We are advertising for a new faculty position,
the application deadline is October 1, 2008

Who we are

Legal Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst provides an interdisciplinary approach to the study of law and society. As a department within the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Legal Studies offers its courses to the entire University and maintains a major for approximately four hundred students. The purposes of this multifaceted program are the development of the study of law within a liberal arts framework and the exploration of the myriad ways in which law study is connected with other disciplines pertinent to an understanding of society.

One can say that Legal Studies is education about law, whereas law school is education in law. In fact, as a discipline, Legal Studies is based on the assumption that "law is too important to be left to lawyers." The critical, humanistic approach of the program encourages students to investigate and develop their attitudes toward law and justice within the context of a growing literature of Legal Studies and related disciplines.

Research efforts of faculty have included the impact of new information technologies on law, alternative dispute resolution, law and multinational corporations, law and popular culture, law and education, law and indigenous peoples, the legal profession, and law and education. The Department organizes a clinical project in conjunction with the Massachusetts Comminssion Against Discrimination (MCAD). It also sponsors the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution. The offices of the Law and Society Association are also affiliated with the Department, still located in our old home on the 2nd floor of Hampshire House.

We have a Departmental People page, a directory in pdf format, and a Departmental blog.