Legal Studies Minor

The minor provides excellent preparation for students interested in attending law school, or who wish to increase their marketability in other career fields. The legal studies minor also provides students from a variety of majors the opportunity to study and share a common interest in the law. Students learn how to conduct legal research using electronic databases, the Internet and the print collection of legal resources. Students are required to study the basic substantive areas of law, as well as civil and criminal court procedure.

As previously noted, the minor in legal studies is an excellent complement to other majors, but is not intended to fully prepare students as paralegals, and therefore, is not approved by the ABA.

Program Competencies

Students are expected to possess:

  1. The ability to read complex legal documents with understanding and to identify the legal issues at stake in them.
  2. The ability to identify, isolate, and analyze critically legal arguments as they occur in writing and in speech.
  3. The ability to conduct thorough legal research, using standard reference materials (such as Westlaw and the MSU library's print collection of legal reference materiel), in accordance with best practices in the field.

Legal Studies Minor Requirements

Core Requirements

LGS 210Introduction to Law and Ethics

3

LGS 321Legal Research and Writing I

3

LGS 325Pretrial Practice

3

LGS 335Contracts and the Uniform Commercial Code

3

Total Credit Hours:12

Electives

Choose nine hours from the following (at least six hours must have a LGS prefix):

LGS 305Legal Reasoning

1-3

LGS 332Property Law

3

LGS 333Family Law

3

LGS 334Torts, Personal Injury Litigation and Insurance Law

3

LGS 336Employment Law

3

LGS 337Corporate Law

3

LGS 340Criminal Law and Procedure

3

LGS 345Debtor/Creditor Relations

3

LGS 355Administrative Law

3

LGS 360Special Legal Topics

1-3

LGS 370History of American Law

3

LGS 380Global Legal Perspectives

1-3

LGS 390Legal Studies Experiential Learning Lab

1

LGS 400Law and Society Seminar

3

LGS 421Legal Research and Writing II

3

LGS 425Trial Practice

3

LGS 436Wills, Trusts, and Estates

3

LGS 476Special Problems in Legal Studies

1-3

POLS 321Constitutional Law: Governmental Powers

3

POLS 322Courts and Civil Liberties

3

POLS 324Environmental Law and Policy

3

POLS 329Comparative Constitutional Law and Politics

3

Total Credit Hours:9

Total Credit Hours: 21