Public Law - Senior Thesis

The public law subfield focuses on the law, courts, judges, and the effect of law on society and of society on law. If you are interested in how judges make decisions, what effect those decisions have on society, how specific laws apply in practice or how they have been interpreted by courts, or topics similar to those, then the public law subfield is a good fit for you. Methodologically, public law topics are assessed through a variety of methods: qualitative, quantitative and/or experimental. 

Examples of previous capstone projects and the methodology they used:

• The effect of racial media framing on public attitudes towards drug offenders (survey experiment)
• How has gender diversity changed Supreme Court decisions? (quantitative analysis)
• Discrimination against minorities committed by law enforcement officials (quantitative analysis)
• The effect of gender, race, and ideology on state supreme court activism (qualitative case studies)
• Factors that affect recidivism in Southern California (quantitative analysis)
• The effect of polarization and ideological supermajorities on Supreme Court decision-making (qualitative case studies)
• The effect of judges’ gender on trial court decision-making (qualitative field study)
• The effect of judicial review on public opinion (survey experiment)
• The deterrent effect of the death penalty on state crime (quantitative analysis)
• Racial disparities in the criminal justice system (survey experiment)
• The effect domestic terrorist attacks have on the state’s interpretation of the Second Amendment (qualitative case studies)
• What factors affect support for the death penalty at the state level? (qualitative case studies)
• Public perception and judicial activism in civil versus common law systems (qualitative case studies)
• Social media regulation and freedom of speech (qualitative case studies)
• Assessing the impact and efficiency of the plea-bargaining process in criminal proceedings (survey experiment)
• The effect of environmental citizen suits on environmental justice (qualitative case studies)
• The effect of originalism on judicial decision-making (quantitative analysis)
• Racial bias in legal representation (qualitative field study)
• Comparative analysis of attorney-client privilege across the globe (qualitative case studies)
• The dynamic of public defenders in the courtroom (qualitative field study)
• S. Supreme Court legitimacy and public perception (survey experiment)
• The effect of dissenting opinions on Supreme Court decision-making (qualitative case studies)
• The influence of outside resources on defendant success (quantitative analysis)
• How Americans’ political ideology impacts views on incarceration (survey experiment)