The Legal Studies Major

The Legal Studies major is marked by its flexibility and interdisciplinarity, 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 not.

Major Requirements as of Fall 2023, when we redesigned our curriculum.  This is the major for anyone entering adding the Legal Studies Major in Fall 2023 or thereafter.  This is a ten course sequence (4 credits each), totaling 38-40 credits:

  1. Foundations in Law and Justice
  2. Choose one: Juvenile Delinquency, or Definitions of Normality
  3. Choose one: Topics in Media Law and Policy, or Legal Environment of Business
  4. Philosophical Problems in the Law
  5. Choose one: Constitutional Law: Civil Rights and Liberties, or Supreme Court in U.S. Politics
  6. Choose one: Japanese Americans & Mass Incarceration; Policing the Borderlands: Power, Policy, & Justice; Race and Ethnicity; Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality;
  7. Legal Research Seminar
  8. 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.

Major Requirements for those students who added the major before Summer, 2023. You can choose to change your catalog year to the new major, but we will support you in this major to your graduation. This is a 14 course sequence, totaling 39 credits:

  1. Foundations in Law and Justice;
  2. Courtrooms and Communications;
  3. Choose one: Juvenile Delinquency, or Definitions of Normality;
  4. Choose one: Intro to Law and the Media, or Legal Environment of Business;
  5. Philosophical Problems in the Law;
  6. Choose one: Constitutional Law: Civil Rights and Liberties, or Supreme Court in U.S. Politics;
  7. Legal Research Seminar;
  8. Choose one: Senior Research Seminar in Legal Studies, or Senior Internship in Legal Studies;
  9. Capstone in Legal Studies;
  10. Self-Designed Concentration (15 credits).

A more complete list of requirements for each major (with course numbers, for instance) can be found in the IC Catalog through Homer: just make sure you enter the correct catalog year to get to your major!  The New Major is the most accessible one, as it is in the current 2024-25 Catalog.

The glory of justice and the majesty of law are created not just by the Constitution - nor by the courts - nor by the officers of the law - nor by the lawyers - but by the men and women who constitute our society - who are the protectors of the law as they are themselves protected by the law.

Robert Kennedy