Curriculum
JD Students
First-year law students take a required set of courses listed below, as well as a 1L elective in the spring. The list of electives available changes each year. Additional degree requirements include the successful completion of a class designated as meeting the professional responsibility requirement, 40 core credit hours in the second and third years, two courses with a substantial writing component, and eight total credits in experiential courses.
Graduate Students
Master of Laws (LLM) students primarily select their courses from the upper level courses. Occasionally, faculty teaching some first-year law courses will allow a very limited number of LL.M. students to join. LL.M. students may also pursue some coursework at other UChicago schools (please review section 3.7 of the student handbook).
JSD students may register in upper level courses. The decision to do so or not rests between the student and their supervisor.
Courses
The courses listed below are loosely grouped into categories for ease of reading, although no formal groupings exist in our curriculum. These lists include courses taught in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. Not all of these courses are offered every year, but this list will give you a representative sample of the variety of courses we might offer over any two-year period. Other new courses will likely be offered during your time at the Law School. To browse course descriptions for the current year, visit my.UChicago.
First Year Courses
Upper Level Courses
- Administrative Law
- Clinical Courses
- Commercial, Business, and Labor Law
- Constitutional Law
- Courts, Jurisdiction, and Procedure
- Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure
- Environmental Law
- Equality and Human Rights
- Family Law, Property Rights, Torts, and Insurance
- Health Law
- Intellectual Property, Technology Law, and Entrepreneurship
- International and Comparative Law
- Jurisprudence and Legal Theory
- Legal History
- Skills, Legal Practice, and Ethics
- Taxation
Complementary, Multi-Disciplinary, and Cross-Listed Courses
Determination of Credit Hours For Coursework
Given the Law School's practice of requiring no less than two hours of out-of-class student work for every hour of in-class instruction (ABA Standard 310), below is some guidance on the awarding of credit:
| Evaluation Methods | Course Credits | Seminar/Simulation Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Proctored/In-Class Examination | 3 or 4 | 2 |
| Take-Home Examination | 3 or 4 | 2 |
| Major Paper (≥ 6000-7500 words) | 3 | 3 |
| Series of Short Reaction Papers | 3 | 2 |
| Examination + Required Paper(s) (Total ≥ 3000-3500 words) | 3 | 3 |
| Examination + Optional Paper(s) (Total ≥ 3000-3500 words) | 3 | 2 or 3 |
| Examination OR Major Paper (≥ 6000-7500 words) | 3 | 2 or 3 |
| Series of Short Research Papers (Total ≥ 6000-7500 words) | 3 | 3 |
| Substantial out of classroom work, group projects, etc. | 3 | 3 |