By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences is launching an undergraduate major and minor in fall 2024 — Law and Justice. 

The Law and Justice program will examine the relationships among law, politics and society in the United States and abroad in a program developed by UK’s Political Science Department, with insight from a wide variety of experts, including political science faculty, law school faculty and alumni.

In the program, students develop expertise in the topic of law and courts and acquire skills in analytics and logic, writing, composition and communication. They also learn to conduct original research. 

Law and Justice is aimed at undergraduate students who want to pursue law or obtain such law-adjacent positions as: legislators, lobbyists, judges or mediators. It focuses on courses that address judicial processes, including courses on judicial institutions, lawmaking institutions and the intersections of law, politics and society. Demand for such a program at UK over and above the political science major has been evident for some time. 

“According to one previous analysis, many UK undergraduates express an interest in studying the legal system,” said Michael Zilis, associate professor of political science. “Among the cohort entering the university in fall 2022, for example, 580 expressed a ‘pre-law’ interest. Yet no program at UK offers a curriculum designed specifically to meet the needs of those students. In creating a new program in Law and Justice, UK will be able to better meet the strategic goal of putting students first with a curriculum that would benefit students in multiple ways.”  

Not only is there demand for this major among students, but there is market demand for college graduates with this training as well. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the legal field is estimated to grow by approximately 10% by 2031—a higher-than-average growth rate. Furthermore, median salaries for these careers are relatively high compared to average occupational wages.

Among the new core courses that will form the core of the major are: 

• Introduction to Law and Justice (major/minor requirement): An interdisciplinary introduction to foundational issues concerning law and the legal system. 
• Rights and Equality (major/minor requirement): A study of the concept of equality and the struggle for rights in society with an emphasis on the relationships between and historical developments concerning equality, rights and the law.   
• Law and Justice Research Capstone (major requirement): Students will develop and implement research projects on topics of their own choice.  

One of the distinguishing features of the Law and Justice major will be its interdisciplinary training, recognizing that success in the legal field requires tools from multiple perspectives. In addition to standard political sciences courses that are common with pre-law programs, Law and Justice incentivizes students to take courses from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, philosophy, English, history, classics, rhetoric, and statistics. The program also offers a global perspective with electives on topics like comparative judicial politics, international human rights, the European Union, the dynamics of international law, and international organizations. 

Ultimately, the program will help students hone skills that will assist them in legal careers. 

The College of Arts and Sciences also is launching a second new undergraduate major this fall: Statistics and Data Science. The new Bachelor of Science degree will equip students to execute all stages of data analysis, from acquisition and exploration to application of statistics and machine learning methods for the creation of data.  

Learn more about the law and justice major here and the statistics and data science major here. 

The College of Arts and Sciences will host information sessions for the new majors on campus this fall: 

Law and Justice Major 

• 3 p.m. Sept. 3 in Gatton Student Center room 331 

• 3 p.m. Oct. 14 in Gatton Student Center room 331 

Statistics and Data Science Major 

• 5 p.m. Sept. 5 in Gatton Student Center room 331 

• 5 p.m. Oct. 16 in Jacobs Sciences Building room 161N