Law and Justice. Learning how to create a more equitable society.
Faculty Chairs: Daniel Carpenter & Alisha Holland
Overview: The curricular program in Law and Justice allows Government students to look at the intersection of law and politics and learn how political and legal institutions can interact to promote or impede the creation of a just society. It is particularly well-suited for students who plan to go to law school and would like to use their time at Harvard College to complement their future study of legal doctrine with normative and empirical investigations of the social institution of law. Coursework in the program spans all four subfields of political science (political theory, American politics, comparative politics, and international relations), and students are encouraged to pursue their own research on an empirical or normative topic related to law and justice through the Government Department’s senior thesis program.
Requirements: Four courses out of the ten courses required for the concentration, chosen from the list below. No more than one of the courses can be taken at the Harvard Kennedy School. All four courses for the program must be taken for a letter grade.
Individual Plan of Study: Students are asked to write an individual plan of study in consultation with their concentration advisers and faculty mentors. In this plan, students identify a particular focus they want to pursue, their educational goals, and the courses that will help them develop this expertise. In addition to courses in the Government Department, we also encourage them to take related courses in other fields, whether through a secondary field or through some of their elective courses.
Law and Justice Courses
Courses offered in AY2024 are highlighted in bold below.
American Politics:
- General Education 1032: Res Publica: A History of Representative Government (Daniel Carpenter)
- Gov 1338: Governance in Native America (Daniel Carpenter)
- Gov 1510: Constitutional Law (Richard Fallon)
- Gov 1521: Bureaucratic Politics (Daniel Carpenter)
- Gov 94HJ: Technically Justice? The Politics of Technology and Criminal Justice (Jennifer Halen)
- Gov 94BF: #Abolish Police (Jennifer Halen)
Comparative Politics
- Gov 1114: Law and Inequality (Alisha Holland)
- Gov 94OF: Law and Politics in Multicultural Democracies (Ofrit Liviatan)
- Gov 94OL: Artificial Intelligence: Sociolegal Dilemmas and Policy Design (Ofrit Liviatan)
- Gov 94GY: Transitional Justice and the Politics of Truth Commissions (Gloria Ayee)
International Relations:
- General Education 1119: Law, Politics, and Trade Policy: Lessons from East Asia (Christina Davis)
- Gov 1740: International Law (Christoph Mikulaschek)
- Gov 94CD: International Organizations (Christina Davis)
- Gov 94CH: Human Rights (Stephen Chaudoin)
- Gov 94UN: United Nations (Christoph Mikulaschek)
Political Theory:
- General Education 1200: Justice (Michael Sandel)
- General Education 1181: Meritocracy and its Critics (Michael Sandel)
- Gov 1041: Justice by Means of Democracy (Danielle Allen)
- Gov 1060: Ancient and Medieval Political Philosophy
- Gov 1061: Modern Political Philosophy
- Gov 1074: Political Thought of the American Founding (Eric Nelson)
- Gov 1082: What is Property? (Eric Nelson)
- Gov 94EM: Crime, Responsibility and the Law (Gabriel Katsh)
- Gov 94RM: Rawls (Michael Rosen)
Courses at the Harvard Kennedy School:
(note that HKS courses in my.harvard have not yet been updated for Fall 2024. Please check before Fall 2024 starts for an updated list.)
- DPI 235: Economic Justice: Theory and Practice (Mathias Risse)
- DPI 505: The Supreme Court, Law, and Public Policy (Maya Sen)
- IGA 103: Global Governance (Kathryn Sikkink)
- IGA 105: International Law and Global Justice (Kathryn Sikkink)
- SUP 710: Policing, Citizenship, and Inequality in Comparative Perspective (Yanilda Gonzalez)