BRYN MAWR

Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research

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MASTER OF LAW AND SOCIAL POLICY

MLSP Description

MLSP Degree Requirements

MLSP Course Offerings

MASTER OF LAW AND SOCIAL POLICY
Program Description

The Law and Social Policy program is designed for professionals in social work, in other human service professions, or in public administration and policy analysis related to social welfare.  All levels of professional practice can benefit from the rigorous examination of legal processes, their relationship to the delivery of human services, and their role in shaping policy.  The MLSP is awarded upon completion of all requirements.

The program consists of seven required courses, plus a non-credit Special Project, which convey basic knowledge about the law and basic skills of legal analysis, legal research, and advocacy, and mediation.  The central purpose of the program is to apply these skills to substantive and administrative problems in all human service fields including mental health, income maintenance, family and child welfare, race relations, criminal justice, dispute resolution, or education.  The program encourages students to identify and work critically with fundamental values underlying all levels of policy and practice in the human services: fair procedure, equal treatment, and personal liberty.  Students also take part in supervised field work.

Students may register for part- or full-time study.  Courses are taught in the late afternoon and early evening during the academic year and during a four-week summer session, which typically runs from mid-May to mid-June, during which classes are held in the morning.

Applications to the MLSP Program may be submitted:

(1)          after successful completion of a MSS, MSW, or related master's degree

              program (post-masters students); or

(2)          in conjunction with the application to Bryn Mawr's MSS program (students

              uncertain about applying to both programs simultaneously may simply wait

              until they have completed one year in the MSS program); or

(3)          after successful completion of one year in Bryn Mawr's MSS program.

Degree candidates in the MSS or Ph.D. programs may enroll in any of the Law and Social Policy courses, subject to the requirements of those programs and to the availability of space.

M.L.S.P. DEGREE REQUIREMENTS 

General Requirements

Students may apply to the M.L.S.P. program:

              1. After successful completion of a M.S.S., M.S.W. or related master’s degree program,

              2. After successful completion of one year in Bryn Mawr’s M.S.S. program, or

              3. Concurrently with their admission to Bryn Mawr’s M.S.S. program.

Seven courses plus a non-credit field based Special Project are required.

Students must take:

401 Introduction to Legal Processes

402 Social Functions of Law

404 Advocacy and Negotiation

409 Legal Writing and Research

410 Principles of Constitutional Law

411 Family Law

Plus:

408 Special Topics in Law and Social Policy

                            OR, in place of 408, students may select another masters or Ph.D. elective after

                            consultation with the Director of the M.L.S.P. program.

Plus:  Complete a Law and Social Policy Special Project -- a thesis-type document that explores a topic

               taken from the student’s field of interest.

Instructions for Joint M.S.S./M.L.S.P. Candidates

M.S.S. students who are also candidates for the M.L.S.P. degree are permitted to count up to three M.L.S.P. courses to meet M.S.S. requirements.

Field Instruction assignments for joint-degree candidates must be developed in consultation with the Director of Field Instruction.  Following registration for second year M.S.S. Field Instruction, all students are required to discuss the Special Project with the Director of the M.L.S.P. program.

 MLSP COURSE OFFERINGS*

401        Introduction to Legal Processes

This course is an introduction to the American legal system and to legal method.  It concentrates on fundamental skills of legal analysis and legal reasoning, the processes by which courts, legislatures and administrative agencies resolve problems, and the interdependence of legal institutions.

402        Social Functions of Law

Law is capable of performing, and is called upon to perform, multiple functions within society. These functions may, and often do, come into tension with one another. One of the challenges facing both courts and legislatures is balancing the sometimes contending purposes law serves. Social workers, in their role as advocates, need to critically analyze the use of the law as an advocacy tool and a vehicle for social change. In this course we will use the law’s treatment of racial (in)equality as a lens through which we will closely examine historical and current examples of law in action and evaluate the law’s effectiveness in addressing critical social issues.

In our readings and discussions we will focus on the ways in which the courts, particularly the United States Supreme Court, have balanced the various functions that law performs. We will explore how and why the balance struck may change over time as the weight given each of these respective functions changes. We will give close reading to significant cases in the evolution of equal protection law as well as supporting commentary to consider how courts have weighed the various potential purposes law can serve at different points in our nation’s history, what and whose interests the balance struck serves, what and how various societal interests have been emphasized or discounted, alternative choices the Court might have made, and the social impact of the choices made by the Court. We will examine the process by which judges reason their way through the competing functions of the law to “correctly” decide cases. We will also consider whether the law is asked to perform functions for which it is not well-suited and, if so, how social concerns might be better addressed. 

This course is relevant to the clinical, management and policy/advocacy concentrations.

404        Advocacy and Negotiation

This course has two foci: The first is advocate roles in settings where social work and law converge.  We examine advocacy opportunities in courts, legislatures, and regulatory agencies and in each explore both skill requirements and, more important, the implications for law reform.  The second focus is dispute resolution and the civil process,  with special attention to theory and tactics associated with negotiation and mediation.

406        Equality and the Law

This course focuses on the treatment of equality as a central value of the legal and social system.  Students learn to appreciate the factors that contribute to equal treatment and how questions of equality are dealt with in American society.

407        Personal Rights and the Public Interest

This course examines the legal and social consequences of defining, protecting, and challenging the rights of individuals in the modern regulatory state.  Students learn the types of interests that must be balanced when there is a conflict between individual and societal rights.  They also gain an appreciation of how the law addresses this delicate balance.

408    Special Topics in Law and Social Policy

The course is designed to explore the ways in which changes in legal status of women have impacted public policy.  We will examine this in the context of 1) family law, family court proceedings, with an emphasis on family violence; 2) reproductive and sexual rights, with an emphasis on the impact of legal restrictions to reproductive freedom that impact on poor and young women, and 3) violence against women.  Class discussions will include the historical and cultural debates that have framed and shaped legal issues and public policy affecting women.

409        Legal Writing and Research

This course concentrates on some of the distinctive forms of legal writing and provides practical experience writing case analyses and drafting legal arguments.  The course also provides guidance in conducting basic legal research, using a law library, and citing legal materials according to conventional protocols.  The ultimate aim is to deepen students' understanding of the legal dimensions of professional practice and prepare them to research practice-based issues.

410        Principles of Constitutional Law

This course introduces students to United States constitutional law and its role as a source of principles for addressing social problems.  Issues such as equal treatment, fair procedure, personal liberty, privacy, religious freedom, free speech, federalism, and governmental authority will be examined.  The unfolding of constitutional law within an evolving American political-economic context will also be explored.

411        Family Law

This course examines concepts and rules of the main areas of law designated “domestic relations” (marriage, divorce, custody, support).  The strengths and limits of the law in relation to this topical area will also be explored, as well as the role of government in regulating private behavior, and the effectiveness and limits of law in creating cultural understandings.

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Last modified November 2007 — Bryn Mawr College GSSWSR