University Bulletin (2020-2021)

• Minor

The role of legal studies in a liberal arts curriculum was admirably stated by our University's namesake, Louis Dembitz Brandeis, who wrote, near the end of his career,

The study of law should be introduced as part of a liberal education, to train and enrich the mind...I am convinced of that, like history, economics, and metaphysics – and perhaps even to a greater degree than these – the law could be advantageously studied with a view to the general development of the mind.

The Legal Studies Program takes up this pedagogical challenge from Justice Brandeis. For over four decades, our mission has been to advance the understanding of law throughout the liberal arts community:

• by developing critical and creative skills to "enrich the mind,"
• by exploring knowledge of legal issues that arise in diverse fields of study, and
• by offering concrete ways for liberal education to engage social justice issues.

As an interdepartmental program, Legal Studies considers problems and perspectives that reach across most academic disciplines and practical fields taught at Brandeis. We present law in a broad context of history, economics, politics, philosophy, literature, and the sciences; and we trace law's impact within the fields of health, business, environment, and creative arts. The scope of legal concerns ranges from the local (states and communities), to the national, and to the global (regions and international bodies). Our program does not provide professional legal training. Rather we give undergraduates access to a venerable field of human expression, where rigorous learning combines with reflective practice. Our learning goals apply not just to students completing the Legal Studies minor, but to the larger number of students who take one or more courses (all open without prerequisite). Understanding how law works should also help guide students in choosing professional careers, and also in forming lives of responsible citizenship.

In the Legal Studies program, the main University learning goals are tightly interwoven. To invoke Justice Brandeis' core insight, learning about the law improves analytical skills. In dynamic terms, the creative elements in legal knowledge challenge conventions and require public improvement; just as legal problem-solving points back to the refinement of social and humanistic principles. The close integration of legal knowledge and skills provides a concrete framework for social advocacy, bringing real-life justice concerns to the center of liberal inquiry.

Brandeis University's learning goals ask students to "follow the example of Justice Brandeis." Legal Studies courses provide some focus for this goal, including a course devoted to Louis Brandeis' legal career and social philosophy, interpreted in the context of his times. Students in such courses develop a critical sense of what it means to "follow his example" as a formula for the pursuit of social justice. The Legal Studies Program draws its own inspiration from Justice Brandeis' pedagogical example, starting from his belief that the study of law can enrich the pursuit of a liberal arts education.

Core Skills

1. Through the elaboration of legal arguments, students develop increasing clarity in written and oral communication, subject to the demands of social persuasion and institutional scrutiny.
2. Through practice in applied argumentation, students learn how to mobilize (and to critique) the use of quantitative information in the common search for factual truth and effective public policy.
3. Through analyzing and building legal arguments in a variety of social and cultural contexts, students gain facility in systematic critique and self-reflection about norms.

Knowledge

1. Through exploring the history, diversity, and dynamics of legal systems, students supplement their disciplinary studies with attention to public actions and norms.
2. Through close analysis of legal case studies, students learn to integrate knowledge of social problems with strategic alternatives for action.
3. Through examining tensions within legal principles and institutions, students use knowledge to explore the effectiveness of action strategies in pursuit of justice.

Social Justice

1. Through rigorous application of skills and knowledge to legal problems, students develop an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of public advocacy and persuasion.
2. Students learn to put their commitments to social justice to the test of adversarial debate and judicial determination.
3. In every aspect of their study of law, students learn to articulate the aspirations for human improvement that emerge from creative legal thinking.

The Legal Studies program is open to all Brandeis undergraduates. To declare a Legal Studies minor, fill out a declaration form in the Legal Studies office (Brown 325) or meet with the Undergraduate Advising Head. Students who complete the requirements for the minor receive certificates from the program and a notation on their official transcripts.

Students do not need to declare a legal studies minor, however, to take legal studies courses.

Rosalind Kabrhel, Director
Criminal justice policy and reform. Juvenile justice. Civil litigation.

Arnulf Becker

Daniel Breen, Undergraduate Advising Head
Civil liberties. Business and technology. Legal history.

Sarah Curi

Richard Gaskins, Director
Comparative law and social welfare. Global justice and human rights. Economic philosophies. Legal argumentation.

Alice Noble

Doug Smith

Melissa Stimell, Internship Director
Social welfare law. Conflict resolution.

Affiliated Faculty (contributing to the curriculum, advising and administration of the department or program)
Anita Hill (Heller)
Chandler Rosenberger (International and Global Studies)
Melissa Stimell (Legal Studies)
Andreas Teuber (Philosophy)
Michael Willrich (History)
Peter Woll (Politics)

1. Core course: LGLS 10a (Introduction to Law), preferably no later than the student's junior year.
2. One LGLS 100 or higher course or cross-listed course (AMST 60a, AMST 188b, PHIL 13b, and all IGS/LGLS courses).
3. Three additional LGLS courses, cross-listed courses or electives (see list below), excluding LGLS 45a. If students choose to fulfill this requirement with three elective courses, no more than two can be from the same department or program.
4. An internship (LGLS 89a) arranged through the LGLS office. For this requirement, students may substitute one of the following:
   1. A senior thesis in the student's major, supervised by the major department, which includes some aspect of law (requires prior approval of LGLS Program Director).
   2. Either LGLS 161b or IGS/LGLS 185b. If used as a substitute for the internship, the course may not also be counted toward B. above.
   3. An assigned internship in The Hague Semester Program (IGS/LGLS 92b or approved substitute).
   4. LGLS 98bj as part of the Justice Brandeis Semester: Health, Law and Justice program.
5. No course for which a student receives a grade below a C-, nor any course taken pass/fail, may be counted toward the minor.

LGLS 10a Introduction to Law
[ oc ss ]
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 in a global context. Usually offered every fall.
Daniel Breen

LGLS 45a Practicum in Experiences with Justice
Prerequisite: One 100-level LGLS course. Yields half-course credit.
Explores various aspects of the justice/penal system in the United States. Students will intern at one of several sites coordinated by the instructor to enhance their learning. Usually offered every year.
Rosalind Kabrhel

LGLS 89a Law and Society Internship and Seminar
[ oc wi ]
Prerequisites: LGLS 10a and one other LGLS course or permission of the instructor. To obtain an internship, students must discuss their placements with the LGLS internship director by April 15 for fall term internships or by November 15 for spring term internships. This course may not be repeated for credit.
A biweekly class, a supervised law-related internship in a public agency or nonprofit organization, and a related research paper. Internships are twice per week for not more than 15 hours per week. Examples of internship activities include investigating discrimination cases, negotiating between consumers and small business, and attending criminal and family courts. Internships must be arranged through the program administrator. Usually offered every semester.
Rosalind Kabrhel

LGLS 89aj Law and Society Internship and Seminar
Offers a closely supervised legal representation experience in a student-run immigration legal clinic as well as opportunities to interact with public agencies, nonprofit organization and/or government officials. The internship experience is integrated throughout this JBS program, and students’ experiences in representing individuals and groups will form a large part of the text for all the courses included in this JBS. Students will apply basic concepts covered in the criminal law course to everyday cases. They will spend approximately 10 hours per week conducting research on Constitutional issues, interviewing clients, discussing cases with attorneys and judges, preparing for trial and attending court. Offered as part of JBS program.
Rosalind Kabrhel and Douglas Smith

LGLS 98a Independent Research
Usually offered every year.
Staff

LGLS 98b Independent Research
Usually offered every year.
Staff

LGLS 98bj Independent Research
Explores an array of complex issues in depth during the seminars as well as in the "real world"; as they attend public meetings or hearings and actively dialog with stakeholders. We will examine the day-to-day issues faced by stakeholders in the midst of reform efforts. While connecting theory and practice, students will take initiative and actively engage in structured assignments. Offered as part of the JBS program.
Sarah Curi and Alice Noble

All LGLS courses may be limited in enrollment, with preference given to legal studies minors.

IGS/LGLS 128b Networks of Global Justice
[ ss ]
Examines how global justice is actively shaped by dynamic institutions, contested ideas, and evolving cultures. Using liberal arts methods, the course explores prospects for advancing peace and justice in a complex world. It is organized around case studies of humanitarian crises, involving health, poverty, migration, and peace-building across nations. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

LGLS 114a American Health Care: Law and Policy
[ ss ]
Closed to first-year students.
Focuses on individual rights, highlights how our laws and policies affect American health care. Traces the evolution of the doctor-patient relationship; explores access issues, including whether health care is or should be a fundamental right; assesses the quality of care and the impact of malpractice; and examines the cost of having (or not having) adequate health insurance. Concludes with options and prospects for meaningful reform. Usually offered every year.
Sarah Curi

LGLS 114aj American Health Care: Reform
[ ss ]
Nine years after the historic passage of the ACA, the United States and our health care system are at a crossroads. While the ACA seems to have weathered most of the significant implementation challenges, even its most ardent supporters acknowledge that the law provides only a partial fix for our nation's health care system. While access should improve appreciably, particularly for those who are currently uninsured, many will still remain without access to needed care. Moreover, among advanced nations our costs are the highest by far and the quality of our care is no better than that found in these less costly nations. We will explore the ACA, the events leading up to its passage, the policies the law was designed to further, its impacts so far--and the potential repeal and replace efforts. Offered as part of the JBS program.
Alice Noble

LGLS 116b Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: Constitutional Debates
[ ss ]
The history and politics of civil liberties and civil rights in the United States, with emphasis on the period from World War I to the present. Emphasis on freedom of speech, religion, abortion, privacy, racial discrimination, and affirmative action. Readings from Supreme Court cases and influential works by historians and political philosophers. Usually offered every year.
Daniel Breen

LGLS 118a Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: Legislative Frameworks
[ ss ]
Legislative statutes help secure individual rights and liberties, shaping the social, economic, and cultural lives of citizens. These rights emerge from different legal frameworks from other Constitution-based protections, playing a major role in addressing issues of diversity, discrimination, and inequality. Usually offered every second year.
Daniel Breen

LGLS 122b Native American Tribal Legal Studies
[ ss ]
Explores the legal systems of indigenous American communities and the legal environment in which those communities live. Examines the practical role in sustaining cultures, and the status of American's "third sovereign" authority, in national and international contexts. Usually offered every second year.
Douglas Smith

LGLS 123b Immigration and Human Rights
[ ss ]
Examines American immigration policy in the context of international human rights treaties and global practices. Practical exercises highlight social and cultural controversies surrounding refugee status and asylum seeking. Explores tensions between domestic politics and international law in guiding immigration reform. Usually offered every second year.
Douglas Smith

LGLS 123bj Immigration and Human Rights
[ ss ]
Examines American immigration policy, institutions and roles in the context of international human rights treaties and global practices as well as the advocacy practices in various political, social, domestic legal and international forums that construct those policies, institutions and roles. Practical exercises explore advocacy skills peculiar to immigration advocacy and highlight some of the social and cultural controversies surrounding regular and irregular migrations, refugee status and asylum seeking. Explores tensions between domestic politics and international law in guiding immigration reform. Offered as part of the JBS program.
Douglas Smith

LGLS 124b Comparative Law and Development
[ nw ss ]
Surveys legal systems across the world with special application to countries in the process of political, social, or economic transition. Examines constitutional and rule-of-law principles in the context of developing global networks. Usually offered every second year.
Daniel Breen

LGLS 125b International Law and Organizations
[ ss ]
Introduction to international law, its nature, sources, and application, for example, 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, and the laws of war and human rights. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

LGLS 127b International Economic Law
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: ECON 2a or ECON 10a or permission of the instructor.
Studies the transnational legal institution and practices that constitute the global economic networks of the 21st century. Surveys the fields of corporate regulation, including business practices and human rights, and legal regimes supporting trade and finance. Practice in arbitrating investment disputes between states and corporations. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

LGLS 129a Global Justice and Societies in Transition
[ djw ss ]
Introduces transitional justice, a set of practices that arise following a period of conflict that aim directly at confronting past violations of human rights. This course will focus on criminal prosecutions, truth commissions, and the contributions of art and culture. Usually offered every second year.
Melissa Stimell

LGLS 130a Conflict Analysis and Intervention
[ oc ss ]
Examines alternatives to litigation, including negotiation and mediation. Through simulations and court observations, students assess their own attitudes about and skills in conflict resolution. Analyzes underlying theories in criminal justice system, divorce, adoption, and international arena. Usually offered every second year.
Melissa Stimell

LGLS 130aj Conflict Analysis and Intervention
[ oc ss ]
This hands-on course invites students to address social problems in immigration policy and practice through public policy reform, community organizing and legal representation. It provides background in the theories, advocacy skills, networks, movements and measures of institutional change that comprise social change practice. Students explore conflict resolution in the context of social justice advocacy, including litigation, community organizing, political advocacy, international institutions, negotiation, peace-making and mediation. Through simulations, court and community group observations, guided representation of immigrants and work with immigration advocacy groups, students assess their own attitudes and skills in conflict resolution, as well as the processes by which conflict resolution institutions and roles help construct the communities of which they are a part. We will analyze underlying theories of conflict and advocacy in domestic immigration and international arenas, as well as the relative efficacy of various modes for social change, such as big case litigation, coordinated ground-level litigation, cultural change approaches, peacemaking, grassroots organizing, direct action, political advocacy (lobbying) and business and other institution-building strategies. Offered as part of the JBS program.
Douglas Smith

LGLS 131b Patient Autonomy: Law, Medicine, and Ethics
[ ss ]
Focuses on patient rights, examines how health care decisions are made, and by whom. Explores a range of current issues in the field of biomedical ethics, including the legal and ethical aspects of the physician-patient relationship, the doctrine of informed consent, medical futility, assisted reproduction, physician-assisted suicide, personhood, the right-to-die, clinical research, and emerging technologies. Analyzes hard and often tragic choices involving life, quality of life, and death. Assesses the ability of the legal system to set standards and resolve conflict. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

LGLS 131bj Patient Autonomy: Law, Medicine and Ethics
[ ss ]
At the heart of our evolving health care system are the doctor and the patient. Related to the doctor-patient relationship are often complex issues related to patient autonomy, life and death treatment decisions, and the cost of and access to care. They implicate questions of justice and the just distribution of care, a key goal of health care reform. We will explore ethical, legal, and social issues (including end-of-life-decision making, physician assisted suicide, procreative liberty, cloning, and genetic therapies) from the micro level of patient care at the patient's bedside to the macro issues of the health care system in which patient care is delivered and financed. Offered as part of the JBS program.
Sarah Curi

LGLS 138b Science on Trial
[ qr ss ]
Surveys the procedures and analytic methods by which scientific data enter into litigation and regulation/policy making. Introduces basic tools of risk analysis and legal rules of evidence. Case studies of tobacco litigation and regulation; use of DNA and other forensic evidence in the criminal justice system; the Woburn ground-water contamination case; and other topics to be selected, such as genetics in the courtroom, court-ordered Cesarean sections, polygraph testing, alternative medicine, and genetically modified foods. Usually offered every second year.
Daniel Breen

LGLS 140b Investigating Justice
[ ss ]
Examines methods used by journalists and other investigators in addressing injustices within criminal and civil legal systems. Problems include wrongful convictions, civil rights, privacy protection, and ethical conflicts. Research methods and reporting techniques enhance skills in interviewing, writing, and oral presentation. Usually offered every second year.
Rosalind Kabrhel

LGLS 141b Juvenile Justice: From Cradle to Custody
[ deis-us djw ss ]
After an overview of juvenile justice basics, this course examines the realities and remedies for the school-to-prison pipeline analyzing this pattern from the perspectives of law, society, and economics, tracing the child's experience along that path, and exploring creative public solutions. Usually offered every second year.
Rosalind Kabrhel

LGLS 142b Law and Psychology
[ ss ]
Examines a psychological perspective on the behavior of key players in the legal system, focusing on the trial process--both criminal and civil (personal injury). Explores the tension between human behavior and legal ideals of objectivity, based on current research, emphasizing biases leading to miscarriages of justice. Includes video analysis of jury behavior and courtroom advocacy. Usually offered every second year.
Rosalind Kabrhel

LGLS 145b Building the Massachusetts Constitution
[ ss ]
Explores the process of compromise and negotiation leading to the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, the world's oldest operative written constitution. Students learn innovative digital literacy methods by simulating the real-time process of law-building, using techniques developed by Oxford University researchers. Usually offered every second year.
Daniel Breen

LGLS 149b Genetics, Law and Society
[ ss ]
Explores the social policy implications of new genetic technologies, including legal, ethical, and political challenges. Topics include privacy and discrimination, changing definitions in family law, information technology and intellectual property, forensic implications of DNA testing, regulation of reproductive technology. Usually offered every second year.
Alice Noble

LGLS 161b Advocacy for Policy Change
[ oc ss wi ]
This hands-on course invites students to address concrete social problems through public policy reform. It provides background in theories, advocacy skills, networks, and key players that drive the legislative process. Focusing on policy change at the statehouse level, students engage with elected officials and community organizations to advance key legislation affecting social welfare, health, education, and economic justice. Usually offered every year.
Melissa Stimell

LGLS 189a Business Law
[ ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AMST 189a in prior years.
Surveys core legal institutions of property, contracts, and corporations. Examines how law promotes and restrains the development of capitalism and market society in America, from the era of mass production through the age of global trade and digital commerce. Usually offered every year.
Daniel Breen

AMST 60a The Legal Boundaries of Public and Private Life
[ ss ]
Examine civil liberties through landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases. Explores confrontations between public interest and personal rights across four episodes in American cultural history; post-Civil War race relations; progressive-era economic regulation; war-time free-speech debates; and current issues of sexual and reproductive privacy. Close legal analysis supplemented by politics, philosophy, and social history. Usually offered every second year.
Daniel Breen

AMST 188b Louis Brandeis: Law, Business and Politics
[ ss ]
Brandeis's legal career serves as model and guide for exploring the ideals and anxieties of American legal culture throughout the twentieth century. Focuses on how legal values evolve in response to new technologies, corporate capitalism, and threats to personal liberty. Usually offered every second year.
Daniel Breen

AMST 170a Conspiracy Theory
[ ss ]
Considers the "paranoid style" in America's political and popular culture and in recent American literature. Topics include allegations of "conspiracy" in connection with the Kennedy assassinations, the Sacco and Vanzetti, Hiss, and Rosenberg cases; alleged antisemitism and anti-Catholicism; Islamophobia; and Watergate and Irangate. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

ANTH 156a Power and Violence: The Anthropology of Political Systems
[ deis-us nw ss ]
Political orders are established and maintained by varying combinations of overt violence and the more subtle workings of ideas. The course examines the relationship of coercion and consensus, and forms of resistance, in historical and contemporary settings. Usually offered every second year.
Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 163b Economies and Culture
[ djw nw ss ]
Prerequisite: ANTH 1a, ECON 2a, ECON 10a, or permission of the instructor.
We read in newspapers and books and hear in everyday discussion about "the economy," an identifiably separate sphere of human life with its own rules and principles and its own scholarly discipline (economics). The class starts with the premise that this "common sense" idea of the economy is only one among a number of possible perspectives on the ways people use resources to meet their basic and not-so-basic human needs. In the course, we draw on cross-cultural examples, and take a look at the cultural aspects of finance, corporations, and markets. Usually offered every second year.
Elizabeth Ferry

ECON 57a Environmental Economics
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: ECON 2a or 10a.
Investigates the theoretical and policy problems posed by the use of renewable and nonrenewable resources. Theoretical topics include the optimal pricing of resources, the optimal use of standards and taxes to correct pollution problems under uncertainty, and the measurement of costs and benefits. Usually offered every year.
Linda Bui and James Ji

HIST 142a Crime, Deviance, and Confinement in Modern Europe
[ ss wi ]
Examines the crisis of law and order in old regime states and explores the prison and asylum systems that emerged in modern Europe. Surveys psychiatry and forensic science from the Napoleonic period until World War II. Usually offered every third year.
Alice Kelikian

HIST 160a American Legal History I
[ deis-us ss ]
Surveys American legal development from colonial settlement to the Civil War. Major issues include law as an instrument of revolution, capitalism and contract, invention of the police, family law, slavery law, and the Civil War as a constitutional crisis. Usually offered every third year.
Michael Willrich

HIST 160b American Legal History II
[ deis-us ss ]
Survey of American legal development from 1865 to the present. Major topics include constitutionalism and racial inequality, the legal response to industrialization, progressivism and the transformation of liberalism, the rise of the administrative state, and rights-based movements for social justice. Usually offered every year.
Michael Willrich

NEJS 25a Introduction to Talmud
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: A 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent is recommended.
Introduces Treatise in the Talmud. Attention is paid to modes of argument, literary form, and development of the Talmudic text. No previous study of Talmud is presupposed. Usually offered every second year.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 113b Law in the Bible and the Ancient Near East
[ hum nw ss ]
Open to all students.
A study of laws and legal ideas in biblical and Near Eastern law "codes," treaties, contracts; economic documents and narratives; the development and function of the documents and ideas; the meaning of the laws; and their significance for the various societies. Usually offered every third year.
David Wright

NEJS 126a Intermediate Talmud
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: A 40-level Hebrew course or the equivalent.
Tractate Sanhedrin, chapter three, which deals with the issue of voluntary and compulsory arbitration and the binding nature of gambling agreements. Usually offered every third year.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 186a Introduction to the Qur'an
[ djw dl hum nw ]
Traces the history of the Qur'an as text, its exegesis, and its role in inter-religious polemics, law, theology, and politics. Examines the role of the Qur'an in Islamic teachings and its global impact. Usually offered every second year.
Suleyman Dost

PHIL 111a What Is Justice?
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy or political theory or permission of the instructor.
What is justice and what does justice require? The course examines theories of justice, both classical and contemporary. Topics include liberty and equality, "who gets what and how much," welfare- and resource-based principles of justice, justice as a virtue, liberalism, multiculturalism, and globalization. Usually offered every second year.
Marion Smiley

PHIL 119a Human Rights
[ hum wi ]
Examines international human rights policies and the moral and political issues to which they give rise. Includes civilians' wartime rights, the role of human rights in foreign policy, and the responsibility of individuals and states to alleviate world hunger and famine. Usually offered every second year.
Andreas Teuber

PHIL 125b Philosophy of Law
[ hum wi ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took PHIL 22b in prior years.
Examines the nature of criminal responsibility, causation in the law, negligence and liability, omission and the duty to rescue, and the nature and limits of law. Also, is the law more or less like chess or poker, cooking recipes, or the Ten Commandments? Usually offered every year.
Andreas Teuber

PHIL 126a What Does it Mean to be a Global Citizen?
[ hum wi ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took PHIL 20a in prior years.
Focuses on the relation of the individual to the state and, in particular, on the theory and practice of nonviolent resistance, its aims, methods, achievements, and legitimacy. Examines the nature of obligation and the role of civil disobedience in a democratic society. Explores the conflict between authority and autonomy and the grounds for giving one's allegiance to any state at all. Examples include opposition to the nuclear arms race, and disobedience in China and Northern Ireland and at abortion clinics. Usually offered every second year.
Andreas Teuber

POL 115a Constitutional Law
[ ss ]
Analysis of core principles of constitutional law as formulated by the Supreme Court. Primary focus on the First Amendment, the equal protection and due process clauses, federalism, the commerce clause, and the separation of powers. Emphasis also on the moral values and political theories that form our constitutional system. Usually offered every year.
Staff

POL 117a Administrative Law
[ ss ]
The role of administrative agencies in lawmaking and adjudication. Emphasis on the problem of defining and protecting the public interest, as well as the rights of individuals and groups directly involved in administrative proceedings. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

POL 192b Seminar: Topics in Law and Political Theory
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher. May be repeated for credit if different topic.
Interplay among law, morality, and political theory. Specific topics vary from year to year. Usually offered every year.
Bernard Yack or Jeffrey Lenowitz