Overview
Program Committee
Frank Anechiarico (Government)
Doran Larson (Literature and Creative Writing)
Natalie Nannas (Biology)
Keelah Williams (Psychology), director
The goal of the Jurisprudence, Law, and Justice Studies Program is to provide students with the analytical and empirical foundation to understand how the theory, practice, and meaning of law stimulates civic engagement.
Although their prominence in the curriculum has varied throughout the years, courses engaging jurisprudence, justice and the examination of law in social life have had a place at Hamilton since the 1830s. The minor concentration in Jurisprudence, Law and Justice Studies (JLJS) establishes a curricular home for such courses, in keeping with the College’s liberal arts mission and with the goal of advancing a number of pedagogic aims.
Understanding the theory, practice and meaning of law stimulates civic engagement and provides students with the analytical and empirical foundation to engage subjects ranging from legal decision-making and dispute resolution; policing, criminal justice and incarceration; political speech and action; to the use and meaning of legal discourse in the making of social policy.
Minor Requirements for Classes 2021, 2022, 2023
A minor in Jurisprudence, Law, and Justice Studies consists of five courses: no more than three can be counted from either of the two listings--in Analytic Perspectives and Theory, and Substantive Areas.
Analytic Perspectives and Theory:
COMM-280 Conflict Resolution: Policies and Strategies
GOVT-356 Political Theory of Personal Privacy
GOVT-365 Free Speech Theory
HIST-229/GOVT-229 The American Founding
LIT-129 Truth and Justice, The American Way
LIT-218 Literatures of Witness
LIT-342 Twentieth-Century American Prison Writing
LIT-341 Booked: Prison Writing (Previously LIT 442)
Substantive Areas:
BIO-223 Bioethics
ENVST-234 Environmental Justice
GOVT-225 Courts and Judicial Process
GOVT-241 Survey of Constitutional Law
GOVT-273 Law and Justice Laboratory (Seminar)
GOVT-274 Law and Justice Laboratory (Internship & Observation)
GOVT-335 Seminar: Criminal Law
GOVT-359 American Policing
GOVT-376 Government Failure?: The American Administrative State
GOVT-418 International Law (Seminar)
PSYCH-324 Law and Human Behavior
PSYCH-367 Psychological Bias in the Justice System
RELST-239 Native Rituals and Religious Freedom
SOC-373 The Constitution and Social Policy
WMGST-225 Women, Law, Public Policy and Activism in the Contemporary United States
Minor Requirements for Class 2024 and beyond:
A minor in Jurisprudence, Law, and Justice Studies consists of five courses: the five courses must be taken across no fewer than three departments.
Biology
BIO-223 Bioethics
Communication
COMM-280 Conflict Resolution: Policies and Strategies
Environmental Studies
ENVST-234 Environmental Justice
Literature
LIT-129 Truth and Justice, The American Way
LIT-218 Literatures of Witness
LIT-342 Twentieth-Century American Prison Writing
LIT-341 Booked: Prison Writing (Previously LIT 442)
Government
GOVT-365 Free Speech Theory
GOVT-356 Political Theory of Personal Privacy
GOVT-418 International Law (Seminar)
GOVT-225 Courts and Judicial Process
GOVT-241 Survey of Constitutional Law
GOVT-273 Law and Justice Laboratory (Seminar)
GOVT-274 Law and Justice Laboratory (Internship & Observation)
GOVT-295 Practicum: Crafting Criminal Justice Reform in Response to Black Lives Matter
GOVT-335 Seminar: Criminal Law
GOVT-359 American Policing
GOVT-376 Government Failure?: The American Administrative State
History
HIST-229/GOVT-229 The American Founding
HIST-377 Violence, Law, and Society in the Middle Ages
Psychology
PSYCH-324 Law and Human Behavior
PSYCH-367 Psychological Bias in the Justice System
Religious Studies
RELST-133 American Freedom and Protestant Thought
RELST-239 Native Rituals and Religious Freedom
Sociology
SOC-373 The Constitution and Social Policy
Women and Gender Studies
WMGST-225 Women, Law, Public Policy and Activism in the Contemporary United States
Previously Offered Courses
PHIL-460 Seminar in Ethics: Contemporary Theories of Justice
PHIL-125 Philosophy and Incarceration
COMM-103 Free Speech: Privacy & Advocacy
COMM-314 Communication Law: Freedom of Speech
GOVT-295 Practicum: Crafting Criminal Justice Reform in Response to Black Lives Matter
* 1894 Address to the American Bar Association, noted in: Albert E. Harum (1960) "The Case for an Undergraduate Law Elective in Liberal Arts." Journal of Legal Education 12: 422.