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Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence is another Legal Studies program emerging and deals specifically with general legal scholarship (philosophy) compared to traditional Bachelor of Arts/Science in Legal Studies mostly designed for paralegals, legal assistants, or legal secretaries. Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence deals with general theories of law: nature of law, organization of law, functions of law, limits of law, origins of law, development of law, application of law, and impact of law and justice on society. While traditional law school focuses on application of law and legal advocacy, a bachelor in Jurisprudence is designed to introduce general theories of law, theories of justice, political and social philosophies. Colleges and universities that offer Legal Studies programs used it mostly for paraprofessionals in law. The Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence allows students to learn these skills and knowledge for Legal Administration students but the core principle of the programs is to teach students to think critically and analyze complex and general theories of law and those who graduate from these programs often go onto Law Schools to become lawyers. The two undergraduate schools that currently offer these Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence are the University of Baltimore and Montclair State University. Amherst College offers a program almost similar to this. University of California School of Law at Berkeley offers a Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy for those who do not intend to be lawyers but would want to have a general knowledge in theories of law. Many of the students are admitted to this program following the completion of their BA degrees and there is no prior legal education required for admission to the JSP Program. University of Baltimore has been offering this degree almost since 1984 and Montclair State University is currently working on developing the same program in Jurisprudence. The degree in Jurisprudence also aimed to helping pre-law students to gain critical research and analysis because these skills are important for any students willing to go onto Law Schools.

Sources:

University of Baltimore, Maryland. UB Website: http://www.ubalt.edu/cla_template.cfm?page=1601

Montclair State University, Montclair. MSU Website: http://www.chss.montclair.edu/legalstudies/programs/undergraduate/jurisprudence/jurismajor.html

University of California, Berkeley. UC Website: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/jsp/about/index.html