Minor in Law, Ethics, and Constitutional Studies (7 Courses)

The minor in Law, Ethics, and Constitutional Studies (LEX) helps students appreciate the nation's constitutional order and its roots in the Western political and philosophical traditions. Jointly sponsored by the Political Science and Philosophy Departments, LEX engages constitutionalism, ethics, and the law through thinkers ranging from Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant to James Madison and John Marshall. In coursework based upon The American Founding, Constitutional Law, Logic, and the Philosophy of Law, students become familiar with political and philosophical texts like the Federalist Papers and The Treatise on Law, and landmark legal documents like the Mayflower Compact, the Constitution of the United States, and Marbury v. Madison. Students will approach these not merely as technical works but as political and philosophical texts that reflect ethical judgments, texts that must continue to be interpreted through the deliberate reflection of a political community.

The reasoning, rhetorical, and writing capacities students develop in the Law, Ethics, and Constitutional Studies minor are ideally suited to graduate school, law school, and employment in a variety of fields, such as government, teaching, journalism, law, and business. Not a pre-professional program, LEX helps students, whatever their future careers, to develop into citizens ready to take their places in the philosophical and constitutional tradition of America and the West. Drawing on the unique strengths of Assumption University as a Catholic liberal arts institution, the LEX minor in Law, Ethics, and Constitutional Studies is designed for those who want to acquire the liberal arts skills essential to professional and personal excellence, as well as to all those who aspire to thoughtful citizenship.

The Law, Ethics, and Constitutional Studies Minor consists of seven courses: four specified courses, two courses selected from Electives List A, and one course selected from Electives List B.