The Legal Studies major is marked by its flexibility and interdisciplinary nature, focusing on critical thinking, writing, and analytical skills, while also immersing students in legal theories, concepts, and materials. Legal studies, in other words, offers a solid liberal arts education with a host of contexts from different departments that will enrich a student's understanding of the law and society whether they are interested in law school or interested in other paths.
Major Requirements as of Fall 2025. This is the major for anyone entering adding the Legal Studies Major in Fall 2025 or thereafter: a ten course sequence (4 credits each), plus 1-cr. capstone, totaling 41 credits:
- Foundations in Law and Justice
- Choose one: Juvenile Delinquency, or Definitions of Normality
- Choose one: Media Law, or Commercial Law
- Philosophical Problems in the Law
- Choose one: Constitutional Law: Civil Rights and Liberties, or Rights & Wrongs: the History of American Law
- Choose one: Japanese Americans & Mass Incarceration, or Policing the Borderlands: Power, Policy, & Justice
- Legal Research Seminar
- H&S 1-credit capstone
- Choose three courses (12 credits) of Legal Studies Electives (with at least one course at the 300-level): dozens of classes spread across Ithaca College.