Legal Studies is an interdisciplinary major in which you take courses from a variety of departments. Please refer to the list below for the most accurate list of courses offered that fulfill major requirements. If a course is listed below and it does not appear on your dars report, please email cjcp@ssc.wisc.edu.
Legal Studies Courses During Other Semesters
You need at least 12 separate courses to complete the legal studies major. Although a course may appear below in multiple sections, it can only count towards ONE theme OR a core perspective course.
Intro/Gateway Courses | Statistics | Research Design | Theme 1 | Theme 2 |
Theme 3 | Theme 4 | Theme 5 | Core Perspectives
Legal St/Soc 131: Criminal Justice in America
Legal St/Poli Sci 217: Law, Politics and Society
Econ 310: Measurement in Economics
Ed Pol 209: Introduction to Quantitative Methods
General Business 306: Business Analytics
LIS 440: Navigating the Data Revolution: Concepts of Data & Information Science
Psychology 210: Basic Stats for Psychology
Sociology 360: Statistics for Sociologists
Statistics 301: Introduction to Statistics
Statistics 371: Intro Applied Stats – Life Sciences
Ed Pol 308: Intro to Qualitative Research
Political Science 170: Research Methods in Political Science
Political Science 373: Introduction to Survey Research
Psychology 225: Research Methods
Public Affairs 240: Evidence-Based Policy Making
Public Affairs 380: Analytical Tools for Public Policy
Sociology 357: Methods of Sociological Inquiry
Theme Group 1: Legal Institutions
General Business 301: Business Law
Legal St./Hist 261: American Legal History to 1860
**Legal St. 400: Criminal Injustice in America
Legal St. 400: Law and Social Change
Legal St. 400: Violence, Democracy and Legal
Legal St. 400: National Security Law, Policy and Practice: 1947 to present
*Legal St./Soc/GWS 406: Law, Sexuality, and Society
Legal St. 444: Law in Action
Legal St./ELPA 542: Law and Public Education
Legal St. 641: Sociology of Law
Political Science 311: United States Congress
*Political Science 340: The European Union
*Political Science 347: Terrorism
*Political Science 349: Global Access to Justice
Political Science 400: Political Violence (dars exception needed)
Political Science 401: Crime and Politics
Political Science 405: State Government and Public Policy
Political Science 411: The American Constitution
Political Science 417: American Judicial System
Political Science 470: The First Amendment
*Political Science 601: Human Rights (dars exception needed)
**Public Affairs 520: Inequality, Race and Public Policy
Theme Group 2: Process of Legal Order & Disorder
History 344: The Age of the American Revolution
Legal Studies 694: Field Observation in Criminal Justice and Legal Studies (In order to get permission to enroll, students must participate in a pre-internship process. The Fall 2026 process began on March 13th. Please email cjcp@ssc.wisc.edu to be added to the process.)
Political Science 314: Criminal Law and Justice
Psych 526: The Criminal Mind: Forensic and Psychobiological Perspectives
Psychology 626: Issues in Prisoner Re-Entry (dars exception needed)
Sociology 441: Criminology
Sociology 446: Juvenile Delinquency
Sociology 496: Serial Killers (dars exception needed)
Theme Group 3: Law & Social Forces
**AfAm 272: Race and American Politics from the New Deal to the New Right (ethnic st)
**AfAm 623: Women and Slavery in the US (ethnic st) (dars exception needed)
**AfAm/Hist 628: History of the Civil Rights Movement (ethnic st)
**AfAm 671: Topic: Police and Policing in Historical Perspective (ethnic st) (dars exception needed)
*ChicLa 334: Feminist Social Movements Across the Americas (dars exception needed)
Ed Pol 220: Human Rights and Education
Econ 522: Law and Economics
Envir St 402: Local Gov’t and the Environment (dars exception needed)
**Hist/Ed Pol 143: History of Race and Inequality in Urban America (Ethnic Studies) (Comm B)
History 201: Legal History of the US Empire (dars exception needed)
History 600: Gen, War Crimes, and Human Rights in 20th century
LACIS 440: Spanish Immigration Law Clinic
Legal St. 135: Disability and the Criminal Justice System
*Legal St. 203: Jewish Law, Business and Ethics
Legal St./Ed Pol 250: Incarceration and Education
**Legal St. 400: Criminal Injustice in America
Legal St. 400: Law and Social Change
Legal St. 400: Violence, Democracy and Legal
Legal St. 400: National Security Law, Policy and Practice: 1947 to present
*Legal St./Soc/GWS 406: Law, Sexuality, and Society
*Legal St. /Soc/GWS 425: Crime, Gender and Justice
**Legal St./AfroAmer 435: Civil Rights
**Legal St 440: Ethnicity, Race and Justice
Legal St. /LIS 663: Intro to CyberLaw
Psych 401: Psychology, Law and Social Policy
**Public Affairs 520: Inequality, Race and Public Policy (dars exception needed)
**Soc/Asian Am 220: Ethnic Movements in the U.S (Comm B and ethnic st)
Social Work 675: Reproductive Justice (dars exception needed)
Legal St. /English 160: Truth and Crime (Lit)
English 174: Literature and Social Justice (Lit)
*English 177: Narco-Narratives (Lit)
English 182: Doing Time: Race, Labor, Incarceration (Lit) (honors only)
English 474: Protest Literature (Lit) (dars exception nedeed)
History 500: Law, Authority and Kingship (dars exception needed)
History 600: Law and the Sacred (dars exception needed)
Legal Studies 213: Intro to Law and Humanities (dars exception needed)
*Legal St/Hist. 235: Prisons: Antiquity to Present
Philosophy 341: Contemporary Moral Issues (Comm B)
Legal St./Hist 261: American Legal History to 1860
**Legal St. 400: Criminal Injustice in America
Legal St. 400: Law and Social Change
Legal St. 400: Violence, Democracy and Legal
Legal St. 400: National Security Law, Policy and Practice: 1947 to present
*Legal St./Soc/GWS 406: Law, Sexuality, and Society
*Legal St. /Soc/GWS 425: Crime, Gender and Justice
**Legal St./AfroAmer 435: Civil Rights
**Legal St 440: Ethnicity, Race and Justice
Legal St 641: Sociology of Law
*Meets requirement that at least two courses in the major must have substantial content dealing with countries or cultures outside the United States or with the international legal system. For this requirement, a course can count for a theme and the global requirement.
**Meets Race/Justice requirement (for students who declared Fall 2023 and later). A course can count for a theme and the race/justice requirement.