Law & Philosophy Program

Interdisciplinary J.D. Specialization in Law and Philosophy

UCLA School of Law has a unique interdisciplinary specialization in law and philosophy. The specialization is designed for UCLA School of Law J.D. students who want to supplement their legal studies by exploring the philosophical foundations of law. The specialization is especially relevant to students interested in further graduate studies or exploring a career in academia. The specialization will expose students to material on the nature of law and legal systems, and on the theoretical underpinnings and justifications of particular doctrinal areas such as constitutional law, criminal law, and contract. Please visit the J.D. specialization page for more information.

Law & Philosophy Specialization for Philosophy Graduate Students

The specialization is designed for UCLA Philosophy Graduate students who want to supplement their legal studies by exploring the philosophical foundations of law. The specialization is especially relevant to students interested in further graduate studies or exploring a career in academia. The specialization will expose students to material on the nature of law and legal systems, and on the theoretical underpinnings and justifications of particular doctrinal areas such as constitutional law, criminal law, and contract. Please visit our page covering the specialization for Philosophy Graduate students for more information.

LL.M. Specialization in Law and Philosophy

The specialization is designed for UCLA School of Law LL.M. students who want to supplement their legal studies by exploring the philosophical foundations of law. The specialization is especially relevant to students interested in further graduate studies or exploring a career in academia. The specialization will expose students to material on the nature of law and legal systems, and on the theoretical underpinnings and justifications of particular doctrinal areas such as constitutional law, criminal law, and contract. Please visit our LL.M. specialization page for more information.

Joint J.D./Ph.D. Program in Law and Philosophy

The UCLA School of Law and the UCLA Department of Philosophy offer a joint JD/PhD program for exceptionally talented and especially committed students who hope to dedicate their careers to research and teaching in law and philosophy. Admission is extremely competitive, and very few students are admitted. It would be highly unusual for more than one candidate to be admitted in a year, and it is possible for no candidates to be admitted in an admission cycle. Please visit our joint degree program page for more information.

For a list of Core and Qualifying courses, please visit the specialization page.

Perspectives Courses (Perspectives Courses may be counted toward the Law and Philosophy Specialization if the student undertakes to write a philosophically informed theoretical paper with the instructor’s approval; students may do this on their own or by adding an additional unit of independent study, assuming an appropriate work product. The Perspectives courses listed below are especially suitable for such purposes and specializers may gain priority enrollment to them.)

Law 561A /B  - Recent Books on Campus Speech and Academic Freedom

Law 561A/B  - Technology, Ethics and Imagination

Other courses and methods of fulfilling the specialization:

Independent Studies: In addition to these pre-approved courses, students are encouraged to enroll in independent studies with faculty members to do research and writing on theoretical issues concerning the law. Such independent studies may be done in conjunction with a course. In addition to the myriad philosophical issues concerning first year subjects such as contracts, torts, criminal law and constitutional law, many courses easily lend themselves to supplementary theoretical investigations, including but not limited to Tax, Remedies, Con Law II, Evidence, Family Law, Legal Ethics, and Copyright. These are merely examples and students are encouraged to design independent studies about philosophical issues concerning any area of interest. Students interested in using an independent study to fulfill a specialization requirement should locate a willing faculty member and also consult the Director of the Program. Students wishing to take more than the standard allotment of independent study units may petition the school to do extra independent study units to facilitate completion of the specialization.

Other graduate courses: Students are encouraged to petition to apply to count up to two upper-division or graduate courses offered by the UCLA Department of Philosophy toward the course work requirement. Advance approval from the instructor and the Faculty Director of the Program must be obtained. Offerings vary from year to year. Courses numbered in the 240s and 250s are likely to be most relevant. Visit the Philosophy Department website for further information about courses. 

Courses are on the quarter system which starts and stops at different times than the semesters. In addition to those listed above, relevant courses offered this coming academic year include:

Philosophy Courses:

Upper Division Courses

Philosophy C127. Philosophy of Language
Philosophy 129. Philosophy of Psychology
Philosophy 154. Topics in Value Theory: Rationality and Action

Graduate Seminars

Philosophy 246. Seminar: Ethical Theory

Other law and graduate courses: Many additional courses at the Law School and in the Philosophy Department, depending on their contents and readings, offered this year may be applied toward the specialization by petition. For example, students might consider taking Advanced Academic Legal Writing and writing a philosophical paper for the seminar. Visit the UCLA School of Law schedule and course description pages for more information. To gain credit by petition, students may be asked to submit a syllabus to show the course qualifies as a law and philosophy course and they may be asked to write their final paper on a theoretical subject (subject to instructor approval).

Further information about the requirements for the specialization is available on the Law and Philosophy Specialization MyLaw page. Students are also encouraged to contact the Faculty Director to discuss the specialization.

UCLA School of Law and the UCLA Department of Philosophy offer a one to two year research fellowship to a recent law school graduate or Ph.D. in philosophy. (A second year of the fellowship is available assuming satisfactory performance in the first year.) The fellowship is under the auspices of the UCLA Program in Law and Philosophy.

Fellows will be asked to teach two courses in the first year and one course in the second year of the fellowship, to attend and assist with the planning of Law and Philosophy events, to attend talks and conferences, and otherwise to participate actively in the law school and philosophy department communities. The bulk of his or her time will be devoted to independent research. Candidates should demonstrate a strong interest in a career involving teaching and research in law and philosophy. Typical candidates will have a post-graduate degree in law (e.g., J.D., LLM, or S.J.D.) or a doctorate in philosophy, but applicants with other relevant PhDs (e.g. a PhD in political theory) are encouraged to apply. Applicants will need to complete the relevant postgraduate degree before the start date of the fellowship. The fellowship offers a competitive salary, small research stipend, and full benefits.

One or two postdoctoral fellowships will be available depending on funding.

We will open submissions for the research fellowship in Fall 2027 for a start date of July 2028.

Law and Philosophy Specializer Dan Ranweiler named the Mudd Postdoctoral Ethics Fellow at Washington and Lee University.

Legal Theory Workshop — offered regularly throughout the year, brings prominent speakers from other universities. Students are encouraged to attend. Spring 2026 workshops will be held from 3:20pm-5:20pm in room 1314.

In Memoriam — Stephen Munzer

Rebecca Stone won the 2023 Article Award from Jurisprudence Section of the American Association of Law Schools for her article "Private Liability without Wrongdoing."

Seana Shiffrin won the Hart-Dworkin Award in Legal Philosophy from the Jurisprudence Section of the American Association of Law Schools.

Herbert Morris, in memoriam: Remembering a titan of law and philosophy (Dec. 12, 2022)

Herbert Morris Lecture 2026 — Princeton President, Christopher L. Eisgruber. 

The Legal Theory Workshop series, which is offered regularly throughout the year, brings prominent speakers from other universities. Students are encouraged to attend.

Current schedule and past speakers

Amin Ebrahimi Afrouzi is a Law and Philosophy Fellow at UCLA School of Law and teaches Legal Philosophy. His research lies in Jurisprudence, Legal Interpretation, and Justice in Political Procedures.  He previously held the Knight Digital Public Sphere Fellowship at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project, where he worked on AI and the Law. 

 Amin received his BA and JD from UC Berkeley. He also holds a master’s degree in Philosophy from Oxford, a master’s degree in Classics from Cambridge and a PhD in legal philosophy from UC Berkeley.

 Amin is the inventor of various patented or patent-pending AI and robotics technologies and his legal philosophy publications have appeared or is forthcoming in Legal Theory, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, and the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, among others.

2024-2025

Ariana Peruzzi–Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Southern Methodist University

Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences: Faculty and Staff - Southern Methodist University

2022-2023

Vishnu Sridharan – Assistant Professor • Affiliate Faculty Member, Law School

Philosophy | University of Colorado Boulder

Thomas Byrne – Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Texas Tech University

Thomas Byrne Philosophy (ttu.edu)

2019-2020

Samuele Chilovi - Assistant Research Professor ("Ramón y Cajal fellow") in the Department of Theoretical and Practical Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy (IFS), CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) Samuele | Instituto de Filosofía

Andrew Currie - Barrister

Andrew Currie - Barrister - Fountain Court Chambers.

2017-2018

Erik Encarnacion - Assistant Professor of Law, University of Texas at Austin https://law.utexas.edu/faculty/erik-encarnacion/

David Beglin

Currently a deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice State of California - Department of Justice - Office of the Attorney General

Formerly at UC Riverside David Beglin (University of California, Riverside (PhD)) - PhilPeople

2015-2016

Moran Yahav - Senior Legal Advisor to the President of the Supreme Court of Israel 

Ariel Zylberman - Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University at Albany (SUNY) https://www.albany.edu/philosophy/faculty/ariel-zylberman
 

2013-2014

Daniela Dover - Associate Professor of Philosophy, UCLA Daniela Dover - Faculty - Department of Philosophy - UCLA

Stephen Nayak-Young - Associate at JLG Lawyers in Glendale, specializing in employment law

2011-2012

Robert Hughes – Associate Professor of Professional Practice, Rutgers Business School Robert Hughes | Rutgers Business School

Matt King – Associate Professor and Director of the Philosophy and Law minor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham https://www.uab.edu/cas/philosophy/people/faculty/matt-king

2009-2010

Arudra Burra – Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi https://hss.iitd.ac.in/faculty/arudra-burra

David Plunkett – Professor of Philosophy, Dartmouth David Plunkett | Department of Philosophy

2007-2008

Louis-Philippe Hodgson – Associate Professor of Philosophy, Glendon College, York University Louis-Philippe Hodgson - York University

Sari Kisilevsky – Associate Professor of Philosophy at Queens College CUNY https://www.qc.cuny.edu/academics/philosophy/sari-kisilevsky/

Amber Kavka-Warren

I am in my sixth year in the joint JD/PhD Law and Philosophy program at UCLA. My philosophical interests include Philosophy of Law, Normative Ethics, and Political Philosophy. In this academic year, I plan to graduate from the Law School and advance to PhD candidacy.

My current work involves different views of legal precedent: what it is; why and how it binds. I am currently working on a paper to fulfill the law school’s Substantial Analytic Writing (SAW) requirement, supervised by Professor Mark Greenberg (Philosophy, Law). In the paper, I consider views of the precedential effect of plurality decisions–decisions made by multi-member courts that are unable to agree on a majority opinion.

Brian Hutler
B.A. New York University, 2006
J.D. UCLA School of Law, 2014
Ph.D. UCLA Department of Philosophy, 2018

Brian Hutler is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Temple University and a graduate of the Joint-Degree Program in Law and Philosophy offered by the UCLA School of Law and Department of Philosophy. Brian's dissertation, titled "Compromise, Religious Freedom, and the Liberal State," argues for a compromise-based conception of religious freedom in the context of liberal political philosophy. Following UCLA, Brian taught in the Philosophy Department at the University of Pennsylvania. As of Fall 2019, he is a Hecht-Levi Postdoctoral Fellow with the Berman Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Website.

Sabine Tsuruda
B.A. Stanford University, 2006
M.A. Stanford University, 2007
J.D. UCLA School of Law, 2016
Ph.D. UCLA Department of Philosophy, 2018

Sabine Tsuruda is an Assistant Professor at Queen's University Faculty of Law. She graduated from the Joint J.D./Ph.D. Program in Law and Philosophy at UCLA, where she studied as a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellow and served as a Senior Editor of the UCLA Law Review. Her dissertation, "Moral Agency and the Workplace," examines understudied aspects of the relationship between work, law, and moral agency through a series of case studies about managerial control, migrant work, unpaid work, and religious workplaces. Her current research examines employee speech rights and the political morality of workplace hierarchy.

Jordan Wallace-Wolf

• B.A. Yale University, 2008
• J.D. UCLA School of Law, 2017
• Ph.D. UCLA Philosophy Department, 2020

Jordan Wallace-Wolf is an Assistant Professor of Law in the William H. Bowen School of Law, UA Arkansas. Formerly, he was the Greenberg Legal Fellow at the UCLA School of Law. He received his J.D. and his Ph.D. in philosophy from UCLA. His dissertation, "Mental Privacy," focuses on the privacy interests that persons have in their thoughts, as well as the proper legal recognition of those interests in election law and criminal law. His current research areas include the privilege against self-incrimination, private law with an emphasis on negligence, and privacy in public space.

Publications

• Think Again: The Thought Crime Doctrine and the Limits of Criminal Law, 1 Journal of Free Speech Law 5 (2021)
• Nobody's Business: A Novel Theory of the Anonymous First Amendment, 49 Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly ___ (forthcoming 2021)

Mehek Boparai -- Born and raised in California, Mehek studied English at the      University of Pennsylvania before coming to law school at UCLA. The Law and Philosophy J.D. specialization was a favorite part of her three years, and she hopes to continue studying legal philosophy in the future. Mehek will be working as a litigation associate at Latham and Watkins in San Francisco.

Carlos Miguel Navarro Parga -- Carlos Miguel is an LL.M. from Guadalajara, Mexico who graduated from the Law and Philosophy Specialization and the International and Comparative Law Specialization in May 2026. He is currently an Intern at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Mark Pampanin -- A member of the Class of 2026, Mark graduated from UCLA Law with specializations in Law & Philosophy, Public Interest Law & Policy, and Critical Race Studies. He served as Chief Articles Editor on UCLA Law Review, and participated in several clinics on civil rights and pro se appeals for incarcerated clients. Before law school, Mark worked as a journalist, political communicator, and speechwriter. After law school, Mark looks forward to a career in civil litigation and a deeper understanding of law enriched by the Law & Philosophy program at UCLA. He is currently pursuing Business Litigation at Cooley LLP.