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JSP Program

Boalt Hall's Jurisprudence and Social Policy (JSP) Program offers a unique interdisciplinary graduate program leading to M.A. and Ph.D. degrees for students interested in:

• the scholarly study of legal ideas and institutions from the standpoint of one or more of the basic disciplines, e.g., history, economics, philosophy, sociology or political science;
• policy analysis and applied research on law-related issues in such fields as criminal justice, poverty and discrimination, urban planning, and environmental protection;
• preparation for teaching legal studies in an undergraduate curriculum; or
• interdisciplinary preparation for teaching law.

Admission to the JSP Program does not require a juris doctor (J.D.) degree, and completion of the JSP Program in itself does not lead to a J.D. degree. Students may apply to both the law school's J.D. and JSP Programs; however, admission to one does not guarantee admission to the other.

Applicants have two options:

1. to seek admission to the JSP Program alone, leading to the Ph.D. degree without a J.D. Degree, or
2. to seek admission to both programs leading, if admitted to both, to the J.D. And Ph.D. degrees. Completion of the first option normally takes about five years and completion of the second option includes an additional year or more.

A fundamental objective of the JSP Program is to focus the knowledge and perspectives of the social sciences and humanities on the analysis of law and law-related policies, and on the practice and teaching of law. To this end, Boalt Hall's faculty includes scholars from economics, history, philosophy, political science, psychology and sociology who, with other law faculty (many of whom have higher degrees in areas outside the law), design and teach special courses in the JSP Program. The law school regularly invites visiting scholars to teach in the program, and JSP students are encouraged to take courses outside the law school curriculum. The result is an interdisciplinary program focused on law and social policy that draws strength from a faculty unusually rich in varied intellectual resources, as well as from a campus that is world renowned for its scholarly offerings.

Students in the JSP Program are formally enrolled in Boalt Hall (although, as noted above, they need not have, nor be working toward, a J.D. Degree). JSP students are regularly appointed as teaching assistants in Berkeley's undergraduate Legal Studies Program for which the law faculty is responsible. Besides providing some financial support, teaching assistant positions give JSP students an opportunity to develop teaching skills.

JSP students must fulfill the requirements of UC Berkeley's Graduate Division for the Ph.D. degree, including:

1. an academic residency of four semesters,
2. passage of a foreign language examination,
3. two written field exams,
4. an oral qualifying examination, and
5. preparation of a doctoral dissertation.

The JSP Program also includes the following requirements:

• Students must gain and demonstrate basic knowledge in law and social science research. Students without prior legal education take the equivalent of two first-year courses in the J.D. Program and such other work in law as may be appropriate to their background and objectives. Those without prior education in social science research take quantitative methods courses and, if needed, additional work in social science. All students begin with an orientation seminar in Jurisprudence and Social Policy that provides an overview of the field and highlights possible areas for research.
• Students must pursue a course of studies directed at mastering the general issues and basic literature that constitute the core of Jurisprudence and Social Policy. They also must specialize in two substantively defined areas of knowledge and research, such as criminal justice, family, economic regulation or sociology of law.

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Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program Website