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GOVT 2313 American and Texas Government
Prerequisite(s): None.
This course is a survey of the structure and operation of the national and Texas governments. The course emphasizes our constitutional system of government and our nation’s founding principles in a federal political system.
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GOVT 2350 Introduction to Criminal Justice
Prerequisite(s): None.
This course is designed to provide an introduction into criminal justice. It will improve one’s basic understanding of crime and the criminal justice systems and familiarize one with the key concepts and terminology utilized in the field by discussing the role of the core elements: police, courts, and corrections. It will force students to examine individual rights protected by the constitution and balance them against a community’s need for public safety and public order. It highlights the complexities of the criminal justice discipline and encourages students to think critically and employ ethical reasoning by presenting real-life examples faced by criminal justice practitioners and asking the student to balance values, criminal procedures, and the law when coming up with solutions.
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GOVT 3340 Legal Aspects of Criminal Justice
Prerequisite(s): None.
This course is designed to provide an in-depth look into the aspects of law which are relevant to and essential for a better understanding of the criminal justice system and its related processes. Laws that govern policing are primarily based upon the United States Constitution, United States Supreme Court decisions, and statutes passed by the United States Congress and state legislatures. This course focuses on these sources but will present the material in a format and in language designed to meet the needs and interests of non-lawyers while preserving the meaning and content of the law as interpreted by the courts. This class will force students to examine individual rights protected by the constitution and balance them against a community’s need for public safety and public order. It highlights the complexities of the criminal justice discipline and encourages students to think critically and employ ethical reasoning by presenting real-life examples faced by criminal justice practitioners and asking the student to balance values, criminal procedures, and the law when coming up with solutions.
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GOVT 3341 Ethics, Crime, and Criminal Justice
Prerequisite(s): None.
This course is designed to provide a comprehensive study of ethics, crime, and criminal justice by exploring different themes and issues, including concepts such as good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, duty, obligation, virtue, freedom, rationality, and free will. The themes that ethics explores underlie many circumstances we routinely confront as individuals, groups, organizations, communities, and cultures. Ultimately, if the criminal justice aim of ethics is realized, the student will be equipped to adopt more informed beliefs, to make better decisions, to undertake healthier actions, to be a better citizen, and consequently, to live a more rewarding and fulfilling life in the United States or any country on earth. The study into criminal justice ethics concludes by discussing why faith matters and how it could matter more.
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GOVT 3342 Foundations of Criminal Law
Prerequisite(s): None.
The course will focus on introducing students to the substantive criminal law and the criminal justice system. The course will include a treatment of the origin of laws, the penal code, the definition of law and crime, general principles of criminal responsibility, elements of major crimes, punishments, conditions or circumstances which may excuse one from criminal responsibility or mitigate punishment, and introduce students to the court system. Although the course will familiarize students with federal criminal law, the main emphasis will be on the penal laws of Texas (Texas Penal Code).
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GOVT 3344 The American Court System
Prerequisite(s): None.
Survey of state and federal court systems, the U.S. Supreme Court, introduction to civil and criminal law, the role of lawyers, judges, and juries in the American court system. This course is basic to pre-law.
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GOVT 3348 American Political Thought
Prerequisite(s): None.
This course covers American political thought from the colonial experience, the Revolution, the drafting of the Constitution, the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement, to the present – an analysis of ideas that shaped the American political system.
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GOVT 3359 Church and State Politics
Prerequisite(s): None.
This course is a survey of some of the different views of church-state relations that have been developed in western philosophy and in the Christian tradition over the last two thousand years. Its focus is on contemporary thinkers and also on the political philosophies of the major philosophers in the canon. It includes studies of monarchy, two-kingdom theory, religious toleration, distributive justice, democracy, establishment and disestablishment, and citizenship, among other topics. Upon completion of this course, students will be familiar with the major theories of the relationship between church and state and will be able to articulate and defend their own views of church-state interaction.
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GOVT 3387 Campaigns and Elections
Prerequisite(s): None.
Corequisite(s): None.An analysis of the American electoral system and political campaigns. This course focuses on political parties, campaign strategy, the electoral process, public opinion, and voter turnout.
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GOVT 3394 Law and Religion in the United States
Prerequisite(s): None.
This course provides the historical background for the development of the separation of church and state and the subsequent development of secularism. Law and religion is designed to teach students to think in sophisticated ways about religious liberty and the interaction of religion and politics.
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GOVT 4310 Jurisprudence, Law, and Legal Theory
Prerequisite(s): None.
This course presents an introduction to jurisprudence. It surveys (1) the rudiments of the common law system, (2) the existence conditions (essential elements) of law, and (3) what determines the legal validity (enforceability) of law. These issues necessarily involve a number of fundamental philosophical issues, including: 1) the appropriate relationship between law and morality, 2) the appropriate relationship of the individual to the state, and the appropriate limits and boundaries of governmental coercion, 3) the nature of justice, and the principles of reason, autonomy, and consent, 4) the relationship between individual liberty and the protection of property, freedom of expression, and freedom of religious belief and practice., 5) the appropriate limits and boundaries of judicial discretion, and 6) constitutional interpretation. The course also addresses important substantive issues of tort law, property law, contract law, and constitutional law. The course concludes by examining the recent emergence of “the economic approach to law,” a judicial philosophy that evaluates the morality of law by its ability to generate profits. (This course will be included in the Political Theory Option of the degree plan.).
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GOVT 4313 Constitutional Law
Prerequisite(s): None.
This course explores judicial review, the political role of the courts, American federalism, the jurisdiction of and the limitations of the judicial branch, the power of taxation, the commerce power, the substantive and procedural rights of the individual, and the powers of the President.
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GOVT 4314 Constitutional Law II
Prerequisite(s): None.
This course focuses on the Bill of Rights (Amendments I through X) and the Civil War Amendments (Amendments XIII through XV). The course focuses on the historical events that led to the adoption of each Amendment and the major United States Supreme Court cases interpreting and applying each Amendment. This course focuses on the Constitution’s guarantees of political liberty, the Constitution’s requirements in criminal procedure, and the United States Supreme Court’s expansion of federal power over private and state action through substantive due process and incorporation under Amendment XIV.
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GOVT 4343 Intelligence and National Security
Prerequisite(s): None.
An analysis of the role played by the American intelligence community (CIA, NSA, DIA, etc.) in the assessment and realization of U.S. national security interests, with special attention to methods, duties, and prerogatives of the various agencies that make up the intelligence community.
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GOVT 4381 Special Topics
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor and dean of the college/school.
Topics are selected on basis of student need and academic qualifications of staff. If regular lectures are not given, a minimum of 30 hours of work for each hour credit must be included. This course may be repeated for credit.
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