About the Program

The Center for Legal Studies at Northwestern University provides an environment where scholars and students combine the study of legal issues with the methodology and perspectives of the social sciences and humanities.

Undergraduate Study

Legal Studies offers undergraduates the chance to engage in exciting, critical work with professors from all over Northwestern, the Law School, and the professional world, with courses in a variety of innovative topics. Recent favorites include Trial Advocacy, International Human Rights, the Politics of the Medical Malpractice Crisis, and Environmental Law and Politics.

Graduate Study

At the graduate level, Legal Studies provides programmatic content for Graduate Fellows in Legal Studies (GFILs) which include JD/PhD students, PhD students who entered graduate school with JDs earned elsewhere, and graduate students in a variety of disciplines (economics, anthropology, sociology, political science, theater, and English, to name just a few) interested in the inter-disciplinary study of law.  Together with faculty, GFILs attend significant lectures and events, graduate students and faculty participate in on-going reading and writing seminars. 

News & Bulletins

We are delighted to welcome our new faculty for 2013-14! Heather Schoenfeld will be joining us as as Assistant Professor (jointly appointed in Legal Studies and SESP); she received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University, and has been teaching at The Ohio State University. Her current research focuses on the role of politics, law and racial inequality in causing mass incarceration in the United States and the development and reception of  international criminal law in post-conflict nations. In 2013-14, she will offer classes including "Race, Politics, and the Law," and "Law and Social Policy." Susan Stearns joins us as a Jack Miller Center Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Scholar. She received her Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago, and has been teaching at Mary Baldwin College. Her current research focuses on the political economy of the early American frontier, through an examination of the Mississippi River. In 2013-14, she will offer classes including "Law, Politics, and the American Revolution." 

 

Click here to read Laura Beth Nielsen's op-ed, Facebook is Not the Government.

Read Laura Beth Nielsen's recent op-ed here.

Listen to Legal Studies director Laura Beth Nielsen's  NPR Life of Law Podcast.

Legal Studies director Laura Beth Nielsen's editorial, "Democracy at Stake" is currently on the PBS website.

 

Upcoming Events

Legal Studies Graduation Reception
June 21, 2013 • 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM