Spring 2027

Topics in Legal Studies and the Social Sciences

This course links social sciences perspectives to central themes of law and legal institutions, analyzing how social, political, and cultural phenomena shape law and its impacts.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Joseph ContiJoshua MayersMaria-Fatima Santos +1 more

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Alexandra Huneeus

The class required extensive reading and rigorous papers, including a 5-page and a 12-page assignment. One student noted the grading was harsh and competitive.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Analyze how social, political, and cultural phenomena shape law and legal systems.

  • Analyze the social, political, and cultural impacts of law at the societal and individual levels.

  • Assess how legal ideas and ideologies have changed over time and have shaped law and legal systems.

  • Find, interpret, and utilize resources relevant to law and society.

  • Analyze legal arguments and information in broad social and historical contexts, write clearly and persuasively, and construct original arguments.

  • Analyze research methods, engage critically with scholarly literature, and assess debates among scholars and others who have shaped understandings of this topic and field.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
LEGALST 400

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.55 GPA, 78.6% A/AB (n=28 letter grades).

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 3.68 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=22 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.67 GPA, 88.9% A/AB (n=18 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ALEXANDRA HUNEEUS is recorded teaching in Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2010, Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JOSEPH CONTI is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARIA-FATIMA SANTOS is recorded teaching in Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
SEM 042Classroom Instruction0 / 250
SEM 047Classroom Instruction0 / 400
SEM 049Classroom Instruction0 / 300
SEM 051Classroom Instruction0 / 500

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Alexandra Huneeus

Students described this course as engaging with valuable lectures and discussions, provided they followed along correctly and participated actively in class.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.66 GPA, 81.8% A/AB (n=88 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.55 GPA, 74.8% A/AB (n=262 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.68 GPA, 86.2% A/AB (n=87 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Alexandra Huneeus

The class required extensive reading and rigorous papers, including a 5-page and a 12-page assignment. One student noted the grading was harsh and competitive.

Past student reviews · Alexandra Huneeus

Group discussions were considered great if students participated, while lectures could be challenging but rewarding once students got into the flow.

Topics

  • Social sciences perspectives on law and legal institutions
  • Social, political, and cultural phenomena shaping law and legal systems
  • Historical changes in legal ideas and ideologies

Skills

  • Analyzing how social, political, and cultural phenomena shape law and legal systems.
  • Analyzing the social, political, and cultural impacts of law at societal and individual levels.
  • Assessing how legal ideas and ideologies have changed over time and shaped law and legal systems.
  • Finding, interpreting, and utilizing resources relevant to law and society.
  • Analyzing legal arguments in social and historical contexts, writing clearly and persuasively, and constructing original arguments.
  • Analyzing research methods, engaging critically with scholarly literature, and assessing academic debates.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.15 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
LEGALST 400 · Spring 2027

Topics in Legal Studies and the Social Sciences

Recorded 2026-10-29
LEGALST 400 · Spring 2027

The Penitentiary in Global Per

Recorded 2026-10-29
LEGALST 400 · Spring 2027

Surveillance Cultures

Recorded 2026-10-29
LEGALST 400 · Spring 2027

Sociology of International Law

Recorded 2026-10-29
LEGALST 400 · Spring 2027

National Security Law, Policy

Recorded 2026-10-29
LEGALST 400 · Spring 2027

Law and Social Change

Recorded 2026-10-29
LEGALST 400 · Spring 2027

Crim Just, Families & Soc Work

Recorded 2026-10-29
Raw records 
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Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-29

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "ab5a13f4151deabb9a90c6c838be371ceeba2d3e77a6d3118c963af95f9f854b",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "c9cd06eaa45f9ddf7e69faa38b89ff3d3dd995dd",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00"
}