PROGRAM INFORMATION

Legal Studies is an interdisciplinary program designed to give students a background and framework for understanding the law as a means of regulating human behavior and resolving disputes among individuals, groups, and governments. Emanating from a liberal arts tradition, and not specifically aimed at preparing students for law school, this program provides the tools needed to think and argue critically about how laws work, how they evolved in the course of history and in different parts of the world, how they are enforced, and how they affect our everyday lives.

The courses in this program address a wide range of subjects, including the philosophical, moral, historical, social, and political underpinnings of law; the U.S. Constitution; law enforcement and other aspects of criminal justice; methods of scientific proof; psychological influences on evidence, trials, and decision-making; cultural perspectives and non-western legal traditions; and the use of law to regulate environmental policy. Courses are taught by faculty in the Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities, whose work centers on legal processes, and by visiting professors from various law schools.