History and Law Minor
Description. Students in this minor will explore legal history, a vital and exciting field that historicizes the study of law while using legal sources to enrich our understanding of the past. The minor acquaints students with key arguments and concepts in the field as well as major personalities, institutions, and debates in the legal histories of the United States, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. It also introduces students to international topics such as slavery, genocide, human rights, and legal pluralism, and to international institutions like the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) and International Criminal Court (ICC) in a historical context.
Learning Outcomes. Students will:
- Identify and explain basic theories, concepts, principles, and norms in legal history from the premodern world up to the present.
- Explain the contribution of the discipline of history to the study of law, and of the analysis of legal sources to the understanding of history.
- Identify, contextualize, and evaluate the usefulness of different forms of primary source evidence relevant to legal history.
- Effectively read scholarly texts by accurately identifying the thesis, source base, organizational structure, and conclusions of academic texts.
- Construct a historical argument grounded in evidence from primary and secondary sources and be able to provide a coherent written defense of this thesis.
Credits. 18
Minor coordinator. Professor Sara McDougall, Department of History (212.237.8817, smcdougall@jjay.cuny.edu)
Requirements. Students complete two required courses and choose four elective courses. A maximum of two courses can overlap with a student’s major, other minors or programs. Students who earn a BA in Global History cannot earn this minor. Students cannot earn both this minor and the Minor in History.
Part One. Required Courses
Required
Total Credit Hours: 6
Part Two. Electives
Choose four
| HIS 224 | A History of Crime in New York City | 3 |
| HIS 323 | History of Lynching and Collective Violence | 3 |
| HIS 325 | Criminal Justice in European Society, 1750 to the Present | 3 |
| HIS 344 | Topics in Legal History | 3 |
| HIS 352 | History & Justice in Wider World | 3 |
| HIS 354 | Law and Society in Ancient Athens and Rome | 3 |
| HIS 359 | History of Islamic Law | 3 |
| HIS 368 | Law and Society in the Ancient Near East | 3 |
| HIS 374 | Premodern Punishment | 3 |
| HIS 375 | Female Felons in the Premodern World | 3 |
Total Credit Hours: 12
Total Credit Hours: 18