York's interdisciplinary program in Socio-Legal Studies builds on York’s long tradition of law & society teaching and research.

Contributing faculty are leaders in international and domestic
human rights, socio-historical approaches to law, transnational
policing, immigration and border security, indigenous rights, and global
financial crime, and gender, race, sexuallity and the law.

The one-year MA program offers students courses in socio-legal theory and methods as well as a required Major Research Paper.

York's PhD in Socio-Legal Studies is at the vanguard of a growing number of postgraduate programs in Europe and North America in interdisciplinary legal studies. Our PhD is the first such doctoral program in Canada that is not based in a law school. Students who are accepted into our program will join faculty with a strong commitment to research and scholarship. Our program consists of scholars drawn from law and society, criminology, political science, sociology, psychology, history, communication studies, women's studies, and law.

Our faculty is actively involved in building an academic community of socio-legal scholars. We are doing this through our participation and leadership in professional associations as well as through our projects and published work.