Honors in the Program
All Legal Studies majors who (1) complete an outstanding thesis (designated a Thesis of Distinction by the Legal Studies Program) and (2) have attained a GPA of 3.5 or higher within their Legal Studies major may be nominated for Weinberg honors.
Students who hope to achieve honors in two (or more) majors will need to apply for dual and/or interdisciplinary honors by May of their junior year. For more information, consult the Weinberg guidelines.
The deadline for thesis submittal is May 2025
Honors Committee
All decisions regarding nomination for Departmental Honors shall be made by the Legal Studies Program Honors Committee. The Honors Committee is composed of the Advanced Research Seminar instructor in a given year and another professor within the Center for Legal Studies.
The 2024-2025 Legal Studies Departmental Honors Committee includes:
- Abigail Barefoot, Assistant Professor of Instruction, Center for Legal Studies
- Shana Bernstein, Clinical Associate Professor, Center for Legal Studies
- Nicolette Bruner, Assistant Professor of Instruction, Center for Legal Studies
- Joanna Grisinger, Associate Professor of Instruction, Director of Legal Studies, Center for Legal Studies
- Jesse Yeh, Assistant Professor of Instruction, Center for Legal Studies
The Legal Studies Program Honors Committee will nominate students for Program Honors according to the following guidelines and in accordance with Weinberg requirements.
Departmental Honors Guidelines
- Students must have completed the Legal Studies Advanced Research Seminar sequence (Legal Studies 398-1 and 398-2) by the end of the academic year.
- Students must have completed a thesis that has been deemed worthy of distinction to be nominated for Departmental Honors. To achieve distinction, a thesis must present original ideas supported by thorough research of legal and/or empirical materials. A Thesis of Distinction will be determined by the faculty and teaching assistants of the Advanced Research Seminar and the director of the Legal Studies Program.
- Students are required to have attained a Legal Studies GPA of 3.5 or higher. A student's major GPA is calculated by finding the average of the graded courses being used towards the Legal Studies major.
A note to students completing the thesis sequence in their senior year: Students who (1) complete their thesis in the winter quarter of their senior year and (2) are deemed deserving of honors by the Legal Studies Honors Committee will be nominated for Weinberg Honors in the spring quarter of their senior year. To be eligible for Weinberg Honors, seniors must not graduate prior to the spring quarter of their senior year - the Weinberg Honors Committee meets only in Spring, and honors cannot be awarded to a student who has already graduated. Students who have completed all their course requirements by the end of winter quarter their senior year and wish to be nominated for honors need not take any classes in spring quarter, but do need to delay their graduation date.
A note to students completing the thesis sequence in their junior year: Students who (1) complete their thesis in the winter quarter of their junior year and (2) are deemed deserving of honors by the Legal Studies Honors Committee will be nominated for Weinberg Honors in the spring quarter of their junior year.
Feel free to reach out to the Program Assistant, Princess Parker Rosado (legalstudies@northwestern.edu), if you have any questions about graduation dates or the Honors process.