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    Law and Social Change

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    Office of Admission

    Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts
    79 Fifth Avenue, 5th floor 
    New York, NY 10003 
    Phone: 212.229.5150 or 
    800.292.3040
    Fax: 212.229.5355
    [email protected]

    Program Contact

    Program Director, Law and Social Change
    Quentin Bruneau
    Assistant Professor, Politics
    [email protected]

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    Launch Experience

  • In the Law and Social Change minor, you learn how law can be employed as an instrument of social change. You examine how law and legal institutions exert power and control, how the law produces systemic forms of harm, and how law can be a mode of democratic transformation.

    • Study Options Minor

    Moving beyond the technical jargon typical of legal education, the Law and Social Change minor is designed to demystify the law. Students are introduced to the world of law in the context of a socially and critical conscious liberal arts education. Learn how the law is relevant to your real life experiences and other scholarly interests, and deepen your understanding of how law can be challenged and used to address and undo harm. Law and Social Change minors have the opportunity to engage with activist legal practices in New York City.

    Minor requirements

    Connecting to New York City

    While it offers the atmosphere and intimacy of a small college, Eugene Lang College is part of The New School, a major progressive university in New York City. Our location in the heart of Greenwich Village allows Law and Social Change minors opportunities to engage with legal activist practices in New York City. The city and The New School become your laboratories in which you examine and address contemporary legal challenges. 

    Career Paths

    Law and Social Change minors learn concepts in key domains upon which they can build as they pursue careers with nonprofit organizations and advanced study in fields such as constitutional law, criminal justice, and property law. They become familiar with practitioners and organizations pursuing legal strategies in the context of contemporary social movements. Consult our 4-Year Lang Career Pathways Map (PDF) for helpful steps and resources to link your academic journey to your future plans. 

    Outcomes at Lang

  • Courses

    Explore a selection of courses available to you in this program.

    • LLAW 3009

      Human Rights of Migrants

      Does international human rights law apply universally, regardless of migration status? How and why does the human rights system distinguish between different categories of migrants (refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, ‘irregular’ migrants, migrant workers), and are these distinctions normat...

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    • UGLB 3210

      Introduction to International Law

      This course is designed as an introduction to the basic concepts and principles of public international law. The object is to provide students with a working knowledge of the structural foundations of international law and the relevant bodies through which it is effected -- states, international an...

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    • LSOC 2305

      Race, Law and Anti-Asian Violence

      Critical Race Theory, as a genre and movement of scholarship, teaching, and advocacy, examines the social and legal construction of race from the perspectives and narratives of the racially marginalized. Identified as the central object of analysis in this theoretical perspective, race has emerged a...

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  • Noteworthy

    A selection of news and announcements about the Law and Social Change program and Eugene Lang College

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Submit your application

Undergraduates

To apply to any of our undergraduate programs (except the Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs) complete and submit the Common App online.

Undergraduate Adult Learners

To apply to any of our Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

Graduates

To apply to any of our Master's, Doctoral, Professional Studies Diploma, and Graduate Certificate programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.