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I haven't had too much experience with cross-listed classes, but I am in one right now that is cross-listed as Philosophy and Comparative Literature.  I was interested in it for its purported Comp Lit characteristics, but I've come to believe that the course would have been better listed as only Philosophy.  I am glad that I ended up taking a Philosophy course, but I do not find this course's cross-listed status useful.  I think that cross-listed courses too easily fall more in one category than another/others: it takes an instructor skilled in all of the cross-listed departments to fairly represent them instead of falling back on his or her usual discipline.

Even though I now distrust cross-listed classes—they inevitably fit more into one department than the other(s)—I appreciate the attempt at barrier breaking.  I never would have registered for an advanced Philosophy course had I not been confident that I, with significant English experience, could probably handle an advanced Comp Lit course.   It seems like although cross-listing may not accurately represent a course's focus, it broadens its potential appeal to students in a variety of disciplines.

The whole process of explicitly separating courses into departments—prefacing every course title with ENGL, PHIL, MATH, PHYS, &c.—limits the scope of our liberal arts education: it allows students to stick within the comfort zones of their majors instead of encouraging them to find and choose whatever classes interest them.