About the Program
Since its founding in 1965, the University of California, Santa Cruz has been known for its commitment to scholarship, values, and action. For more than a generation, the Legal Studies Program has embodied these commitments through an innovative, interdisciplinary program of teaching, research, and colloquia.
Housed within the Politics Department, UCSC’s Legal Studies Program is one of the oldest undergraduate law and justice programs in the country and is also among the largest programs of its kind in the University of California system.
Today, nearly three dozen legal studies professors teach courses that reach nearly 2,000 students every year through our undergraduate major and minor. We also offer several internships and field study programs, and many of our students participate in the UCDC Washington Program, the UCCS Sacramento program, or Global Study options through which they can apply what they learn about law and gain valuable real-world experience.
While our program focuses on undergraduate academics, UCSC graduate students also benefit from serving as teaching assistants or graduate student instructors for legal studies courses. And we offer opportunities for Ph.D. students from across UCSC to present draft papers or dissertation chapters and to organize speakers, colloquia, and seminars.
Our impact
The diverse legal studies students are the heart of this program. Our program’s value is in exposing students to notions of legality and institutions of law from across disciplinary traditions in the humanities and social sciences.
For example, our students might learn how to use approaches from psychology or philosophy to think about crime and punishment. They might use approaches from political theory or economics to think about property rights or social welfare policies. They might consider civil rights or privacy issues through approaches from critical race theory or feminist studies. They might use approaches from history or sociology to consider law in different eras or in relation to different groups. They might use approaches from politics to consider human rights and legal systems outside the U.S.
Through these experiences, our students become well-rounded legal thinkers, with both the perspective and creativity needed to guide the future of law and address its impacts on society. Learn more about our approach to teaching on our Academics overview page.
Alumni success stories
Courtney Zuniga: Deputy district attorney in the San Diego County District Attorney’s office
Second-generation college graduate Courtney Zuniga, who has bachelor’s degrees in legal studies and sociology is now a prosecutor, whose experience has included working on sex crimes and human trafficking cases. As an undergraduate, she interned for Nancy Pelosi.
Guneet Hora: Defending rights as a paralegal in a federal public defender’s office
One year after graduating from UC Santa Cruz, Guneet Hora is working to ensure an effective and comprehensive defense for low-income clients. Her education in the Legal Studies Program inspired her to address inequities in the justice and immigration systems.
El Centro’s Xiomara Lopez: Nurturing a ‘home away from home’
Director of El Centro, Xiomara Lopez is a legal studies alumni giving back to campus by creating meaningful opportunities for Chicanx and Latinx students at UCSC. As a first-generation college graduate, she is committed to using her leadership skills to build belonging and community to achieve justice in our society and cultivate other changemakers.
More alumni stories
More student stories
Are you one of our alumni? If so, we’d love to stay in touch. Be sure to update your contact and employment information with the campus, so that we can celebrate your successes and keep you in the loop on opportunities. You can also follow our program on social media at the links on the bottom of this page.
Support legal studies
Your gift will support the interdisciplinary exploration of legal ideas, institutions, and issues, with a focus on the integral roles of law in social life. With your help, we can bolster understanding of the law’s complex relationship to values, culture, and historical, political, and economic forces and engage with shifting views on issues like justice, rights, liberty, and equality.
Legal Studies Program by the numbers
2,000
students per year take legal studies courses at UC Santa Cruz
1 in 4
legal studies majors participate in credit-bearing internship or field experience
3.8
years time to degree, on average for undergraduates entering as first-years
38%
of students take courses focused on diversity
1 in 5
students assist faculty in conducting research during their time at UCSC
77%
of recent graduates plan to pursue law school or other graduate programs