Legal Studies

The interdisciplinary Legal Studies program seeks to illuminate law from a liberal arts perspective, with ideas and methods from disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Students will examine how law shapes and is shaped by political, economic, and cultural forces. Unlike a pre-law course of study, the Legal Studies sequence does not emphasize professionalism or doctrine, but rather it promotes critical understanding of and inquiry into theoretical frameworks, historical and cultural dynamics, and social meanings and change in law and legality.

Courses in Legal Studies may concern major theories of jurisprudence and justice as well as questions of individual liberty, privacy, and autonomy; political and social equality; the distribution of resources and opportunities within societies; the relationship between citizens and the state; democratic participation and representation; and the moral and ethical commitments of the community, for example.

For a list of CMC courses that can fulfill the requirements of the sequence, see Courses in Legal Studies below.

Primary Contact: Professor Lisa Cody, Program Director