Your first task is to locate a news article about the creation of a law. It could be about the creation of law through legislation or through judicial decision making. Once you’ve located the article, complete the following questions:
1. What is the law described in your news article?
2. how might you explain the creation of this law from a conflict perspective? Would it represent more elitist or group conflict? How so? How would you measure the power of the group creating the law? Was there an inequality as the driving force of the creation of law?
3. In your opinion, does the paradigm you used to explain the creation of the law offer the best way to explain why the law was created? Or, would the opposite model be the best choice (there is no right answer here – remember, conflict and consensus are considered ‘ideal types’, which means no law is completely conflict and no law is completely consensus).