This practicum course is a collaboration between the University of Massachusetts Police Department's Citizen's Police Academy and the Legal Studies program. The Citizen's Police Academy is a combination of in-class lectures and hands-on experiences through which students learn how police officers are trained and how they do their jobs. Among other things, students will learn about the constitutional limits on police power, how crime scenes are processed and how police deal with active threat situations.

From academic research on the impact of landmark court cases to the judge reading a brief loaded with social policy arguments, the study of law frequently involves empirical data. In this course, students will both learn how to digest empirical legal research and be equipped with the skills to conduct their own empirical research.

This course examines the intersection of law, politics and society in a comparative perspective. The goal of the course is to familiarize you with the workings of the many and varied legal traditions and practices outside the United States. The course focuses on comparing commonalities and differences across legal contexts as well as the positives and negatives of doing law in different ways given those contexts. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Legal major.

This seminar introduces students to some of the big normative questions in contemporary democratic theory. For example, what do justice and equality look like in a diverse democracy? What should participation, inclusion, and representation look like when they take difference into account? How are concepts like citizenship and membership affected by immigration and identity politics? What role do law, legal institutions, and legal statuses play in defining democracy, citizenship, justice?

This course examines the role that law and courts have played in shaping, defining, and constructing the concepts of race and American citizenship over time. We will explore topics such as the legal definition of whiteness, racial restrictions in immigration and citizenship law, the 14th Amendment's expansion of citizenship to include former slaves, the legal rights of non-citizens, the ambiguous racial and citizenship status of Native Americans, and the significance of the enduring belief in a colorblind Constitution.

Interdisciplinary exploration of basic issues of law's relationship to contemporary society, in which law affects almost all human activity. Topics include the nature as well as historical and social functions of law; the culture and role of major actors in the legal system (lawyers, judges, juries, police, technology); tension between ideals and realities in law; role of law in addressing contemporary social problems.

Interdisciplinary exploration of basic issues of law's relationship to contemporary society, in which law affects almost all human activity. Topics include the nature as well as historical and social functions of law; the culture and role of major actors in the legal system (lawyers, judges, juries, police, technology); tension between ideals and realities in law; role of law in addressing contemporary social problems.

Interdisciplinary exploration of basic issues of law's relationship to contemporary society, in which law affects almost all human activity. Topics include the nature as well as historical and social functions of law; the culture and role of major actors in the legal system (lawyers, judges, juries, police, technology); tension between ideals and realities in law; role of law in addressing contemporary social problems.

This course provides an exploration of the environmental justice (EJ) movement. Central to our study is an examination of environmental degradation, inequality in exposure to pollution in relationship to racism and poverty, and globalization's effect on international environmental injustices. We critically analyze the role of grassroots activism, the law, and alternative dispute resolution methods used to redress environmental injustices. Coursework relies on relevant interdisciplinary scholarship, case studies, and engaged in-class simulations.

Interdisciplinary exploration of basic issues of law's relationship to contemporary society, in which law affects almost all human activity. Topics include the nature as well as historical and social functions of law; the culture and role of major actors in the legal system (lawyers, judges, juries, police, technology); tension between ideals and realities in law; role of law in addressing contemporary social problems.