| Program Name: |
Law and Society |
| Director: |
Robert J. Christopher |
| Program Address: |
Law and Society Program
Ramapo College of New Jersey
Mahwah, NJ 07430
201/529-7418
E-mail: rchristo@ramapo.edu |
| Program Type: |
Major |
| Program Status: |
The undergraduate Law and Society Major at Ramapo was
instituted in the Fall of 1987. The major is offered by the School of American/
International Studies (which emphasizes the humanities) and the School of Social
Science/Human Services (which emphasizes the social sciences). |
| Statement of Intellectual Structure: |
| "Students in the Law and Society major learn to understand the law
in its historical and cultural contexts. The Law and Society Program shows how the values
of a society become codified into the letter and traditions of its law and enables
students to make informed, critical judgments of the place of law in society. By applying
the critical thinking of the disciplines of history, literature, philosophy, political
science, economics, and sociology, students develop a deepened knowledge of the background
of the law as code and as institution. Through the study of different legal systems and
the history of international law, students cultivate a disciplined understanding of other
cultures. In Law and Society the logics of the traditional disciplines are focused on the
law, so that students gain more fully-developed skills of reasoning and judgment. As a
liberal arts program dedicated to the proposition that law in its social and historical
relations is an appropriate course of undergraduate study, we do not emphasize the
pre-professional interests of potential law school entrants." |
|
|
| Program Curricular Organization: |
Two required introductory courses,
intermediate level courses in legal history, electives from three program areas
("Sources of the Law," "Comparative Legal Systems," and "Justices
and Injustices"), and required field work and senior thesis. |
| Required Courses: |
Introduction to Law and Justice
Introduction to Law and Society
|
| Sample of Elective
Courses: |
Sources of the Law
Supreme Court and Human Freedoms
Law in the Literary Imagination
Studies in Biblical LawComparative Legal Systems
Comparative Legal Systems
Legal Anthropology
Justices and Injustices
Criminology
Family Law
Environmental Law
|
| Experiential Component: |
Required field study allows students to combine study and
practice through a law-related placement which, among others, could occur in legislative
and executive offices, criminal justice settings, and a broad range of legal advocacy
groups. At least 200 hours of field study are arranged through internships within the
region, in the nation's capital, and abroad. |
|
Please e-mail us
with any changes or corrections. |
