Legal Studies

Legal studies is an interdisciplinary major offered under the auspices of the Politics Department. It is designed for students who wish to use the methods and perspectives of various academic disciplines to study legal issues and to use the conceptual framework of the law to illuminate empirical and theoretical concerns in the various disciplines. For example, a student might use approaches from psychology and philosophy to study the legal problem of punishment; or draw on doctrinal categories from public and private law to study the changing historical role of market and nonmarket relations within ongoing institutions; or use approaches from critical race theory and feminist studies to better understand matters of civil rights and privacy.

To complete the major, students are required to take courses in legal institutions, constitutional law, and international law, as well as take courses in each of three broad themes: legal theory and philosophy, the role of law in society, and legal institutions. Each of these themes is intentionally broadly defined. Within legal theory, students may take courses in legal jurisprudence, logic, and theories of crime and punishment; within law and society, courses range from feminism and race to psychology and economics; within public law and institutions, courses range from environmental law to human rights law to an introduction to litigation. Students are also expected to take an introductory course in philosophy. To fulfill the senior exit requirement, students have the option to write a senior thesis or take a senior capstone seminar. The seminar topic changes quarterly.

Legal studies is intended to appeal to students who wish to take a concentration of courses on the law from a variety of disciplinary and methodological perspectives. The major is not intended as a substitute or preparation for any part of a law school curriculum but rather as a full field of study within the liberal arts curriculum. As such, it is a good preparation for a variety of future activities. Students graduating in legal studies are particularly well qualified to pursue graduate work on legal topics in humanities and social science disciplines or to attend professional school in fields such as public policy, business administration, social work, and law. Students are also encouraged to participate in field work and law-related internships in the community, and to develop their own extensive independent research projects.

Legal studies also encourages students to pursue additional academic opportunities while at UCSC. Possible programs include: the UCDC program, a one-quarter program at the UC campus in Washington, D.C. that includes coursework and an internship, the UCSC/UC Hastings Law School 3+3 Program in which students earn B.A. and J.D. degrees in six years, and the Education Abroad Program (EAP).

Declaring the major in legal studies is a two-step process: 1) complete and pass Legal Studies 10 with a grade of C or better; 2) attend a declaration orientation workshop.

Students who are informed that they are not eligible to declare the major may appeal this decision by submitting a letter to the department chair within 15 days from the date the notification was mailed. Within 15 days of receipt of the appeal, the department will notify the student, college, and Office of the Registrar of the decision.

Lower-Division Course Requirements—2 courses

• Legal Studies 10, Introduction to Legal Process. All students are required to complete and pass Legal Studies 10 prior to declaring the major.
• Philosophy 9, 22, or 24. All legal studies majors are required to take one of the three listed
• Philosophy courses. 

Upper-Division Course Requirements—2 courses

• 111A, Constitutional Law or 111B, Civil Liberties
• and 160B International Law

Core Course Requirements—6 courses

Students are required to take six core courses, two in each of three concentrations: theory, public law and institutions, and law and society.

Theory

• 103 Feminist Interventions (Politics course)
• 105A Ancient Political Thought
• 105B Early Modern Political Thought
• 105C Modern Political Thought
• 106 Marxism as a Method
• 107 Political Morality of Survivorship and Recovery
• 109 Legal Theory
• 109 Orientalism (Politics course)
• 115 Law and the Holocaust
• 128J The World Jury on Trial
• 144 Social and Political Philosophy
• 146 Philosophy of Law
• 155 Topics in American Legal History
• 157 Political Jurisprudence

Public Law and Institutions

• 111A Constitutional Law
• 111C Issues in Constitutional Law
• 115 Law and the Holocaust
• 116 Comparative Law
• 120A Congress, President, and the Court in American Politics
• 120C State and Capitalism in American Political Development
• 125 History of U.S. Penal Law
• 128 Poverty and Public Policy
• 128J The World Jury on Trial
• 128M International Law and Global Justice
• 131 Wildlife, Wilderness, and the Law
• 132 California Water Law and Policy
• 133 Law of Democracy
• 134 Congress: Representation and Legislation in Comparative Perspective
• 135 Native Peoples Law
• 136 Federal Indian Law and Tribal Sovereignty
• 137 International Environmental Law and Policy
• 139 War Crimes
• 149 Environmental Law and Policy
• 152 Courts and Litigation
• 155 Topics in American Legal History
• 156 Administrative Jurisprudence
• 159 Property and the Law
• 167 Politics of International Trade
• 171 Law of War
• 175 Human Rights

Law and Society

• 107 Political Morality of Survivorship and Recovery
• 110 Law and Social Issues
• 111B Civil Liberties
• 112 Women and the Law (Politics)
• 113 Gay Rights and the Law
• 114 Jews, Anti-Semitism, and the American Legal System
• 120B Society and Democracy in American Political Development
• 120C State and Capitalism in American Political Development
• 121 Black Politics and Federal Social Policy
• 122 The Sociology of Law
• 123 Law, Crime, and Social Justice
• 126 Law and Politics in Contemporary Japan and East Asian Societies
• 128I Race and Criminal Justice
• 127 Drugs and Society
• 135 Native Peoples Law
• 138 Political Anthropology
• 142 Anthropology of Law
• 147A Psychology and Law
• 147B Psychology and Law
• 150 Children and the Law
• 151 Politics of Law
• 154 The Legal Profession
• 155 Topics in American Legal History
• 160A Industrial Organization
• 162 Legal Environment of Business
• 169 Economic Analysis of the Law
• 180 Power, Politics, and Protest
• 183 Women in the Economy

Disciplinary Communication (DC) Requirement

Students of every major must satisfy that major's upper-division Disciplinary Communication (DC) Requirement. The DC Requirement in legal studies is satisfied by completing one of the following three paths:

1. Completion of Legal Studies 111A and Legal Studies 160B or
2. Completion of Legal Studies 196 or
3. Completion of a senior thesis, Legal Studies 195A, B, C.

Comprehensive Requirement—1 course

Students can satisfy the comprehensive requirement in the legal studies major by successfully completing one of the following:

Senior Thesis (2-3 quarters). Completion of a senior thesis (Legal Studies 195A-B-C) of a minimum of 50 pages with a substantial research content, supervised by a legal studies faculty member.

Senior Capstone. The capstone (Legal Studies 196) is designed to provide an interdisciplinary integration of themes related to the study of law and includes a substantial writing requirement.

Honors

Honors in the legal studies major are awarded to graduating seniors, based primarily on a review of grades, whose academic performance is judged to be consistently excellent by a faculty committee. Highest honors in the major are reserved for students with consistently outstanding academic performance.

Requirements

• To be considered for admission to UC Santa Cruz, international students must be on track to complete secondary school with superior grades/marks in academic subjects and to earn a certificate of completion that enables the student to be admitted to a university in their home country. 
• Reporting Foreign Course Work on the Application: When you apply to UC Santa Cruz, you must report ALL foreign course work as it would appear on your foreign academic record. You should not convert the grading system of your home country to U.S. grades or use an evaluation done by an agency. If your grades/marks appear as numbers, words, or percentages, please report them as such on your UC application. Each UC campus has an International Admissions Specialist who will thoroughly evaluate your international records.
• IELTS (International English Language Testing System): Overall band score of 6.5 or higher*
• TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language): Minimum score of 550 on the paper-based test or 80 on the Internet-based test
• SAT Writing Exam: 560 or higher

Test Requirements

All freshman applicants are expected to submit scores from one of the following tests. Even if the test is not offered in your country, we expect it:

• The ACT Assessment plus the ACT Writing Test  

--OR—

• The SAT with critical reading, mathematics, and writing scores from the same sitting. 

*Note: We no longer require SAT Subject exams. (We will still review these exam scores if applicants choose to send them to us, however, and certain SAT Subject exams may be recommended for some majors.)

SAT Subject exams accepted by UC:

• English (literature) 
• History/social studies
• Mathematics (Level 2 only; Level 1 is not accepted by the UC)
• Science
• Languages (Other than English)

Please note: In order for your test scores to be available in time for our review, all tests must be taken by December of the year before you plan to enroll.

Scholarships

To qualify for Federal, State, or University funding you must be a U.S. citizen or an eligible non-citizen and you must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Financial aid is not available for students with F1 or F2 Student Visas, J1 or J2 Exchange Visitor Visas, or G Series Visas.

Undergraduate Dean’s Scholarships and Awards

This award recognizes the academic achievement of non-resident students. Entering non-resident students will be considered for the Undergraduate Dean's Scholarships and Awards ranging from $12,000 to $40,000 (for freshmen) or $6,000 to $20,000 (for transfers), depending upon several factors from your admissions application. The award is intended to offset non-resident tuition and will be discontinued if the student becomes a California resident.