Program Description
Legal studies is an interdisciplinary program, offered under the auspices of the Politics Department, that is designed for students who wish to use the methods and perspectives of various academic disciplines to study legal issues and to use the conceptual framework of the law to illuminate empirical and theoretical concerns in the various disciplines. For example, a student might use approaches from psychology and philosophy to study the legal problem of punishment or draw on doctrinal categories from public and private law to study the changing historical role of market and nonmarket relations within ongoing institutions.
Legal studies is intended to appeal to students who wish to take a concentration of courses on the law from a variety of disciplinary and methodological perspectives. The major is not intended as a substitute or preparation for any part of a law school curriculum but rather as a full field of study within the liberal arts curriculum. As such, it is a good preparation for a variety of future activities. Students graduating in legal studies are particularly well qualified to pursue graduate work on legal topics in humanities and social science disciplines or to attend professional school in fields such as public policy, business administration, social work, and law.
The legal studies program offers a minor as well as the major.
Requirements for the Major
As a part of the declaration of major process, students choose a coherent program of study and have it approved by the legal studies academic adviser. An outline of the elements of such a program follows.
Legal Studies 10. All legal studies majors are required to take course 10, Introduction to Legal Process.
Philosophy 9, 22, or 24. All legal studies majors are required to take one course chosen from Philosophy 9, 22, or 24. (See the Philosophy section in this catalog for course descriptions.)
Although these courses are not prerequisites for most upper-division courses, the faculty strongly recommend that students complete these lower-division requirements early in their program of study.
Core courses
Students are required to take six core courses, three in each of two of the five concentration areas below.
Theory
Legal Studies
105A Classical Political Theory
105B Modern Political Theory
105C Recent and Contemporary Political Theory
107 Political Morality of Survivorship and Recovery
110 Law and Social Issues
144 Social and Political Philosophy
146 Philosophy of Law
151 Identity, Sacrifice, and Law
157 Sovereignty and Law
Public Law and Institutions
Legal Studies
111 Problems in Constitutional Law
120A Congress, President, and the Court in American Politics
131 Water, Wildlife, and Natural Resources Law
136 Federal Indian Law and Tribal Sovereignty
137 International Environmental Law and Policy
139 War Crimes
149 Environmental Law and Policy
152 Courts and Litigation
155 Topics in American Legal History
156 Administrative Jurisprudence
174 International Law
Politics
112 Women and the Law
Law and Society
Legal Studies
118 Political Anthropology
120A Congress, President, and the Court in American Politics
120B Society and Democracy in American Political Development
127 Black Politics and Federal Social Policy
142 Anthropology of Law
147A Psychology and Law
147B Psychology and Law
150 Children and the Law
154 The Legal Profession
169 Economic Analysis of the Law
172 The Sociology of Law
173 Law, Crime, and Social Justice
180 Power, Politics, and Protest
Law and Culture
Legal Studies
103A Rome: Republic
107 Political Morality of Survivorship and Recovery
118 Political Anthropology
120B Society and Democracy in American Political Development
138 Law and Literature
142 Anthropology of Law
155 Topics in American Legal History
180 Power, Politics, and Protest
Law and Political Economy
Legal Studies
120C State and Capitalism in American Political Development
128 Poverty and Public Policy
129 Political Economy of Policy Reform
160 Industrial Organization
162 Legal Environment of Business
169 Economic Analysis of the Law
183 Women in the Economy
Electives
Two additional courses are to be selected from the list of courses above or from the following:
Legal Studies
193 Field Study
194 Group Tutorial
195A-B-C Senior Thesis
199 Tutorial
Students interested in working on original research under the supervision of a faculty member may write a senior thesis. Before beginning work on the thesis, students are required to obtain the approval of a faculty sponsor.
Legal Studies 196. Students satisfy the senior comprehensive requirement by taking, in their senior year, either course 196, Senior Capstone; one proseminar from a designated list; or an equivalent seminar approved in advance by the legal studies academic adviser. (The list of designated proseminars is available in the Legal Studies Program Office.) The capstone course is designed to provide an interdisciplinary integration of themes related to the study of law and includes a substantial writing requirement. Students who have not already completed or been guaranteed admission into a proseminar by the beginning of the quarter in which the capstone course is offered will be required to take the capstone course.
Requirements for the Minor
To complete a minor in legal studies, a student must take Legal Studies 10 and any four upper-division legal studies core courses.