Courses
Overview
The first year of law school introduces students to legal institutions, legal reasoning, and case analysis, emphasizing the close analysis of judicial decisions.
During the second and third year of law school students are encouraged to follow an academic curriculum customized to their individual interests.
1st Year Curriculum
The first year introduces students to legal institutions, legal reasoning, and case analysis, emphasizing the close analysis of judicial decisions.
The autumn term consists of five required courses, one of which is taught in a small section of about 30 people. In the winter, students take three required courses plus 0 - 4 units of electives designed to broaden their view of the law and to lay the foundations for the advanced curriculum. In the spring, students take one required course plus up to 12 units of elective coursework
Autumn
Winter
- Constitutional Law I
- Property
- Federal Litigation
- Electives (0 to 4 units)
Spring
- Federal Litigation
- Electives (7 to 12 units)
In Legal Research and Writing, students work under the close supervision of a legal research and writing instructor and a law librarian, learning the essential skills of legal library research, writing legal memoranda, and drafting documents. In Federal Litigation, students represent parties in a simulated public interest case set in a federal district court that raises complex issues of federal civil procedure, privacy, and first amendment law. Students will plan litigation strategy, draft pleadings, conduct discovery, write short briefs, and orally argue major motions for dismissal, class action certification, and preliminary injunctive relief.
2nd/3rd Year Program
Stanford Law School offers more courses in the advanced curriculum than any student could take during law school. The following is a list of many of the elective courses that have been offered at the Law School during the last several years. Although the offerings vary from year to year, this list illustrates the diversity of courses available at the school.
Business and Commercial Law
- Accounting
- Advanced Antitrust: Presumptions and Burdens
- Advanced Legal Writing: Business Transactions
- Antitrust
- Bankruptcy
- Capital Markets I
- Capital Markets II
- Chinese Law and Business
- Comparative Corporate Capitalism
- Construction Law
- Corporate Acquisitions
- Corporate Finance I
- Corporate Governance and Practice Seminar
- Corporate Reorganization
- Corporations
- Deal Litigation Seminar
- Deals
- Financial Crisis and the Regulation of Financial Institutions
- International Commercial Arbitration
- International Deal Making
- International Debt Workouts
- Introduction to Organizational Behavior
- Over-the-Counter Derivatives
- Quantitative Methods: Finance
- Regulated Industries
- Secured Credit
- Securities Litigation
- Trade and Investment in China
- Venture Capital
Civil Procedure and Litigation
- Administrative Law
- Advanced Criminal Practice
- Civil Jury
- Constitutional Litigation
- Evidence
- Federal Courts
- Federal Indian Law
- Federal Pretrial Litigation
- Mediation
- Moot Court, Kirkwood Competition
- Psychology of Litigation: Practical and Ethical Implications
- Reconstructing the Administrative State: Theory and Practice
- Scientific Evidence and Expert Testimony: Patent Litigation
- Supreme Court Litigation Clinic
- Trial Advocacy Workshop
Constitutional Law and Theory
- Constitutional Law II: The Fourteenth Amendment
- Constitutional Litigation
- Creation of the Constitution
- Foreign Affairs and the Constitution
- Religion and the First Amendment
- Supreme Court Litigation Clinic
Criminal Law and Procedure
- Advanced Criminal Practice
- Criminal Defense Clinic
- Criminal Procedure: Adjudication
- Criminal Procedure: Investigation
- Criminal Prosecution Clinic
- Evidence
- Externship Companion Seminar
- International Criminal Law
- Sentencing, Corrections, and Criminal Justice Policy
- Supreme Court Simulation Seminar
- White Collar Crime
Dispute Resolution, Mediation, and Negotiation
- Alternate Dispute Resolution: Externship
- Alternate Dispute Resolution: Law, Practice, and Policy
- Dispute Systems Design
- International Conflict Resolution Colloquium
- Judgment and Decision-Making
- Mediation
- Negotiation
- Negotiation, Advanced (International)
- Negotiation, Advanced (Transactions)
- Principles of Contract Design
Environmental Law and Natural Resources
- Advanced Environmental Law Clinic
- California Coast: Science, Policy and Law
- Climate Change Workshop
- Environment and Energy Workshop
- Environmental Law and Policy
- Environmental Law Clinic
- Environmental Science for Managers and Policy Makers
- Water Law and Policy
Externship
- Externship Companion Seminar
- Externship, Civil
- Externship, Criminal
- Externship, Special Circumstances
Family Law
Independent Study
Interdisciplinary Legal Studies
- Advanced Legal Research
- Animal Law
- Approaches to American Legal History
- Art and the Law
- Econometrics
- Economic Analysis of Law
- Economic and Social Organization of the Legal Profession
- Entertainment Law
- Environmental Science for Managers and Policy Makers
- History of American Law
- International Conflict: Management and Resolution
- JSD Research Colloquium
- Law and Creativity: Fiction and Nonfiction
- Law and Culture in American Fiction
- Law and Culture in American Film
- Law and Economics Seminar
- Law and the Rhetorical Tradition
- Law, Economics and Politics of International Trade
- Leadership
- Legal History Workshop
- Legal Profession Workshop: The Future of Large Law Firms
- Legal Studies Workshop
- Medical-Legal Issues in Children’s Health
- Remedies
- Sexual Orientation and the Law
- Social Science and International Institutions
- Sociology of Law
- Stereotyping and Prejudice
- Tocqueville's Democracy in America
International and Comparative Law
- Chinese Law and Business
- Comparative Corporate Capitalism
- Comparative Law
- Designing Liberation Technologies
- European Union Law
- Foreign Affairs and the Constitution
- Foreign and International Legal Research
- International Conflict: Management and Resolution
- International Criminal Law
- International Deal Making
- International Human Rights
- International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic
- International Intellectual Property
- International Law
- Introduction to Organizational Behavior
- Latin American Law
- Law and Terrorism: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives
- Law, Economics and Politics of International Trade
- SPILS Law and Society Seminar
- SPILS Research Methods Workshop
- State-Building and the Rule of Law Workshop
- Trade and Investment in China
- Transitional Justice
Labor and Employment Law
Legal Theory
Professional Responsibility and Ethics
- Governance and Ethics: Anti-Corruption Law, Compliance, and Enforcement
- Legal Ethics
- Professional Responsibility
Public Interest Law
- Community Law Clinic
- Community Law Clinic: Advanced
- Educational Inequality
- Immigrants' Rights Clinic
- Immigrants' Rights Clinic: Advanced
- Immigration Law
- Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship
- Law, Litigation, and Educational Policy
- Local Government Law
- Regulation of the Political Process
- The Democratization of Credit
- Youth and Education Law Project: Advanced
Public Policy
- Advanced Legal Writing: Legislative Drafting and Analysis
- Bayesian Statistics and Econometrics
- Econometrics: Mathematical Methods
- Economic Analysis of Law
- Land Use
- Law and Public Policy Colloquium
- Legal Profession: Economics and Management of Pro Bono Practice
- Legislation
- Statistical Inference in Law
Race and Gender Law
Science, Technology, and Intellectual Property Law
- Biotechnology Law & Policy
- Communications Law: Broadcast and Cable Television
- Communications Law: Internet and Telephony
- Computer Crime Seminar
- Cyberlaw Clinic
- Cyberlaw Clinic: Advanced
- Cyberlaw: Difficult Problems
- FDA's Regulation of Health Care
- Health Care Regulation, Finance and Policy
- Health Law & Policy I
- Health Law & Policy II
- Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law
- Intellectual Property as a Strategic Asset
- Intellectual Property Strategy for Technology Companies
- Intellectual Property: Advanced Topics in Patent Law
- Intellectual Property: Commercial Law
- Intellectual Property: Fair Use in Film
- Intellectual Property: Innovation Industries
- Intellectual Property: Copyright
- Intellectual Property: Patent Litigation
- Intellectual Property: Patents
- Intellectual Property: Trade Secrets
- Intellectual Property: Trademark
- International Intellectual Property
- Internet Business Law and Policy
- Introduction to Intellectual Property
- Law and Biosciences
- Law and the Biosciences: Genetics
- Law, Science and Technology Colloquium
- Legal Design for the Entertainment and Information Future
- Patent Litigation Workshop
- Scientific Evidence and Expert Testimony: Patent Litigation