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. 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

• GOVT120 CM Environmental Law and Policy  
• HIST126 CM American Constitution and Legal Development  
• POLI033A/B PO American Constitutionalism I/II  
• POLI143 SC Civil Liberties and Fundamental Rights   

2.  Law and Behavioral Sciences

• ECON155 PO Law and Economics  
• POST106 PZ Law and Politics  
• PSYC162 SC Psychology and the Law  
• PSYC169 SC Topics in Personality and Social Psychology  
• PSYC163 SC Social Psychology and the Legal System   

3.  Law and Social Order

• ANTH052 PZ Indigenous Societies: Histories of Encounters  
• ASAM179B HM Asian Americans and the Law   
• 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   

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.

Elective (one course)

• One course within the major

Senior Thesis (one course)

• Senior Thesis in Legal Studies

Honors Requirements

Students may pursue an honors 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.