COLLEGE CURRICULA FOR THE SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING DISCIPLINES OF LAWS

(See reference text, Appendix K)

Governments have three principal functions: Administrative, Judicial, and Legislative.  To meet their functional requirements, the administrative and judicial branches of government engage the services of individuals that have appropriate educational backgrounds in management and law. 

That is, the executive branch of government (bureaucracy) relies upon the graduates of business schools for its management programs and the judicial branch of government hires and contracts with law school graduates for its adjudication tasks.

But what schools provide students with an education that is appropriate for the design tasks of the legislative branch of government; that is, for the design of laws that satisfy the purpose of democracy? 

And what schools provide students with the expertise that is needed to gather reliable knowledge of the cause and effects of laws so that legislatures can know the consequences of their laws?

The answer is none: there are currently no schools that provide an education in the design of law-solutions for societal problems or an education in the accumulation of reliable knowledge of the mechanics of laws.

In particular, the curriculum of law schools does not include the design techniques that are needed for creating laws that solve societal problems.

Law schools teach law students how to write and interpret contracts (e.g., documents that define the relationships and obligations of parties in a business contract).  However, those skills are far different from the design expertise (e.g., problem analysis, modeling, simulation, and optimization) that is needed for the creation of laws that solve societal problems efficaciously.

Therefore, if the obligations of democratic governments are to be satisfied, college curricula for the science and engineering disciplines of laws need to be developed and implemented. 

The creation of college curricula for the design of laws (the Engineering Discipline of Laws) and for the derivation of scientific knowledge of laws (The Investigative Science of Laws) is a logical process.

Since the laws of government operate within and produce effects upon the physical world, it will be necessary for the undergraduate students of the science and engineering disciplines of laws to take extensive courses in science and related mathematical disciplines.

Laws interact with and give direction to socio-economic activities, and courses in the social sciences (emphasis on economics and political science) and humanities (emphasis on history) will also be necessary.

The process by which problems are solved through the design of tools (laws) is a task for engineering, and the major degree program for the students of the science and engineering of laws will be the new engineering discipline of laws. 

Since laws are a form of software, the engineering discipline of laws will be a derivative of software engineering.  Alternatively, the major undergraduate degree program could be another engineering or science major with a minor in software engineering. 

These curricula for the science and engineering disciplines of laws will provide students with an understanding the interconnectedness of science, engineering, mathematics, economics, humanities, and government – it will be the ultimate “liberal education.”

For graduate school courses, the science and engineering disciplines of laws will be separated into two distinct entities.  Both science and engineering curricula at the graduate level will include courses in the field of Law as well as additional studies in the social sciences. 

However, graduate courses in the investigative science of laws curriculum will delve into methods for deriving knowledge of the structure and mechanics of laws, with emphasis on measurement and analytical techniques, e.g., statistical methods.

In contrast, graduate course work in the engineering discipline of laws will stress problem-solving methodologies with advanced studies of modeling, simulation, and optimization of law-solutions.

College curricula for the science and engineering of laws will thus enable lawmaking to become a knowledge industry and to meet the requirements of true democracy.