Overview
The Law and Social Change minor is offered through Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts.
This minor introduces you to the world of law in the context of a critical and socially conscious New School liberal arts education. The key objective of the minor is to enable you to employ the law as an instrument of social change. You develop an understanding
of how law and legal institutions exert power and control and how the law produces systemic forms of harm. At the same time, you deepen your understanding of the practice of law as a means of addressing and undoing harm and as a mode of democratic
transformation.
The minor offers you opportunities to go beyond classroom education to engage with and learn from activist legal practices in New York City. Moving beyond the technical jargon typical of legal education, the minor is designed to demystify the law, making
it relevant to your life experiences and to your other scholarly interests. The minor enables you to understand, use, and challenge the law as a critically engaged agent of democracy. Learn more about the Law and Social Change program.
Curriculum
This minor requires successful completion of at least 18 credits. Students will complete the required ULEC course and select four to five elective courses that fulfill requirements.
Course availability may vary from semester to semester. Some courses may be in development and offered at a later time.
Learning Outcomes
A student who has completed this graduate minor will:
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Be familiar with key concepts and functions of law in key domains: constitutional, criminal, property, and international law
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Appreciate the relationship between law and ethical claims for justice, equality, and freedom
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Be able to contextualize law in light of world-historical developments and contemporary social and political developments
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Be able to apply legal reasoning to specific problems
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Be familiar with practitioners and organizations pursuing legal strategies in the context of contemporary social movements
Eligibility
The Law and Social Change minor is available to undergraduate degree students across The New School.
Students can retroactively apply successfully completed courses toward a minor upon declaring or applying. After a student successfully completes a minor's requirements, the minor will appear on the student's academic transcript at graduation.
For questions about this minor, please contact Quentin Bruneau, program director of Law and Social Change, at [email protected].
How to Declare a Minor
General guidelines for declaring a minor are available here. Current students can declare or change a minor by logging in to my.newschool.edu, clicking on the Academics tab, and then clicking on the link to Major/Minor Declarations.