent, thought-provoking questions at the end of each article. Most of these readings involve social science findings about law and justice although some of the excerpts will present critical perspectives about law. They are designed to challenge your thinking and provoke new perspectives that might differ from your own. This text needs to be brought to each class session, having thought about the questions.Before the Law: An Introduction to the Legal Process provides a critical foundation in the liberal arts tradition to the study of the law. It is not designed to give you “black letter” answers to the law, but to broaden your understanding of the law and its impact on each of us.
- Scott Turow, Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer’s Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty, Picador Press: This short non-fiction narrative describes Scott Turow’s experiences as a prosecutor pursuing the death penalty to his service on the Illinois commission that investigated the administration of the death penalty. By telling the powerful stories behind the statistics, Turow invites us to thoughtfully consider capital punishment and its impacts in society as an example of a constitutional law issue that is alive and burning in American courts and justice. Turow relied heavily on social science research to question his own pro-death penalty perspectives and to help the Illinois Commission on the Death Penalty make findings that resulted in a moratorium on the practice. Turow is a well-known fiction writer, although this book is a non-fiction commentary on the death penalty.
- Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action, Vintage Press: 1995: This book presents the true story of a case involving toxic waste and dead children. Who is responsible?A Civil Action is a 1996 work of non-fiction depicting a water contamination case in Woburn, MA, in the 1980s. The book became a best-seller and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction. This case involved scientific research, social science research about toxic waste, legal research and informed opinions. It is a great example of the interpretivist perspective of law and justice. For our purposes it provides a look into the United States’ legal system and how court cases influence people’s lives in their search for justice.
Taken together, these works give you, the student, a solid and well-rounded introduction to many different schools of thought about the role of law, the legal system, and the future of law in our country. We will also have some handouts in class as we go.