University of Colorado Denver College of Liberal Arts and SciencesUniversity of Colorado Denver

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMSThe Minor in Law Studies

Overview

The Minor in Legal Studies at the University of Colorado at Denver is an interdisciplinary course of studies intended to help students become intelligent and critical scholars of legal and political discourse and to become active participants in civic society. While the minor may be useful for students contemplating entering law school, it is also intended to appeal to a wider group of students interested in issues relating to law and society and careers in public policy related fields.

The minor is designed to achieve the following three interrelated goals.

  1. To introduce students the major areas of law that affect life in the United States and important legal issues that influence current events.
  2. To enable students to become familiar and fluent with a legal vocabulary and legal reasoning.
  3. To better prepare students with the analytical and conceptual tools to be a critical citizen in our constitutional democracy.

In addition to these goals, students who complete the minor and who intend to attend law school will find themselves better prepared for the often mystifying and rigorous first year of law school. To help these students, the program contains an advising component which assists students who are contemplating law school to provide them with a realistic appraisal of law school and of the legal profession. The counselors will aid students with the law school admission process.

Requirements for the Minor

A total of 18 semester hours must be completed for the Legal Studies minor. The five required courses (15 units) must be taken in residence at UC Denver. A minimum grade of C is required in each course and students must maintain a GPA of 3.0 in courses taken toward the minor. Every course taken for the minor must be upper division. Courses taken for the minor cannot serve to fill requirements of the undergraduate core, and students should check with their major department(s) to determine whether courses counted toward the Legal Studies Minor can fulfill major requirements.

A. Required Courses, 15 credit hours

1. HUM 3250-3 Introduction to Legal Studies (offered every Fall).

A survey of the U.S. legal system. Introduces students to the materials and methods of law studies and the law and society movement. Topics include the organization and powers of federal and state lawmaking institutions, court procedures, and the analysis of statutory provisions and judicial opinions.

2. PHIL 4260-3 Philosophy of Law (offered every Spring)

Philosophy of Law. Survey of theoretical positions on the nature of law. Subject matter includes natural law, legal positivism, law as integrity, legal realism, critical legal studies, critical race studies, feminist jurisprudence, the nature of responsibility, and international law.

3. CMMU 4680 Mass Communication Law and Policy (offered at least once a year)

This course reviews major issues and areas in mass communication law, ethics, and public policy. Highlighted are constitutional issues, libel, privacy, obscenity and indecency, corporate speech, advertising, relationship between the media and the judiciary, protection of news sources, and regulatory issues regarding cable, the internet, and other media.

4. Two courses from the following list:

  • PSC 3034-3 Race Gender, Law and Public Policy. Historical overview of race and gender relations in the U.S. and an examination of the treatment of issues of race and gender in the judicial system and public policy.
  • PSC 4494-3 Judicial Politics. Judicial Politics. Examination of the principal actors in the legal system: police, lawyers, judges, citizens. About half the course will be devoted to the study of judicial behavior, especially at the Supreme Court level. Political and personal influences on judicial behavior.
  • PSC 4427-3 Law, Politics, and Justice. Analysis of the relationship of politics, law, and justice, particularly the degree to which moral norms and political concerns should and do influence legal standards and their perceived legitimacy.
  • CMMU 4750 Legal Reasoning and Writing. (offered every 4 semesters) Introduces students to the fundamentals of legal reasoning and legal argumentation through intensive class discussion, formal debate, and writing. Attention is given to the relationship between case and statutory law and their application in trial and appeals courts in the United States.
  • CMMU 4681-3 Communication Issues in Trial Court Practices and Processes. (offered once a year) Communication in the Legal Process. Introduces students to communication and language research aimed at improving the fairness, reliability, and validity of court and judicial processes, including lawyer-client interviews, interrogatories, jury selection, jury instructions, witness examination, and the use of language evidence in court.

B. Elective, 3 credit hours.

One course from the following must be chosen:

  • 1. PSC 3214-3 American Indian and Federal law
  • Phil 4812-3 American Legal Process
  • PSC 4024-3 Legislation
  • PSC 4477-3 Constitutional Law I
  • CMMU 4140-3 Argumentation (taught each summer)
  • CMMU 4255-3 Negotiations and Bargaining
  • BLAW 3000-3 Legal and Ethical Environments of Business
  • MUS 3270-3 Law and the Music Industry

Recommended, but not required:

The Legal Studies Program also recommends a course in informal logic to aid in preparation for the LSAT, for example, PHIL 2441.

Contacts:

Coordinator: Omar Swartz (Communication), J.D., Ph.D. (303) 556-5660

Additional Advisor: Glenn Morris (Political Science), J.D., Ph.D. (303) 556-4930