Legal Studies Courses

LEG201 Introduction to Legal Studies

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course explores the ways “law shapes society and society shapes law “. This course introduces students to Legal Studies in the legal fields and topics. Legal lexis will be emphasized. Over the course of the semester, the students will be exposed to the definitions and concepts of law, the different forms of law and how they are shaped. It will explore how people understand law and the legal system, how injuries and disputes are understood and mediated. It will as well define the goals and purposes of trials. This course will also provide an overview of the role of paralegals in a work environment, while concentrating on the various regulations and ethical guidelines governing the work of paralegals.

LEG202 Law and Society-World Legal Traditions

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course is designed to introduce the relationship between legal systems and society. It will deal with the interaction between society and the different legal systems. The course will primarily compare different legal systems in the world, Civil law and the Common law. It will explore the different meanings of law, its functions, roles, and elements among different legal traditions and cultures. The course will venture into the rich theoretical jurisprudential debates. The first part of the course is a study of the structure of legal systems and the roles of the various actors. The second part of the course examines the role of the courts and the judicial system.

Prerequisite: LEG201 Introduction to Legal Studies

LEG203 Laws in the Middle East

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course provides an introduction to legal systems in the Middle East, defining the contours of a field of study that deserves to be called ” Middle Eastern legal systems “. It introduces Middle Eastern law as a reflection of legal styles, many of which are shared by Islamic law and the laws of Christian and Jewish Near Eastern communities. This course will study as well the colonial legacy that shaped to a large extent the contemporary legal systems in the Middle East. It offers a detailed survey of the foundations of Middle Eastern law, using court archives and an array of legal sources from the earliest records of Hammurabi to the massive compendia of law in the Islamic classical age, through to the latest decisions of Middle Eastern high courts. It focuses on the way legislators and courts conceive of law and apply it in the Middle East, especially in Lebanon.