Law and Society
Bachelor of Arts
(Faculty of Arts)
Laws are fundamental to any successful society. Throughout history, as communities and countries have struggled to create and nurture robust economies and higher standards of living for their citizens, social and legal institutions have been essential to their efforts. Law and Society is the study of how legal and social systems are interconnected, how people live and how law is woven into communities. Students gain an understanding of what happens when legal innovations and institutions succeed and when they fail.
The international scope of the Law and Society program investigates how legal systems affect every aspect of life and compares legal systems from several jurisdictions, regions and cultures including North America, Great Britain, Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Students learn about political, social, and legal concepts and, statutes as well as public advocacy documents, public debates about socio-legal issues, statistical and analytical research studies and court and tribunal decisions. As well, students study the founding and central tenets of Canadian jurisprudence and examine Canadian political and legal history.
As an interdisciplinary liberal arts program, the Law and Society major encompasses many diverse disciplines of study – among them anthropology, economics, humanities, business management, philosophy, economics, political science and sociology.
The program gives students strong critical and theoretical skills as well as broad appreciation of socio-legal movements. It emphasizes research and reasoning, and offers students opportunities to explore a variety of political, legal and social systems. Students investigate their own beliefs, notions and experiences – and develop new perspectives. They learn to search out, analyze and write about complex legal and social concepts and issues. As a discipline, Law and Society, provides an opportunity to gain a broad and intricate knowledge of legal and social institutions that contribute to students becoming engaged and active citizens in local, national and international spheres.
The Co-operative Education version of the program will give you the opportunity to gain valuable work experience in up to four paid work terms of three months each. For details see our Co-op website.Admission Requirements
To be considered for admission applicants are required to present the appropriate high school subjects and a competitive average.
Application/Document Deadlines
Why take this program?
Experiential learning
Being a responsible and engaged member of democratic society like Canada’s requires that individuals seek, understand and manipulate complex ideas and issues. The Law and Society at the University of Calgary provides and the opporunity to develop broad capacities through exposure to diverse political, legal and social systems. Students develop strong critical, analytical written and oral skills through active classroom discussion. Law and Society students also acquire team-building skills through work on group projects. Enthusiastic and capable, senior-level students may pursue individualized research projects through the faculty’s Honours program.
Understanding your world
If you are interested in understanding social and legal ideas and institutions that underpin our society, the Law and Society program will engage you. Laws provide the essential founding elements of any successful society. As we watch former Eastern Bloc and developing countries struggle to create robust economies and higher standards of living, it is clear the rule of law is essential to this effort. For example, countries such as Poland, which have concentrated on creating and maintaining strong legal institutions are far more successful and demonstrate more economic and political stability than those that have ignored the essential role of law in building and maintaining society.
Make the connection
By providing a good theoretical and research base, the Law and Society program makes the links between society and law clear. During the program, students will gain exposure to political, social and legal concepts, laws and statutes, public advocacy documents, public debates about socio-legal issues, statistical and analytical research studies and court and tribunal decisions.
What will I study in my first year?
In your first year you will study Law and Society 201, which provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the role of law in society with an emphasis on the Canadian legal system. You will examine different theories of membership, law and civil society Students will explore the manner in which laws are constructed and exercised within different social contexts. As well, in Law and Society 203 you will examine the specific insitutional arrangements of Canada’s legal and political systems. You will learn about the legal matrix which supports the fabric of Canadian society.
You should also explore other introductory courses offered by he Faculty of Arts. Many courses offered in the interdisciplinary programs and through the Department of Communication and Culture are considered part of the “field” of Law and Society and are therefore applicable to a Law and Society program. The relatively open nature of the Law and Society first year makes it an ideal time to explore a wide variety of courses in other areas that might interest you: Sociology, Art History, Languages, Philosophy, or Literature. As you plot your academic career, bear in mind as well that by taking these courses in your first year, you are also acquiring prerequisites for upper-year courses that may be credited toward your Law and Society major or toward a minor in a different academic area.What will I study in later years?
Law and Society 335 examines constitutional and statutory protections surrounding equality. The course looks at equality and discrimination associated with gender, race, class, and sexual orientation. Topics may include employment law, civil law, criminal law, reproductive rights and family law.
In Law and Society 337, students will explore how individuals and groups create, maintain and follow non-legal codes of conduct. The course introduces the law's relationship to non-regulatory concepts of deportment found in such things as social manners, community mores, religious beliefs as well as consciously "legislated" group mechanisms such as professional codes of conduct and mission statements.
Law and Society 412 students study the conceptions of rights in the writings of J.S. Mill and 20th- and 21st-century philosophers. The course analyzes liberalism and its legal and political critics. Law and Society 591 is an advanced seminar integrating philosophical, theoretical, social, and legal approaches to understanding the workings of law in society. Students also often have opportunities to study in special topics courses dealing with a particular current concerns, or to take supervised individual study on a specialized topic in Law and Society.
In addition you will take a pair of courses that many students describe as life-changing experiences: General Studies 300 and General Studies 500. These courses integrate a breathtaking sweep of knowledge and culture from the Greeks and Romans to present-day thinkers and artists, demanding that students engage in a personal search for meaning and place in an uncertain world. These courses expose you to the evolution of modern ideas through some of the most influential thinkers of the past.
In upper years you may choose to enrich your educational experience through a number of other opportunities. General Studies 407 integrates learning with a community-based service project. Some upper-year students choose to deepen their learning by acting as peer mentors for junior students while they learn the theoretical background of knowledge building (GNST 507 and 509).
It is also possible to take Honours in Law and Society. Students who meet the requirements set by the Faculty of Arts may apply for Honours at the end of their third year. Honours students enroll in GNST 590, the Honours seminar, and complete a large research paper under the supervision of a faculty member.
What can I do with this degree?
A degree in Law and Society prepares students for careers or further education in wide range of areas including law, diplomacy, civil service, law enforcement, policy development and analysis, journalism, publishing, and business. Graduates have gone on to a variety of careers:
- Community Development Officer
- Community Program Developer
- Contract Administrator
- Entrepeneur
- Human Resources Consultant
- Lawyer
- Police Constable
- Policy Advisor
- Project Coordinator
- Regulatory Superintendent
- Research Consultant
- Resource Analyst
- Risk Manager
- Security Coordinator
- Social Activist
Additional information
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