Legal Studies Minor

Jasmine Samara
Faculty Director

Noah Glusman
Managing Director

Whatever your career path, understanding the law, and your impact as a citizen in helping shape those laws, is a fundamental part of life. A minor in Legal Studies will give you better grounding in the history and concepts behind the kinds of legal disputes that dominate the news.

Legal Studies Minor Requirements

The legal studies minor examines how law shapes and is shaped by society. It combines the analytical tools associated with legal scholarship with elements of a liberal arts education to investigate the power of the law and its potential to create social change.

Core Courses 18
Introduction to Conflict Resolution
Introduction to United States law
Introduction to Criminal Law
Introduction to Public International Law
Law Elective Courses8
Introduction to Conflict Resolution 1
Conflict and Gender
CRES 430
Israel and Palestine
Dialogue across Differences
Dialogue Across Differences II
Conflicts of Incarceration
Introduction to United States law 1
Introduction to Criminal Law 1
Introduction to Criminal Investigation
Introduction to Business Law
Introduction to Environmental Law and Policy
Introduction to Public International Law 1
Controversies in Constitutional Law
Immigration and Citizenship
Introduction to Legal Research
Youth and Social Change
American Law and Families
Environmental Regulation
Human Rights, Law, and Culture
Transitional Justice
The Death Penalty
Race and the Courts
Legal Secrets
Elective Courses in Other Fields8
Business Law and Ethics
Remix Cultures
Education and Social Change
School and Representation in Media
Introduction to Ethnic Studies
ES 352
Race, Migration, and Rights
Race and Incarceration
Race and Ethnicity and the Law: [Topic]
Prevention of Interpersonal Violence
Contemporary Issues in Public Health
Political Geography
International Cooperation and Conflict
International Human Rights
Global Community Development
Cross-Cultural Communication
Communication Law
Media Ethics
Negotiation Strategies
Music, Money, and the Law
Ethics
Social and Political Philosophy I
Social and Political Philosophy: [Topic]
Introduction to Philosophy of Law
International Public Policy
Introduction to Public Law
Environmental Policy
Legal Process An Introduction to the American Judiciary
States' Rights and Wrongs
Black Lives Matter and American Democracy
Gender in the Law
Race, Politics, and the Law
Civil Rights in Post-Warren Era
Constitutional Law
United States Supreme Court
Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Psychology and Law
Social Inequality
Race and Ethnicity
Deviance, Social Control, and Crime
Issues in Deviance, Control, and Crime: [Topic]
Total Credits24
1

Credit for these courses cannot count for both the Core Courses and Law Elective courses.

Courses must be passed with grades of C– or better, with at least 12 credits earned in upper-division courses at the 300 or 400 levels. Courses taken by the student toward the minor may also count, as appropriate, to fulfill requirements for other degree programs. The legal studies minor does not count toward any other degree offered by the School of Law (JD, LLM, CRES master's).

The law elective courses are organized into two fields of interest: law in American society and law in global society. The electives include courses from the following departments and programs: business administration (BA), cinema studies (CINE), education studies (EDST), ethnic studies (ES), family and human services (FHS), geography, (GEOG) global studies (GLBL), journalism and communication (JCOM), philosophy (PHIL), planning, public policy, and management (PPPM), political science (PS), psychology (PSY), and sociology (SOC).

Students may petition the School of Law’s Managing Director of Legal Studies for approval of another outside course related to legal studies.