First-Year Curriculum: New and Wider Choices
In fall 2008, the Law School implemented its revised first-year curriculum. At almost every American law school, for more than a century, the first year of a J.D. program has traditionally consisted of mainly common law core courses that focus on reading and analyzing appellate court decisions to help students learn to think like lawyers. The Law School's first-year curriculum still includes those core courses and skills training, but it also adds new courses that:
- Provide more training in interpreting statutes, the main source of law in the contemporary world
- Begin to train students in understanding the working life of a lawyer, including practical skills needed for interacting with clients and theoretical tools that help students understand the role of lawyers within society
- Give students wider choices in their first year, allowing them to explore international law, corporate law, or emerging scholarly understandings of laws and lawyering
- Examine the many ethical issues that can arise for practicing lawyers, through a series of lectures and panel discussions during the first year
Class of 2015:
First-Year Requirements* (32 total credits):
|
| Civil Procedure I: |
4 credits (Fall) |
| Constitutional Law I: |
3 credits (Spring) |
| Contracts: |
4 credits (Fall) |
| Criminal Law: |
3 credits (Fall) |
| Elective (Civil Procedure II, International Law, Corporations, OR Perspectives on the Law): |
3 credits (Spring) |
| Property: |
4 credits (Spring) |
| Legal Writing: |
1 credit (Fall) |
| Legal Writing/Statutory Interpretation: |
3 credits (Spring) |
| Law in Practice: |
3 credits (Spring) |
| Torts: |
4 credits (Fall) |
Second-Year Requirements:
|
| Constitutional Law II |
3 credits (may be completed during 2nd OR 3rd year) |
| Professional Responsibility |
3 credits (may be completed during 2nd OR 3rd year) |
Second-year writing requirement:
(either Journal or Moot Court) |
Credits vary (Fall/Spring split) |
Third-Year Requirements:
|
| Constitutional Law II |
3 credits (may be completed during 2nd OR 3rd year) |
Professional Responsibility
|
3 credits (may be completed during 2nd OR 3rd year) |
Third-year writing requirement:
(through qualifying seminar, Independent Research paper, journal editorship, or moot court directorship) |
Credits vary |
Students also choose one of the following:
Civil Procedure II (3 credits). This course analyzes the rules determining the persons and topics over which different courts have jurisdiction, as well as topics in complex litigation and the Erie doctrine, which prescribes circumstances when federal courts should follow state rather than federal law.
International Law (3 credits). This course is an introduction to international law, examining the sources and history of the law of nations, and concepts of jurisdiction and conflicts of jurisdiction of nation states.
Corporations (3 credits). This course examines the basic state and federal legal rules that define the governing structure of corporations.
Perspectives on the Law (3 credits). Team-taught by three faculty members who study the law from differing perspectives, this course exposes students to some of the leading current approaches to understanding the law and encourages them to reflect critically upon the role of law and lawyers in society.
