Bachelor of Socio-Legal Studies
Three years full-time
Four years full-time (honours)
The Bachelor of Socio-Legal Studies is designed for students who are interested in studying and understanding legal ideas, institutions and practices from the perspectives of the humanities and social sciences. It is not a professional law degree, but an opportunity to engage with the ever-changing relationship between law and society using the methods of a broad range of humanities and social science disciplines, including history, philosophy, political science, sociology, social policy, performance studies, anthropology, literary studies, and economics. It combines a clear focus on the core socio-legal subjects with the breadth provided by a second major in Arts as well as a pool of related electives in Arts and Economics and Business.
Whether your interest is participating in the many exciting fields of research studying legal ideas and institutions in their historical, cultural and social contexts, or working in the fields of professional practice that link an understanding of law with other forms of knowledge, the Bachelor of Socio-Legal Studies will provide you with the skills and capacities you need. As well as giving you a solid starting point for a research degree in the socio-legal arenas, the degree provides the foundation for a wide variety of professional fields which lie outside the legal profession itself, but articulate closely with it, such as social policy, government and business administration and management, non-government organisations, criminology, and public advocacy.
The basic requirements for the Bachelor of Socio-Legal Studies are:
- a major in socio-legal studies comprising two junior units and six senior units
- a second major from the Part A list of subjects in the Faculty of Arts
- related Socio-Legal senior units from a pool of units in the Faculties of Arts and Economics and Business.
An additional honours year is also available for suitably qualified students.
| Core Major |
|---|
| Socio-Legal Studies |
Staff Profile
Law pervades almost every aspect of our lives, and plays an ever-increasingly significant role in managing conflict and regulating social, economic, political and cultural relations. The Bachelor of Socio-Legal Studies will meet the needs of everyone aiming to work in the ever-expanding range of professions and occupations requiring the particular combination of knowledge, skills and capacities associated with the study of law from the perspectives of the humanities and the social sciences.
Associate Professor Robert van Krieken’s fields of interest include social and legal theory, childhood, family law, law and social science, celebrity and law, crime and social theory, Indigenous legal issues such as native title and the Stolen Generations, law and state formation, multiculturalism and law, and law and processes of civilization and decivilization. After gaining his Bachelor of Arts and PhD from the University of New South Wales, he completed an LLB at the University of Sydney, after which he established the Socio-Legal program at Sydney. He is currently completing an ARC-funded project examining the range of recent changes to family law from a historical and sociological perspective, as well as commencing a new comparative study of the legal dimensions of multiculturalism and social integration in Australia and the Netherlands, and on the structure and dynamics of ‘celebrity society’.
Associate Professor Robert van Krieken
Director, Bachelor of Socio-Legal Studies
Pathways
| Year One | Year Two | Year Three | |||
| Semester 1 | Semester 2 | Semester 1 | Semester 2 | Semester 1 | Semester 2 |
| SLSS1001 Intro. to Socio-Legal Studies | SLSS1003 Law and Contemporary Society | Related Socio-Legal Senior Unit Choice | SLSS2603 Medico-Legal and Forensic Criminology | SCLG2601 Sociological Theory | SCLG2615 Law and Social Theory |
| Arts (Part A or B) Junior Unit Choice | Arts (Part A or B) Junior Unit Choice | Related Socio-Legal Senior Unit Choice | Related Socio-Legal Senior Unit Choice | PHIL2645 Philosophy of Law | Related Socio-Legal Senior Unit Choice |
| Arts (Part A or B) Junior Unit Choice | Arts (Part A or B) Junior Unit Choice | Arts (Part A) Major Senior Unit | Related Socio-Legal Senior Unit Choice | Related Socio-Legal Senior Unit Choice | Arts (Part A) Major Senior Unit |
| Arts (Part A) Major Junior Unit | Arts (Part A) Major Junior Unit | Arts (Part A) Major Senior Unit | Arts (Part A) Major Senior Unit | Arts (Part A) Major Senior Unit | Arts (Part A) Major Senior Unit |
| 24 credits | 24 credits | 24 credits | 24 credits | 24 credits | 24 credits |
| Core units of study and semester offerings are subject to change | Total 144 credits | ||||