Welcome to the Legal Studies Program!

The Legal Studies Program at the University of Tennessee is an interdisciplinary program offering an undergraduate major in legal studies.  The program serves students interested in studying legal phenomena, both current and past, local and global, in all their complexity and from more than one disciplinary perspective.  Students majoring in legal studies explore and come to understand the ways in which law and legal institutions and practices both shape and are shaped by social, economic, religious, moral, political, linguistic, psychological, cultural and other institutions and forces. 

The legal studies major is an interdisciplinary liberal arts major.  It is not and is not designed to function as a “pre-law” major, though certainly legal studies majors are at no disadvantage when it comes to law school admissions.  The fact is, however, that students interested in going to law school should simply major and excel in whatever academic discipline they find most interesting.  If that happens to be the interdisciplinary study of law and legal institutions, then the Legal Studies Program at the University of Tennessee is right for you.

Contact Information

David Reidy, J.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Philosophy
Chair, Legal Studies
807 McClung Tower
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-0480

Phone: 865-974-7210
Fax: 865-974-4007
Email: dreidy@utk.edu