Legal Studies (LEGAL ST) < University of Wisconsin-Madison

LEGAL ST/SOC 131 — CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN AMERICA

3-4 credits.

Day-to-day functioning of the elements of the criminal justice system in the U.S. Nature of crime in the U.S., ideas about causes and solutions. Emphasis on the sociology of the components of criminal justice system--organization and roles of police, lawyers, court and correctional personnel.

LEGAL ST/RP & SE 135 — DISABILITY AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

3 credits.

Explores the interaction between the criminal justice system and disability. Explores common experiences of persons with disability such as limited access to community services, poverty, and homelessness and the connection of these experiences to mass incarceration. Explores federal disability rights laws and the implementation of these laws in education, legal, and incarceration settings. Introduction to criminal justice reform to address the experiences of persons with disabilities in this system.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify the causes for over-incarceration of people with disabilities in the United States
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the federal and state polices related to the incarceration and community monitoring of persons with disabilities who have been involved in the criminal justice system
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Demonstrate knowledge of roles and functions that rehabilitation professionals fill within the criminal justice system
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Demonstrate knowledge of treatment programming for individuals with disabilities who are incarcerated and the efficacy of different interventions in increasing community re-integration
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Demonstrate knowledge of community supports for individuals with disabilities subsequent to their release from institutional care
Audience: Undergraduate

6. Develop an awareness of the ethical standards of professional practice that rehabilitation professionals working with individuals with disabilities within the legal system
Audience: Undergraduate

LEGAL ST/ENGL 160 — TRUTH AND CRIME

3 credits.

Examines the development, scope, and effects of the "True Crime" genre in the United States. Using literary analysis and legal studies methods, explore various areas of the genre (written, podcasts, documentaries, etc.) and try to find answer as to why we are so compelled by true crime narratives and what true crime's "truth" is. Untangle the complex relationship between law and narrative (background on each will be provided) and the various epistemological systems it combines, including the role of science and technology. Gain a detailed understanding of what our culture's relationship to "real life" crime narratives tells us about the fundamental and complex role criminality plays in defining us as a society.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify the fundamentals of legal narrative and its relationship to criminal law functions (what are the elements of a crime, and what is “evidence”?)
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Identify the ways the legal system is subject to human, social, and literary construction—not only in a theoretical sense but through actual cases.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Analyze the various ways in which media “tells” crime stories and what the potential motivation for these stories might be.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Develop a nuanced understanding of the true crime genre through a close examination of exemplary representations of the genre (literature, podcasts, documentaries, etc.)
Audience: Undergraduate

LEGAL ST/JEWISH/RELIG ST 203 — JEWISH LAW, BUSINESS, AND ETHICS

3 credits.

Explores the development of Jewish law from antiquity to modernity, with a focus on legal questions related to business practices and ethics. Consider issues ranging from ethical practices in agriculture to how to run a modern multi billion-dollar kosher industry; from the ethics of Jews celebrating Thanksgiving to regulations governing the preparation, consumption, and sale of coffee.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Breadth - Humanities
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. articulate the general development and evolution of Jewish law
Audience: Undergraduate

2. apply different strategies that different Jewish communities have used to regulate business and ethical practices
Audience: Undergraduate

3. analyze, in both written and oral form, Jewish legal texts
Audience: Undergraduate

4. apply Jewish legal principles to new material
Audience: Undergraduate

LEGAL ST/POLI SCI 217 — LAW, POLITICS AND SOCIETY

3-4 credits.

Introduction to the legal process. Examination of the various concepts of law, the perennial problems of the law, legal reasoning, and the nature and function of law and the courts.

Requisites: Freshman or sophomore standing only

Course Designation: Breadth - Social Science
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Increase knowledge about the components of the U.S. legal system.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Understand how disputes evolve in the context of the U.S. legal system.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Improve ability to synthesize social science readings and formulate arguments in written and oral form.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Improve oral advocacy skills through active classroom discussion.
Audience: Undergraduate

LEGAL ST/HISTORY 235 — PRISONS: FROM ANTIQUITY TO SUPERMAX

3-4 credits.

Examines the development of prisons from the ancient Mediterranean world to the present in the US and Europe. Pays particular attention to the way in which imprisonment has been used against marginalized populations. Examines the development of carceral tactics across a number of registers, including the prison as an ancient political tactic, the economic logic of early modern debtors' prisons, the relationship of prisons and workhouses to forms of capitalism, prisons and colonial expansion, the relationship between mass incarceration and democratic forms of government, as well as the connections between the abolition of slavery and modern carceral practices. Also looks at the legal and constitutional limitations that have been put on imprisonment by the American legal system. Relies on interdisciplinary approaches to the study of prisons, including History, law, literature, and political theory.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Breadth - Either Humanities or Social Science
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Learning Outcomes: 1. Analyze and articulate arguments about how social, political, and cultural phenomena shape law and legal systems, and in particular shape practices of imprisonment.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Analyze and articulate arguments about the impact of imprisonment on social practices and political organization.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Explain how legal ideas and ideologies have changed over time and have shaped law and legal systems.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Find, interpret, and utilize resources relevant to law and society.
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Construct clear and persuasive arguments about legal systems and imprisonment.
Audience: Undergraduate

LEGAL ST/CURRIC/ED POL 250 — INCARCERATION AND EDUCATION

3 credits.

Investigates how the systems of incarceration and education operate alongside, within, around and through one another. Provides a historical examination of how education and incarceration have interacted. Examines how prisons operate as 'teaching institutions,' what it teaches all of us impacted by it, and what interventions have been designed to facilitate particular kinds of learning. Presents firsthand accounts of those who work and live in the carceral system currently.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Breadth - Social Science
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Learning Outcomes: 1. Analyze the relationship between schooling and incarceration including issues related to discipline, gender, and disability
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Articulate and evaluate your understanding of experiences of incarceration including the sources, assumptions, and implications behind your understanding
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Synthesize the lived experiences of diverse individuals impacted by incarceration to understand the range of forms learning takes place inside carceral facilities;
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Evaluate different policies and practices that operate at the intersections of education and incarceration.
Audience: Undergraduate

LEGAL ST/HISTORY 261 — AMERICAN LEGAL HISTORY TO 1860

3-4 credits.

Surveys the development of American law down to the U.S. Civil War. Reviews the English historical background, and examines how law changed in colonial America, culminating in the framing of the U.S. Constitution. Explores how territorial expansion, democracy, and slavery shaped nineteenth-century American law. Emphasis is on how law interacts with political, social, and cultural change, with a focus on the origins of modern civil and constitutional rights.

LEGAL ST/HISTORY 262 — AMERICAN LEGAL HISTORY, 1860 TO THE PRESENT

3-4 credits.

Surveys the development of American law from the Civil War to the early Twenty-First Century. After a review of the U.S. Constitution and its modification by the Civil War amendments, examine the legal dimensions of such topics as race relations and the Civil Rights movement, the growth of modern business, the New Deal, labor rights, the women's movement, the individual rights revolution of the postwar period, and the contemporary conservative reaction. Emphasis on how law interacts with political, social, and cultural change.

LEGAL ST 325 — WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS

3 credits.

Study of evidentiary causes of wrongful convictions, including eyewitness misidentifications, false confessions, the use of jailhouse informants, and flaws in forensic science. Procedural and institutional causes of wrongful convictions, and within this context, question whether constitutional rights adequately protect against illegitimate outcomes. Explore potential ways to broaden conceptions of wrongful convictions, looking at mass surveillance, mass prosecution, mass conviction, sentencing severity, and the system's racially disproportionate impact at all intercept points.

Requisites: LEGAL ST/SOC 131 or 217

Course Designation: Breadth - Social Science
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2021

Learning Outcomes: 1. Demonstrate an understanding of what constitutes and what causes wrongful convictions.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Identify methods of investigating crime, and understand how the use of these methods may lead to inaccurate results.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Demonstrate an understanding of procedural/institutional conditions that limit a defendant’s access to information.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Summarize the constitutional rights of criminal defendants, and identify institutional forces that limit the ability of criminal defendants to avail themselves of these protections.
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Display an understanding of structural issues that inform a broader understanding of wrongful convictions.
Audience: Undergraduate

LEGAL ST 400 — TOPICS IN LEGAL STUDIES AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

3-4 credits.

Addresses a variety of issues linking various social sciences perspectives to the central themes of law and legal institutions.

LEGAL ST 405 — FOUNDATIONS OF FIELD EDUCATION

2 credits.

Preparation for extensive, hands-on internship at a community criminal or juvenile justice agency.

LEGAL ST 407 — JURISPRUDENCE AND SOCIAL ISSUES

3 credits.

Examines fundamental questions about the nature and content of law, addressing both analytic and normative jurisprudence. Questions in analytic jurisprudence include: What does it mean for something to be the law? Why are some things a matter of law, while others are not? What is the relationship between law and morality? Is the law exhausted by the meaning of words in constitutions and statutes? Questions of normative jurisprudence concern the proper content of law, such as, what should the law permit, prohibit, and promote? These questions are examined by looking at a number of topics that are at issue in U.S. (and other nations') laws. These will include interpreting criminal law statutes, policies promoting public welfare, and the justifications for property, especially intellectual property rights.

Requisites: SOC/LEGAL ST 131, POLI SCI/LEGAL ST 217, or graduate/professional standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Humanities
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S
Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Spring 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Demonstrate familiarity with major issues in jurisprudence and the ability to examine critically various ways of understanding the nature and content of law
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

2. Demonstrate knowledge about how ideas and ideologies have changed over time and have shaped social and moral arguments concerning the law
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

3. Develop ability to articulate and discuss complex issues and arguments surrounding legal, social, and moral questions
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

4. Demonstrate the ability to analyze information, to write clearly and persuasively, and to construct original arguments
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

5. Demonstrate an advanced understanding of the legal, political, and philosophical contexts and current scholarly debates concerning jurisprudence.
Audience: Graduate

LEGAL ST 409 — HUMAN RIGHTS IN LAW AND SOCIETY

3 credits.

Introduction to the theory, the politics and the sociology of human rights. Main themes: international human rights legal regime, questions of why human rights have become "legalized," and what the consequences of this legalization are on the ground.

LEGAL ST/SOC 415 — THE LEGAL PROFESSION

3-4 credits.

History, structure, and functioning of legal professions in the United States and in other countries around the world.

LEGAL ST/GEN&WS 422 — WOMEN AND THE LAW

3 credits.

Legal system, laws, and proposed legislation that have specific impact on the lives of women. Topics investigated in both the social and legal contexts.

LEGAL ST/GEN&WS/SOC 425 — CRIME, GENDER AND JUSTICE

3 credits.

Focuses on the intersection between gender, crime and justice from a cross-cultural perspective. The gendered nature of the criminal justice system, female experiences of crime, prosecution and incarceration as well as the extent to which women are victims, offenders, and participants in the criminal justice system will be explored. Special emphasis will be placed on the theoretical implications of offending behavior and the intersection of gender with sexuality, race, ethnicity and class. The goal of this course is to provide a foundation for critically assessing the often controversial issues surrounding race, gender, crime, and criminal justice in society.

LEGAL ST/HISTORY 426 — THE HISTORY OF PUNISHMENT

3-4 credits.

Examines punishment across a vast range of historical traditions, examining how wrongdoing and punishment have been figured in law, literature, art and philosophy. Examines ancient, medieval and modern traditions.

LEGAL ST/ENVIR ST/HISTORY 430 — LAW AND ENVIRONMENT: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES

3 credits.

Explores environmental studies through a focus on law and legal history. Although its main concentration is on U.S. environmental law, the course will begin and end with broader historical and global perspectives. Topics include a survey of English, European, and early American legal approaches to land use, natural resources, and pollution through World War II as well as an examination of the development and practice of contemporary U.S. environmental law and consideration of the recent emergence of international environmental law.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Gen Ed - Communication Part B
Breadth - Either Humanities or Social Science
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S
Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Spring 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Analyze and articulate their own arguments about how social, political, and cultural phenomena shape law and legal systems.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

2. Analyze and articulate their own arguments about the social, political, and cultural impacts of law at the societal and individual levels.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

3. Demonstrate knowledge about how legal ideas and ideologies have changed over time and have shaped law and legal systems.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

4. Demonstrate their abilities to find, interpret, and utilize resources relevant to law and society.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

5. Demonstrate their abilities to analyze information, to write clearly and persuasively, and to construct original arguments.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

6. Analyze the causes of and solutions for the sustainability challenge of the conservation of natural resources, especially insofar as their governance involves and impacts local stakeholders.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

7. Analyze the social, economic, legal, political, and environmental dimensions of the sustainability challenge of regulating and governing biodiversity, clean air and water, and other, larger earth systems (such as climate).
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

8. Demonstrate an advanced understanding of the historiography or other scholarly debates that have shaped the study of conservation and environmental law.
Audience: Graduate

LEGAL ST/AFROAMER 435 — CIVIL RIGHTS: POLICING, PRISONS, VOTING, HOUSING, EMPLOYMENT

3-4 credits.

Exploration of civil rights. Question what it means to discriminate (on the basis of race, sex, national origin, religion, and disability), how we might investigate and detect acts of discrimination, and the legal constraints on governmental efforts to remedy discrimination in employment, housing, and voting. Explore the intersection of government power and civil rights. Examine how the government targets groups during times of national crisis. Consider what constitutes acceptable conditions of incarceration for prisoners. Finally, learn police use-of-force doctrine, and discuss the challenge of protecting both officer and civilian safety.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Social Science
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S
Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2023

Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify key historical events that led to the conception and creation of civil rights.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

2. Identify constitutional justifications for the use of federal authority to legislate in the area of civil rights.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

3. Summarize statutes and cases that protect against discrimination in employment, housing, and voting.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

4. Demonstrate an understanding of major civil rights controversies surrounding political detainees, prison inmates, and those subject to police force during street encounters.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

5. Demonstrate an advanced understanding of the historical context, constitutional arguments, and current scholarly debates concerning civil rights law.
Audience: Graduate

LEGAL ST/CHICLA/SOC 440 — ETHNICITY, RACE, AND JUSTICE

3-4 credits.

An examination of ethnicity, race, and justice, with a specific emphasis on US Latinos, the largest minority group in the United States.

Requisites: C&E SOC/SOC 140, 210, 211, SOC 181, FOLKLORE/AFROAMER/AMER IND/ASIAN AM/CHICLA 102, CHICLA 201, CHICLA 210, CHICLA 230, POLI SCI/CHICLA 231, HISTORY/CHICLA/GEN&WS 245, LEGAL ST/SOC 131, or POLI SCI/LEGAL ST 217

Course Designation: Ethnic St - Counts toward Ethnic Studies requirement
Breadth - Social Science
Level - Advanced
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2024

LEGAL ST/ELPA 442 — CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS, THE COURTS, AND PUBLIC EDUCATION

3 credits.

Examines several legal issues confronting students and educators within the U.S. education system with a particular focus on race discrimination. Examines how civil rights laws and constitutional provisions can help create more equitable schooling experiences for students and educators from historically marginalized populations. Identifies pragmatic approaches to the law, and explores issues of the democratic underpinnings of education.

Requisites: Junior standing

Course Designation: Ethnic St - Counts toward Ethnic Studies requirement
Breadth - Social Science
Level - Advanced
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S
Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement

Repeatable for Credit: No

Learning Outcomes: 1. Analyze the U.S. constitutional provisions and civil rights laws in the U.S. that impact U.S. public education, demonstrating an awareness of history’s impact on the past and present.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

2. Describe various legal documents related to education, recognizing how assumptions about minoritized populations may play out in school policy.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

3. Explain and engage in discussions about racial injustice through the discussion of case law, demonstrating a consciousness or awareness of how the issue impacts themselves and others in a public school setting.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

4. Identify ways to become more effective participants in a multiracial society through the examination of current issues and social movements rooted in education law and policy.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

5. Examine issues in civil rights law in education using peer-reviewed research
Audience: Graduate

LEGAL ST/CHICLA/SOC 443 — IMMIGRATION, CRIME, AND ENFORCEMENT

3-4 credits.

A study of immigration, crime, and border enforcement, engaging both historical and present-day debates, focusing on Latino immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border.

Requisites: C&E SOC/SOC 140, 210, 211, SOC 181, FOLKLORE/AFROAMER/AMER IND/ASIAN AM/CHICLA 102, CHICLA 201, CHICLA 210, CHICLA 230, POLI SCI/CHICLA 231, HISTORY/CHICLA/GEN&WS 245, LEGAL ST/SOC 131, or POLI SCI/LEGAL ST 217

Course Designation: Ethnic St - Counts toward Ethnic Studies requirement
Breadth - Social Science
Level - Advanced
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Spring 2024

LEGAL ST 444 — LAW IN ACTION

3 credits.

A review of the interaction of law (judicial decisions, legislation, administrative actions) with public policy by studying the approaches used to resolve a number of significant issues by use of law and examining the actual impact of such efforts.

LEGAL ST/POLI SCI 445 — LEGAL WRITING, FROM COUNSELOR TO ADVOCATE

3 credits.

Introduction to legal reasoning, writing, and research. Draft memos and briefs based on fictional case files and independent legal research, simulating the practice of law. Topics include precedent, sources of law, reading and interpreting legal texts, objective legal analysis, persuasion, and oral argument.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Learning Outcomes: 1. Read legal sources critically and accurately to identify relevant information.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Recognize the weight and significance of legal authorities within the American legal system.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Analyze and synthesize legal authorities to explain and formulate controlling rules.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Apply legal rules to a set of facts—both to predict legal consequences and to advocate for a preferred result.
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Use research strategies to find controlling and persuasive legal authority.
Audience: Undergraduate

6. Write clearly and concisely about the law in different professional contexts, including objective office memoranda and persuasive legal briefs.
Audience: Undergraduate

7. Articulate legal analyses and argue legal positions via oral communication and advocacy.
Audience: Undergraduate

LEGAL ST 450 — TOPICS IN LEGAL STUDIES AND THE HUMANITIES

3-4 credits.

Addresses a variety of issues linking various humanities perspectives to the central themes of law and legal institutions.

LEGAL ST/HISTORY 459 — RULE OF LAW: PHILOSOPHICAL AND HISTORICAL MODELS

3-4 credits.

From the perspectives of history and political theory, examines the multiple meanings of the idea of the rule of idea, and its uses in American history. Explore prominent critiques of the rule of law ideal.

LEGAL ST/L I S 460 — SURVEILLANCE, PRIVACY, AND POLICE POWERS

3 credits.

Examines individual privacy and government information collection in law enforcement, security, public health, administrative law, and other contexts from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.

LEGAL ST 473 — HEALTH IMPACTS OF UNMET SOCIAL NEEDS

3 credits.

Engage in service learning through direct work with patients in the Community Resource Navigator Program. Develop a better understanding of how social determinants of health equity affect peoples' lives. Partner with patients to identify social and legal services, assist patients in connecting to needed resources, follow up with patients to be sure that the connection was made and evaluate the quality of the resources provided. Reflect on experiences in the clinic and further explore how social location impacts health, legal and social service delivery. Working directly in local primary care clinics will provide the opportunity to communicate directly with the health care team to problem solve barriers patients are facing in accessing resources for their social needs.

Requisites: Consent of instructor

Course Designation: Breadth - Either Humanities or Social Science
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Frame your understanding of how social location and wider political and social constructs affect institutional interactions, self-determination, access to resources and your own perceptions of individual experiences.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Identify how the interconnectedness of social, legal, and health experiences are actualized in peoples' lives.
Audience: Undergraduate

LEGAL ST/HISTORY 476 — MEDIEVAL LAW AND SOCIETY

3 credits.

Introduction to the central historical developments of law and legal institutions in the European middle ages (400-1500).

LEGAL ST/HISTORY 477 — HISTORY OF FORENSIC SCIENCE

3 credits.

Examines the diverse paths followed by forensic science (including medical jurisprudence or forensic medicine) in various times and places, focusing on the English-speaking world from the nineteenth century until the present. Explore the many ways that law and science have worked together--or at cross-purposes--to generate and assess evidence at the crime scene, in the lab, in the courtroom, and beyond.

Requisites: Sophomore standing and (LEGAL ST/HISTORY 261, SOC/LEGAL ST 131, or POLI SCI/LEGAL ST 217), or graduate/professional standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Either Humanities or Social Science
Level - Advanced
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S
Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Spring 2024

LEGAL ST/HISTORY 510 — LEGAL PLURALISM

3 credits.

Historical and anthropological perspectives on non-state "law," or systems of rules generated by normative orders that lay beyond the state; case studies include the mafia, Tokyo tuna traders' court, orthodox Jewish diamond merchants, California gold miners' courts, Inuit song dueling.

LEGAL ST/ED POL/ELPA 542 — LAW AND PUBLIC EDUCATION

3 credits.

Examines the legal issues related to the policy decisions and delivery of public education (elementary and secondary) in the United States. Learn how law impacts both curriculum development and curricular delivery, explore current legal controversies, constitutional issues, and learn about legal reasoning and analysis. Examines how both legislation and litigation affects public education. Particular attention is paid to law as public policy and the analysis of the same.

Requisites: Junior standing

Course Designation: Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify various analytic frameworks that guide legal analysis.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

2. Apply principles and/or frameworks to a situation or issue.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

3. Understand their role in the development and implementation of law and policy.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

4. Recognize the many legal issues inherent in daily school practice.
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Explore various legal principles.
Audience: Undergraduate

6. Examine the sources of law and the various interests that the law seeks to balance.
Audience: Undergraduate

7. Recognize and identify independently the many legal issues inherent in daily school practice.
Audience: Graduate

8. Explore and apply various legal practices and their application.
Audience: Graduate

9. Examine the sources of law and the various interests that the law seeks to balance, provide varying arguments in written form.
Audience: Graduate

10. Find and understand primary sources of legal authority (e.g. actual cases, statutes, and administrative rules).
Audience: Graduate

LEGAL ST 600 — SPECIAL TOPICS IN LEGAL STUDIES

1-3 credits.

Special seminars are designed for opportunities such as short international seminar courses, the summer forum, and other special opportunities.

LEGAL ST/LAW/SOC 641 — SOCIOLOGY OF LAW

3-4 credits.

Theory and research on the social origins, processes and effects of law; examination of law-related behavior, legal institutions, law and social structure, and law and social change; linkage to contemporary theoretical and political debates.

LEGAL ST/L I S 645 — INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM

3 credits.

An examination of intellectual freedom in the United States including censorship, minors' rights, the Internet, privacy, and copyright with focus on theoretical questions related to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and historical developments.

LEGAL ST/L I S 663 — INTRODUCTION TO CYBERLAW

3 credits.

The emphasis is on critical thinking about a broad variety of legal and policy problems that arise because of ever-changing information and communication technologies.

LEGAL ST 681 — SENIOR HONORS THESIS

3-4 credits.

Individual study for majors writing theses for honors degree.

LEGAL ST 682 — SENIOR HONORS THESIS

3-4 credits.

Individual study for majors writing theses for honors degree.

LEGAL ST 691 — SENIOR THESIS

3 credits.

Individual study for majors writing senior thesis (nonhonors).

LEGAL ST 692 — SENIOR THESIS

3 credits.

Individual study for majors writing senior thesis (nonhonors).

LEGAL ST/SOC 694 — CRIMINAL JUSTICE FIELD OBSERVATION

2-3 credits.

Field placements and seminar sessions to develop sociological understanding of criminal justice processes. Placement in criminal justice agencies and lectures and discussions applying concepts and theories to field experience.

LEGAL ST 699 — DIRECTED STUDY

1-4 credits.

Directed study in legal studies.