Legal Studies

    "Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question."

     This observation came from Alexis de Tocqueville, the French philosopher, during his U.S. travels, early in our history. If we were a legalistic society then, what shall we call ourselves now? Laws have proliferated at an astounding pace, the courts are widely overcrowded with cases, despite the legal short-cuts we’ve devised. The threat of lawsuits lingers ever-present: we scheme about how to avoid them, and how to bring them.

     But we use the law for more than launching or resolving disputes. We rely on it, perhaps like no other society, to govern ourselves. We use it to create our institutions, regulate our behavior, and make our policy. We believe the law provides fairness, and thus guarantees democracy. Perhaps most importantly, we rely on the law to solve our problems. While our confidence in the law, lawmakers, and lawyers ebbs and flows, we believe nevertheless that the law provides answers: the law can change our society for the better.

     These are powerful myths by which the law lives in the U.S. Yet not everyone believes the law serves such benevolent objectives. Grant Gilmore, writing in the Yale Law Journal, argues that the:

     "Law reflects, but in no sense determines, the moral worth of a society…The better the society, the less law there will be. In Heaven, there will be no law, and the lion will lie down with the lamb…In Hell, there will be nothing but law, and due process will be meticulously observed."

    Others point to the many “unfulfilled promises” of U.S. law. Some view the law as biased, reflecting an ideology which helps the few at the expense of the many. Still others believe that lawyers do more to impede social change than to promote it. However one assesses the law, its extraordinary role in U.S. culture cannot be denied. Thus, the law ought to be studied widely, and not merely by those who want to practice the law.

     Toward that end, the Department of Politics offers a Legal Studies minor, open to all USF students. The minor provides students a broad understanding of the U.S. legal system, including the role law plays in U.S. culture: what legal philosophies have we adopted and rejected, what is the law's history, what practical purposes does it serve, how well it works? We're interested in the relationship between law and politics, and law and society: what can law contribute to improve society? What is justice; can the law help achieve it? Does the law help promote social change or impede it? We'll examine both U.S. law and international law, and study the judicial system from the trial courts to the Supreme Court. We'll consider legal disputes over issues such as capital punishment, human rights, pornography, terrorism, corporate crime, affirmative action, privacy, flag burning, defendant's rights, war powers, euthanasia, drug testing, school prayer, gun control, and so forth. Students will see the law in action, not merely in the classroom. Our fieldwork courses place students in law-related internships with organizations such as La Raza Centro Legal, the Legal Aid society, the Prisoner's Union, the Tenderloin Legal Clinic, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, and the American Civil Liberties Union. Some will use Legal Studies as preparation for law school. Others may find our courses useful for other educational and career pursuits.

     While primarily an academic program, Legal Studies sponsors or supports various on-campus and off-campus activities and groups, including the Undergraduate Law Society. Our speakers series has featured recent talks by Center for Constitutional Rights President David Cole; maverick lawyer, Gerry Spence; former San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan; California Supreme Court Justice and USF alumnus Ming Chin; consumer law advocate Ralph Nader; various law school deans; and many others. We have a growing relationship with the USF Human Rights Working Group and with USF's School of Law (and its Center for Law and Global Justice). We have a small library of law school materials, and through our Pre-Professional Law Committee, faculty advise students on the legal profession and on legal curricula and admissions. Our recent graduates have gone on to law and graduate schools at universities such as Georgetown, Harvard, Washington, Tulane, Columbia, NYU, Yale, American, USC, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, Hastings and UC Davis.

Courses for the Legal Studies Minor:

A Legal Studies Minor may be earned by students in any USF major. For the Minor, students must complete five (5) courses (20 credits) (which may be double-counted for major, minor and core requirements), including the Overview course, one course in Domestic Justice, one course in Global Justice, one Field Placement, and one Elective. The elective can be satisfied preferably by choosing an additional course in either Domestic Justice or Global Justice, or by choosing a course from additional electives (see below).

Overview

POL 322 Politics of American Justice (Elias/Weiner) or

SOC 354 Sociology of Law (Santos/Richman)

Domestic Justice

POL 316 Law, Politics & the National Pastime (Elias)

POL 327 American Reformers & Revolutionaries (Elias)

POL 335 Political Power & Constitutional Law (Elias)

POL 336 Race, Equality & the Law (Taylor)

POL 337 Women and the Law (Staff)

POL 339 Free Expression and the Constitution (Weiner)

SOC 227 Violence in Society (Staff)

SOC 302 U.S. Inequalities & Social Justice (Raeburn)

SOC 354 Sociology of Law (Santos/Richman)

SOC 357 Criminology (Richman)

HIST 359 Civil Rights Movement in History & Film (Nasstrom)

PHIL 376 Philosophy of Social Justice (Sundstrom)

PHIL 381 Equality, Justice and Rights (Sundstrom)

MEDIA 311 Communication Law and Policy (Barker-Plummer)

BUS 301 Legal and Regulatory Environment (Scalise, et al.)

Global Justice

POL 345 Global Economic Justice (Zunes)

POL 350 International Law & Organizations (McElwain)

POL 352 Human Rights & Global Change (Elias)

SOC 304 Global Inequalities & Social Justice (Edwards)

COMM 364 Communication for Justice & Social Change (Jacquemet)

Field Placement

Students must choose between a law-related placement in a government agency (Politics 396) or in some non-governmental organization (Politics 397 or Sociology 395)

POL 396 Public Administration Internship (Johnson) or

POL 397 Fieldwork in Public Interest Organizations (Elias) or

SOC 395 Fieldwork in Sociology (Gamson)

Additional Electives

Students must choose one (1) elective by taking an additional course in either Domestic Justice or Global Justice (see above) or by taking a course from the following list (as periodically updated:

POL 305 Critical Race Theory (Staff)

POL 315 Race, Ethnicity, & American Politics (Taylor)

POL 323 Legislative Process (Murphy/Cook)

POL 330 Crime, Law, and the Constitution (Staff)

POL 363 Public Policy: Homeless (Johnson)

POL 367 Public Policy: Drug Policy (Murphy)

POL 368 Public Policy: Punishment (Taylor)

SOC 325 Critical Approaches to Race and Ethnicity (Raeburn)

SOC 331 Social Stratification (Edwards)

SOC 355 Deviance & Social Control (Richman)

SOC 356 Juvenile Delinquency (Staff)

HIST 322 The Holocaust (Staff)

HIST 363 Race & Ethnicity in U.S. History (Fels)

HIST 421 Native Americans in U.S. History (Fels)

HIST 424 American Constitutional History (Staff)

PHIL 370 Philosophy of Action (Cavanaugh)

PHIL 372 Philosophy of Law (Cavanaugh)

MEDIA 204 Media, Violence, and Stereotyping (Juluri)

COMM 322 Public Relations Law and Ethics (Vannice)

PSYCH 350 Perspectives: Forensic Psychology (Staff)

ECON 465 Law & Economics (Staff)

BUS 311 Advanced Business Law (Scalise)

BUS 313 Employment Law for Managers (Boedecker)

BUS 314 Personal Law (Becker)

BUS 482 Hospitality Law & Human Resources (Abrams)

BUS 491 Honors Section: Legal (Scalise)

  4 + 3 PROGRAM

     Under our 4 + 3 Law Program, USF students (in any major) will have the opportunity to gain automatic admission to USF's School of Law if they have a minimum 3.2 GPA, a minimum 70th percentile LSAT score, and complete either the Legal Studies or Criminal Justice Studies minor.