Legal Studies Program

Requirements: Core Courses & Electives

Students must complete six courses to complete the minor in Legal Studies, following these guidelines:

Two Core Courses

  1. LGLS 10a — Introduction to Law, preferably no later than the student's junior year.

  2. One of the following courses:

    • A LGLS 100 or higher course,

    • AMST 60a — The Legal Boundaries of Public and Private Life,

    • AMST 188b — Louis Brandeis: Law, Business and Politics,

    • PHIL 13b — The Idea of the Market: Economic Philosophies.

Three Elective Courses

  • Choose from among LGLS or other cross-listed courses.
Note: Of these three electives, only two may be from the same department or program.

Hands-on Experience Requirement

Hand-on experience is “learning by doing.”  The following experiential courses offer unique opportunities for students to build professional skills and apply what they learn in the classroom to real-world situations.

Because we know that students have a broad range of interests, Legal Studies offers students several options. Legal Studies minors may choose one of the following:

  1. LGLS 89a — Law & Society Internship and Seminar. Offered in both Fall and Spring semesters. 
    There are two components to LGLS 89a:

    1. The Seminar: The experiential seminar familiarizes students with issues unique to law and law-related professions. Topics discussed in class include the Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers, legal research and writing, and the impact of law on society-at-large.

    2. The Internship Placement: Students are required to work between 10-15 hours per week at a supervised law-related internship facilitated by the Professor of Legal Studies, Melissa McKenna. Internships must be completed during the same semester a student is enrolled in the Seminar.

      Students are not responsible for finding their own internships. Instead, because Professor Melissa McKenna arranges for the internship placements, students must discuss their interest in enrolling in the LGLS 89a with Professor McKenna in the semester prior to enrollment (by April 15 for fall term internships or Nov. 15 for spring term internships). Examples of internship activities include investigating discrimination cases, negotiating between consumers and small businesses, and attending criminal and family courts.

  2. LGLS 161b  — Advocacy for Policy Change. Offered in Spring semester. 
    This experiential course combines an investigation of the ethical dilemmas that arise in the process of lawmaking with hands-on advocacy work with entities seeking to reform laws or to propose new ones.

  3. A law-related Study Abroad course. Offered in the Fall, Spring, and Summer.
    Over ⅓ of Legal Studies minors choose to Study Abroad and some complete their HOE abroad.  To learn more about the many options for Study Abroad internships courses, start your research at the Office of Study Abroad.

  4.  LGLS 98bj  — Independent Research as part of Health, Law & Justice. Offered in Summer. 
    As part of the summer Justice Brandeis Semester: Health, Law & Justice program, students explore an array of complex issues in depth during seminars as well as in the real world, as they attend public meetings or hearings and actively dialog with stakeholders. There is a competitive application process for all JBS programs.

  5. LGLS 98a or b  — Independent Research.  Offered in the Fall or Spring semester. 
    To undertake a law-related Independent Research project under the direction of a Brandeis Faculty Member, contact Professor Dan Breen, Legal Studies’ Undergraduate Advising Head for more information about the requirements and the process.
  6. A law-related Senior Honors Thesis.  A full Academic Year.  
    Some students pursue a Senior Honor Thesis in their own major. If it is law-related, the Legal Studies Program may count it for Hands-on Experience in Legal Studies.  For a Senior Honors Thesis to count for Legal Studies credit, it must be a) approved and  supervised by the student’s major department, and b) approved, in advance, by the  Legal Studies Chair, Professor Rosalind Kabrhel. If you are interested in exploring this option, start by researching your Major’s requirements for doing a Senior Honors Thesis, then, once approved by your Major, contact Prof. Kabrhel.

Note on Outside Internships: While Legal Studies credit is only available for internships completed in conjunction with LGLS 89a, regular Brandeis credit may be available for other internships. For example, other departments also offer internship courses, including HSSP 89a and SJSP 89a. To seek academic credit for internships unrelated to a specific course, INT 89B  — Academic Year Internship may be an option.

Course Spotlight

LGLS 122B  — Indigenous Rights, Environmental Justice, and Federal Indian Law

This course will provide a look at the intersection of indigenous rights, environmental justice, and federal Indian law. You will learn essential tools of legal reasoning and argument. Through in-class discussion, cases, and reading you will learn about conflicts over land use, climate change, and sovereignty. The course will be organized into weekly case studies where we will study contemporary and historical conflicts including: the Dakota Access pipeline, relocation due to sea level rise, fishing rights and dam removal, water rights in the face of drought, uranium mining, and Native Nation regulation of oil and gas extraction on reservation lands.