Amherst College Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought

The Department of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought (LJST) places the study of law within the context of a liberal arts education.

The Department offers courses that treat law as an historically evolving and culturally specific enterprise in which moral argument, distinctive interpretive practices, and force are brought to bear on the organization of social life. These courses use legal materials to explore conventions of reading, argument and proof, problems of justice and injustice, tensions between authority and community, and contests over social meanings and practices.