| Program Name: |
Legal Studies |
| Director: |
Janet Rifkin |
| Program Address: |
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Department of Legal Studies
221 Hampshire House
Amherst, MA 01003
413/545-0021
E-mail: jrifkin@legal.umass.edu
Web Site: mantle.sbs.umass.edu/alee/legal/
|
| Program Type: |
Department |
| Program Status: |
Established in the early 1970s, the Legal Studies Department
is allied with other law and law-related faculty and courses in other departments of the
University and in the Five Colleges Consortium that also includes Hampshire, Amherst,
Mount Holyoke, and Smith). |
| Statement of Intellectual Structure: |
| "Legal studies provides an interdisciplinary approach to the study
of law and society. As a department within the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences,
Legal Studies offers its courses to the entire University and maintains a major. The
purposes of this multifaceted program are the development of the study of law within a
liberal arts framework and the exploration of the myriad ways in which law study is
connected with other disciplines pertinent to an understanding of society. To clarify
the difference between professional law school studies and legal studies, one can say that
legal studies is education about law, whereas law school is education in law. The
critical, humanistic approach of the program encourages students to investigate and
develop their own attitudes toward law and justice." |
|
|
| Program Curricular Organization: |
One required introductory course, seven courses from
departmental offerings, two law-related courses from outside of the department, and a
junior year writing requirement. |
| Required Courses: |
Introduction to Legal Studies
Legal Research and Writing
|
| Sample of Elective Courses: |
Justice in Historical Perspective
Law and Wealth
Law and Culture in America
Alternatives to the Adversary Process
Law, Crime and Society
Legal Construction of Gender
20th Century Political Trials
Civil Rights Law in the U.S.
Law & Personal Freedom
|
| Experiential Component: |
None |
|
Please e-mail us
with any changes or corrections. |
