History, Law & Society

The HLS program approaches law both as a liberal profession and as a field of inquiry enmeshed with the humanities and social sciences. HLS students study law as a body of ideas and practices  that are shaped by forces external to the courtroom. In small seminars, students become lawyers, legal historians and legal philosophers, decoding and reconstructing the meaning of legal norms, their aims, their flaws, and their impact.

Whether you are considering law school or interested in getting a better grasp of why law plays such a crucial role in our lives, the HLS major is the best gateway to understanding the relationship between law and morals, society, politics, and economics.human rights, constitutional and international law, as well as advanced seminars in comparative law, criminal law, environmental law,the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and law in relation to gender and education. It also offers practical Democracy Labsand aegalriting workshop.

Among the skills and knowledge acquired in the major are legal research and writing, critical thinking, understanding case-law and legal literature, ability to deconstruct and evaluate the quality of a legal argument, trace the implementation of constitutional, legal, and executive norms in politics and society, and navigate among legal systems and political institutions. HLS courses nurture understanding ofhow lawyers and judges think, why courts choose to protect or infringe upon the rights of women, children, and minority groups, and tackle questions surrounding the moral foundations of law, the impact of legal doctrines on democratic resilience, and the ways in which legal institutions are designed to serve as drivers of progressive or reactionary causes.

Our law classes encourage students to explore the most pressing present-day issues in the arenas of social and economic justice. Enter any law class at AUP and you are likely to learn about such issues as the evolution of abortion jurisprudence in the United States, Argentina or Germany; the role of British and French Empires in today’s violation of LGTBQ+ rights in the Global South; the racial bias in state regulations of AI and Big Data analysis; or the application of human rights frameworks to the protection of animals and the environment.  

HLS graduates are eligible to apply for JD degrees in the United States as well as forgraduate studies in France, the United Kingdom, Canada,other countries in Europe and beyond. This meanscould obtain a master’s degree in law in one or two years (depending on the school) uponfrom AUP.