Undergraduate Certificate Justice Studies Law & Legal Process

A full-fledged review of the justice system's response to the establishment and maintenance of family in the American culture. How the family is defined, its heritage of rights and protections and the differentiated roles of parent and child are central considerations. Further review includes a look at family dissolution, divorce, custody and support disputes and the ongoing problems of visitation. The emerging problems of spousal and child abuse will be keenly analyzed and how the legal systems provide protection from these abuses will be closely scrutinized.

This course covers the juvenile justice system, with special emphasis on the way it procedurally differs from adult offender adjudication. The parts of the juvenile justice system, hearings, due process standards and constitutional mandates are fully reviewed. Status offenders and other youth classifications are considered, together with a historical summary of juvenile court philosophy. New trends in the procedural disposition of juveniles especially transfer to adult jurisdiction, types of punishment, suitability of the death penalty are discussed.

A procedural law course which includes a review of the law of arrests, search, and seizure, the making of bail, adjudication, pre- and post-trial activities and the nature of plea bargaining. Substantial emphasis is given the constitutional protections afforded through the Bill of Rights, particularly the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 14th. The course deals extensively with case law applications of these principles and the role of judge and jurist in the crafting of criminal process standards.

An examination of death penalty policies in the American justice system from a legal, ethical and jurisprudential perspective. An analysis of case and statutory law, the principles of due process and appellate rights are included.

An interdisciplinary course covering law, criminal justice, science, and technological issues in the evidentiary arena. Coverage in the course provides a broad-based assessment of expert witnesses, microanalysis, pathological evidence, admissibility and investigatory practice, ballistics, fingerprints, vascar/radar, and photographic techniques. Contrasted with criminalistics, subject matter of this course is primarily evidentiary. More particularly, the course will delve into the rules of evidence, which guide the admissibility of forensic evidence in a court of law. Examination includes threshold tests for reliability and admissibility, qualification of witnesses competent to testify, scientific rigor required for admission and case law determinations on the use and abuse of scientific evidence.

Course exposes participants to administrative law theory and the practical aspects of administrative law practice, both within and outside the administrative agency. Coverage equips the student with the necessary skills to understand, apply, and research relevant statutory and regulatory provisions at the federal and state level, to read, interpret and draft proposed rules and regulations, to become familiar with the process known as the administrative law hearing, the concept of administrative discretion and corresponding remedies. Preliminary drafts of documents, briefs, and opinions relative to the appellate stage of an administrative law proceeding will also be covered.

A comprehensive review of evidentiary principles, both common law and statutory, and how evidentiary standards affect and govern both civil and criminal process. Topical coverage includes: Real and physical evidence, demonstrative substitution, hearsay and first-hand evidence, witness scope and qualification, as well as privilege principles. Both federal and state rules will be interpreted. Students will be required to advocate cases utilizing these evidentiary principles in a mock court environment and to research an area of emerging evidence law.