Spring 2025 Courses that Fulfill Legal Studies Requirements
Legal Studies is an interdisciplinary major in which you take courses from a variety of departments. Because of this, not all courses are listed on the “select from section” of your dars report. Please refer to the list below for the most accurate list of courses offered that fulfill requirements. If a course indicates a “dars exception is needed”, it means that the course will not automatically show up on your dars report if enrolled. Advisors are required to submit a form to have the course appear on your dars report, which is known as a “dars exception.”
Advisors processed dars exceptions for the courses below on November 20, 2024. If you add a course after this date that requires a dars exception, please email cjcp@ssc.wisc.edu
Please note that a course can only fulfill (1) theme or the core perspective requirement.
Gateway Courses
Legal St/Soc 131: Criminal Justice in America
Legal St/Poli Sci 217: Law, Politics, and Society
Methods Courses (Statistics and Research Design)
Statistics
Economics 310: Statistics: Measurement in Economics
Ed Pol 209: Quantitative Methods for Education (dars exception needed)
General Business 306: Business Analytics
Psychology 210: Basic Stats for Psychology
Sociology 360: Statistics for Sociologists
Statistics 301: Introduction to Statistics
Statistics 371: Intro Applied Stats – Life Sciences
Research Design
Ed Pol 308: Qualitative Methods for Education (dars exception needed)
Political Science 170: Research Methods
Public Affairs 240: Evidence-Based Policy Making
Public Affairs 380: Analytical Tools for Public Policy
Psychology 225: Research Methods
Social Work 650: Methods of Social Work Research (dars exception needed)
Sociology 357: Methods of Sociological Inquiry
Theme Group 1: Legal Institutions
General Business 301: Business Law
*Int’l St 601: Human Rights, Lat. Am. Policy
Legal St./Hist 262: Amer Legal History 1860s to Pres
**Legal St. 400: Incarceration and Inequality
*Legal St. 400: Law and Climate Justice
**Legal St. 400/Soc 496: Race, Family and the State
*Legal St./Soc/GWS 406: Law, Sexuality, and Society
Legal St. 444: Law in Action
Legal St/ELPA/Ed Pol 542: Law and Public Education
Political Science 311: United States Congress
*Political Science 356: Principles of International Law
*Political Science 400: International Environmental Politics
Political Science 405: State Government and Public Policy
Political Science 408: The American Presidency
Political Science 411: The American Constitution: Powers and Structures of Government
Political Science 414: The Supreme Court as a Political Institution
Political Science 417: The American Judicial System
*Political Science/GEN&WS 435: Politics of Gender and Women’s Rights in the Middle East
Political Science 470: The First Amendment
Political Science 635: Comparative Politics of Sports
**Pub Affr 520: Inequality, Race and Public Policy (ethnic studies) (dars exception needed)
Theme Group 2: Process of Legal Order & Disorder
Legal St. 694: Field Observation in Criminal Justice and Legal Studies (only available to students currently enrolled in pre-internship canvas site. If you have an internship for Spring 2025 and you are not enrolled in pre-internship canvas site, please email cjcp@ssc.wisc.edu)
Psych 526: The Criminal Mind: Forensic and Psychobiological Perspectives
Psych 601: Prisoner Re-Entry (dars exception needed)
Sociology 441: Criminology
Sociology 496: Serial Killers in America (dars exception needed)
Psych 601: Psych of Juvenile Delinquency
Theme Group 3: Law & Social Forces
**AfAm 272: Race and American Politics from the New Deal to the New Right
**AfAm/History 321: Afro-American History Since 1900 (ethnic studies)(dars exception needed)
**AfAm 671: Women & US Slavery (ethnic studies) (dars exception needed)
**Asian Am/Soc 220: Ethnic Movements in the US (ethnic st and Comm B)
**Am Indian Studies 450: Land Grant/Grab (dars exception needed)
Econ 522: Law and Economics
Environmental St 349: Climate Change Governance
Ed Pol/ Intl. St. 220: Human Rights and Education (dars exception needed)
**GWS/Intl St 535: Women’s Global Health and Human Rights (dars exception needed) (biological sci)
GWS/Psych 322: Sexual & Relationship Violence Research & Activism
**History 143: History of Race and Inequality in Urban America
**History 393: Slavery, Civil War, and Reconstruction
*History 600: Global Anti-Apartheid Movement (dars exception needed)
**History 600: Indian Removal (dars exception needed)
*LACIS 440: Spanish: Immigration Law Clinic (dars exception needed)
Legal St. 135: Disability and the Criminal Justice System
**Legal St. 400: Incarceration and Inequality
*Legal St. 400: Law and Climate Justice
*Legal St./Soc/GWS 406: Law, Sexuality, and Society
**Legal St. 400/Soc 496: Race, Family and the State
Legal St. 422: Women and the Law
*Legal St./Soc/GWS 425: Crime, Gender and Justice
*Legal St./Hist/Envir St 430: Law and Environment
**Legal St./AfroAmer 435: Civil Rights
**Legal St./Soc/ChicLa 443: Immigration, Crime & Enforcement (ethnic studies)
Legal St. 473: Health Impacts of Unmet Social Needs (application required- Find More Information Here)
Psych 601: Legal Psych: Crim & Civil Issues
Social Work 375: Pwr Poss, SJ and Social Change
Social Work 636: Indian Child Welfare Act (dars exception needed)
*Spanish/ChicLa 215: Border & Migration Studies of Latinx America (dars exception needed)
Theme Group 4: Law & Culture
Ed Pol 150: Indigenous Education Policy and Practice (dars exception needed)
English 177: Narco-Narratives (Lit)
English 182: Doing Time: Race, Labor, Incarceration (Honors)
*History 201: Shanghai Life and Crime (Comm B)
*Legal St. 477: History of Forensic Science
*Legal St. 510: Legal Pluralism
Theme Group 5: Law & Theory
History 500: Medieval Law and Society (dars exception needed)
*Legal St./Hist 235: Prisons: From Antiquity to Supermax (dars exception needed)
*Legal St./History 426: History of Punishment
Philosophy 341: Contemporary Moral Issues (some sections are Comm B)
Core Perspectives
*Legal St./Hist 235: Prisons: From Antiquity to Supermax (dars exception needed)
Legal St. 262: Amer Legal History 1860s to Present
**Legal St. 400: Incarceration and Inequality
*Legal St. 400: Law and Climate Justice
**Legal St. 400/Soc 496: Race, Family and the State
*Legal St./Soc/GWS 406: Law, Sexuality, and Society
*Legal St./Soc/GWS 425: Crime, Gender and Justice
*Legal St./History 426: History of Punishment
**Legal St./AfroAmer 435: Civil Rights
**Legal St./Soc/ChicLa 443: Immigration, Crime & Enforcement (ethnic studies)
*Legal St. 477: History of Forensic Science
*Legal St. 510: Legal Pluralism
*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.