Law, Ethics, and Society
Divisional Home: Division V
Minor Advisor(s): Steve Gowler and Bob Hoag
The Law Ethics, and Society [LES] divisional minor provides opportunities for coherent, disciplined, and multi-disciplinary study of law that is rooted in the liberal arts and the aims of liberal learning. Paramount purposes include students developing careful, normative understandings of law, justice, and society, both in the United States and internationally. This approach aims to supplement and complement students’ major disciplinary study, whether they are preparing to enter graduate study or the world of work beyond Berea.
The LES minor explores law as an enterprise in which moral argument, distinctive practices of interpretation and reasoning, and coercive force are employed to structure society, address conflicts, effect social change, and engage social, political, ethical/moral, and economic issues that arise for institutions, organizations, and people. The LES minor offerings rely on legal and other materials to explore questions that are both theoretical and practical/applied; that affect both public and private life; that involve quandaries about justice and injustice; that address tensions between liberty and authority, community and individual, process and outcome; and, that engage matters of proper interpretation and reasoning in and about law.
The Law Ethics and Society minor consists of five (5) full-credit courses: one (1) required core course -- LES 215: Law, Ethnics, and Society -- and four (4) distribution courses. One (1) of the required distribution courses would be taken from the "Structures of Law" list, and one (1) required distribution course would be taken from the "Legal and Ethical Reasoning" list (see below). Beyond these three (3) prescribed courses (LES 215, plus one "Structures of Law" and one "Legal and Ethical Reasoning"), students can choose their additional two (2) courses from any of the three lists of courses below. No more than two (2) courses from the same rubric can be used to satisfy the requirements for the LES minor.
To complete the minor in Law, Ethics, and Society, a student must complete five courses:
LES 215: Law, Ethics, and Society;
at least one (1) course from each of the two (2) lists ("Structures of Law" and "Legal and Ethical Reasoning") below; two (2) additional courses from any of the lists below (including "additional courses").
LES minor requirements
| LES 215 | Law, Ethics, and Society | 1 Course Credit |
Structures of Law
Students must complete at least one (1) course from the list below:
| BUS 240 | Business Law | 1 Course Credit |
| CFS 350 | Family Law and Policy | 1 Course Credit |
| PSC 100 | Intro to Study of Politics | 1 Course Credit |
| PSC 110 | American Government | 1 Course Credit |
| PSC 314 | American Constitutional Law | 1 Course Credit |
| PSC 317 | The Judicial Process | 1 Course Credit |
Law and Ethics
Students must complete at least one (1) course from the list below:
Additional Courses
In addition to completing LES 215 and the required minimum of one course from each of the two above lists, the LES minor requires a student to choose two (2) additional courses from either of these lists and/or from the "additional courses" listed below or an alternative LES signified course when offered as Special Topics, Independent Study, or Internship (see Opportunities Common to Many Fields of Study).
| ENG 280 | Workshop-Professional Writing | 1 Course Credit |
| | only when focused on Legal Writing | |
| PHI 106 | Introductory Reasoning | 1 Course Credit |
| PSJ 113/COM 113 | Conflict and Mediation (COM) | 1 Course Credit |
| SOC 215 | Juvenile Delinquency | 1 Course Credit |
| SOC 327 | Crime and Deviance | 1 Course Credit |