Northwestern Center for Legal Studies

The Legal Studies program at Northwestern University provides an environment where students and scholars study legal issues using 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 and from the professional world, with courses on a variety of innovative topics. Recent favorites include Law & Society; Human Rights and U.S. Refugee Law; Sociology of Law; Legal and Constitutional History of the United States; and Race, Politics, and the Law.

We offer an Adjunct Major and a Minor. Beginning in Fall 2016, we will also offer a standalone major. (For the next few years, we will be transitioning from an adjunct major to a standalone major; students should check the major / adjunct major page to determine which one(s) they are eligible for.

Graduate Study

At the graduate level, Legal Studies provides programmatic content for graduate students throughout the university interested in the interdisciplinary study of law, legal institutions, and/or legal processes broadly construed. Graduate Fellows in Legal Studies (GFILS) include J.D./Ph.D. students, Ph.D. students who entered graduate school with J.D.s earned elsewhere, and graduate students working on legal topics and questions in a variety of disciplines (economics, anthropology, sociology, political science, theater, and English, to name just a few). GFILS and faculty participate in regular reading groups and writing seminars and attend lectures and events.