Exploring legal issues from a liberal arts perspective

When interdisciplinary minors were created in the 1980s to help students meet an “integration of knowledge” requirement, Associate Professor of Economics Andrew J. Gold felt strongly there was a place for legal studies in the curriculum. He points out that a broad academic exploration of law covers such fundamental themes as the nature of justice and the nature of evidence, while also tackling specific and tricky ethical issues, such as how surrogate motherhood fits in with our legal understanding of personal property and what can be sold. Quips Gold, “If that ain’t liberal arts, I don’t know what is.”

 Trinity students have enthusiastically concurred. Over the years they have continued to fill up law-centered courses and to make legal studies one of the College’s most popular interdisciplinary minors. Associate Professor of Legal Studies Adrienne Fulco, the coordinator for the minor, reports that approximately 100 students usually take the legal studies introductory course, which is the gateway to the minor. Students who wish to fulfill the minor—usually some 10 to 15 each year—can sign on with Fulco after completing the course.

 Teaching legal issues through a variety of disciplines

Fulco acknowledges that while many of the students who take legal studies courses have aspirations to go to law school, the minor in legal studies is not designed to prepare undergraduates for the specific type of work associated with law school or to get them to “think like lawyers.” “It’s not pre-law,” she says. “The goal is to introduce students to legal issues and questions through a variety of disciplines.” These include chemistry, economics, history, international studies, philosophy, political science, psychology, public policy, sociology, and women’s studies.

Rebecca S. Bokat ’02 says that the legal studies minor has been a strong complement to her work as a political science major with a concentration in American government. Bokat, who does not plan on becoming a lawyer, says she gained an understanding of how pervasive law is, affecting all areas of life.

Jennifer A. Chiarello ’02, also a political science major, agrees. “The law was something I never really analyzed or questioned before, and as a legal studies minor I had the opportunity to do this,” she says. “I challenged judicial interpretations and examined how the law has influenced different aspects of society and how society has influenced different aspects of the law.”

Internship tie-ins

 Rebekah L. Mate ’02, who does aspire to be a lawyer, believes that the legal studies minor will be a huge asset on her law school applications and will fit in nicely with another special curricular opportunity related to the law, Trinity’s Legislative Internship Program, through which students spend a semester working as full-time aides to state legislators. For Mate, the legal studies minor has helped to give her a well-rounded academic understanding of her future profession, as well as opportunities for direct contact with real-world legal situations, thanks to Trinity’s location. One of her favorite legal studies courses was “Psychology of the Criminal Justice System” taught by Vice President of Student Services Sharon D. Herzberger. Students in the course explored the psychological factors underlying the behavior of juries and visited Hartford’s courtrooms to watch the jury selection process for themselves. Mate also appreciates the fact that some legal studies courses are taught by practitioners of the law, including judges and attorneys, who make abstract concepts of law come alive with anecdotes from their own experiences.

One of these adjunct faculty members is Visiting Lecturer in Public Policy Russell Brenneman, who has been instrumental in the development of the Environmental Protection Agency and other entities related to environmental law. Andrew Gold recruited Brenneman, a lawyer and faculty member at the University of Connecticut School of Law, to teach “Law and Environmental Policy” after taking a course from him at UConn. Gold notes that Brenneman and the other practitioners—Judge Thomas P. Smith, who teaches the “Introduction to Law” course; Judge Barry K. Stevens, who teaches “Affirmative Action, Reverse Discrimination and the Supreme Court”; and attorney Michael K. Heaney, who teaches “American Legal History”—all have different areas of expertise but share a common characteristic: “They love to teach undergraduates.”

Students also value the courses that really do give a taste of case law as it is studied in law school. Chiarello says her favorite legal studies course was “Constitutional Law: Civil Rights & Civil Liberties.” “I am intrigued by this aspect of the law and how it has developed over time to reach the point we are at today,” she says. She notes that Fulco, who teaches the class, required every student to brief every case the class discussed. Says Chiarello, “Students were required to memorize over 50 cases and their relevance in the development of the area of civil rights/liberties. The course was extremely challenging.”

The last step in completing the legal studies minor is fulfilling the “integrating exercise” requirement by participating in a designated senior seminar course, this year “Current Issues in Law, Sex, and Gender.” For the seminar, students must do a major research paper on an aspect of law that is of particular interest to them. Students become proficient at the research process, in particular, at accessing legal resources on the Web, along the way acquiring excellent skills for law school, graduate school, or other endeavors.

Fulco says that the legal studies program occasionally cosponsors speakers or events, often in conjunction with the political science department, the public policy program, or the women’s studies program. Creating more opportunities for legal studies students to interact outside the classroom is one way Fulco likes to enrich the program and give students a stronger sense of themselves as an intellectual community. Meanwhile, the students just keep coming. She says, “If the numbers continue to grow, we might need to add a second seminar.”