Courses

After a first year of core legal courses, an exceptionally liberal approach to course scheduling offers students the ability to custom tailor their schedules to meet individual needs and interests.

Students follow a curriculum that concentrates on fundamental legal areas in their first two semesters. Complementing this traditional coursework is an elective course on statutory interpretation. Statutes covered in recent years include the Bankruptcy Code, Copyright Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, and Voting Rights. These innovative courses ultimately provide students with a distinct advantage as they tackle statutory challenges in their future legal practice.

In addition, each first-year student is assigned to a small - half the usual class size - section of a substantive course taught by a full professor, allowing greater opportunities for expanded discussion with noted scholars in these legal areas.

During the second and third years, students must complete both an upper level writing requirement and a course in professional responsibility. Beyond these requirements, they may choose from more than 100 course offerings. Nearly 60% of these elective courses have fewer than 25 students. Students also may receive up to 12 hours of credit for study in another discipline, complementing their legal education with advanced coursework in top-ranked University departments, such as accounting, engineering, computer science, social work, and medicine.

Download the Current Semester List (pdf) to view the specific courses currently offered. In addition, it is also a good idea to review the Course Counseling Handbook (pdf) to guide the course selection process.

First Year (1L) Courses

1. Law 601 : Contracts
2. Law 602 : Property
3. Law 603 : Torts
4. Law 604 : Criminal Law
5. Law 606 : Constitutional Law I
6. Law 607 : Civil Procedure I
7. Law 609 : Legal Writing and Analysis
8. Law 610 : Introduction to Advocacy
9. Law 627 : Legal Research

Second and Third Year (2L & 3L) Courses

Advanced Litigation Topics

1. Law 793 : Advanced Trial Advocacy: Intellectual Property
2. Law 793 : Chicago Litigation Practice
3. Law 793 : Family Law Practice
4. Law 793 : Illinois Civil Procedure and Evidence
5. Law 793 : International Civil Litigation
6. Law 793 : Interviewing, Counseling and Fact Investigation
7. Law 793 : Lawyer as Negotiator
8. Law 793 : Pre-Trial Litigation
9. Law 793 : The Retention and Use of Expert Witnesses at Trial

Advanced Research

1. Law 597 : Interdisciplinary Legal Research
2. Law 599 : Thesis Research
3. Law 699 : Independent Study
4. Law 798 : Advanced Legal Research

Advanced Topics in Business Law

1. Law 794 : Clean Air Act
2. Law 794 : Commodities, Futures and Derivatives
3. Law 794 : Corporate Reorganizations in Bankruptcy
4. Law 794 : Doing Business in Japan
5. Law 794 : Employee Benefits
6. Law 794 : Financial Accounting for Lawyers
7. Law 794 : Global Financial Markets
8. Law 794 : International Business Organizations: The Cayman Islands
9. Law 794 : International Business Transactions: Hong Kong and Macau
10. Law 794 : International Labor Law
11. Law 794 : Jurisdictional Competition
12. Law 794 : Practice and Strategic Development of International Business Transactions, The
13. Law 794 : Problems of Corporate Law
14. Law 794 : Real Estate Development
15. Law 794 : Regulation of Derivatives Markets
16. Law 794 : Rule of Reason in Antitrust Law
17. Law 794 : Selected Topics in Bankruptcy
18. Law 794 : State and Local Taxation
19. Law 798 : Markets, Morals and the Law

Advanced Topics in Criminal Law

1. Law 679 : Criminal Procedure: Adjudication
2. Law 795 : Criminal Sentencing and Alternatives
3. Law 795 : Death Penalty
4. Law 795 : History of Anglo-American Criminal Procedure
5. Law 795 : International Criminal Court
6. Law 795 : International Criminal Law
7. Law 795 : Juvenile Abuse and Neglect
8. Law 795 : The Right to Self-Defense

Business, Commercial and Intellectual Property Law

1. Law 629 : Bankruptcy
2. Law 630 : Bankruptcy Reorganizations
3. Law 632 : Commercial Law
4. Law 633 : Business Associations I
5. Law 634 : Securities Regulation
6. Law 635 : Securities Litigation
7. Law 636 : Business Associations II
8. Law 637 : Unincorporated Business Associations
9. Law 638 : White Collar Crime
10. Law 639 : Corporate Finance
11. Law 640 : Business Planning
12. Law 641 : Quantitative Methods
13. Law 642 : Antitrust Law
14. Law 643 : Trademark, Unfair Competition and Consumer Protection
15. Law 644 : Copyright Law
16. Law 645 : Patent Law
17. Law 646 : Cyberspace Law

Comparative Law Topics

1. Law 796 : Comparative Consumer Bankruptcy
2. Law 796 : Comparative Corporate Law
3. Law 796 : Comparative Human Rights
4. Law 796 : European Union: Europe-U.S. Relations
5. Law 796 : Global Antitrust Law and Economics
6. Law 796 : International and Comparative Freedom of Expression
7. Law 796 : International Commercial Arbitration
8. Law 796 : Law of War
9. Law 796 : Mass Violence, Human Rights, and International Law
10. Law 796 : National Security Law
11. Law 796 : Terrorism and European Human Rights
12. Law 796 : War, Commerce and International Law

Constitutional, Public and Property Law

1. Law 611 : Constitutional Law II
2. Law 612 : Constitutional Law III
3. Law 615 : Administrative Law
4. Law 616 : Environmental Law & Policy I
5. Law 618 : Natural Resources
6. Law 619 : Wildlife Law
7. Law 620 : Health Law and Policy
8. Law 622 : Land Use Planning
9. Law 623 : Real Estate Transactions
10. Law 624 : Real Estate Finance
11. Law 625 : State and Local Government
12. Law 792 : Readings in Conservation Theory

Current Legal Problems

1. Law 792 : American Legal History, 1860-1969: From the Civil War to the Warren Court
2. Law 792 : Biotechnology and the Law
3. Law 792 : Brazilian Labor Law
4. Law 792 : Clean Water Act
5. Law 792 : Constitutional History
6. Law 792 : Current Issues in Environmental Policy
7. Law 792 : Election Law
8. Law 792 : Empirical Methods in Law
9. Law 792 : Federalism & the Making of American Corporate Law
10. Law 792 : Fisheries Conservation Law
11. Law 792 : Immersion Journalism
12. Law 792 : Immigration Law
13. Law 792 : Law and Economic Development
14. Law 792 : Law and Economics of Global Warming
15. Law 792 : Law and Psychiatry
16. Law 792 : Law and Sexuality
17. Law 792 : Law and Social Science
18. Law 792 : Legal Issues in Entrepreneurship
19. Law 792 : New developments in European Human Rights Law
20. Law 792 : Philosophy of Contract Law
21. Law 792 : Private Equity
22. Law 792 : Public School Finance and Reform
23. Law 792 : Public Sector Labor Law
24. Law 792 : Readings on Community, Virtue, and Legal Culture
25. Law 792 : Regionalism
26. Law 792 : Regulatory Federalism Debates
27. Law 792 : Sociology of Law
28. Law 792 : The Black Box: Exploring The Internal Regulation of Executive Discretion
29. Law 792 : The Legal Regulation of Intercollegiate Athletics
30. Law 792 : Transnational Crime and European Human Rights

Employment Law

1. Law 662 : Labor Law I
2. Law 664 : Employment Discrimination
3. Law 665 : Workplace Dispute Resolution
4. Law 666 : Comparative Employment Relations Systems

Experiential Learning

1. Law 693 : Appellate Defender
2. Law 693 : Appellate Prosecutor
3. Law 693 : Clinical Training
4. Law 693 : Federal Civil Rights Clinic
5. Law 693 : Legislative Projects
6. Law 694 : Trial Advocacy
7. Law 695 : Fundamentals of Trial Practice
8. Law 696 : Legal Problems
9. Law 697 : Moot Court
10. Law 698 : Negotiations

Intellectual Property Topics

1. Law 797 : Advanced Patent Practice
2. Law 797 : Great Ideas in Intellectual Property
3. Law 797 : Intellectual Property Licensing
4. Law 797 : International Intellectual Property Transfers
5. Law 797 : Introduction to Intellectual Property
6. Law 797 : IP Functionality
7. Law 797 : Patent Litigation
8. Law 797 : Patent Prosecution
9. Law 797 : Theoretical Foundations of Intellectual Property

International Law

1. Law 653 : International Business Transactions
2. Law 654 : International Trade Policy
3. Law 655 : European Union Law
4. Law 656 : International Law
5. Law 657 : International Human Rights Law
6. Law 658 : Comparative Legal Institutions
7. Law 660 : Individual Employee Rights
8. Law 661 : Introduction to Civil Law
9. Law 796 : International Sports Law

Jurisprudential Perspectives

1. Law 678 : Anthropology and Law
2. Law 687 : Jurisprudence
3. Law 688 : American Legal History
4. Law 689 : Law and Economics
5. Law 690 : Advanced Law and Economics
6. Law 691 : Philosophy of Law
7. Law 791 : Rule of Law in Historical Perspective

Law of Person, Property and Torts

1. Law 667 : Family Law
2. Law 668 : Decedents' Estates and Trusts
3. Law 669 : Problems in Estate Planning
4. Law 670 : Elder Law
5. Law 673 : Workers Compensation Law
6. Law 674 : Advanced Torts
7. Law 675 : Products Liability
8. Law 676 : Insurance Law

Practice and Procedure

1. Law 501 : Intro to United States Law
2. Law 605 : Criminal Procedure: Investigations
3. Law 608 : Statutory Interpretation: Employment Discrimination
4. Law 680 : Professional Responsibility
5. Law 681 : Civil Procedure II
6. Law 682 : Evidence
7. Law 683 : Complex Litigation
8. Law 684 : Federal Courts
9. Law 685 : Dispute Resolution
10. Law 686 : Remedies

Seminars

1. Law 792 : Legislation
2. Law 792 : Theories of Areas of Law
3. Law 794 : Executive Compensation
4. Law 798 : Advanced Health Law and Policy
5. Law 798 : Advanced Legal Writing
6. Law 798 : Art Law
7. Law 798 : Causation and Responsibility
8. Law 798 : Comparative Constitutional Design
9. Law 798 : Constitutional History
10. Law 798 : Consumer Credit & Bankruptcy
11. Law 798 : Criminal Law Empiricism & Policy
12. Law 798 : Critical Race Feminism
13. Law 798 : Domestic Violence
14. Law 798 : Fact Investigation: The Kennedy Assassination
15. Law 798 : Family Law at the Crossroads
16. Law 798 : Federal Tax Policy
17. Law 798 : First Amendment and Censorship
18. Law 798 : Globalization
19. Law 798 : Government Accountability
20. Law 798 : Homeland Security
21. Law 798 : Information Privacy Law
22. Law 798 : Law and Bioethics
23. Law 798 : Law and Film
24. Law 798 : Law and Journalism
25. Law 798 : Law Psychology & Economics
26. Law 798 : Legal Cultures of Early America
27. Law 798 : Remedies in Employment Law
28. Law 798 : Science/Techology in the Pacific Century
29. Law 798 : Sexual Orientation and the Law
30. Law 798 : The Constitutional Law of U.S. Foreign Affairs
31. Law 798 : The Evolution of Corporate Law & Finance

Taxation Law

1. Law 647 : Income Taxation
2. Law 648 : Corporate Taxation
3. Law 649 : Partnership Taxation
4. Law 650 : Estate and Gift Taxation
5. Law 651 : Tax Exempt Organizations
6. Law 652 : International Taxation