Upper Division Requirements (Old Plan)

A minimum of 32 upper division semester units in Legal Studies is required for completion of the major. All must be taken for a letter grade. Of the 32 required upper division units, students must complete at least one course from each of the following Areas: Theory, Historical/Comparative, Substantive, and Administration of Justice.

All courses taken to satisfy the four Areas must be Legal Studies courses. Each Legal Studies course is listed by number below according to the Area to which it belongs. Go to the Legal Studies Courses page for individual course descriptions. Please note that the 190 seminars also fall within the Areas and can be found listed in the Course Offerings each semester. The remaining units can be either all Legal Studies units or a combination of Legal Studies units and up to three law-related courses from outside the department.
Note: the number for LS  100A was changed to LS 100 beginning Fall 11.

Take one course from each of the following four Areas:

I. THEORY courses ensure that the students are exposed to conceptual analysis and broad intellectual perspectives.

100 103 104AC 105 107
110 114 116 117 120 121 122
140 141 142 145 146 147
150 151 154 181 183 189

II. HISTORICAL/COMPARATIVE courses are meant to assure that students acquire historical perspective on the American legal order and have the capacity to draw on insights of legal traditions other than their own.

100 103 111 116 117 119
120 121 122 139 141 153 154 156 157 158 160 161
171 174 175 176 177 178 179

III. SUBSTANTIVE courses are meant to acquaint students with selected forms of legal ordering (e.g., the “substantive” law of crimes, property and torts); and to assure that students can relate legal doctrines to social policies and historical contexts.

100 105 109 132AC 138 140 144
145 146 147 155 157 162AC 163
165 168 180 182 184 186 187

IV. ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE courses familiarize students with important aspects of the legal process and use relevant insights from the social sciences (e.g., organization theory) to illuminate the dynamics of lawmaking, adjudication, and implementation.

102 104AC 109 138 155 160 162AC 163
164 170 182 184 185AC 186 187

Students may complete the remaining units with upper division Legal Studies courses of their choice and/or with pre-approved law-related courses offered in other departments.

Please note that no more than three (maximum of 12 units) outside law-related courses may be used to fulfill the requirements for upper division work, and no more than two courses from other universities. Pre-approval by the Legal Studies Coordinator is required for upper division courses taken from other universities. This includes EAP work.

To complete the Legal Studies major, a GPA of 2.0 is required