Legal Studies

27 Merrill College
(831) 459-2056
legalstudies@ucsc.edu
http://legalstudies.ucsc.edu/

Program Description

Legal studies is an interdisciplinary major offered under the auspices of the Politics Department. It 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; or use approaches from critical race theory and feminist studies to better understand matters of civil rights and privacy.

To complete the major, students are required to take courses in legal institutions, constitutional law, and international law, as well as take courses in each of three broad themes: legal theory and philosophy, the role of law in society, and legal institutions. Each of these themes is intentionally broadly defined. Within legal theory, students may take courses in legal jurisprudence, logic, and theories of crime and punishment; within law and society, courses range from feminism and race to psychology and economics; within public law and institutions, courses range from environmental law to human rights law to an introduction to litigation. Students are also expected to take an introductory course in philosophy. To fulfill the senior exit requirement, students have the option to write a senior thesis or take a senior capstone seminar. The seminar topic changes quarterly.

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. Students are also encouraged to participate in field work and law-related internships in the community, and to develop their own extensive independent research projects.

Declaring the major in legal studies is a four-step process: (1) complete and pass course 10 with a grade of C or better; (2) attend a declaration orientation workshop; (3) meet with your faculty adviser; (4) meet with the legal studies undergraduate adviser. Each student meets with an assigned faculty adviser to discuss an intended program of study, including its breadth and purpose.

The legal studies program offers a minor degree as well as the major degree.

Requirements for the Major

Lower-Division Course Requirements—2 courses

Legal Studies 10 Introduction to Legal Process. All students are required to complete and pass legal studies 10 as a prerequisite to upper-division courses in legal studies and prior to declaring the major.

A student who has not been able to satisfy the pre-declaration requirement (a passing grade in Legal Studies 10) may petition the department for an exception. The letter of petition must explain and document the circumstances that might justify an exception. The department will consider the request and notify the student of its decision within two weeks of receiving the petition or within 10 days of the start of the following quarter, whichever is later.

Philosophy 9, 22, or 24. All legal studies majors are required to take one of the three listed Philosophy courses. (See the Philosophy section in this catalog for course descriptions.)

Upper-Division Course Requirements—2 courses

111A     Constitutional Law or
111B     Civil Liberties
173       International Law

Core Course Requirements—6 courses

Students are required to take six core courses, two in each of three concentrations: Theory, Public Law and Institutions, and Law and Society.

Theory

103       Feminist Interventions (Politics course)
105A     Ancient Political Thought
105B     Early Modern Political Thought
105C     Modern Political Thought
105D     Late 20th-Century Political Thought
106       Marxism as a Method
107       Political Morality of Survivorship and Recovery
109       Legal Theory
109       Orientalism (Politics course)
115       Law and the Holocaust
128J      The World Jury on Trial
144       Social and Political Philosophy
146       Philosophy of Law
155       Topics in American Legal History
157       Political Jurisprudence

Public Law and Institutions

111A     Problems in Constitutional Law
111B     Civil Liberties
115       Law and the Holocaust
116       Comparative Law
120A     Congress, President, and the Court in American Politics
120C     State and Capitalism in American Political Development
125       History of U.S. Penal Law
128       Poverty and Public Policy
128M    International Law and Global Justice
131       Wildlife, Wilderness, and the Law
132       California Water Law and Policy
133       Law of Democracy
135       Native Peoples 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
159       Property and the Law
171       Law of War

Law and Society

107       Political Morality of Survivorship and Recovery
110       Law and Social Issues
112       Women and the Law (Politics)
113       Gay Rights and the Law
114       Jews, Anti-Semitism, and the American Legal System
118       Political Anthropology
120B     Society and Democracy in American Political Development
120C     State and Capitalism in American Political Development
121       Black Politics and Federal Social Policy
125       Civil Liberties
126       Law and Politics in Contemporary Japan and East Asian Societies
126I      Race and Criminal Justice
127       Drugs and Society
135       Native Peoples Law
138       Political Anthropology
142       Anthropology of Law
147A     Psychology and Law
147B     Psychology and Law
150       Children and the Law
154       The Legal Profession
155       Topics in American Legal History
160       Industrial Organization
162       Legal Environment of Business
169       Economic Analysis of the Law
172       The Sociology of Law
173       Law, Crime, and Social Justice
180       Power, Politics, and Protest
183       Women in the Economy

Disciplinary Communication (DC) Requirement

Students of every major must satisfy that major's upper-division Disciplinary Communication (DC) requirement. The DC requirement will normally be met within one to three courses already required for the major. For detailed information on this major’s DC requirement, consult your major adviser or see the 2010-11 general catalog.

Comprehensive Requirement—1 course

Students can satisfy the comprehensive requirement in the legal studies major by successfully completing one of the following:

195A, B, C, Senior Thesis. Completion of a senior thesis project of approximately 50 pages with a substantial research content, supervised by a legal studies faculty member with a second reader.

196 Senior Capstone. The capstone course is designed to provide an interdisciplinary integration of themes related to the study of law and includes a substantial writing requirement.

Honors

Honors in the legal studies major are awarded to graduating seniors, based primarily on a review of grades and narrative evaluations, whose academic performance is judged to be consistently excellent by a faculty committee. Highest Honors in the major are reserved for students with consistently outstanding academic performance.

Transfer Students

A student transferring to UCCS must meet with the legal studies undergraduate adviser as early as possible to discuss declaring the major and course enrollment. This ensures a smooth transition. Students should bring a copy of their UCSC Transfer Credit Summary, which may be printed from the student portal.

Requirements for the Minor

To complete a minor in legal studies, a student must take Legal Studies 10 and any five upper-division legal studies core courses.