The Rogers Program on Law in Society, promotes cross-disciplinary research, teaching and discussion at the University of Arizona.  Established in 2001, it partners the Rogers College of Law with four university departments – Anthropology, Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology.  The Program develops and supports courses taught at the law college, presents a lively colloquia series, awards faculty research grants, and sponsors the Global Society & Justice Workshop.

Rogers Program Courses are taught at the law college by professors from the four partner departments.  Each department presents one course per year designed to attract law students and graduate students.  An example is philosophy professor Tom Christiano’s course on “War and International Justice,” taught fall semester, 2005.  Law students brought to this course their understanding of international law and human rights.  Philosophy students contributed their knowledge of ethics and philosophical analysis.  This past spring, psychology professor Stephanie Fryberg brought together psychology graduate students and law students to examine how gender, ethnicity, race, religion, and region of the country or world underlie social and psychological construction of our world.

The colloquia series presents speakers from the University of Arizona and beyond, who discuss research on topics at the intersection of law and society.  This past year featured talks on the limits of protection for intellectual property that is produced with no expectation of profit; the development and efficacy of “people’s courts” in India; the role of social movement groups as state legislatures considered the E.R.A.; how the poultry industry has developed since NAFTA and with what consequences for U.S. and Mexican workers; and the complex and confusing array of decision-making bodies that exercise control over water transfers in the state of Arizona.

In some cases, the findings presented in Rogers Program Colloquia resulted from faculty research grants awarded by the program last year to University of Arizona professors to support research and writing about the connections and interactions between law and society.  The competition for these awards was repeated this past spring and drew a large number of applicants, representing sixteen different schools, departments and programs at the university.

The Global Society & Justice Workshop was established by the Rogers Program in the spring of 2006 and met for the first time in February.  Workshop members, numbering over thirty and all from the UA community, represent a wide spectrum of disciplines, and make real the Program’s aim to create opportunities to study the law by adopting frameworks and methodologies outside the law.  Three times each semester a Workshop member distributes a draft to all other participants.  The meeting follows a week later, where the paper is discussed and analyzed, first by assigned commentators, then by the group as a whole.  The conversations that result show the Rogers Program at its very best, aspiring to a deeper understanding of how social conditions shape the law, and how legal regimes bring order to society.

The Program also sponsors a yearly series of colloquia by faculty members and graduate students of the four departments and the College of Law, featuring works in progress or informal lectures on current issues of public policy by scholars in a variety of disciplines. At intervals, the Program will also host national conferences, such as those on Guns, Crime and Violence (2001) and Youth, Voice and Power (2003).

For a Complete list of past Rogers Programs Presentations Click here!