Legal Studies Program

Legal Studies is an interdisciplinary, liberal arts major that engages the meanings, values, practices, and institutions of law and legality. The Legal Studies curriculum examines how law shapes and is shaped by political, economic, and cultural forces. The major is designed to stimulate critical understanding of and inquiry about the theoretical frameworks, historical dynamics, and cultural embeddedness of law. The Legal Studies faculty and students grapple with important questions of social policy within the framework of significant concerns in jurisprudence and theories of justice. These concerns include individual liberty, privacy, and autonomy; political and social equality; the just distribution of resources and opportunities within society; the relationship between citizens and the state; democratic participation and representation; the moral commitments of the community; and the preservation of human dignity. The major’s course offerings examine law and legality from both humanist and empirical perspectives. Courses are organized into interdisciplinary topical Areas that transcend disciplinary boundaries in the interest of collaborative inquiry. Students are required to complete 4 prerequisites and 8 upper division requirements. There is no minor. Students must now declare under the New Plan. When looking at requirements on this site, please always click on ‘New Plan’. For those who declared before the changes were put in place, please click on the Old Plan throughout the site.