BRISTOL – Roger Williams University School of Law announced Monday that it will introduce a new required course for students that will focus on race and the law.
The course, titled “Race & the Foundations of American Law,” will give students some grounding in the historical perspective of the structures of the law and systemic inequities that exist within the law, RWU School of Law Dean Gregory W. Bowman told Providence Business News.
“We want to graduate the most effective and trained students possible,” Bowman said. “This is a broadening perspective course.”
Bowman said the course is part of the effort to continually improve the school’s curricula and training. It’s also part of the process of implementing RWU School of Law’s strategic plan for diversity and inclusion. Last summer, during the height of the nationwide protests calling for racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s death, RWU School of Law had discussions with students who are part of the Black Law Students Association about adding a course that addressed law and race, Bowman said.
RWU School of Law subsequently launched a pilot course as an elective in the spring semester, with about 12 students attending, according to Diana Hassel, one of the course’s professors and a former RWU School of Law associate dean. Now the course will be required for incoming students, Bowman said, and it will be part of the second-year curricula in the 2022 fall semester.
Bowman also said the course will also tie into the national debate over racial justice. He said the course highlights how laws were implemented and how the structures of the law worked to privilege certain segments of society and underrepresent other segments of society.
“On the surface, it all looks objective. When you look at the impact, you see these very disparate impacts,” Bowman said. “That’s sort of the thing where if you don’t stop to think about, then it will be invisible to lawyers who don’t understand that and problematic.”
Hassel, who teaches primarily constitutional law at RWU School of Law, said the course teaches historical perspectives on colonization, slavery origins, Civil War amendments, segregation and discusses current systems on racial inequity, such as mass incarceration, gerrymandering and housing discrimination.
She also offered perspectives on provisions in the U.S. Constitution that supported the existence of slavery, and the 14th Amendment that granted all, including former slaves, equal protection.
“I think it’s important to see where we came from and what our history has been,” Hassel said, “and what ways race has been foundational and the way our legal systems have been established so we can look at those squarely and figure out what we can do about them.”
Bowman also said that he feels critical race theory is “an incredibly important and useful perspective on the law.” He said the more lawyers understand how the legal system’s structure can adversely impact certain members of society, the better that lawyers will understand law, affect changes, better represent clients and improve society.
“There are many different lenses to look at law. Law economics, critical race theory and others. Having these multiple perspectives on the law and understanding how they work is very important for deep robust understanding of the law,” Bowman said. “Taking some of those perspectives away is harmful to legal education. Adding perspectives is useful.”
Bowman also said that RWU School of Law wants to lead the way in introducing curricula on race and the law. He said there are numerous law schools talking about adding a course on race and the law, but very few have decided to do so.
Additionally, the American Bar Association, he said, is also considering changing its standards that would require courses providing perspectives on diversity and inclusion in legal education.
“We’re trying to be a regional and national leader in this part of legal education,” Bowman said.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
