Course Descriptions

CLHU U238 Justice in Greek Literature 3 crs.
Common Curriculum: Humanities/Arts Pre-modernJustice is the foundation of civilized society. It is at once the condition and means of concord and harmony among men. Greek poets and philosophers were among the first to investigate the nature of justice. Examination of their writings on this subject can alert latter-day students to its importance and to its nature.

CMMN A355 Covering the Courts 3 crs.
The goal of the course is to develop an understanding of the role of the journalist in covering the courts and to enhance the ability to cover the judicial process in a responsible and professional manner.
Prerequisite: CMMN A101 with minimum grade of C (2.0), or permission of the journalism sequence head.

CMMN A401 Law of Mass Communication 3 crs.
This is an examination of major legal and regulatory developments in print and broadcast communications and the new technologies, with an emphasis on both legal and ethical considerations.
Required for Mass Communication majors.
Prerequisite: CMMN A101 with a minimum grade of a C (2.0); Junior standing or permission of director.

CMMN A451 Media and American Courts 3crs.
This course helps students develop an understanding of free press/fair trial issues (including historical perspective, significant people, current controversies and academic research) as well as an appreciation of award-winning coverage of the judicial system.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.

CRJU C105 Introduction to Criminal Justice Systems 3 crs.
This course is intended to introduce the student to how the justice system works in America. It begins with a discussion of the underlying rationale for punishment of crime. Topics discussed include police, role of the attorney, bail, criminal trial, sentencing, corrections, and post-conviction remedies.

CRJU C110 Criminology: Fundamentals 3 crs.
This course is a survey of basic topics and problems related to the discipline, such as the nature of crime in America, criminal statistics, and selected criminological theories. It serves as an introduction to the systematic study of crime, criminals, criminal behavior, and the criminal justice system.

CRJU C220 Recent Supreme Court Decisions 3 crs.
Students are exposed to an in-depth discussion and analysis of the most recent Supreme Court decisions in criminal cases. Issues of procedural and substantive law, right to counsel, criminal evidence, and constitutional law will be covered.

CRJU C313 Criminal Evidence 3 crs.
The rules of evidence will be examined including examination of witnesses; impeachment; real, direct, and circumstantial evidence. Special emphasis will be given to relevancy, hearsay and its exceptions, privileges, presumptions and inferences, burden of proof, judicial notice, and the parole evidence rule.

CRJU C345 Seminar Constitutional Law 3 crs.
This seminar concerns basic constitutional law and in-depth analysis of Supreme Court decisions decided during recent terms of court with a special emphasis on trends in constitutional law and criminal procedure.

CRJU C380 Ethics and Politics of Criminal Justice 3crs.
This course will provide students with an overview of ethics and ethical dilemmas that criminal justice practitioners will often times face in the course of their profession. Review of any major daily metropolitan newspaper will usually produce at least one current article involving a matter of ethics and the criminal justice system. The subjects of these articles include police officers, assistant district attorneys, judges, correctional officers, and others who are involved in the system i.e., docket clerks, probation officers, and administrative personnel. While it is the failed ethical challenges that are most often publicized, there are ethical dilemmas and challenges faced by criminal justice practitioners every day. This course will present participants with the underlying rationale to understand these situations when they are encountered and the knowledge needed to properly resolve the issue. The course will utilize historical perspective of ethics to understand how current day ethics have evolved. The writings of Aristotle, Bentham and John Stuart Mill among others will be used as a precursor to the concepts of applied ethics in the present world of criminal justice. The course will review ethical challenges from both a historical and contemporary perspective, reviewing how the challenges were originally handled and if the same outcomes would occur today.

CRJU C405 Criminal Law 3 crs.
This course examines sources of criminal law; theories of punishment, corpus delicti, and basic elements of crime; specific offenses, principles of liability to punishment, and specific defense to criminal behavior.

CRJU C430 Legal Research and Writing 3 crs.
The art of legal writing is a skill critical to lawyers and those working in the criminal justice field. This course bridges the gap between essay style writing taught to undergraduates and the more technical writing of lawyers and other criminal justice professionals. The course also introduces students to the fundamentals of legal research and writing to develop the skills necessary to prepare a legal memorandum and other technical tasks in the criminal justice professions. After successful completion of this course, the student should be prepared to perform law clerk or paralegal duties such as legal research and writing; quantum studies to determine the value of a civil cause of action; and general legal assistance duties.
Prerequisite: COMP C119 or equivalent.

ECON B330 Law + Economics 3 crs.
This course is an economic analysis used to consider the effects of legal rules upon people’s actions. Alternative rules are considered, with particular attention paid to the differing effects each is likely to have on the structure of incentives, and thus on human actions.
Prerequisites: ECON B200*; junior standing

ENGL V234 Literature and Justice 3 crs.
Common Curriculum: Humanities/Arts Modern
Much excellent literature has been produced by men and women reacting to wrongs inflicted upon them by society. Excellent literature has also been written showing the "Failure of the Word"–how the legal justice system has blocked rather than achieved justice.
Prerequisite: ENGL T122.

HIST A230 U.S. Legal History I 3 crs.
The major developments in American legal history from the Colonial period to the Civil War are discussed.

HIST A231 U.S. Legal History II 3 crs.
The major developments in American legal history from 1865 through the 20th century are discussed.

HIST A232 American Trials 3 crs.
This course focuses on famous American trials and uses them as a means to examine the broader historical context in which they took place. We will pay particular attention to why these trials captured the public’s attention at the time they occurred and why they still have a hold on the popular imagination today.

HIST A305 Medieval Crime and Community 3 crs.
This course explores the interaction between the development of criminal law and social change in the late medieval period. Classes will be organized thematically and will focus on a broad range of subjects, from trial by ordeal to sanctuary. Emphasis will be placed on the creative ways litigants and jurors manipulated the law courts to their best advantage.

LGST B200 Business Law I 3 crs.
This course covers private commercial transactions, including contracts, sales, and property. Commercial paper, agency, partnerships, and corporation law are also included.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing

LGST B205 Legal Environment of Business 3 crs.
This course is an introductory course covering the nature and operation of the U.S. legal system, constitutional law affecting commerce, employment discrimination law, and environmental protection law.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing

LGST B310 Law for International Business 3 crs.
This course discusses basic legal principles of engaging in business transactions subject to the law of foreign jurisdictions, and processes available and rules that apply to the solutions of international business problems.
Prerequisites: LGST B200 or LGST B205; junior standing

MUIN M205 Legal Issues in the Music Industry 3 crs.
This course covers the legal issues and related information considered as basic knowledge expected of successful practicing musicians who deal with the commercial aspects of music. This includes standard contracts; a foundation of intellectual property, copyright knowledge and terminology, and evolving law; and the basics of music publishing. For students in music industry studies who are not in the B.S. track. It is not for students who have taken or are required to take MUIN M200 Music Publishing, Copyrights, and Contracts.

PHIL A225 Philosophy of Law 3 crs.
This course is an inquiry into the nature of law, the relevance of law to morality, the concepts of responsibility in the law, punishment, and the relevance to law of the concepts of justice, equality, and liberty. The philosophical assumptions that underlie criminal law and private law will be explored. Readings will be taken from classical and recent philosophers of law.

PHIL V234 Medical Ethics 3 crs.
Common Curriculum: Humanities/Arts Modern
After a brief introduction to some basic principles useful in moral decision making, the course introduces the student to problems of general interest in bioethics such as: experimentation on humans, relations of patients and health care professionals, just allocation of health care, refusal of lifesaving treatment/euthanasia, abortion, and moral problems surrounding assisted reproduction, developments in genetics (e.g., cloning), etc.
Prerequisite: PHIL T122.

PHIL V235 Philosophy of Right 3 crs.
Common Curriculum: Humanities/Arts Modern
This course is a philosophical expose of the life, struggles, death, and ultimate transformation of the concept of "right." The central issue of the course: Is the violation of a human right a crime against nature?
Prerequisite: PHIL T122.

POLS A218 Courts/Judges/Politics 3 crs.
The course examines the role of the judiciary in the governmental policy-making process at both the federal and state levels. Emphasis is made on the role of political and social factors in the selection of judges and in judicial decision-making, as well as the interrelationship between law and politics in the American political and social systems.

POLS A212 The Legislative Process 3 crs.
National, state, and local legislatures as lawmaking and political bodies are discussed with emphasis on the U.S. Congress. The course also concerns the legislative process including procedures, performance, and the role of the executive and parties and interest groups.

POLS A300 Constitutional Law I 3 crs.
Discussions include the origins of constitutionalism and the framing of the U.S. Constitution; nature and scope of judicial review; sources and nature of legislative and executive power; the commerce power and state power to regulate; and introduction to 14th Amendment due process.

POLS A301 Constitutional Law II 3 crs.
This course discusses individual rights and liberties, with emphasis on post-1937 developments in areas of First Amendment and 14th Amendment equal protection.

POLS X252 The Bill of Rights 3 crs.
Common Curriculum: Behavioral/Social Sciences Modern
This course examines the nature and scope of civil liberties in America by focusing on the U.S. Constitution’s chief source of fundamental liberties–the Bill of Rights. Major topics of discussion include origins and antecedents; the incorporation debate; and Supreme Court interpretations (and limitations) of fundamental freedoms.

RELS A400 Theology of Vatican II 3 crs.
This course is a study of the documents of Vatican II and the changes in Roman Catholicism since Vatican II. Also discussed is why the changes occurred and what fundamental shifts were behind the changes.
Prerequisite: RELS T122 or RELS H233.

RELS U396 Law: Ancient World 3 crs.
Common Curriculum: Humanities/Arts Pre-modern
This course examines the place of law in ancient society, emphasizing Semitic codes of ancient Near East (Bible and Greco-Roman laws) and its relationship to morality. Meeting of Semitic-Judaic and Greco-Roman in the first Christian centuries produced natural law and canon law of later times. Relevant social issues are examined.
Prerequisite: RELS T122 or RELS H233.

RELS V344 Social Policy and the Christian 3 crs.
Common Curriculum: Humanities/Arts Modern
This course is a critical analysis of the role of Christianity and ethics in both responding to and shaping of social policy.
Prerequisite: RELS T122 or RELS H233.

SOCI A215 Criminal Behavior 3 crs.
This course is a critical examination of the nature and extent of deviant and criminal behavior in complex, industrial societies. Particular attention will be given to the causes and consequences of criminal and deviant behavior.

SOCI A216 Law and Social Control 3 crs.
This course is an introduction to law and legal institutions as formal mechanisms for controlling deviant and criminal behavior. While emphasis will be placed on the social processes whereby laws are enacted, administered, and enforced and on the social institutions created to detect, process, punish, and treat law violators, the course also examines the relationship between law and non-legal forms of social control.

SOCI A333 Correctional Institutions 3 crs.
A sociological analysis of the history, ideology, and social structure of correctional systems in the U.S. Includes an examination of sociolegal aspects of punishment ideologies, the social organization of prisons and incarcerated communities, the management and control of inmates, prison litigation, and the various alternatives to imprisonment such as jails, probation, intermediate sanctions, parole, and capital punishment.

SOCI X416 Gender, Law, and Social Control 3 crs.
Common Curriculum: Behavioral/Social Sciences Modern
This course offers a critical examination of the relationships between law, social control, and gender inequality in the U.S. While a number of theoretical approaches are discussed in this course, we primarily examine the various substantive issues of law and gender from a feminist perspective. Gender is the primary organizing variable for the course materials, but at each stage we consider the intersections between gender, class, and race. Topics covered include: core concepts of law, legal systems, crime, social control, the social construction of gender, feminist theory and feminist jurisprudence, gendered patters of criminal offending and victimization (with particular attention to intimate partner violence, rape, and child sex abuse), issues in family law, reproduction, and gendered patterns of sentencing and punishment.