Program Requirements

  • Total Units Required: 18

Required Courses

The minor in legal studies requires the completion of six courses (18 graded units) with a C or higher, at least three of which (9 units) must be upper-division (3000- or 4000-level) courses. Two of the six courses may be drawn from the student's major, but as in all College of Arts & Sciences programs, they cannot be double-counted (i.e., applied to both the major and the minor).

The six courses also must be distributed across at least three of four thematic subject areas:

  1. Theme I: Legal Reasoning, Theory, and Methods
  2. Theme II: Law and Culture in Historical Perspective
  3. Theme III: Legal Institutions and Social Practices
  4. Theme IV: Justice, Ethics, and the Law

Below is a list of courses that can count toward each of the thematic subject areas.

Theme I: Legal Reasoning, Theory, and Methods

ANTHRO 4772Social Theory and Anthropology3
ECON 3631Political Economy3
ECON 4710Game Theory3
LING 2225Linguistics for Legal Purposes3
PHIL 1000Logic and Critical Analysis3
PHIL 1060Present Moral Problems3
PHIL 3230Philosophy of Law3
POLSCI 1300Introduction to Political Theory3
POLSCI 3621Politics and the Theory of Games3
SOC 1006Social Problems and Social Issues3
SOC 3000Social Theory3
WRITING 3000Argumentation3
WRITING 3090Topics in Composition (when offered as "Writing and the Law")3

Theme II: Law and Culture in Historical Perspective

AFAS 1114First Year Seminar: African-American Women's History: Sexuality, Violence and the Love of Hip Hop3
AFAS 4465Black Life and the Law3
AMCS 2251Religion and Politics in American History
BEYOND 1008Beyond Boundaries: Religious Freedom in America3
COMPLITTHT 2108Early Political Thought: Text & Traditions3
COMPLITTHT 2109Modern Political Thought: Text & Traditions3
COMPLITTHT 3081The Intellectual History of the Law3
ECON 3640American Economic History3
ELIT 2201Sophomore Seminar3
GLOBAL 3866Interrogating Crime and Punishment3
HISTORY 2124Sophomore Seminar: Slavery and Memory in American Popular Culture3
HISTORY 2190The Theory and Practice of Justice: The American Historical Experience3
HISTORY 3147The Wheels of Commerce: From the Industrial Revolution to Global Capitalism3
HISTORY 3158The Birth Crisis of Democracy: The New United States of America, 1776-18503
HISTORY 3234Women and Crime in the Evolution of American History3
HISTORY 3249America in the Age of Inequality: The Gilded Age & the Progressive Era, 1877-19193
HISTORY 4158Topics in American History: Race and Drugs in American History3
JIMES 3012Biblical Law and the Origins of Western Justice3
JIMES 3460Islamic Law3
PHIL 3160Classical Ethical Theories3
POLSCI 3027Civil Rights3

Theme III: Legal Institutions and Social Practices

AFAS 2140Juvenile Justice in the Black Experience3
ANTHRO 3521Anthropology of Human Rights3
EDUC 4260Neighborhoods, Schools, and Social Inequality3
GLOBAL 2000Crossing Borders: An Introduction to Institutions and Concepts in Global Studies3
MGT 3010Legal Environment of Business Management3
POLSCI 2102Introduction to Migration Policy and Politics3
POLSCI 3025Topics in American Politics: The Supreme Court3
POLSCI 3048The Politics of Privacy in the Digital Age3
POLSCI 3443Defendant's Rights3
POLSCI 3450The Legislative Process3
POLSCI 3507Legal Conflict in Modern American Society3
POLSCI 4082Voting Rights3
POLSCI 4546The Politics of Law and Order3
PSYCH 3150Introduction to Social Psychology3
RELPOL 3060Virtues, Vices, Values: Regulating Morality in Modern America3
SOC 2040Social Inequality in America3
SOC 2060Punishment and Inequality3
SOC 3150Sociology of Immigration3
WGSS 3470Law, Gender, and Justice3
WGSS 3685Gender Violence3

Theme IV: Justice, Ethics, and the Law

ENST 3540Environmental Justice3
PHIL 2060Biomedical Ethics3
PHIL 2080Introduction to Environmental Ethics3
PHIL 2201Disagreement, Extremism, and Polarization3
PHIL 3200Social and Political Philosophy3
PHIL 4321Advanced Social and Political Philosophy3
POLSCI 3313Theories of Social Justice3
POLSCI 3391History of Political Thought I: Justice, Virtue, and the Soul3
POLSCI 3392History of Political Thought II: Legitimacy, Equality, and the Social Contract3
POLSCI 3930History of Political Thought III: Liberty, Democracy, and Revolution3
POLSCI 4218Gender and the Future of Work3
POLSCI 4306Global Justice3
WGSS 4200Feminist Political Theory3

For more details, please visit the Legal Studies Minor page of the Comparative Literature and Thought website or consult the Director of Legal Studies; courses can change by semester, new courses may be added, and some may be removed.

Contact Info

Contact:Frank Lovett
Phone:314-935-4200
Email:legalstudies@wustl.edu
Website:https://complitandthought.wustl.edu/legal-studies