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.

Requirements for the Minor

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 (J), 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.