In September 2006, Carleton was designated a European Union Centre of Excellence by the European Commission in Brussels and was the first university to offer a BA (Honours) in European and Russian Studies and MA in European, Russian and Eurasian Studies. Its Department of Law & Legal Studies offers a BA (Honours) in Law and M.A and Ph.D. programs in Legal Studies, and is Canada's oldest legal department to take an epistemic, rather than professional approach to studying the influence of law within civil society. The faculty also features the Institute of Political Economy, the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice and African Studies, and is home to the School of Social Work and Department of Economics.