Legal Studies
College of Letters and Science
Department Office: 2240 Piedmont Avenue, (510) 642-4038
Department Chair: Calvin Morrill, PhD
Department Website: Legal Studies
Overview
The Legal Studies major is under the academic supervision of the School of Law faculty.
Major Requirements
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 or “neighborhoods” that transcend disciplinary boundaries in the interest of collaborative inquiry.
Lower Division Requirements
One term of coursework is required in each of the following four areas: Statistics, Philosophy, Social/Behavioral Sciences, and History. Students may declare the major after completing coursework from two of the four areas. These courses must be taken for a letter grade; the cumulative grade point average (GPA) must be 2.0 or better. A list of courses offered at UC Berkeley that satisfy these prerequisites is listed on the Legal Studies website.
Upper Division Requirements
A minimum of 32 upper division units is required for completion of the major. All of these units must be taken for a letter grade and the cumulative GPA must be 2.0 or better.
Core Requirements
Take four courses from the list below, including at least one course designated as Humanities (H) and at least one course designated as Social Sciences (SS). Students are strongly encouraged to take LS 100 early in pursuing the major as it provides a foundation for the Legal Studies curriculum. The four courses taken for core requirements cannot also be counted toward the distribution requirements.
- LS 100: Foundations of Legal Studies (H or SS)
- LS 103: Theories of Law & Society (H or SS)
- LS 107: Theories of Justice (H)
- LS 138: The Supreme Court & Public Policy (SS)
- LS 145: Law & Economics I (SS)
- LS 160: Punishment, Culture & Society (H or SS)
- LS 177: American Legal & Constitutional History (H)
- LS 182: Law, Politics & Society (SS)
- LS 184: Sociology of Law (SS)
Distribution Requirements
Take two courses* in one of the following areas and one course each in two additional areas for a total of four courses.
- Area I Crime, Law & Social Control
- Area II Law & Culture
- Area III Law & Markets
- Area IV Law, Rights & Social Change
- Area V Law & Sovereignty
* LS H195B Honors Thesis or LS 199 Independent Study (for four units) may substitute for one of the two courses.
Law-Related Courses
You may use up to two law-related courses from outside the Legal Studies Program to count towards the Distribution Requirements, for a maximum of eight units. This is an option, not a requirement. Outside courses should normally be drawn from the pre-approved list of law-related Berkeley courses, but may be approved from other four-year institutions, or from study abroad programs. If a law-related course you are considering is not on the pre-approved list, you must submit a syllabus and description to the Legal Studies Academic Advisor for approval
Capstone Experience
Legal Studies students are strongly encouraged to enroll in one Legal Studies seminar course (LS 190), preferably in their senior year, to complete their remaining units. Alternatively, students who meet eligibility requirements are strongly encouraged to enroll in LS H195A & B, the Honors Program, for their Capstone Experience. Students who have a faculty mentor and a desire to do a research project, but do not meet the eligibility requirements for Honors, may enroll in 4 units of LS 199 for their Capstone Experience provided that they meet the eligibility requirements for Independent Study. Details for Independent Study can be found on the Legal Studies website.
Honors Program
With consent of the major adviser, a student majoring in legal studies with an overall UCB GPA of 3.5 and a GPA of 3.5 in legal studies courses by the end of the spring semester junior year, may be admitted to the Honors Program. The honors student is required to first enroll in LS H195A Honors Seminar during the fall semester, then in LS H195B the following spring to prepare an honors thesis. Details can be found on the Legal Studies website.
Please note that only some of the courses listed in the Berkeley Bulletin are offered in any given semester. Consult the online Schedule of Classes for up-to-date information on course offerings.
LEGALST R1A Reading and Composition in Connection with the Law as a Social Institution 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture per week for 6 weeks.
This course is designed to fulfill the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement. Students will learn to identity an author's point of view and main arguments; evaluate an author's credibility and the merits of hs or her argument, write a unified essay with intro, thesis statement, transitions between paragraphs, a concluding paragraph and develop an argument about an issue related to the course.
Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement
LEGALST R1B Reading and Composition in Connection with the Law as a Social Institution 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture per week for 6 weeks.
This course is designed to fulfill the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement. Students will develop their skills at critical reading, writing, and analysis, and will complete a series of essays culminating in a research paper relating to law, legal actors, and legal institutions. Emphasis will be placed on the process of writing, including developing research questions, constructing an argument, and revising for content and style.
Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement
Instructor: Bruce
LEGALST 39B Freshman/Sophomore Seminar 2 - 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: Seminar format.
Prerequisites: Priority given to freshmen and sophomores.
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
LEGALST 39D Freshman/Sophomore Seminar 2 - 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: Seminar format.
Prerequisites: Priority given to freshmen and sophomores.
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
LEGALST 39E Freshman/Sophomore Seminar 2 - 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: Seminar format.
Prerequisites: Priority given to freshmen and sophomores.
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
LEGALST 98 Directed Group Study 1 - 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Offered for pass/not pass grade only.
Hours and format: 1 to 4 hour of Directed group study per week for 15 weeks.
Small group instruction in topics not covered by regularly scheduled courses. Topics may vary from year to year.
Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes. Enrollment is restricted; see the Introduction to Courses and Curricula section of this catalog.
LEGALST 100 Foundations of Legal Studies 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
This is a liberal arts course designed to introduce students to the foundational frameworks and cross-disciplinary perspectives from humanities and social sciences that distinguish legal studies as a scholarly field. It provides a comparative and historical introduction to forms, ideas, institutions, and systems of law and sociological ordering. It highlights basic theoretical problems and scholarly methods for understanding questions of law and justice.
Formerly known as 100A. Instructor: Perry
LEGALST 102 Policing and Society 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
This course examines the American social institution of policing with particular emphasis on urban law enforcement. It explores the social, economic, and cultural forces that pull policing in the direction of state legal authority and power as well as those that are a counter-weight to the concentration of policing powers in the state. Special attention is given to how policing shapes and is shaped by the urban landscape, legal to cultural.
Instructor: Musheno
LEGALST 103 Theories of Law and Society 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks.
An historical examination of major interpretations of law, morals and social development, with special emphasis on the social thought of the 18th and 19th centuries and including the writings of Marx, Maine, Durkheim, Weber and other contemporary figures.
LEGALST 104 Marx, Durkheim and Weber on Law and Society 3 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Term course may be offered: Summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 5 hours of Lecture per week for 8 weeks.
Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber each exercised a major influence on the development of Western social thought, and their writing continue to inform current scholarship in sociology and in the sociological study of law. This course provides a detailed examination of the major works of each author, with a special emphasis on the treatment and use of law in their social theories.
LEGALST 104AC Youth Justice and Culture 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
This course challenges adult-centered representations of urban youth of different ethnicities, their problems, and the supposed solutions to those problems. It departs from the conceptualizations and methods used to study youth in mainstream criminology and developmental psychology. Attention is given to youth conflict, peer relations, identity building within and across ethnic groups, claims on territory, the salience of law and rights, and adaptations to adult authorities and practices.
Satisfies the American Cultures requirement
Instructors: Musheno, Morrill
LEGALST 105 Theoretical Foundations of Criminal Law 3 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 2 1 1/2-hour seminar per week.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing.
Criminal law raises fundamental theoretical issues that have occupied philosophers over the years. In this course we will discuss a selection of articles that bring to bear such a philosophical perspective on important aspects of criminal law. Topics include justification of punishment, foundations of blame and responsibility, substantive values protected by criminal law, significance of actual harm, liability of groups and other collectivities, and virtues and limits of the rule of law.
Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
LEGALST 107 Theories of Justice 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks.
Major perspectives in social and economic thought, e.g., natural law, natural right, laissez faire, "possessive individualism," contractualism, pluralism, and social equality as they affect contemporary discussion of "higher law," fairness, civic competence, and distributive justice.
LEGALST 109 Aims and Limits of the Criminal Law 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
Analysis of the capacity of criminal law to fulfill its aims. What are the aims of criminal law? How are they assigned relative priority? What principles can be identified for evaluating the effort to control disapproved activities through criminal law?
LEGALST 116 Legal Discourse 1500-1700 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks.
This course focuses on the history of legal thought and discourse from the late medieval period to the Enlightenment. Topics to be considered include the relationship between legal thought and intellectual developments and the relationship between political and constitutional developments and legal discourse. Although the emphasis is on England, there will be some consideration of differences between English and continental European legal thought.
LEGALST 119 Philosophy and Law in Ancient Athens 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
This is an introduction to important aspects of the philosophical and constitutional thought of classical Athens. We will pay particular attention to accounts of the origins of the Athenian legal system; criticisms and defenses of the democracy; arguments about the nature of justice, law, and legal obligation; and the context of the Athenian way of organizing trials, taxation, and administration. Readings from Aeschylus, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato, Lysias, Aristotle, and others.
Instructor: Hoekstra
LEGALST 132AC Immigration and Citizenship 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
We often hear that America is a "nation of immigrants." This representation of the U.S. does not explain why some are presumed to belong and others are not. We will examine both historical and contemporary law of immigration and citizenship to see how law has shaped national identity and the identity of immigrant communities. In addition to scholarly texts, we will read and analyze excerpts of cases and the statute that governs immigration and citizenship, the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Satisfies the American Cultures requirement
Instructor: Volpp
LEGALST 138 The Supreme Court and Public Policy 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
This course examines a number of leading U.S. Supreme Court decisions in terms of what policy alternatives were available to the Court and which ones it chose. Prospective costs and benefits of these alternatives and who will pay the costs and who gets the benefits of them are considered. Among the areas considered are economic development, government regulation of business, national security, freedom of speech and discrimination. Readings are solely of Supreme Court decisions.
Instructor: Shapiro
LEGALST 139 Comparative Perspectives on Norms and Legal Traditions 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
This course is an introduction to the comparative study of different legal cultures and traditions including common law, civil law, socialist law, and religious law. A section of the class will be dedicated to the comparison of the colonial and post-colonial legal process in Latin America and in Africa.
Instructor: Mayali
LEGALST 140 Property and Liberty 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
This course will explore the relation between property law and limits of liberty in different cultures and at different times. The course will cover theories of property law, slavery, the clash between aboriginal and European ideas of property, gender roles and property rights, common property systems, zoning, regulatory takings, and property on the internet. Readings will include legal theorists, court cases, and historical case studies.
LEGALST 145 Law and Economics I 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Together Law and Econ I and II provide comprehensive introduction to economic analysis of law. Courses need not be taken in numerical order; nor is one a prerequisite to the other.
The course will apply microeconomic theory analysis to legal rules and procedures. Emphasis will be given to the economic consequences of various sorts of liability rules, remedies for breach of contract and the allocation of property rights. The jurisprudential significance of the analysis will be discussed.
LEGALST 146 The Law and Economics of Innovation 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
Prerequisites: Economics 1 or a course in microeconomics.
We will discuss how the creation of knowledge, artistic, literary, and musical works are supported in a competitive economy especially in the digital age. We will discuss intellectual property, copyrights, trade secrets, trade marks, and geographic indications, in historical and institutional contexts. We will consider the problems of competition that arise in the digital economy, such as Google Books, the Microsoft antitrust cases, and search advertising.
Instructor: Schotchmer
LEGALST 147 Law and Economics II 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week.
Law and Economics I is not a prerequisite for Law and Economics II. Students may take either or both courses. Government uses many mechanisms to influence the provision of goods and services. Economists and lawyers have developed a critique of these mechanisms which has prompted substantial reforms in recent years, e.g., deregulation in transportation. The course examines this critique.
LEGALST 151 Law, Self, and Society 3 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 2 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks.
Contemporary moral and political philosophy has been increasingly interested in how conceptions of the self relate to various aspects of our social and political life. These issues have an important bearing on legal theory as well. Law is shaped by certain implicit assumptions about the nature of individuals and collectivities, while it also actively participates in forming the identities of persons and in structuring collective entities such as families, corporations, and municipalities. This course will explore some theoretical approaches to this reciprocal relationship between law and the different social actors that it governs.
LEGALST 154 International Human Rights 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
This course considers how the practice of punishing crime can be understood in terms of the larger system of social life and cultural values in which punishment occurs. In exploring the social meanings of punishment, it examines some of the major historical changes in punishment that have been introduced in America and Europe since the 18th century.
Instructor: Boyd
LEGALST 155 Government and the Family 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
How has the law constructed and deconstructed "family" relationships? What are the common law, statutory, and constitutional principles that affect the formation, regulation, and dissolution of families? How do these principles, as well as diverse cultural and social values, guide the state in determining marriage, family, and child welfare policies?
Instructor: Hollinger
LEGALST 156 Bioethics and the Law 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Term course may be offered: Summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
Law now plays a prominent role in medicine and science. Recent years have witnessed a major expansion of law's involvement. Law (statutory and court-made) articulates and interprets norms of conduct. This course will examine a number of topics where law and medicine intersect involving many of our most fundamental values including body, life, death, religion, reproduction, sexuality, and family. In each area, we will include both traditional issues, like "right to die" and more current disputes such as physician assisted suicide.
Instructor: Shultz
LEGALST 158 Law and Development 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
Focusing on developing countries, this course considers the relationship between legal institutions and rules--including informal and traditional ones--and development--defined by different actors by economic growth, education, health, or a wide spectrum of freedoms. It examines efforts by national leaders, international organizations, foreign aid agencies, and NGOs to "reform" law to promote development, along with the resistance and unplanned consequences that often ensue.
Instructor: O'Connell
LEGALST 160 Punishment, Culture, and Society 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 6 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 8 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
This course surveys the development of Western penal practices, institutions, and ideas (what David Garland calls "penality") from the eighteenth-century period to the present. Our primary focus will be on penal practices and discourses in the United States in the early 21st century. In particular we will examine the extraordinary growth of US penal sanctions in the last quarter century and the sources and consequences of what some have called "mass imprisonment."
Instructor: Simon
LEGALST 161 Law in Chinese Society 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
The course examines concepts that form the basis of the Chinese legal system, traditional theories and institutions of pre-1911 society, and the expression and rejection of the traditional concepts in the laws of the Nationalist period and the People's Republic.
LEGALST 162AC Restorative Justice 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
This course advances the claim that the criminal justice system is both a product and a powerful engine of racial hierarchy in American society, and that strategies of restorative justice, which have recently garnered attention in settings from prisons to middle schools, hold out promise as practices of racial justice. We explore this thesis by examining the ways in which criminal justice systems shape the emotions and social relations of victims, offenders, and members of the larger community.
Satisfies the American Cultures requirement
Instructors: Abrams, Frampton
LEGALST 163 Adolescence, Crime and Juvenile Justice 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
This course examines the premises, doctrine, and operational behavior of juvenile courts, particularly in relation to the commission of seriously anti-social acts by mid-adolescents. Topics include the history of theories of delinquency; the jurisprudence of delinquency; the incidence and severity of delinquency; police response to juvenile offenders; the processes of juvenile courts and youth corrections; and reforms or alternatives to the juvenile court system.
LEGALST 168 Sex, Reproduction and the Law 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
This course examines recent American legal and social history with respect to reproductive and sexual behavior. We will consider two theoretical aspects of the problem: first, theories of how law regulates social behavior and second, more general theories about how reproduction is socially regulated. Armed with these theoretical perspectives, the course will then examine closely a number of legal/social conflicts, including sterilization, abortion and contraception.
LEGALST 170 Crime and Criminal Justice 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
Introduction to the etiology of crime and criminal justice administration. What is crime? What are the main features and problems of the process by which suspected criminals are apprehended, tried, sentenced, punished? Past and current trends and policy issues will be discussed.
LEGALST 171 European Legal History 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
Most contemporary legal systems derive from one or the other of the two legal orders that developed in continental Europe and England over the course of the centuries. This course introduces students to some of the main features of the continental European or civil law tradition, a tradition that has its origins in Roman law. We will look at the English common law tradition, which began to diverge from the law of continental Europe in the middle ages, and acquired its own distinctive character.
Instructor: McClain
LEGALST 174 Comparative Constitutional Law: The Case of Israel 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
This course will provide an introduction to constitutional law using Israel as a case study. Topics include: Constitutionalism and judicial review, state neutrality and self-determination, minority rights, state and religion, Human Rights Law, the concept of “defensive democracy" and ban of non-democratic political parties, legal aspects of the fight on terror, freedom of expression, equality and anti-discrimination, social rights, and constitutional limitations on privatization.
LEGALST 176 Twentieth-Century American Legal and Constitutional History 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing. It is recommended that students have completed at least one course in legal studies or political science that deals with American history or American government prior to taking 176.
Development of American law and the constitutional system in the 20th century. Topics include Progressive Era Regulatory policy, criminal justice and relations, freedom of speech and press, New Deal legal innovations, modern tort liability, environmental regulation, judicial reform, and federalism.
LEGALST 177 Survey of American Legal and Constitutional History 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
Overview of American legal and constitutional history from colonial times to the present. Topics include colonial legal institutions, early constitutional history, history of the common law, business regulation, race and the law, history of the legal profession, and the modern constitutional order.
LEGALST 178 Seminar on American Legal and Constitutional History 3 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 2 hours of Seminar per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. Enrollment is limited.
This course will provide advanced reading and independent research in the history of American law. Preference may be given to students who have taken 177.
LEGALST 179 Comparative Constitutional Law 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks.
An examination of constitutional decision-making in a number of countries based on selected high court opinions.
LEGALST 180 Implicit Bias 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
Implicit bias, automatic or unconscious stereotyping, and prejudice that guides our perception of and behavior toward social groups, is a fast growing area of law and psychology. Students will look at research in substantive areas of employment discrimination, criminal law, and questions regarding communications, voting, health care, immigration, property, and whether research findings showing unconscious gender, racial, and other biases can be used as courtroom evidence to prove discrimination.
Instructor: Plaut
LEGALST 181 Psychology and the Law 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
Prerequisites: Minimum sophomore standing.
This course will examine the implications of cognitive, social, and clinical psychology for legal theory, policies, and practices. The course will analyze the psychological aspects of intent, responsibility, deterrence, retribution, and morality. We will examine applications of psychology to evidence law (e.g. witness testimony, psychiatric diagnosis, and prediction), procedure (e.g. trial conduct, jury selection), and topics in criminal tort and family law.
Instructor: MacCoun
LEGALST 182 Law, Politics and Society 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
This course examines the theory and practice of legal institutions in performing several major functions of law: allocating authority, defining relationships, resolving conflict, adapting to social change, and fostering social solidarity. In doing so, it will assess the nature and limits of law as well as consider alternative perspectives on social control and social change.
LEGALST 183 Psychology of Diversity and Discrimination in American Law 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Seminar per week for 15 weeks. 7.5 hours of Seminar per week for 6 weeks.
Course will examine concepts of race and culture, various understandings of and approaches to diversity found in the law, and the role of sociocultural structures in shaping the operation of antidiscrimination law and social policy. Topics include: psychology of desegregation, colorblindness and equal protection, affirmative action, stereotyping, sexism in the workplace, prejudice toward immigrants, social class and poverty.
Instructor: Plaut
LEGALST 184 Sociology of Law 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1.5 hours of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 6 hours of Lecture and 1.5 hours of Discussion per week for 8 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
This course explores major issues and debates in the sociology of law. Topics include theoretical perspectives on the relationship between law and society, theories of why people obey (and disobey) the law, the relationship between law and social norms, the "law in action" in litigation and dispute resolution, the roles of lawyers, judges, and juries in the legal system and in society, and the role of law in social change. The course will examine these issues from an empirical perspective.
LEGALST 185AC/ARCH 180AC/ETH STD 181AC Prison 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies; Architecture; Ethnic Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Taking a broad interdisciplinary approach, this course embraces the longue duree of critical prison studies, questioning the shadows of normality that cloak mass incarceration both across the globe and, more particularly, in the contemporary United States. This course thus explores a series of visceral, unsettling juxtapositions: "freedom" and "slavery"; "citizenship" and "subjugation"; "marginalization" and "inclusion", in each case explicating the ways that story making, political demagoguery, and racial, class, and sexual inequalities have wrought an untenable social condition.
Satisfies the American Cultures requirement
Instructors: Hilden, Simon, Stoner, Robinson
LEGALST 189 Feminist Jurisprudence 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks. 8 hours of Lecture and 2 hours of Discussion per week for 6 weeks.
Prerequisites: Minimum sophomore standing.
This course will explore the ways in which feminist theory has shaped conceptions of the law, as well as examine a range of feminist legal theories, including equality, difference, dominance, intersectional, poststructural, postcolonial theories. It will ask how these theories have shaped legal interventions in areas including workplace/educational access, sexualized coercion, work/family conflict, "cultural" defenses, and globalized sweatshop labor.
Instructor: Abrams
LEGALST 190 Seminar on Topics in Law and Society 1 - 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 1 to 3 hours of seminar per week plus individual conferences.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Advanced study in law and society with specific topics to be announced.
Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
LEGALST H195A Honors Seminar 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Term course may be offered: Fall
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 2 hours of Seminar per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Senior standing, acceptance into Honors Program in Legal Studies.
This course provides Legal Studies honors students with the opportunity to learn about the conduct of legal studies research, how to write an honors thesis proposal, and prepare for writing an honors thesis in the spring.
Instructor: Musheno
LEGALST H195B Honors Thesis 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: Hours to be arranged.
Study of an advanced topic under the supervision of a faculty member leading to the completion of a senior honors thesis.
LEGALST 198 Directed Group Study 1 - 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Offered for pass/not pass grade only.
Hours and format: 1 to 4 hour of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Small group instruction in topics not covered by regularly scheduled courses. Topics may vary from year to year.
Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes. Enrollment is restricted; see the Introduction to Courses and Curricula section of this catalog.
LEGALST 199 Supervised Independent Study and Research 1 - 4 Units
Department: Legal Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Offered for pass/not pass grade only.
Hours and format: Hours to be arranged.
Prerequisites: Upper division standing. Consent of instructor and approval of Program Chairman.
Enrollment restrictions apply. Consult the Legal Studies department for more information.
Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
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