JD/MA in Cultural Anthropology

The goal of the program is to produce Law School graduates who are more sophisticated thinkers and more productive legal practitioners, and who are also more attractive to potential employers. By using the tools of Cultural Anthropology to explore the interactions between culture and law, law students will gain a broadened perspective on law. From comparative study they will gain a sense of how different societies handle important legal matters, such as the maintenance of social order, dispute resolution, and the allocation of resources. At the same time, law students will learn to recognize the ways that various peoples – whether globally or among subgroups within this country – interpret, rely on, and turn to the law differently. Given that lawyers increasingly act in an international arena, understanding these differences can be the key to success for a legal practitioner. This is true whether the matter in question is drafting a mutually acceptable contract or resolving a dispute, especially where diverse cultural norms and ideologies are at play. Most fundamentally, law students will gain an appreciation of the profoundly cultural assumptions underlying legal doctrine and practice in our own society as well as others. Students will be introduced to methods of cultural research with which to uncover and investigate the nature of these cultural assumptions – methods including the historical analysis of legal institutions and practices, analysis of legal discourse, and the ethnography of communication in legal settings. Duke’s JD/MA Program in Cultural Anthropology makes law students more marketable as job candidates and better practitioners as lawyers. In addition to the general benefits that come with learning the methods of qualitative research and increasing cross-cultural understanding, there are many areas where a background in legal anthropology can be especially relevant to a legal practitioner and particularly compelling to potential employers: · International business · Human rights work · American Indian business and commerce · Sexuality and Rights Issues · Public interest law · International criminal law