HIST5542 Special Topics in Comparative History (Global Studies): Law and Religion in World History

Introduction

This course will offer students the chance to explore the important historical links between systems of religious belief and legal practice in the world’s major cultural traditions. Beginning with the earliest recorded evidence of law and religion in the Bronze-Age Middle East, the course will also cover ancient India, the Graeco-Roman world, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and modern issues of pluralism, colonialism, and secularism.

Each week, students will read important recent works of scholarship on each topic, while lectures and tutorials will give a chance to compare and contrast the ways in which the connection between law and religion has developed in different historical societies. At the end of the course, students will produce a substantial research paper on a topic of their choosing that addresses significant matters that have arisen in the course readings and class discussions.

Learning Goals

This course has three main goals:

1. To teach you the fundamentals of the legal and quasi-legal systems of the world’s major historical religions: key dates, events, places, states, beliefs, innovations, etc.
2. To familiarise you with the similarities and differences between various historical societies’ constructions of the relationship between law and religion.
3. To help you understand and be able to discuss/debate the ways in which historians have interpreted the development of different societies’ legal and religious systems.

Assessment

Your performance in the course will be assessed on the cumulative basis of different types of assignment (described in more detail below) and your attendance. There will not be an exam or quiz component. The weighting of the different factors is as follows:

Research Proposal              10%
Reading Quizzes (x4)                20%
Participation                       20%
Research Paper                   50%

Your final letter grade will be determined by your overall course percentage. You will not be graded on a curve. Grades will be assigned according to the following set thresholds:

A      90%                     C+  65%
A-     85%                     C    60%      
B+    80%                     C-   55%
B      75%                     D    50%
B-     70%                     F     <50%

Grade Descriptions

A                     Exceptional: Exceeds expectations. Demonstrates impressive knowledge, clarity, analytical ability, and a firm grasp of course material.

A-                    Strong: Has most of the qualities of A-grade work but has some minor areas for improvement.

B (+/-)             Good: Shows a solid understanding of course material. Has some flaws in writing or argumentation and may contain minor errors or misunderstandings.

C (+/-)             Satisfactory: Demonstrates an acceptable level of knowledge but suffers from lack of clarity, misunderstandings, historical errors, or weak argumentation.

D                     Unsatisfactory: Achieves the minimum passing grade but fails to meet most expectations of knowledge and argumentation.

F                      Fail: Does not meet basic expectations of knowledge, understanding, and/or timeliness in submission.

Reading Quizzes

There will be four short quizzes to test your understanding of the assigned homework readings. These will be held during tutorials and will be worth 20% of your course grade. Each quiz will last about 20 minutes and will consist of five short-answer questions. The quizzes will focus on your general understanding of the ideas, arguments, and concepts in the readings; you do not have to memorise specific details.

Research Paper

I will ask you to write a research paper (3,000–5,000 words) at the end of the semester, due on 29^th April, which will be worth 40% of your course grade. This paper will require you to reflect on the major themes of the course and to develop your own argument or interpretation relating to law and religion in world history. We will hold a Research Paper Workshop on 2^nd April in which we shall discuss how to research, write, and format your paper. You will be free to choose your own topic and title, on three conditions:

1. You must explore an aspect of the historical relationship between law and religion.
2. The paper must be about world history; you may not write about Chinese history.
3. You must write a short (approx. 500-words) research proposal, due before our workshop on 2^nd April. This will be worth 10% of your course grade.

You should upload your research paper to the relevant section of the Blackboard course website along with a signed declaration of academic honesty from VeriGuide (which you can find at https://academic2.veriguide.org/portalcuhk/). The research paper should be in MS Word .doc or .docx format; the VeriGuide declaration should be in .pdf format.

Class Participation

Active participation in class discussions is an important part of the course and your learning experience. Whenever you engage in discussion in either lectures or tutorials, it will count towards your course participation score (20% of your course grade). To be clear, participating in discussions means that you will actually have to speak. Sitting in silence is not participation and will not count. But don’t worry! You don’t have to be an expert (or even knowledgeable) about a topic to join in the discussion. Any kind of contribution, even if it is just a simple comment or a question, will count as participation and will thus add to your course grade. So don’t be shy!

Course Readings

Each week you will be assigned approximately 80–100 pages of reading, which you should complete after the relevant lecture. This will consist of significant pieces of academic literature – mainly journal articles and book chapters – that explore important aspects of the week’s theme. All required course readings will be posted on the Blackboard course website at the beginning of the semester. You will not need to purchase or acquire any course materials yourself.

For a general introduction to the subject, I can recommend the following (non-compulsory) books, all of which are available in the CUHK library system or online:

Peter Cane, Carolyn Evans, and Zoe Robinson (edd.), Law and Religion in Theoretical and Historical Context (Cambridge, 2009).

Russell Sandberg, Law and Religion (Cambridge, 2012).

Russell Sandberg et al. (edd.), Research Handbook on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Law and Religion (Elgar, 2019).

World History Seminar

This term, the History department will be holding the seventh series of its World History Seminar. This will take place online on Zoom roughly every two weeks for a lecture by a leading world historian. At the end of the lecture, members of the audience will have the chance to engage in a Q&A with the speaker. A complete schedule of events, with topics, dates, and times, will be released soon.

Since this seminar has a clear relevance to our course, I would like you to attend no fewer than three meetings of the World History Seminar. You should also ask at least one question during one of the Q&A sessions. Your attendance and participation in this seminar will form part of your overall participation grade for this course.

Attendance and Absences

You are expected to attend all lectures and tutorial sessions. For every class that you miss without my permission, 1% will be deducted from your final course grade. If you have a valid reason for being absent from a lecture or tutorial (such as a doctor’s appointment), please contact me as soon as possible to ask for permission.

Extensions, and Lateness Penalties

You will be expected to submit your research paper by 11:59pm on 29^th April. If you are unable to submit your work on time, please contact me as soon as possible and I will be happy to grant you an extension if you have a legitimate reason to require one.

If you fail to submit work on time and I have not granted you an extension, you will incur a daily lateness penalty of 1 percentage point. For example, if you submit your final essay (worth 40%) 3 days after the deadline, you will lose 3 of the 40% available for that assignment; if you submit it 5 days late, you will lose 5 of the 40%, etc. I will not accept any further submissions after 7 days have passed from the original deadline.

Plagiarism and Academic Ethics

Studying at university requires a high standard of professionalism and honesty in your academic work and personal conduct. This falls under the broad category of academic ethics, which I take very seriously (and so should you). I expect you all to behave in an honest and respectful manner in class and in your assignments. Unethical behaviour, including plagiarism, will not be tolerated. You can find more information on university policy at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.

If you are unsure about the definition of plagiarism or academic ethics, feel free to ask me and I will be happy to discuss it with you in more detail.

Policy on A.I. Use

The use of generative A.I. tools is closely related to issues of plagiarism and academic ethics. While there are legitimate ways to use A.I. to help you learn, it is important that you do not use A.I. to replace learning. You may use A.I. to aid in your personal study if you wish, but you should be aware of its limitations and problems: it has not studied our course material, it makes frequent mistakes, and the quality of its output is not as good as you might think. Always make sure to double-check what an A.I. tells you against reputable, peer-reviewed, academic sources. You may not use A.I. to produce any of your graded assignments for this course.

Also, please do not use A.I. to write emails to me. If you send me an A.I. email, I will not respond.

Add/Drop Period

During the second and third weeks of term (13^th–24^th January), students are allowed to change their course enrolments by adding and dropping courses. You are welcome to either add or drop this course during that period for any reason. Please note that it is not possible to drop the course after the add/drop period unless there are exceptional circumstances (e.g. if a medical emergency or similar makes it impossible for you to continue the class).

Grade Appeals

You can find information on the grade appeals process here: http://www.res.cuhk.edu.hk/en-gb/general-information/procedures-for-dealing-with-student-complaints.

I deal with grade appeals on a case-by-case basis. I am happy to correct your grade if there has been a technical error or oversight. Otherwise, you should be aware that grading is entirely at my discretion. I do not accept appeals just because a student disagrees with their grade.

Open Door Hours

I try to set aside time every Friday afternoon between 2 and 5pm for ‘Open Door Hours’, when students can come and see me in my office without an appointment. This is a chance for you to come and talk to me about anything you want, even if it is not related to the course. If you cannot make it on Friday afternoon, you are always welcome to make an appointment to see me at another time. Just send me an email and I will arrange a time to speak with you in my office (Fung King Hey Building, Room 123).

Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.

With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures.

• In the case of group projects, all members of the group should be asked to sign the declaration, each of whom is responsible and liable to disciplinary actions, irrespective of whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether he/she has contributed, directly or indirectly, to the problematic contents.
• For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-based and submitted via VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt, will be issued by the system upon students’ uploading of the soft copy of the assignment.

Assignments without the properly signed declaration will not be graded by teachers.

Only the final version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide.

The submission of a piece of work, or a part of a piece of work, for more than one purpose (e.g. to satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration to this effect shall be regarded as having committed undeclared multiple submissions. It is common and acceptable to reuse a turn of phrase or a sentence or two from one’s own work; but wholesale reuse is problematic. In any case, agreement from the course teacher(s) concerned should be obtained prior to the submission of the piece of work.