Program Requirements

About the Major

Mercer University’s major in law and public policy allows students to combine law and public policy classes with an emphasis on ethics. Many students are concerned about important challenges that face our society in the future. When courts, executives, agencies or legislatures are involved in trying to address such social problems, we call what they do “public policy.”

The law and public policy major is not a pre-law track in the sense that students considering law school are required to take any of these courses. It is, however, particularly well-suited to students who intend to pursue professional or career interests in policy-related fields such as law, government, public administration and healthcare or who want to work with nongovernmental organizations and nonprofit groups.

A major in law and public policy consists of 45 semester credit hours, with courses from a variety of disciplines. View all major requirements and course descriptions.

About the Minor

A minor in law and public policy consists of 18 semester credit hours and requires a student take the law, public policy and ethics course; the U.S. legal system course; and four additional elective courses.

View all minor requirements and course descriptions.

Departmental Honors

To earn departmental honors, a law and public policy major must maintain a 3.5 overall GPA, have a 3.6 GPA in the major and write an original research paper, which must also be presented at a scholarly conference.