Old Plan Archive

Beginning Fall 2013 students must declare the New Plan.
The requirements listed below are for students who declared under the Old Plan previously.

Prerequisites – Take one distinct course from each of the following four categories:
Statistics; Philosophy; History; Economics.
(4 courses)  See the old prerequisites page for a list of choices.

Unit Requirement – Students must take a minimum of 32 upper division units for the major.

Upper division Requirements – Take 1 distinct course from each of following four Areas:
(4 courses)  See the old upper division requirements page.
Area I              Theory
Area II             Historical/Comparative
Area III            Substantive
Area IV           Administration of Justice

Law-Related Courses – You may use up to 3 law-related courses from outside the Legal Studies Department to count towards the Upper Division Requirements, maximum 12 units. Two law-related courses can be from abroad, maximum 8 units. If a third law-related course is to be taken, it would need to be at UCB. This is an option, not a requirement. Outside courses should normally be drawn from the pre-approved list of law-related UCB courses, but may be approved from other 4-year institutions, or from study abroad programs. If a course you are considering is not on the pre-approved list, you must submit a syllabus and description to the Legal Studies Academic Advisor for approval.  See the old law-related courses page.

Research – Legal Studies students may receive credit for completing a research project during their senior year. Students who meet eligibility requirements may enroll in LS H195A & B, the Honors Program. Students who have a faculty mentor and a desire to do a research project but do not meet the eligibility requirements for Honors, may enroll in 1-4 units of LS 199 Independent Study provided they meet the eligibility requirements. 

Old Plan Course List

LS 100 – Foundations of Legal Studies (changed course number from 100A to 100 beginning Sp12.) (4 units) Area I or II or III

This is a liberal arts course designed to introduce students to the foundational frameworks and cross-disciplinary perspectives from humanities and social sciences that distinguish legal studies as a scholarly field. It provides a comparative and historical introduction to forms, ideas, institutions, and systems of law and sociological ordering. It highlights basic theoretical problems and scholarly methods for understanding questions of law and justice.

LS 102 – Policing and Society  (4 units) Area IV

This course examines the American social institution of policing with particular emphasis on urban law enforcement. It explores the social, economic and cultural forces that pull policing in the direction of state legal authority and power as well as those that are a counter-weight to the concentration of policing powers in the state. Special attention is given to how policing shapes and is shaped by the urban landscape, legal to cultural.

LS 103 – Theories of Law and Society  (4 units) Area I or II

A historical examination of major interpretations of law, morals and social development, with special emphasis on the social thought of the 18th and 19th centuries. The course covers Montesquieu, Maine, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, and other theorists.

LS 104AC – Youth, Justice & Culture  (4 units) Area I or IV

The seminar challenges adult-centered representations of urban youth of different ethnicities, their problems, and the supposed solutions to those problems. It departs from the conceptualizations and methods used to study youth in mainstream criminology and developmental psychology. The seminar builds an alternative, youth-centered perspective, exploring what it means to put youth perspectives at the center of socio-legal inquiry. As a socio-legal endeavor, the seminar studies law as it is lived, shaped, and encountered by urban youth in their everyday lives. It illuminates the conceptual frames, methodological tools, and substantive findings that come to the front when the focus is on how youth make sense of their own lives, assert their own views of justice and law, and act on one another. Particular attention is given to youth conflict, peer relations, identity building within and across ethnic groups, claims on space and territory, the salience of law and rights, and adaptations to adult authorities and practices in the contexts of urban neighborhoods and public schools.

LS 105 – Theoretical Foundations of Criminal Law  (3 units) Area I or III

Criminal law raises fundamental theoretical issues that have occupied philosophers over the years. In the course we will discuss a selection of articles that bring to bear such a philosophical perspective on important aspects of criminal law. Topics include justification of punishment, foundations of blame and responsibility, substantive values protected by criminal law, significance of actual harm, liability of groups and other collectivities, and virtues and limits of the rule of law.

LS 107 – Theories of Justice  (4 units) Area I

This course examines the idea of justice as a critical standard in law and politics. The main emphasis will be on social justice and the distribution of liberty, wealth, and power in society. The course will cover four modern theories that relate distributive justice to ideas about liberty, equality, need, desert, efficiency, markets, property, and community:  utilitarianism (Bentham and Mill), libertarianism (Nozick and Friedman), egalitarian liberalism (Rawls and Walzer), and Marxism (Marx and Cohen). To assess the strengths and weaknesses of these theories, we will discuss their implications for a range of issues, including legal regulation of sex and marriage, labor market regulations, affirmative action, and immigration.

LS 109 – Aims & Limits of Criminal Law  (4 units) Area III or IV

Analysis of the capacity of criminal law to fulfill its aims. What are the aims of criminal Law? How are they assigned relative priority? What principles can be identified for evaluating the effort to control disapproved activities through criminal law?

LS 111 – The Making of Modern Constitutionalism  (4 units) Area II

Historical examination of the emergence of constitutionalism as an authoritative approach to the study of law and politics; coverage from the 16th to 18th centuries, concluding in discussion of the debate over ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

LS 116 – Legal Discourse: 1500 – 1700  (4 units) Area I or II

The course focuses on the history of legal thought and discourse from the late medieval period to the Enlightenment. Topics to be considered include the relationship between legal thought and intellectual developments and the relationship between political and constitutional developments and legal discourse. Although the emphasis is on England, there will be some consideration of differences between English and continental European legal thought.

LS 119 – Philosophy & Law in Ancient Athens  (4 units) Area II

This is an introduction to important aspects of the philosophical and constitutional thought of classical Athens. We will pay particular attention to accounts of the origins of the Athenian legal system; criticisms and defenses of the democracy; arguments about the nature of justice, law, and legal obligation; and the context of the Athenian way of organizing trials, taxation, and administration. Readings from Aeschylus, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato, Lysias, Aristotle, and others.

LS 120 – Conceptions of Punishment: Ancient & Modern  (4 units) Area I or II

A comparison of the understanding of punishment prevailing in modern Anglo-American thought and in former cultures such as Medieval Europe, Ancient Israel, and Ancient Greece. The topics include wrongdoing; suffering; deterrence, vengeance, purgation; excuses; volition; determinism, fate; collective responsibility. Most of the readings are in literary works such as the Greek tragedies.

LS 121 – Law in the Bible  (4 units) Area I or II

Topics include law as the divine commands, the divine ordering of the cosmos, God’s historical plan, wise maxims for successful living; the superseding of law by grace, divine freedom. Nearly all of the assigned readings are in the Bible itself.

LS 132AC – Immigration and Citizenship  (4 units) Area III

We often hear that America is a “nation of immigrants.” This representation of the U.S. does not explain why some are presumed to belong and others are not. We will examine both historical and contemporary law of immigration and citizenship to see how law has shaped national identity and the identity of immigrant communities . In addition to scholarly texts, we will learn to read and analyze excerpts of cases and the statute that governs immigration and citizenship, the Immigration and Nationality Act.

LS 138 – The Supreme Court & Public Policy  (4 units) Area III or IV

A policy, as opposed to legal, analysis of a number of earlier and recent Supreme Court decisions.

LS 139 – Comparative Perspectives on Norms & Legal Traditions (4 units) Area II

This course is an introduction to the comparative study of different legal cultures and traditions including common law, civil law, socialist law and religious law. A section of the class will be dedicated to the comparison of the colonial and post-colonial legal process in Latin America and in Africa.

LS 140 – Property and Liberty (4 units) Area I or III

The course will explore the relation between property law and limits of liberty in different cultures and at different times. The course will cover theories of property law, slavery, the clash between aboriginal and European ideas of property, gender roles and property rights, common property systems, zoning, regulatory takings, and property on the World Wide Web. Readings will include legal theorists, court cases, and historical case studies.

LS 145 – Law and Economics I  (4 units) Area I or III

This course uses the concepts and tools of economics to analyze problems in law, focusing on contracts, property, torts, and legal process. Students will be expected to apply the analysis to a broad array of legal issues.

LS 146: Law & the Economics of Innovation (4 units) Area I or III

We will discuss how the creation of knowledge, artistic, literary, and musical works are supported in a competitive economy especially in the digital age. We will discuss intellectual property, copyrights, trade secrets, trade marks, and geographic indications, in historical and institutional contexts. We will consider the problems of competition that arise in the digital economy, such as Google Books, the Microsoft antitrust cases, and search advertising.

LS 147 – Law and Economics II  (4 units) Area I or III

Law and Economics I is not a prerequisite. Microeconomic theory will be applied to government and regulation. Topics include the economic analysis of constitutional law, administrative law, regulation, corporations, and environmental law. To illustrate, the behavior of legislators who want to maximize the votes that they receive will be described and predicted. Similarly, the behavior of regulatory agencies who seek to maximize their own budgets will be predicted. The best forms of regulation will be identified assuming that parties subject to it minimize the cost of compliance, as when corporations try to satisfy environmental controls at least cost.

LS 151 – Law, Self, and Society (3 units) Area I

Contemporary political philosophy has been increasingly interested in how conceptions of the self relate to various aspects of our social and political life. These issues have an important bearing on legal theory as well. Law is shaped by certain implicit assumptions about the nature of individuals and collectives, while it also actively participates in forming the identities of persons and in structuring collective entities such as families, corporations, and municipalities. This course will explore some theoretical approaches to this reciprocal relationship between law and the different social actors that it governs.

LS 153 – Law & Society in Asia (4 units) Area II

This course offers a comparative perspective on law and legal institutions. Looking comparatively helps shed light on our own system and question what is “normal” or “natural.” From what it means to be a lawyer to notions of what is “just” or “fair,” courts and dispute resolution outside the U.S. can be both very different and, at times, surprisingly familiar. After an overview of concepts and classic approaches to the study of law and society, the course will explore these differences and similarities in three Asian settings: China, Japan, and India. Topics include lawyers, illicit sex, and environmental protection, to see how each country’s history, political structure, values, and interests shape how legal issues are defined and play out.

LS 154 – International Human Rights (4 units) Area I or II

This course considers how the practice of punishing crime can be understood in terms of the larger system of social life and cultural values in which punishment occurs. In exploring the social meanings of punishment, it examines some of the major historical changes in punishment that have been introduced in America and Europe since the 18th century.

LS 155 – Government and Family (4 units) Area III or IV

How has the law constructed and deconstructed “family” relationships? What are the common law, statutory, and constitutional principles that affect the formation, regulation, and dissolution of families? How do these principles, as well as diverse cultural and social values, guide the State in determining who may or may not marry, who may or may not become a legal parent, and the circumstances that justify State intervention in otherwise private and autonomous families to protect children against neglect or abuse? Should children have legal “rights” and, if so, to what and against whom? Special attention is given to the laws, policies, and current debates concerning marriage and domestic partnerships, child custody and adoption, and the public child welfare system. These issues are explored through a variety of readings in the law and the social sciences.*unit increase effective Fall 2004

LS 156 – Bioethics And The Law (4 units) Area II

Law now plays a prominent role in medicine and science. Recent years have witnessed a major expansion of law’s involvement. Law (statutory and court-made) articulates and interprets norms of conduct. This course will examine a number of topics where law and medicine intersect involving many of our most fundamental values including body, life, death, religion, reproduction, sexuality, and family. In each area we will include both traditional issues, like “right to die” and more current disputes such as physician assisted suicide.

LS 157 – International Relations & International Law (4 units) Area II or III

This course will evaluate and assess modern theories of international law. We will examine the work of legal scholars and look to political science and economics to see how these disciplines inform the study of international law. We will also examine a host of fundamental questions in international law, including, for example, why states enter into international agreements, why states comply with international law, and what kind of state conduct is likely to be influenced by international law.

LS 158 – Law and Development (4 units) Area II

Focusing on developing countries, this course considers the relationship between legal institutions and rules – including informal and traditional ones – and develpment – defined by different actors by economic growth, education, health, or a wide spectrum of freedoms. It examines efforts by national leaders, international organizations, foreign aid agencies, and NGOs to “reform” law to promote development , along with the resistance and unplanned consequences that often ensue.

LS 160 – Punishment, Culture, and Society (4 units) Area II or IV

This course surveys the development of Western penal practices, institutions, and ideas (what David Garland calls “penality”) from the eighteenth-century period to the present. Our primary focus will be on penal practices and discourses in United States in the early 21st century. In particular we will examine the extraordinary growth of US penal sanctions in the last quarter century and the sources and consequences of what some have called “mass imprisonment.” To gain some comparative perspective the course will also take up contemporary penality (or penalities) in Europe, South Africa, Central America, and Asia, as well as US penality and society at some earlier conjunctures.
In our analysis of penality, we will draw upon a range of social science theories with general relevance but with particularly rich application to the study of punishment. These theories provide the “tool kits” we will use to interpret and analyze multiplex implications of punishment and its relationship to changes in economic, social, and political relations associated with modernization and more recently the globalization of modern capitalism. The course will examine many examples of penal practices and the ideas associated with them including mass imprisonment, the death penalty, and restorative justice. In the last portion of the class we will examine the recent crisis in California’s juvenile prisons through the lenses both of different social theories and the examples of different national and historical penal patterns.

LS 161 – Law in Chinese Society (4 units) Area II

This course examines concepts that form the basis of the Chinese legal system, traditional theories and institutions of pre-1911 society, and the expression and rejection of the traditional concepts in the laws of the Nationalist period and the People’s Republic of China.

LS 162AC – Restorative Justice (4 units) Area III or IV

This course will examine the theory and practice of restorative justice, with an emphasis on the ways that criminal justice systems implicate the emotions and the social integration of both victims and offenders.  The course will begin with a critical examination of the current focus of the criminal justice system on retribution and incarceration. It will explore the racially disproportionate effects of this system, a product both of governmental failures to recognize the continuing economic, social and psychological effects of slavery and Jim Crow, and law’s failure to look beyond a narrow, individually-oriented notion of discrimination. The course will also interrogate the ways that existing approaches function – at times, purposefully – to foster vengeance and contempt toward offenders as a social category, complicating the process of re-entry and reintegration.

LS 163 – Adolescence, Crime & Juvenile Justice (title changed Fa12 from: Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Justice ) (4 units) Area III or IV

This course examines the premises, doctrine, and operational behavior of juvenile courts, particularly in relation to the commission of seriously antisocial acts by mid-adolescents. An introductory section will introduce the historical development and legal theory of adolescence as a semi-autonomous period with special policy goals and problems.   The treatment of juvenile justice will include the history of theories of delinquency; the jurisprudence of delinquency; the incidence and severity of delinquency; police response to juvenile offenders; the processes of juvenile courts and youth corrections; and reforms or alternatives to the juvenile court system.

LS 168 – Sex, Reproduction, and the Law (4 units) Area III

This course examines recent American legal and social history with respect to reproductive and sexual behavior. We will consider two theoretical aspects of the problem: first, theories of how law regulates social behavior and second, more general theories about how reproduction is socially regulated. Armed with these theoretical perspectives, the course will then examine closely a number of legal/social conflicts, including sterilization, abortion and contraception.

LS 170 – Crime and Criminal Justice (4 units) Area IV

This course examines the nature and extent of crime in America and the uses and limits of the criminal justice system in dealing with it. We will consider competing explanations of the causes of crime, and assess strategies for crime prevention and control, both within the criminal justice system and beyond it. Our central focus is on the criminal justice system including: the police; constitutional rights and the exclusionary rule; the role of the defense attorney and the prosecutor; bail; the trial; the guilty plea; sentencing and corrections; and the penalty of death.

LS 171 – European Legal History (4 units) Area II

Main themes in European legal history: topics include classical Roman law, Justinian’s codification (6th century A.D.), the medieval revival of Roman law in Italy and elsewhere, medieval canon law (the law practiced in the ecclesiastical courts), the jus commune (amalgam of Roman, canon and indigenous law that prevailed in Europe until the modern period), the law merchant, the beginnings of the English common law, early modern developments in continental Europe and England, nineteenth-century codification, twentieth century developments.

174: Comparative Constitutional Law: The Case of Israel (4 units) Area II  

The seminar will provide an introduction to the comparative study of constitutional law through the lens of Israeli constitutional jurisprudence – a jurisprudence built explicitly on the foundations of a variety of other constitutional systems, reflecting the diversity of approaches to constitutionalism.  Through this comparative framework students will learn basic constitutional theory as well as explore some of the major constitutional debates in Israeli contemporary law. The constitutional theory part of the course will discuss the formation of Israeli constitution in comparison with the structure of other constitutions such as the U.S. Constitution and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This framework will introduce the central notions of constitutionalism – the ideas that that constitutions can (and should) limit government; the role of the judiciary in interpreting and enforcing the constitution; and the importance of constitutional rights.  Among the constitutional debates that the class will explore are topics such as freedom of expression and freedom of association, equality, the right of human dignity, due process, social rights, freedom of occupation, freedom of religion etc. These topics will also be looked at from a comparative perspective drawing upon different constitutional regimes such as the Canadian Charter and the constitution of South Africa.

LS 176 – 20th Century American Legal & Constitutional History (4 units) Area II

This class covers the development of American law and the constitutional system in the twentieth century. Topics include Progressive Era Regulatory policy, criminal justice and relations, freedom of speech and press, New Deal legal innovations, modern tort liability, environmental regulation, judicial reform, and federalism. It is recommended that students have completed at least one course in legal studies or political science dealing with American history or government.

LS 177 – American Legal & Constitutional History (4 units) Area II

This course explores the history of American legal institutions and doctrine from colonial times to the present. It deals both with the history of American constitutional law (through the study of major U.S. Supreme Court opinions) and with the development of certain important bodies of non-constitutional law, such as the law of property, the law of torts (civil wrongs), and criminal law. In exploring how American law has developed over time the course may serve as something of an introduction to our current legal and constitutional order.

LS 178 – Seminar on American Legal & Constitutional History (3 units) Area II

This seminar has two purposes: to explore in depth selected topics in American legal and constitutional history, and to help students improve their research and writing skills. The aim is the production of a substantial research paper. Preference may be given to students who have taken 177.

LS 179 – Comparative Constitutional Law (4 units) Area II

An examination of constitutional decision making in a number of countries based on selected high court opinions.

LS 180 – Implicit Bias (4 units)    Area III

Implicit bias—automatic or unconscious stereotyping and prejudice that guides  our perception of and behavior toward social groups—is one of the fastest growing areas of law and psychology.  It also lies at the heart of one of the raging debates in American Law: whether the results of psychological studies showing the operation of unconscious gender, racial, and other biases can be used as courtroom evidence to prove discrimination.  Students will be introduced to cutting edge research that bears not only on the highly relevant substantive areas of employment discrimination and criminal law, but also on questions regarding other legal contexts, such as communications, voting, health care, immigration, and property.  Students will learn how implicit bias works, how to interpret and use empirical research findings from psychology, how to understand the major critiques of implicit bias research, and how to understand courts’ use of implicit bias findings. Remedies to implicit bias will be discussed throughout the course.

LS 181 – Psychology of Law (4 units) Area I

This course will examine the implications of cognitive, social, and clinical psychology for legal theory, policies, and practices. The course will analyze the psychological aspects of intent, responsibility, deterrence, retribution, and morality. We will examine applications of psychology to evidence law (e.g. witness testimony, psychiatric diagnosis and prediction), procedure (e.g., trial conduct, jury selection), and topics in criminal, tort, and family law.

LS 182 – Law, Politics, and Society (4 units) Area III or IV

This course examines the theory and practice of legal institutions in performing several major functions of law: allocating authority, defining relationships, resolving conflict, adapting to social change, and fostering social solidarity. In doing so, it will assess the nature and limits of law as well as consider alternative perspectives on social control and social change.

How does the psychology of culture, race, and ethnicity shape the legal pursuit of diversity and equal treatment? How are Americans thinking about and doing diversity in their everyday lives? What are the predominant perspectives on diversity and how are they being deployed or challenged in legal battles over race-conscious policies? What are the implications for efforts to remedy historic intergroup conflict and discrimination? These will be the central questions of this course. We will examine concepts of race and culture, various understandings of and approaches to diversity found in the law, and the role of sociocultural structures in shaping the operation of anti-discrimination law and social policy. Special attention will be given to the use of diversity-related psychological research in law. Some topics include: cultural psychology and cultural defense; psychology of desegregation; psychology of colorblindness and equal protection; psychology of “critical mass” and affirmative action; stereotyping, intent, and discrimination; cultural differences in attraction and implications for discrimination; psychology of sexism in the workplace; psychology of social class and poverty; psychology of disability and disability discrimination.

LS 184 – Sociology of Law (4 units) Area III or IV

This course explores major issues and debates in the sociology of law.  Topics include theoretical perspectives on the relationship between law and society, theories of why people obey (and disobey) the law, the relationship between law and social norms, the “law in action” in litigation and dispute resolution, the roles of lawyers, judges, and juries in the legal system and in society, and the role of law in social change.  The course will examine these issues from an empirical perspective.

LS 185AC – Prison (Big Ideas Course) (4 units) Area IV

NOTE: ***This is a cross-listed course with Legal Studies (185AC) , Architecture (Arch 180AC) and Ethnic Studies (EthStud 181AC). Any of the three sections can be added and still count towards the major, but it is best to sign up for our section LS 185AC.***

Taking a broad inter-disciplinary approach, this course embraces the longue durée of
critical prison studies, questioning the shadows of normality that cloak mass
incarceration both across the globe and, more particularly, in the contemporary United
States. While speaking very directly to the prison system, this course intends to
reorganize the logics of an institution we commonly accept as the reasonable destination
for those identified as “criminal”. This interdisciplinary project recognizes that we
cannot possibly teach about the presence and persistence of punishment and prisons in
contemporary American life without inviting conversation across time periods, genres,
and geographies. This course thus explores a series of visceral, unsettling juxtapositions:
‘freedom’ and ‘slavery’; ‘citizenship’ and ‘subjugation’; ‘marginalization’ and ‘inclusion’,
in each case explicating the ways that story making, political demagoguery, and racial,
class, and sexual inequalities have wrought an untenable social condition.

LS 187 – Diversity, Law & Politics (4 units) Area IV

Dimensions of diversity at the heart of this course are perceptions of commonality and attributions of difference defined by race and immigration. Emphasis is given to contemporary law and politics in the U.S., but with an eye toward how the law and politics of the here and now is rooted in history. “Race” is broadly defined by concepts of identity, immigration, citizenship, class, ethnicity, and gender. “Politics” is broadly defined both by a center stage of elite actors in government and the laws and policies they make and implement, and by the relevant contexts and audiences that define that stage, inclusive of elections, civic engagement, protests, political talk, and organizational behavior.

LS 186 – Gender, Law, & Society (4 units) Area III or IV

This course addresses major topics, issues, and debates in socio-legal studies. The politics of law and legal institutions are examined and notions of neutrality and impartiality commonly associated with law are challenged. Topics include theoretical perspectives on law and society, the relationship between law -on-the-books and law-in-action, the social organization of lawyers and judges, stratification in access to law, problems in mobilizing the law, the interplay between legal and social change, and the relationship between law and the state.

LS 189 Feminist Jurisprudence (4 units) Area I

This course will explore the ways in which feminist theory has shaped conceptions of the law, as both an influence contributing to sex and gender inequality, and a vehicle for its amelioration. The course will examine a range of feminist legal theories, including equality, difference, dominance, intersectional, post-structural, postcolonial theories. It will ask how these theories have shaped legal interventions in areas including workplace/educational access, sexualized coercion, work/family conflict, cultural defenses, and globalised sweatshop labor. It will also consider how epistemological challenges that emerged from feminist theory in other disciplines shaped challenges to objectivist epistemology in law.

LS 190 – Topics in Law and Society (1 – 4 units) Areas will be listed in the Course Offerings information each semester.

The topic changes periodically depending on who is teaching the course. This seminar is intended to serve only officially-declared Legal Studies majors in order to give them the experience of a closer exchange with the faculty. May be repeated for credit as long as the subject of the course is different each time.

H195A: Honors Seminar (4 units) Letter-graded  (No Areas)

Students contemplating an Honors thesis must enroll in LS H195A in the Fall of their senior year, which is aimed specifically at preparing them for the task. The four unit letter-graded seminar will cover such important subjects as selecting a thesis topic that is both interesting and capable of investigation within the limits of a single semester, developing and implementing an effective research strategy, and completing the writing.  UCB GPA 3.3  Legal Studies GPA 3.5 required.

During the following Spring semester, students who continue with the Honors Program (LS H195B four units letter-graded) will complete a substantial research paper under the supervision of a faculty member. Units count towards the 32 required for the major.

For more info or to obtain a Course Entry Code, please contact Lauri La Pointe once your Spring/Summer grades have been posted.

LS H195B – Honors Thesis (4 units) (No Areas) 

After successfully completing LS H195A in the fall semester, students who continue with the Honors Program will complete a substantial research paper under the supervision of a faculty member. There is no course involved during the spring. UCB GPA 3.3  Legal Studies GPA 3.5 required. Units count towards the 32 required for the major.

LS 199 – Independent Study (1 – 4 units)

Legal Studies 199 is open to officially declared Legal Studies Seniors with a 3.0 GPA in the major. In order to enroll, the student must find a Legal Studies faculty member who is willing to serve as director. The student should have already taken at least one course from the faculty member in the area in which s/he wishes to do research. The student should submit a written proposal to the faculty member outlining the scope and length of the research project s/he would like to do. A general guideline is 1 unit of credit per 10 pages of text in the final research paper, up to a maximum of 4 units. Students should secure the consent of the supervising faculty member prior to the first week of the semester in which they would like to enroll. Students who have already secured faculty permission should see the Undergraduate Advisor for the requisite paperwork. Note: LS199 can only be taken P/NP, but is applicable towards the 32 upper division units in the major.

Lower Division Course Offerings

The Legal Studies Department offers two lower division seminars, one specifically for freshmen, and another for both freshmen and sophomores. We also have R1B courses that will fulfill the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement. These courses offer an introduction to the study of law in a small classroom setting. Students are encouraged to sign up early as these courses fill rapidly. Note: LS R1B, LS 24 and LS 39 do not count toward the fulfillment of the Legal Studies major requirements.

LS R1B – Reading & Composition in Connection with the Law as a Social Institution (4 units)

Topics change depending who teaches in a given semester. LS R1B fulfills the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement. R1B courses must be taken for a letter grade.

LS 24 – Freshman Seminar (1 unit)

First-year students only. Each session will consist of a lecture and discussion of assigned readings on a specific area of American and comparative law, such as Church and State, economic liberty, gender discrimination, or free speech.

LS 39 – Freshman/Sophmore Seminar (2 – 4 units)

Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. Check with department for current topic. Past topics include Imperial and Modern China, Introduction to Private Law, and How Judicial Opinions Function.