Law as a Social Science

List of Primary Sources
You must use one of the following as your primary source. Your essay must make detailed and
explicit reference to this source. That is, you must answer your chosen question (see list below)
based on this source.
• Eliot, George. The Mill on the Floss (any edition).
• McLachlin, Beverley. Full Disclosure. Toronto: Simon and Schuster, 2018.
• Richler, Mordecai. Barney’s Version (any edition).
• Morrison, Toni. Home (any edition).
List of Questions
Using your chosen source as the basis of your answer, write an essay that addresses one of the
following questions:

What does the source tell us about the role/purpose of law?
What does the source tell us about the sources of law or about how laws are made?
What does the source tell us about why laws are obeyed or why laws are considered legitimate?
What does the source tell us about the relationship between ‘law’ and ‘justice’?
What does the source tell us about how law structures the relationship among individuals?
What does the source tell us about how the law structures the relationship between individuals
and the government?
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Specific Essay Requirements
Your essay must be 1500-2000 words in length (a title page, footnotes/endnotes, and the
bibliography are NOT counted towards this word limit).
Your paper must be in Times New Roman 12-point or an equivalent font (footnotes can be 10-
point). Your paper must be double-spaced. Your paper must have margins of 1” or 2.5 cm. You
must number your pages.
Your essay must be your own work. You may not work collaboratively with any member of the class. You may not submit a paper for this course that you have also submitted for any other course at any time in your academic career (although you may use the paragraph you write for the writing workshop assignment in this course as part of your final essay). You may not purchase an essay from any source. You may not hand in a paper you have found for free on-line. You may not copy passages of any length from any source (print or electronic) without properly acknowledging your use of that source. You may not use ideas and arguments from any source (print or electronic)
without properly acknowledging your use of that source, even if you are not directly copying the words in which the idea or argument is presented elsewhere. You may not copy the structure or organization of any source (print or electronic) even if you rewrite every sentence in your own
words. You may seek assistance from the Learning Centre, the Writing Lab, or the course instructor.
You may ask someone (a friend, a parent, etc.) to proof-read your paper – that means they can read
it over and tell you whether it makes sense, or identify typos and spelling mistakes; having someone
make significant changes to your paper for you is not “proofreading”.
You must use at least six scholarly secondary sources (articles in academic journals and academic
books; electronic versions of these are fine, but other internet-based research is not allowed for this
assignment), in addition to the primary source you have chosen from the list above, in the
preparation of your essay. Things that are assigned readings for this course do not count towards
this minimum number of sources. These can be sources that specifically discuss the primary source
you have chosen, things that discuss legal issues in your primary source (e.g. if there is a murder in
the novel you have chosen, you might find it helpful to read things about the law of homicide, or
about how murder trials are conducted, or about how evidence is collected at crime scenes, and so
on), or things that provide background information to help you understand your source (e.g. if your
novel is set during WWII, you might find it helpful to read something about what happened during
the war). The purpose of this requirement is for you to have enough information to work with, so
you can write a strong essay. There is a lot of flexibility about what sources you choose here, but
your sources must be relevant to your essay; learning how to identify what information you need to
find out in order to understand a chosen topic, and learning how to find that information, are
essential academic skills.
You must acknowledge all the uses of all your sources, even when you do not quote directly from them. You must provide an appropriate reference every time you refer to a fact, idea,
argument, etc. that you have taken from any source. This includes providing a reference when you mention things that happen in the primary source you have chosen. This must include the specific
page or range of pages where the information you are using can be found within the source;
identifying the entire book or article is not acceptable.

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All references must be provided in either footnotes or endnotes (you may choose which of these you prefer, but you must choose one of these and use it consistently – you should not have both footnotes and endnotes in your paper). The use of embedded or parenthetical references is not allowed for this assignment.
All references must be formatted either in Chicago Style (a short version of this is available in A
Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Kate L. Turabian) or in the style outlined in The Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (McGill Guide). Both of the style guides are available in the University library and can be purchased in the University bookstore or online. No other citation style may be used for this assignment.
Your essay must be structured as a formal academic essay, with an introduction, body, and conclusion. You might be familiar with the ‘five-paragraph’ essay structure from your high school
classes; in university, you are allowed to have more than three paragraphs in the body of your essay
and you are expected to have paragraph breaks wherever they are appropriate for the overall
structure of your argument. Each paragraph should deal with only one main point, which should be identified in the topic (first) sentence of the paragraph. Your essay must make a real argument that is expressed in a clear thesis statement contained in your introduction. The argument must be supported by relevant evidence drawn from scholarly sources. If you are unsure what any of this means, you are strongly advised to consult with the course instructor and/or with the Writing
Lab as soon as possible. Other good resources include The Lively Art of Writing by Lucile Vaughan
Payne and this on-line resource: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/.
Your essay must be written in formal academic English. Slang, text-messaging abbreviations, and contractions are not appropriate in this context. Your paper will be evaluated on the basis of how successfully you address your topic, which includes consideration of how your paper is structured,
argued, evidenced, and written. Your paper is not expected to be perfect, but significant problems with grammar and spelling will affect your grade.
Your paper must be submitted electronically through the CMS. Papers will not be accepted by email or in hard copy. Your essay must be posted to the CMS as a single document (including the title page and the bibliography), either as a Word document or as a PDF. The file name should indicate your surname and the course code (e.g. Jane Doe’s essay should be posted with the file name: Doe JURI1106 essay).
A late penalty of 5% per 24-hour period will apply. Extensions will only be granted for exceptional circumstances (such as illness or a death in your family). If you need an extension, please contact me before the paper is due. If you are given an extension, you must indicate that on the title
page of your essay.