Law (Bachelor of Science, B.S.)
The Bachelor of Law provides students with an undergraduate legal education that teachers legal reasoning, substantive law, critical analysis, and professional ethics. The Bachelor of Law provides undergraduate law students with core competencies and skills required for all law-related work. Required law courses are taught by faculty with the appropriate terminal degrees who have both formal legal training and practical experience teaching law and legal reasoning.
This program prepares students for careers in law firms, legal departments of banks, insurance companies, land title insurance companies, corporate legal departments, legal aid offices, public defender offices, the office of the prosecuting attorney, and municipal legal departments.
To graduate from the program, students must:
- Satisfactorily complete all courses required in the program;
- Perform legal research and analysis by using legal research material;
- Draft and prepare legal documents;
- Identify and explain the various functions performed by various legal professionals;
- Explain the role of the paralegal in the legal profession;
- Identify ethical issues, rules and standards that a paralegal must follow when working under an attorney's supervision (a paralegal's conduct is expected to conform to these ethical standards);
- Perform the functions of a paralegal under the supervision of a practicing attorney.
Paralegals are not permitted to practice law in the state of Missouri. Only attorneys who are licensed in the state by the state Supreme Court are permitted to practice law.
Students who choose this bachelor degree program will have no more than 6 years from admission or subsequent declaration to meet the requirements listed below. If certification, accreditation or statutory requirements change and additional requirements become effective during this time, the new requirements take precedence.
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| General Studies | 42 | |
| Students must complete General Studies courses | ||
| Major Requirements | 45 | |
| CRJ 260 | Criminal Law | 3 |
| CRJ 410 | Criminal Procedure | 3 |
| GBA 211 | Business Law I | 3 |
| LAT 101 | Introduction to Law | 3 |
| LAT 115 | Paralegal Studies | 3 |
| LAT 220 | Legal Research | 3 |
| LAT 225 | Litigation | 3 |
| LAT 250 | Legal Computer Applications | 3 |
| LAT 310 | Legal Drafting | 3 |
| LAT 335 | Interpersonal Conflict Resolution | 3 |
| LAT 400 | Advanced Legal Research | 3 |
| PHL 219 | Reasoning and Argumentation | 3 |
| PHL 230 | Ethics | 3 |
| or PHL 232 | Business Ethics | |
| PSC 110 | American State and Local Government | 3 |
| PSC 210 | Comparative Political Systems | 3 |
| Applied Learning Experience Requirement | 3 | |
| Practicum I | ||
| Internship | ||
| Independent Research/Project | ||
| Independent Research/Project | ||
| Twelve credit hours of restricted electives from the following (or choice of a second major, minor or approved certificate): | 12 | |
| Juvenile Law and Procedures | ||
| Business Law II | ||
| Employment Law | ||
| United States Constitutional History | ||
| Philosophy of Law | ||
or PHL 316 | Philosophy of Law | |
| Study Away in Criminal Justice and Legal Studies | ||
| Probate Law | ||
| Domestic Relations | ||
| Civil Rights Law | ||
| Conflict Management | ||
| Introduction to Philosophy | ||
| American National Government | ||
| Judicial Process | ||
| Constitutional Law | ||
| Substance Use and Disorders | ||
| Family and Child Welfare | ||
| Restricted electives may also be met with credit from an approved 3+3 law school program or with approved undergraduate credit from a foreign university. | ||
Note: Students desiring to take 500 level courses to satisfy the criminalistics elective must meet the criteria required for undergraduates to enroll in graduate level courses.
Program Graduation Requirements
- No more than 2 courses with a grade of D permitted in major and concentration coursework.
- Earn an overall GPA of at lease 2.0 and a major GPA of at least 2.0.
University Graduation Requirements
- Earn a minimum of 120 credit hours (100 level and higher, maximum of 6 CED credit hours applicable).
- Earn a minimum of 30 credit hours in upper-division courses. Lower-division transfer courses accepted as meeting upper-division departmental course requirements cannot be used to fulfill this requirement.
- Earn 30 of the last 45 credit hours at MWSU in institutional coursework (exclusive of credit by examination).
- Participate in required departmental and campus wide assessments.
- Fulfill the Missouri Constitution requirement.
- Successfully pass the Missouri Higher Education Civics Achievement exam.