Legal Studies Program
S = Objectives
The law, one of the most significant
institutions in the life of any society, is an important subject
of study for all students--especially so in the United States,
where our lives are so critically affected by the legal system,
and where citizen knowledge and participation are vitally needed.
The law also represents a body
of ideas, values, and functions of serious concern to scholars
in the various fields of the social sciences and humanities. The
Legal Studies Program is an interdisciplinary one, designed to
offer students the opportunity of studying law not as a subject
of professional practice, but as one worthy of liberal inquiry.
It examines law from many perspectives: historical, anthropological,
sociological, philosophical, political, economic, psychological,
and literary.
Through classroom courses and
internships in public-service law and health care organizations,
the program combines "real world" experiential education
with academic methods and insights. Students considering careers
in law or health policy may find the program a useful way to test
their interest in working with legal materials, but the program
is not intended as a preprofessional course of study.
The Legal Studies Program consists
of two tracks: (1) Law and Society and (2) Law, Medicine, and
Health Policy. Each track has been designed to function as an
integrated whole, but individual courses are open to all Brandeis
students who meet the prerequisites.
The Law and Society Track examines
the role of law in broad aspects of social life: the public policy
process, economic development, and cultural expression. Topical
seminars give students an opportunity to explore, in depth, such
fields as international and comparative law, sex discrimination,
civil liberties, and environmental safety.
The Law, Medicine, and Health Policy Track examines law and its relationship to medicine and health care policy. Health care issues, such as equitable access to health care and appropriate use of new medical technology, now rank among the major concerns of our society. The Law, Medicine, and Health Policy Track examines the interaction between law and ethical, political, social, and economic factors that affect American health care. This track introduces premedical, prelaw, and other undergraduates to the wide diversity of professionals, institutions, and populations that affect and are served by the American health care system. Its goal is to help all students understand how law and health care are related, comprehend how the political process influences legal decisions and health outcomes, and consider if and how law furthers equity and justice in the delivery of health care.
S = How to Become a Program Member
The Legal Studies Program is
open to all Brandeis undergraduates. To enroll in the Program,
students fill out declaration forms from the Office of Academic
Affairs and from the Office of the Legal Studies Program
(Brown 325).
Students who complete the program requirements for either track will receive legal studies certificates and notations on their permanent records and transcripts.
S = Committee
Richard Gaskins, Chair
(American Studies)
Jeffrey Abramson
(Politics)
Gila Hayim
(Sociology)
Morton Keller
(History)
Reuven Kimelman
(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Martin Levin
(Politics)
R. Shep Melnick
(Politics)
Susan Staves
(English)
Lyman Stookey
(Legal Studies)
Peter Woll
(Politics)
David Wong
(Philosophy)
S = Faculty
Richard Gaskins, Director
American legal culture. Legal
rhetoric. Environmental policy.
Lyman Stookey
Health law. Family law. Human services administration.
S = Requirements for the Program
T = Requirements for the Law
and Society Track
A.
Core Course: LGLS 10a (Introduction to Law), preferably no later
than the student's junior year.
B.
One topical seminar in Law and Society or in Law, Medicine, and
Health Policy; or a seminar listed under Departmental Electives
in Law and Society. Students normally take the seminar during
their junior or senior year. Students may substitute LGLS 114a
(formerly LGLS 14a) for a seminar. LGLS 125b (International Law,
Organizations, and Conflict Resolution) may fulfill the Law and
Society seminar requirement only for students who take the course
their junior or senior year and write a paper. They must tell
the professor at the beginning of the semester that they are taking
the course as an LGLS seminar. Under the University's cross-registration
program, students may take seminars at certain Boston-area colleges
and universities to satisfy this requirement, if they have prior
approval of the program director.
C.
At least three additional departmental electives in Law and Society,
no more than two of which may be taken in the same department.
Students who take several topical seminars may substitute all
but one for electives. Students who take LGLS 10a for the core
course may substitute LGLS 114a (formerly LGLS 14a) for an elective.
D.
Either of the following:
1. A Senior Thesis in the student's
department of concentration, with an emphasis on some aspect of
law. In addition to the departmental thesis advisor, an advisor
or mentor for legal studies may be assigned.
2. An internship arranged through
the program office and the correlative seminar, LGLS 92a (formerly
LGLS 77a) or LGLS 92b (formerly LGLS 77b).
T = Requirements for Law,
Medicine, and Health Policy Track
A.
Core courses: LGLS 114a (American Health Law and Policy) and SOC
191a (Health, Community, and Society).
B.
Topical seminar in Law, Medicine, and Health Policy or LGLS 121b,
LGLS 122a, or LGLS 132b.
C.
Two electives in Law, Medicine, and Health Policy from two different
departments. Students in this track may take LGLS 10a as an elective.
Students who take several Law, Medicine, and Health Policy topical
seminars may substitute all but one for electives if they also
have an elective in another department.
D.
Either of the following:
1. An approved internship in
a Boston area health care organization and correlative seminar
LGLS 92b (formerly LGLS 77b).
2. A health care law-related senior thesis in the student's department of concentration. In addition to the departmental thesis advisor, an advisor or mentor for legal studies may be assigned.
S = Courses of Instruction
S = (1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students
LGLS 10a Introduction to Law
[ ss ]
Enrollment limited to 200.
Surveys the nature, process, and institutions of law: the reasoning of lawyers and judges, the interplay of cases and policies, the impact of history and culture, and the ideals of justice and responsibility. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Gaskins
LGLS 92a Law and Society Internship and Seminar
(Formerly LGLS 77a)
Prerequisites: LGLS 10a and one topical seminar or departmental elective, or permission of the instructor. Signature of the program administrator required. This course may not be repeated for credit.
Biweekly seminar and a supervised law-related internship in a public agency or non-profit organization. Examples of internship activities include investigating discrimination cases, negotiating between consumers and small business, and researching victim assistance policies. Internships must be arranged through the program administrator. Usually offered every semester.
Mr. Stookey
LGLS 92b Law, Medicine, and Health Policy Internship and Seminar
(Formerly LGLS 77b)
Prerequisites: LGLS 114a (formerly LGLS 14a) and one Law, Medicine, and Health Policy topical seminar or elective, or permission of the instructor. Signature of the program administrator required. This course may not be repeated for credit.
Biweekly seminar and a supervised internship in health care or policy organization, for example, helping Medicaid with new quality control programs, researching health-related laws and services for Latino immigrants in Massachusetts, helping develop models of integrated healthcare networks for the Massachusetts Hospital Association. Internships must be arranged through the instructor. Usually offered every semester.
Mr. Stookey
LGLS 98a Independent Research
Signature of the instructor required.
Usually offered every year.
Staff
LGLS 98b Independent Research
Signature of the instructor required.
Usually offered every year.
Staff
G = (100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students
Topical Seminars in Law and Society
All seminars are limited in
enrollment and usually restricted to juniors and seniors, with
preference to legal studies students.
L =
LGLS 114a American Health Care: Law and Policy
(Formerly LGLS 14a)
[ cl22 cl44 ss ]
Highlights issues of access, quality, and cost. Introduces laws and regulations that affect every aspect of American health care from planning and finance to patient treatment. Traces development of Medicare and Medicaid. Discusses malpractice, "birth of the Blues," expansion of HMOs, and influence of employer-purchased insurance on cost and delivery of health care. Portrays the important role courts, Congress, and administrative agencies play in organization and delivery of health services. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Stookey and guest lecturers
LGLS 120a Sex Discrimination and the Law
[ cl15 cl46 ss ]
Signature of the program administrator required.
Traces the evolution of women's rights in the family, in employment, and in the reproductive process, as well as constitutional doctrines. Examines gender inequalities and assesses if and how the law should address them. Legal cases studied emphasize how law reflects society. Usually offered in even years.
Staff
LGLS 121b Law and Social Welfare: Citizen Rights and Government Responsibilities
[ cl44 ss ]
Signature of the program administrator required.
Examines the range of supports for social protection (the entire social safety net) and social development (education, training) for individuals and families in American society. Legal rights and responsibilities are explored in light of recent broad shifts in federal and state welfare policies. Usually offered in odd years.
Staff
LGLS 122a Business and Society: Corporate Responsibility for Worker and Consumer Safety
[ ss ]
Signature of the program administrator required.
Examines why and how the law holds business responsible for harm suffered by workers and consumers during the manufacture and use of its products. Students will consider the purpose and effectiveness of various aspects of legal liability systems, e.g., torts, administrative agency programs for injury prevention, and liability insurance. Usually offered in odd years.
Staff
LGLS 124b Law and Development: International Perspectives
[ nw ss ]
Signature of the program administrator required.
Examines law as a creative force shaping social and economic changes within the international arena. Explores how legal systems encourage global pressures for modernization, promote the reach of private international law, and sharpen internal conflict within developing countries. Usually offered in even years.
Staff
LGLS 125b International Law, Organizations, and Conflict Resolution
[ cl40 ss ]
Signature of the program administrator required.
Introduction to international law, its nature, sources, and application, e.g., its role in the management of international conflicts. Topics may include international agreements, international organizations including the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, states and recognition, nationality and alien rights, territorial and maritime jurisdiction, international claims, the laws of war and human rights. Usually offered in even years.
Ms. Epps
LGLS 126b Marriage, Divorce, and Parenthood
[ ss ]
Signature of the program administrator required.
Examines recent developments in family law concerning cohabitation, abortion, open adoption, no-fault divorce, joint custody, and child abuse. Explores social and political developments that elicit changes in law and impact of new law. Usually offered in odd years.
Staff
LGLS 127b Law and Letters in American Culture
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Explores interactions between the vocations of law and letters, between the legal imagination and literature. Examines ways in which ideas and ideals of the law have marked the American character, and how literature reflects this process. Various themes and periods may be chosen for special emphasis. Usually offered every third year. Last offered in the fall of 1995.
Ms. Davis
LGLS 129b Law, Technology, and Innovation
[ cl34 ss ]
Signature of the program administrator required.
How law encourages and restrains the processes of social innovation and technology change, including such issues as biotechnology engineering, workplace and consumer health and safety, impact of new information technologies, intellectual property rights. Shows how law balances personal, social, and economic interests. Usually offered in odd years.
Staff
LGLS 130a Conflict Analysis and Intervention
[ cl40 ss ]
Signature of the program administrator required.
Focuses on the theories of conflict and on dispute resolution management approaches other than litigation. Students will have an opportunity to assess their own attitudes about and skills in conflict resolution through simulations and interactive exercises. Usually offered in even years. Last offered in the fall of 1996.
Staff
LGLS 132b Environmental Law and Policy
[ cl16 cl32 ss ]
Signature of the program administrator required.
Examines public health and environmental problems, including regulation of harmful substances in our environment, wilderness preservation, and protection of wetlands and endangered species. Explores use of risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis; also considers the impact of political ideologies on legislation and adjudication. Evaluates law's efforts and limitations in protecting public health and the environment. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Gaskins
LGLS 137a Libel and Defamation, Privacy and Publicity
[ cl4 wi ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Consideration of the historical, cultural, and constitutional roots--and judicial application--of laws defining libel and defamation. Part of the course will be devoted to "privacy rights" as they apply to issues of artistic freedom and integrity. Usually offered in even years.
Ms. Davis
L =
Cross-Listed Topical Seminars
in Law and Society
AMST 187a
The Legal Boundaries of Public
and Private Life
AMST 188b
Justice Brandeis and Progressive
Jurisprudence
PHIL 74b
Foundations of American Pragmatism
L =
Topical Seminars in Law, Medicine, and Health Policy
In addition to the topical
seminars below, the following courses also will satisfy the seminar
requirement for the Law, Medicine, and Health Policy Track: LGLS
121b, LGLS 122a, and LGLS 132b.
All seminars are limited in
enrollment and usually restricted to juniors and seniors, with
preference given to premedical, predental, and legal studies concentrators.
LGLS 131b Autonomy and Self-determination in Critical Health Care Decisions
[ ss ]
Signature of the program administrator required.
Examines how decisions are made to treat critically ill patients. Ethical and philosophical aspects of the physician-patient relationship, the doctrine of informed consent, "medical futility," "physician-assisted suicide," and "right-to-die" cases will be explored. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Stookey and guest speakers
LGLS 133b AIDS, Health Care, and the Law
[ cl46 cl47 ss ]
Signature of the program administrator required.
How American society has responded, through its health care and legal systems, to the ongoing crisis of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Includes impact of AIDS epidemic on a fiscally stressed health care system, obligations of medical personnel, law of quarantine, public health response to epidemic. Usually offered in odd years.
Ms. Ruttenberg
LGLS 136a Genetics, Law, and Social Policy
[ ss ]
Signature of the program administrator required.
Explores advances in human genetics, clinical, and economic benefits promised by new tests and therapeutics and legal and ethical problems generated by our new ability to predict and manipulate our biological future. Analyzes the role of government in regulating technological development and the legal doctrines of privacy, informed consent, and professional liability. Usually offered in even years.
Staff
LGLS 139b Medical Malpractice on Trial
[ cl22 ss ]
Prerequisite: LGLS 114a. Signature of the program administrator required.
Addresses three fundamental issues of responsibility and caring in American health care: How, through law, compensation should be arranged for persons who suffer medical injury; substandard care should be deterred; and, high quality care should be promoted. Usually offered in even years.
Mr. Stookey
L =
Cross-Listed Topical Seminars
in Law, Medicine, and Health Policy
AMST 187a
The Legal Boundaries of Public
and Private Life
AMST 188b
Justice Brandeis and Progressive
Jurisprudence
L =
Departmental Electives
The following law-related courses
given by the various departments are approved for the Legal Studies
Program. They are not all given in any one year, and therefore
the Course Schedule for each semester should be consulted.
Legal studies students are required to take three electives, no
more than two in any one department. Departmental electives taught
as seminars may fulfill either the topical seminar requirement
or the elective requirement, but not both.
L =
Law and Society Electives
An asterisk (*) indicates
that the course may serve as a Law and Society topical seminar
or elective.
AMST 160a*
U.S. Immigration History, Policy,
and Law
AMST 170a
The Idea of Conspiracy in American
Culture
AMST 191b*
Environmental Research Workshop
ANTH 156a
Power and Violence: The Anthropology
of Political Systems
ANTH 164a*
Topics in Economic Anthropology
ECON 57a
Environmental Economics
ECON 74b
Law and Economics
ECON 177b
Economic Regulation and Deregulation
HIST 161b
American Political History
HIST 167b*
American Legal History
NEJS 53b
Introduction to Talmud
NEJS 113b*
Near Eastern Law: Source, Sense,
and Society
NEJS 120b
Intermediate Talmud
NEJS 133b*
Seminar: Religion and Law
NEJS 183b
Research in Jewish Law
PHIL 19a
Human Rights
PHIL 20a
Social and Political Philosophy:
Democracy and Disobedience
PHIL 22b
Philosophy of Law
PHIL 74b*
Foundations of American Pragmatism
PHIL 114b*
Topics in Ethical Theory
PHIL 116a*
Seminar in Political Philosophy:
Justice
PHSC 7b
Technology and the Management
of Public Risk
POL 108b*
Seminar: Liberty and Equality
in American Politics
POL 110a
Media Politics and Society
POL 112a*
National Government of the
United States
POL 114a*
The Courts and Public Policy
POL 115a
Constitutional Law
POL 115b*
Seminar: Constitutional Law
and Theory
POL 116b
Civil Liberties in America
POL 117a
Administrative Law
POL 123b
The Politics of Urban Criminal
Justice
POL 165a*
Seminar: International Relations
and the Global Environment
POL 192b*
Seminar: Topics in Law and
Political Theory
SOC 106a*
Issues in Law and Society
L =
Law, Medicine, and Health
Policy Electives
AMST 187a
The Legal Boundaries of Public
and Private Life
ANTH 142a
AIDS in the Third World
ECON 74b
Law and Economics
ECON 177b
Economic Regulation and Deregulation
HSSW 104b
American Health Care: A System
in Crisis
LGLS 10a
Introduction to Law
NBIO 145b
Integrative Neuroscience
NEJS 193b
Judaism and Healing
PHIL 23b
Biomedical Ethics
PHIL 114b
Topics in Ethical Theory
PHSC 7b
Technology and the Management
of Public Risk
POL 108b
Seminar: Liberty and Equality
in American Politics
POL 112a
National Government of the
United States
POL 115a
Constitutional Law
POL 115b
Seminar: Constitutional Law
and Theory
POL 116b
Civil Liberties in America
POL 117a
Administrative Law
PSYC 130b
Life Span Development: Adulthood
and Old Age
PSYC 131b
Seminar in Health Psychology
PSYC 145b
Aging in a Changing World
SOC 103a
The Sociology of Mental Illness
and Health
SOC 123b
Crisis of the Welfare State
SOC 165a
Sociology of Birth and Death
SOC 177b
Aging in Society
SOC 190b
On the Caring of the Medical
Care System
SOC 191a
Health, Community, and Society
(This is a required course
in the Law, Medicine, and Health Policy Track.)
SOC 192b
Sociology of Disability
M = The Lemberg Program in International Economics and Finance
See Graduate School of International
Economics and Finance