Mar 29, 2024  
Course Catalog 2022-2023 
    
Course Catalog 2022-2023 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Law and Society


Joyce Babyak, Davis Professor of Religion, Chair
Pamela Brooks, Nord Associate Professor of Africana Studies
David Forrest, Assistant Professor of Politics
Anthony Pernell-McGee, Executive Director of Career Exploration and Development, ex officio
Renee Romano, Danforth Professor of History, Professor of Comparative American Studies and Africana Studies
Justin Younker, Assistant General Counsel, ex officio


Visit the program webpage for up-to-date information on program faculty, visiting lecturers, and special events.


The Curricular Committee on Law and Society administers a cross-disciplinary Law and Society major, fosters the general study of issues regarding law and society throughout the college, and encourages public presentations by visiting scholars, jurists, and lawyers. The recommended core courses, core research seminars, and law-related courses explore philosophical, political, economic, historical, sociological, ethical, scientific, and religious issues that are central to understanding the role of law and legal institutions in society.

Core courses and seminars are selected with the following objectives in mind:

  • center on law and legal institutions directly
  • explore the historical, philosophical, and ethical underpinnings of the development of law, thought, and institutions
  • provide the analytic skills necessary to understand the logic and bases of legal thinking as a language in legal institutions, the broader society, and the profession of law.

Law-related courses have sections within them that meet at least one of the three objectives listed above or provide students an opportunity to write a term paper in which the scholarly issues of the course may be applied to legal institutions, thought, and/or the logic of legal inquiry.

See information about Research, Internships, Study Away, and Experiential Learning (RISE).


Explore Winter Term projects and opportunities.


Majors and Minors


Courses