About Legal Studies
Legal Studies is the exploration of the role of law in society. It is an interdisciplinary field that brings together political, sociological, anthropological, data analytical, historical, and other approaches to understanding law beyond the words of legislation or court decisions. Legal Studies scholars are interested in how law operates on the ground, in practice. We look at the interactions between people, at how people understand the rules that shape their lives, how people resist, defy, and evade powerful structures, and how people make claims on government when injustices have occurred. We think about how crime is defined, how order is enforced, and how bias is reproduced by institutions of authority.
Academic Programs
The Legal Studies major prepares students to be thoughtful observers of the social and political world. It teaches students to think critically, speak clearly, and write forcefully about justice, inequality, institutions, culture, power, technology, conflict resolution, and social change. Our majors have exclusive access to courses taught by legal professionals practicing in the region, such as sitting judges, partners at large law firms, legal aid attorneys, and the District Attorney.
Additionally, many Legal Studies faculty members are appointed to the Political Science PhD program and can work with graduate students interested in law, politics, and society.
Student Highlight
"The program’s focus on critical thinking, research, writing, and communication prepared me to analyze complex legal issues and draft clear, persuasive documents, skills I used daily as a law intern."
Faculty Teaching and Research
Our faculty study the United States, international law, and the laws of many other countries around the world. We have leading experts in Russia, South Africa, the United States Supreme Court, judicial policymaking, confirmation hearings and amicus briefs, authoritarianism, immigration, human trafficking, human rights and transitional justice, online dispute resolution, computational social science methods, and many other topics.
In the past seven years, our research-active faculty have won three major book awards, were awarded grants totaling over 1.6 million dollars, founded the campus’ Center for Justice, Law, and Societies, and run the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution, which recently set the new international standard addressing the use of technology, including artificial intelligence, in settling e-commerce disputes.
Department Launch Fund
This Fall, we are re-launching again as an independent department, after being housed within Political Science from 2010-2025. This is an exciting step for our program, which now has over 500 undergraduate majors! If you would like to help support our department launch and help us provide high quality events and research opportunities for our students and faculty, please donate.
History
The Legal Studies program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst was established in 1973 by Professors Stephen Arons, John Bonsignore, Peter d’Errico, Ethan Katsh, Ronald Pipkin, and Janet Rifkin. It was founded on the principle that the study of “law is too important to be left to the lawyers.” From the very beginning, the Legal Studies major was not designed as a pre-law major but was instead created as an interdisciplinary major devoted to the empirical and normative study of law that spanned the social sciences and humanities. As three of the founders of UMass Legal Studies put it, “legal studies is an education about law, whereas law school is education in law.”
Legal Studies is the oldest undergraduate law and society focused major in the country, and remains the only one at a public university in New England. It is the birthplace of online dispute resolution and peer mediation. Since its founding more than fifty years ago, UMass Legal Studies has been a leader in undergraduate legal education and law and society scholarship. Legal Studies was a founding member of the Consortium for Undergraduate Law and Justice Programs, an international organization for colleges and universities that have interdisciplinary programs focused on undergraduate education about law and justice.
Contact Us
Interested in our academic programs or have questions about the Department of Legal Studies? Contact us here.