Legal Studies Major

Requirements for the Major

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A major in Legal Studies requires a minimum of 10 courses including a senior thesis, selected in consultation with the student’s adviser from law-related courses at any of the Claremont Colleges. See department listings in the Scripps, Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Pomona Colleges’ catalogs for descriptions. The course requirements and examples of courses that satisfy those requirements are as follows:

Breadth of Study (four courses)

Of the ten required courses for the major, students must take at least one course in four of the following five tracks:

1.  Legal Institutions

• GOVT090 CM Intro Constitutional Law  
• GOVT095 CM Legal Studies: Intro to Law  
• GOVT120 CM Environmental Law  
• GOVT176 CM American Constitutional History  
• HIST126 CM American Constitution and Legal Development  
• POLI033A/B PO American Constitutionalism I/II  

• POLI143 SC Civil Liberties and Fundamental Rights  

• SOC 116 PZ Women and Law  

2.  Law and Behavioral Sciences

• ECON155 PO Law and Economics  
• GOVT179 CM Law and Social Change  
• POST106 PZ Law and Politics  
• PSYC159 PZ Childhood, Law and Society  
• PSYC162 SC Psychology and the Law  
• PSYC169 SC Topics in Personality and Social Psychology  
• PSYC163 SC Social Psychology and the Legal System  
• SOC 055 PZ Juvenile Delinquency  

3.  Law and Social Order

• AFRI120 AF Prisons and Public Education  
• ANTH052 PZ Indigenous Societies: Histories of Encounters  
• ANTH126 PZ Gangs  
• ANTH178 PZ Prisons: Theory, Ethnography, and Action  
• ASAM179B HM Asian Americans and the Law  
• AWS 352 PO Black Feminist Theory and Activism  
• GOVT181 CM Crime and Public Policy  
• HIST141 SC Working People in the Americas: Race, Labor, and Organizing  
• HIST176 AF Civil Rights Movement in the Modern Era  
• PHIL039 PO Women, Crime and Punishment  
• POST156 PZ Critical Race Theory  
• POST159 PZ Crime and Punishment  
• SOC 121 PO Radicals, Revolutionaries and Terrorists  

4.  Legal Theory and Jurisprudence

• PHIL034 PO Philosophy of Law  
• PHIL162 SC Political Philosophy  
• PHIL169 SC Responsibility, Guilt, and the Person  
• POLI140 SC Introduction to Political Theory  
• POLI144 SC Legal Storytelling and the Rule of Law  

5.  Law and Culture

• ANTH055 PO Power, Politics and Culture   
• ENGL140 PO Literature of Incarceration: Writings from No Man’s Land  
• GRMT114 SC Plotting Crime  
• GOVT180 E CM Politics and Law in Fiction and Film  
• POLI141 SC Politics of Race and American Popular Film  
• SOC 051 PZ Cast, Class and Colonialism  
• SOC 088 PZ Hip Hop and Incarceration  

Concentration (four courses)

In consultation with the student’s adviser, students will select four additional courses that build a specific competence in depth. Examples of such concentrations include but are not limited to: Constitutional Law, Crime and Criminality, The Prison System, Legal Decision Making, Psychology and Law, Law and Social Movements, Feminist Legal Theory, Critical Race Theory, Law and Literature, or Environmental Law.

Senior Seminar and Thesis (two courses)

1. A Senior Seminar to be selected with and approved by the major adviser; and
2. Legal Studies Senior Thesis

Honors Requirements

Students may pursue an honors degree in Legal Studies by fulfilling the following additional requirements:

1. Maintain a GPA in the major of 11.0.
2. Receive a grade of A- or better on the thesis.
3. Successfully defend the thesis in an oral examination.