About the PhD in Socio-Legal Studies
The PhD in Socio-Legal Studies is the first doctoral program in Canada in interdisciplinary legal studies
that is not based in a law school. While the academic foundation for our program rests on the contributions of scholars from a number of different disciplines, its scholarship can be distinguished from these disciplinary
approaches by its greater attention to theory, methods, and substantive areas that focus on law and legal regulation as prime objects of investigation.
Research and teaching in the program are organized around three (3) core fields. They reflect the diverse teaching and research of Socio-Legal Studies, and the strong analytical and theoretical orientation of the program, while allowing for students research in a variety of substantive topic areas:
Socio-Legal Theory
Central to this field is the recognition that law and society are mutually constitutive, that is, law is not an external force to which society is subject, but rather represents a dynamic set of codes, practices, categories and deliberations that both shape and are shaped by broader social, political, and economic logics, contexts and relations. Theoretical perspectives on the relationship between law and society informed by sociology, history, philosophy, economics, anthropology, political science, and psychology.
Crime, Law and Governance
Analysis of contemporary modes of security, regulation, and governance, their intersections with various forms of law, and their role in shaping individual and collective practices, identities, and fortunes through designations of illegality, criminality, and disorder. Included within this field is a wide range of substantive areas including, but by not limited to: transnational policing; financial crime; immigration and borders; and police, courts and corrections.
Comparative and Historical Perspectives in Law
Studies of the variations of law across time, place and culture. Included here are various approaches to the social history of law and legal regulation, as well as the analysis of indigenous forms of law, human rights regimes, and both national and transnational forms of regulation and policing.
Degree Requirements
Courses
Fifteen course credits are required. MA students who advance to the PhD (conditional on their acceptance into the PhD program) will not be required to repeat the core theory and methods courses. These will be replaced by six elective credits. Students coming from other universities must complete the core theory and methods courses. PhD students must also successfully complete the Dissertation Proposal Seminar (3 credits) and attend 12 lectures as part of the program Speakers Series.
Comprehensives
Doctoral students are required to complete two comprehensive exams—one in theory and one in a substantive area of socio-legal studies. The purpose of the comprehensives is to prepare the student to do research and to teach in the field at a post-secondary level. Most comprehensives will entail an understanding of interdisciplinary approaches to the study of law and society, how past and current research can be interpreted in the light of different theoretical approaches, and an awareness of gaps in the literature.
Faculty Supervision
The student will form a three-person comprehensive Supervisory Committee for both comprehensives which may or may not be become their dissertation committee. The supervisory committee will also serve as the examining committee.
Scheduling and Relationship to the Dissertation
The normal expectation is that students will complete their course work within the first two years of residence and will then complete their comprehensives in their third year- comprehensive exams will take place twice a year in May and December.
Comprehensive Format
Theory Requirement
Fulfillment of the theory requirement will be met through an oral exam in which the student will respond to questions selected by their comprehensive committee based on an established reading list. Students will be responsible for a reading list of twenty books (or equivalent), of which ten to fifteen are to be selected from the Program’s common list and the remainder from a list of works in the student’s area of interest. The reading list is to be chosen in consultation with, and approved by, the students’ supervisory committee.
Substantive Requirement
Fulfillment of the substantive requirement will be met through written work followed by oral discussion. The written work can take two forms:
- A review of research in an area of specialization that is related to the dissertation. The paper (approximately 40 pages) should demonstrate an understanding of the relevant literature, the different theoretical approaches used to interpret empirical research and an awareness of major debates in this site of research as well as major gaps in theory and research. The area of specialization and the readings to be reviewed will be decided by the student in consultation with their committee. The reading list will consist of the equivalent of 20 books or equivalent.
- Outline of an advanced undergraduate course in a chosen area to include: an academic rationale for the organization of the course providing broad coverage of the field: a rationale for the particular selection of topics; and a list of twenty-four two hour lecture sessions, with readings to accompany each session. Also, the students will write the full text of lecture on one of the topics in the course, to be chosen in consultation with the supervisory committee. This written lecture should be approximately 25-30 pages.
Evaluation of the comprehensives
The assessment of the committee will be that the student has passed or failed. A comprehensive requirement is considered passed if no more than one member of the committee casts a negative vote. In case of failure, a student may choose to be re-examined within three months of the first attempt by the original committee members. Two failures will require the student’s withdrawal from the program.
Dissertation
As part of the dissertation, students will be required to attend a Dissertation Proposal Seminar. Here students will be offered advice on all facets of the dissertation process—including finding a committee, preparing the proposal, conducting the research, writing the dissertation, and getting their work published. During these seminars, students will also be required to present their dissertation proposals to fellow students and faculty. Once again, this is seen as an important mechanism for ensuring that students remain ‘on track’ and are provided with the tools required to complete the dissertation in the four year time frame.
Coursework |
15 Credits |
Comprehensives |
0 Credits |
Dissertation Proposal Seminar |
3 Credits |
Speakers Series |
0 Credits |
Total |
18 Credits |
All doctoral students will be required to be in residence for 2 years and attendance at the Speakers Series lectures is part of the residency requirement. A dissertation proposal will be submitted and orally defended by the end of the second term in year two. This will be followed by the comprehensives in year three. The program expects students to complete their dissertation (including an oral defense) by the end of the fourth year. In total, the PhD should take four years.
