LAW AND SOCIETY

Subject abbreviation: LWSO

Steven E. Clark, Ph.D., Chair  

Committee Office, 1604 Humanities and Social Sciences

**

Committee in Charge:

Steven E. Clark, Ph.D.
(Psychology)

Carl F. Cranor, Ph.D.
(Philosophy)

Piotr Górecki, Ph.D.
(History)

John C. Laursen, Ph.D.
(Political Science)

Robert Nash Parker, Ph.D.
(Sociology)

Austin T. Turk, Ph.D.
(Sociology)

Carlos G. Vélez-Ibáñez, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, ex officio

MAJOR  

Law stands at the heart of a free society, channeling behavior and ensuring areas of free human choice. All of us are aware, at least vaguely, of the importance of law in our daily lives. We speak of rights and duties, freedom and order, justice and injustice. The importance of law as a concept is reflected in the number of disciplines in the University which study and teach law and law-like relationships, disciplines ranging throughout the Humanities and Social Sciences.

The Law and Society major offers undergraduates an interdisciplinary, liberal arts approach to the study of legal and law-like relationships and institutions. The program combines the perspectives of various disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. The multidisciplinary approach serves several purposes. It introduces students to a wider range of views about law than is generally possible within a single department. It provides a coherent and rigorous program of courses organized around the theme of law and law-like relationships.

It provides a way of developing critical and analytical thinking on the part of students concerning various ideas associated with law and social institutions.

The Law and Society curriculum should be of educational benefit to students who do not plan to pursue graduate studies as well as to those who plan to take graduate work following their bachelor degree studies. For the former, this program offers one means of understanding some complex relationships between social institutions. For the latter, the breadth of course work in Law and Society should provide a sound basis for graduate studies in areas related to law: history, philosophy, political science, and sociology, among others. In addition, the Law and Society curriculum should be a sound background for students who later choose to pursue the study of law in a professional school of law.

Students may select Law and Society as a major with the departments of Anthropology, Economics, History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Sociology.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS  

UNIVERSITY REQUIREMENTS

General University requirements are Universitywide requirements which all undergraduates must satisfy. See the Undergraduate Studies section for a complete listing.

COLLEGE REQUIREMENTS

Students must fulfill all breadth requirements of the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. For a detailed list of requirements and a summary of units, see Degree Requirements under College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in the Undergraduate Studies section of this catalog.

MAJOR REQUIREMENTS

The major requirements for the Bachelor of Arts degree in Law and Society are as follows:

1. Specified requirements of the cooperating department (See the departments of Anthropology, Economics, History, Philosophy, Political Science, or Sociology.)

2. Requirements for Law and Society (36 units)

• a) PHIL 007
• b) LWSO 100
• c) One course chosen from the following list: ECON 107, PSYC 012, SOC 110A (or equivalent course in research methods)
• d) Five courses chosen from the following list: ANTH 127, ECON 119, HISE 153, PHIL 183, POSC 167, SOC 159, (One of these courses may be replaced by a substitute choice from a list of courses published annually by the Law and Society Faculty Committee. Not more than two of the courses taken to meet this requirement (d) may be from the same department.)
• e) LWSO 193

Note: In filling the dual requirements of the major, students may not count more than two courses toward both parts of their total requirements (specified departmental requirements and Law and Society requirements).

UPPER-DIVISION COURSES  

LWSO 100.
Introduction to the Study of Law and Society. (4)

Lecture, two hours; reading and library work, one hour. Prerequisite(s): none. An introduction to the interdisciplinary study of the role of law and legal institutions in society. Examines the role of criminal, tort, contract, constitutional or other areas of the law in society from different disciplinary perspectives.

LWSO 193.
Seminar in Law and Society. (4)

Discussion, four hours. Prerequisite(s): LWSO 100 and senior standing; restricted to majors. A seminar which aims at synthesizing the multidisciplinary perspectives and knowledge provided by other courses in the Law and Society Program through readings, group discussion and research on an issue or problem in law and society. Examples of seminar topics include law and morality, law and social change, law and religion, and law and culture.