College of Arts & Sciences

Comparative Law and Society Studies (CLASS) Center

Created by Michael McCann, professor and chair of the department of Political Science and acting director of the Society and Justice Program, the Comparative Law and Society Studies (CLASS) Center aims to promote interdisciplinary study of changing legal practices in local, national, and transnational contexts around the world. The new center will bring together pioneering scholars on the UW faculty within a new institutional infrastructure for the purpose of promoting new theorizing, research, and curriculum development regarding legal relations in the contemporary global context. This progressive agenda developed in this new venture differs dramatically from most existing law and society programs around the nation in its:

1. Commitment to a truly integrated interdisciplinary intellectual approach;
2. Analytical focus on law as a constitutive force within social interaction rather than just as formal artifacts of states;
3. Emphasis on the comparative study of legal cultures; and
4. Attention to the legal dimensions of globalization, democratization, and related transformative processes.

Three institutional components of the Center will advance this innovative intellectual agenda:

1. A cutting-edge interdisciplinary undergraduate program;
2. New modes of graduate instruction and research activity; and
3. A coordinated support network for faculty research and grant generation.

Building on existing strengths at the UW, the CLASS Center initiative will create the most innovative national program for the comparative study of law, societies, and justice in our changing world.

To view the webiste for the Comparative Law and Societies Studies Center, please click here.

The Provost's Office
provost@u.washington.edu
Modified: May 11, 2004