Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Law Majors for Undergraduates?

From Nelson Tebbe at PrawfsBlawg:

Law Majors for Undergraduates?
Today’s WSJ reports that a consortium of college and university professors is urging college presidents to add an undergraduate major in law. Advocates of the idea are careful to say that they propose only to teach law as a liberal arts subject, not to train professionals. They argue that the non-professional study of law and society ought to have a place in the wider academy, not only in the classroom but also in scholarship. Opponents counter that studying law in colleges is not necessary because interdisciplinary approaches to law have already found a home in law schools, which are increasingly hiring scholars who hold doctorates in other fields. Austin Sarat, a professor at Amherst College, thinks the undergraduate study of law is inevitable: "It's not a question of whether, but when," he is quoted as saying. "After all, law is too important to be left to the lawyers."

No comments: