Law and Justice Studies

Topics include the structure of the criminal justice system; the impact of the Supreme Court on criminal justice; and the process of arrest, prosecution, and sentencing.

Credits: 3

An exploration of the day-to-day applications of civil law: who can sue and be sued, the basis for lawsuits, and how to win cases. Through case studies and mock litigation, students explore such issues as product liability, medical malpractice, negligence, strict liability, and legal procedure, including document production and the use of expert witnesses.

Credits: 4

A course that examines legal literacy and its conventions, and how law merges moral argument, interpretive practice, and the use of power in the regulation of social life. Students engage with primary legal texts and explore their interpretations, meanings and applications in the world, while building skills in analysis, argumentation, research and writing.

Credits: 3

An introduction to forensic science that combines lecture, discussion, lab investigation, and case studies. Students examine the history, concepts, and physical evidence of crime scenes, and experiment with common techniques used in forensics (i.e., fingerprinting, DNA extraction, shoe/tire imprints, broken glass, ballistics, hair and fibers, chromatography, forgery, blood splatter, arson, toxicology). Coursework employs interactive case law analysis to contextualize topics.

Credits: 3

An examination of how law functions (or malfunctions), using contemporary films to illustrate the U.S. criminal justice system. Students review a series of films and compare them to literature and contemporary realities. Topics include arrest, interrogation, and the right to an attorney; preparation for trial and jury selection; the conduct of a trial, including opening statements, examinations and cross-examinations of witnesses, and sentencing; and imprisonment.

Credits: 3

Introduces the juvenile justice system and alternatives to traditional justice responses. Coursework examines the history of youth in the U.S. justice system alongside emergent comprehensive intervention approaches, including positive youth development, trauma-informed praxis, integration of social services, restorative justice, community justice, and related policy reform initiatives. Students explore the cradle-to-prison pipeline and youth pathways through the justice system.

Credits: 3

Focuses on major Supreme Court decisions pertaining to civil liberties. Caselaw examined includes: privacy, free expression, free exercise of religion, reproductive rights, and same-sex marriage. Students gain a deeper understanding of the current state of the law on major civil liberties issues and a grasp on how Supreme Court decisions affect everyday life.

Credits: 4

Topics include the mechanism of the U.S. jury system; the truth-seeking process of juries; the concepts of mistrials, jury nullification, and hung juries; and a consideration of whether trial by jury is the best method for attaining justice. Students participate in a week-by-week mock trial, permitting hands-on experience in jury selection, opening statements, cross-examination, and summation.

Credits: 4

The law touches everyone from conception to the grave and beyond. Family interactions between spouses, parents, children, and elders are dictated by rights and duties defined in the law. This course explores how the law weaves in and out of family structures in an attempt to protect and preserve certain rights and values.

Credits: 4

U.S. environmental law and policy, the common-law foundations of environmental law, and the regulatory process and toolkit are examined. The focus is on major environmental statutes: the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, the Compensation and Recovery Act (Superfund), and the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Credits: 4

Students learn how to engage in the research process in the practice of law and assess law’s impact on a range of areas (e.g., consumer rights; the rights of women, students, minorities, and immigrants the rights of both the accused and the victims of crime).

Credits: 4

An examination of the historical, moral, and legal issues surrounding the death penalty. Students confront the major controversial issues in the current death penalty debate and learn to form arguments from both the pro– and anti–death penalty perspectives. Topics include retribution, deterrence, proportionality, discrimination, error, and public opinion. Students analyze Supreme Court decisions and scholarly treatments of capital punishment.

Credits: 4

Examines copyright law in artistic practice from a global and multidisciplinary perspective. Students examine rules that govern the protection of creative work and explore the role law plays in mediating questions of authorship, attribution, and creative control. Coursework covers applications of copyright in music, visual art, performance, literature, video games, fashion, and social media. Students engage in legal analysis and artistic experimentation in parallel.

Credits: 3

The study of law from a liberal arts perspective, emphasizing the role that law and the legal order play in the institutional arrangements and human relations of a society. The course examines the basic concepts, language, institutions, and forms of law that characterize the American legal order.

Credits: 4

Explores the American legal system and examines the role of each branch of government—executive, legislative, and judicial—in shaping the laws that govern the right to free speech and the right to privacy, along with conflicts between those two rights that arise in the media, the private sector, and public institutions.

Credits: 4

Focuses on current legal issues such as abortion, the death penalty, and affirmative action. The pivotal Supreme Court cases establishing the law in each area are read. In addition, research in sociology and psychology is examined to understand the conditions that led to the key court decisions and the impact of those decisions on society.

Credits: 4

A seminar that examines the legal, political, and social history of critical legal theory related to race, gender, indigeneity, and the environment. Students engage with case law and theoretical texts that explore the power dynamics embedded in law, historically and into the present day, with a focus on alternative frameworks that surface at the margins of dominant legal structures.

Credits: 3

PREREQ: LEG2015 Or LBS3024

Debates over historical monuments, statues, and collective memory have become flashpoints across the United States and the world. How do we understand the contentious historical landscapes that configure these debates? How do we reconcile painful truths from the past, reclaim erased histories, and address questions of representation and belonging? Coursework explores how law, policy and collective identity inform such questions.

Credits: 4

Issues related to immigration law are placed in context by reviewing their historical evolution. Students examine current law and issues related to family and labor-based petitions for permanent residence, political asylum and refugee applications, the status of undocumented workers, immigration and national security, and deportation policies and procedures.

Credits: 4

Protection of civil rights in the U.S. has been characterized by both civil disobedience and widespread violence. This course analyzes milestones in American history, periods of unrest, and the sociolegal changes associated with them. Landmark constitutional cases, law, and justice in U.S. culture are studied, and historical lawbreakers and high-profile dissidents are examined through various media.

Credits: 4

Examines the past, present, and future of penal governance in global perspective. What precipitated the explosion of imprisonment in the United States, and how do histories of (mass) incarceration compare across culture? Coursework explores the implications of a carceral state for people in prison, their families, and communities, with focus on envisioning alternatives to imprisonment.

Credits: 3

Sociologists have long understood that the study of censorship can yield an understanding of the structure and values of a society. Modern societies define and enforce limits on expression by defining certain forms of expression as obscene, pornographic, subversive, etc. Censorship in film, literature, and theatre is the major focus.

Credits: 4