Legal Studies
2015-16 General Catalog
27 Merrill College
(831) 459-2056
legalstudies@ucsc.edu
Department web site
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.
Legal studies also encourages students to pursue additional academic opportunities while at UCSC. Possible programs include: the UCDC program, a one-quarter program at the UC campus in Washington, D.C. that includes coursework and an internship, the UCSC/UC Hastings Law School 3+3 Program in which students earn B.A. and J.D. degrees in six years, and the Education Abroad Program (EAP).
Declaring the major in legal studies is a two-step process: 1) complete and pass Legal Studies 10 with a grade of C or better; 2) attend a declaration orientation workshop.
Students who are informed that they are not eligible to declare the major may appeal this decision by submitting a letter to the department chair within 15 days from the date the notification was mailed. Within 15 days of receipt of the appeal, the department will notify the student, college, and Office of the Registrar of the decision.
Program Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the major, students will have met the following objectives.
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an understanding of the nature and function of law, including legal theory, institutions, and analysis;
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an understanding the role of law and legal institutions in the broader society, including the social, political, and economic context in which it operates;
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an understanding the unique nature of legal institutions and practices from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives;
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the ability to analyze and critically evaluate arguments about legal theories, practices, and institutions based on logic and evidence, and from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives; and
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the ability to develop, sustain, and communicate coherent written and oral arguments and analyses regarding legal issues based on appropriate empirical and/or theoretical evidence and logic.
Requirements of 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 prior to declaring the major.
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
and 160B 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
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 Constitutional Law
111C Issues in Constitutional Law
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
128J The World Jury on Trial
128M International Law and Global Justice
131 Wildlife, Wilderness, and the Law
132 California Water Law and Policy
133 Law of Democracy
134 Congress: Representation and Legislation in Comparative Perspective
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
167 Politics of International Trade
171 Law of War
175 Human Rights
Law and Society
107 Political Morality of Survivorship and Recovery
110 Law and Social Issues
111B Civil Liberties
112 Women and the Law (Politics)
113 Gay Rights and the Law
114 Jews, Anti-Semitism, and the American Legal System
120B Society and Democracy in American Political Development
120C State and Capitalism in American Political Development
121 Black Politics and Federal Social Policy
122 The Sociology of Law
123 Law, Crime, and Social Justice
126 Law and Politics in Contemporary Japan and East Asian Societies
128I 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
151 Politics of Law
154 The Legal Profession
155 Topics in American Legal History
160A Industrial Organization
162 Legal Environment of Business
169 Economic Analysis of the Law
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 in legal studies is satisfied by completing one of the following three paths:
- Completion of Legal Studies 111A and Legal Studies 160B or
- Completion of Legal Studies 196 or
- Completion of a senior thesis, Legal Studies 195A, B, C.
Comprehensive Requirement—1 course
Students can satisfy the comprehensive requirement in the legal studies major by successfully completing one of the following:
195ABC, Senior Thesis. Completion of a senior thesis project of a minimum of 50 pages with a substantial research content, supervised by a legal studies faculty member.
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, 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 UCSC 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 numbered 101-190.
Revised: 09/01/15
