The Legal Studies Major: Requirements
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.
The major concentration consists of 27 hours, distributed as follows:
- Core (3 Hours)
- Political Science 330 (Law in American Society) or Sociology 455 (Society and Law). In general, this core requirement should be satisfied before taking further electives in the major.
- Political Science 330 (Law in American Society) or Sociology 455 (Society and Law). In general, this core requirement should be satisfied before taking further electives in the major.
- Analysis (3 Hours)
- English 496 (The Rhetoric of Legal Discourse)
- Political Science 401 (Introduction to Political Analysis), or
- Sociology 331 (Sociological Research).
- Processes (6 Hours)
- Business Law 301 (The Legal Environment of Business)
- Political Science 341 (Judicial Process)
- Political Science 430 (United States Constitutional Law: Sources of Power and Restraint)
- Political Science 435 (Criminal Law and Procedure)
- Political Science 442 (Administrative Law and Regulatory Policymaking)
- Political Science 445 (Administration of Justice), or
- Sociology 451 (Criminal Justice).
- Perspectives (3 Hours)
- English 490 (Language and Law)
- Political Science 330 (Law in American Society)
- Philosophy 392 (Philosophy of Law)
- Psychology 424 (Psychology and the Law), or
- Sociology 455 (Society and Law).
(Note: Students may not use either Sociology 455 or Political Science 330 to satisfy both their Core and Perspectives Requirements.)
- Historical and Global Dynamics (3 Hours)
- Philosophy 393 (Global Justice and Human Rights)
- Classics 462 (Roman Law) or
- Political Science 470 (International Law).
- Issues (6 Hours)
- Communications 400 (Mass Communications Law and Ethics)
- Philosophy 244 (Professional Responsibility)
- Political Science 431 (United States Constitutional Law: Civil Rights and Liberties)
- Communication Studies 469 (Freedom of Speech), or
- Political Science 340 (Women, Politics, and the Law)
- Elective (3 Hours)
- Any of the foregoing courses not already used to satisfy a requirement of the major or an alternative course approved by the Program Chair.
* With respect to all requirements in the major, other law‑related courses consistent with the purposes and objectives of the major may be approved by and after consultation with the Program Chair.