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 spring, students take three required courses plus two to four electives designed to broaden their view of the law and to lay the foundations for the advanced curriculum.
First-year requirements are as follows:
Autumn
Spring
- Constitutional Law I
- Property
- Legal Research and Writing
- Electives (2 to 4 courses)
In Legal Research and Writing, a year-long course, 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, drafting documents, preparing a persuasive brief, and arguing orally before a moot court in the context of trying to solve a client's legal problem.
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 Legal Writing: Transactions
- Antitrust
- Bankruptcy
- Business Problems: Tools for Effective Executives
- Capital Markets and Securities Regulation
- Chinese Law and Business
- Commercial Paper
- Corporate Acquisitions
- Corporate Finance I
- Corporate Fraud
- Corporate Governance and Practice Seminar
- Corporate Governance Colloquium
- Corporate Reorganization
- Corporations
- Deals
- International Business Transactions I: Legal Practice in Developing Countries
- International Deal Making: Legal and Business Aspects
- Quantitative Methods: Finance
- Real Estate Transactions: Adding Value for Clients
- Regulated Industries
- Secured Credit
- Venture Capital
Civil Procedure and Litigation
- Administrative Law
- Advanced Civil Procedure
- Advanced Legal Writing: Advocacy
- Advocacy Skills Workshop
- Civil Jury
- Complex Litigation
- Conflict of Laws
- Constitutional Litigation
- Criminal Practice, Advanced
- Evidence
- Federal Courts
- Federal Indian Law
- Federal Pretrial Litigation
- Guantánamo, Law, and the War on Terror
- Mediation
- Moot Court, Kirkwood Competition
- Psychology of Litigation: Practical and Ethical Implications
- Scientific Evidence and Expert Testimony
- Supreme Court Litigation Clinic
Constitutional Law and Theory
- Comparative Constitutional Property Rights
- Constitutional Law II
- Constitutional Law Workshop
- Constitutional Litigation
- Creation of the Constitution
- Equal Protection and Antidiscrimination: Race, Law and Inequality
- Foreign Affairs and the Constitution
- Immigration Law: Current Constitutional and Civil Rights Issues
- Originalism’s Alternatives
- Protection of Persnoality
- Religion and the Constitution
- Supreme Court Litigation Clinic
- Supreme Court Term
Criminal Law and Procedure
- Criminal Defense Clinic
- Criminal Law Externship Seminar
- Criminal Practice, Advanced
- Criminal Procedure: Adjudication
- Criminal Procedure: Investigation
- Criminal Prosecution Clinic
- Criminal Trial Jury
- Evidence
- International Criminal Law
- Police, Law, and Society
- White Collar Crime
Dispute Resolution, Mediation, and Negotiation
- Alternate Dispute Resolution: Externship
- Alternate Dispute Resolution: Law, Practice, and Policy
- Conflict Resolution Systems Design
- Dispute Resolution in International Economic Law
- International Conflict Resolution Colloquium
- Mediation
- Negotiation
- Negotiation, Advanced (International)
- Negotiation, Advanced (Transactions)
Environmental Law and Natural Resources
- Advanced Environmental Law Clinic
- Climate Change Workshop
- Environmental Law and Policy
- Environmental Law Clinic
- Environmental Law Workshop
- Environmental Science for Managers and Policy Makers
- International Environmental Law
- Law and Science of California Coastal Policy
- Political Economy of Energy Policy
- Toxic Harms
- Water Law and Policy
Externship
- Criminal Law Externship Seminar
- Externship, Civil
- Externship, Criminal
- Externship, Special Circumstances
Family Law
- Advanced Evidence
- Children and the Law
- Education Advocacy Clinic
- Estate Planning
- Family Law
- Law, Litigation, and Educational Policy
- Trusts and Estates
Independent Study
Interdisciplinary Legal Studies
- Animal Law
- Art and the Law
- Creating the American Republic
- Cultural Heritage Law and Policy
- Economic Analysis of Law
- Economic and Social Organization of the Legal Profession
- Environmental Science for Managers and Policy Makers
- Game Theory and the Law
- History and Future of the New Deal State
- History of American Law
- International Conflict: Management and Resolution
- International Development
- International Economic Law and Policy: Current Issues
- Interpersonal Influence and Leadership
- JSD Research Colloquium
- Law and Culture in American Fiction
- Law and Culture in American Film
- Law and Economics Seminar
- Law and the Rhetorical Tradition
- Law, Economics, and Policy of Trade
- Legal History Workshop
- Legal Profession Workshop
- Legal Research: Advanced
- Legal Studies Workshop
- Medical-Legal Issues in Children’s Health
- Problem Solving, Decision Making, and Professional Judgment
- Remedies
- Sexual Orientation and the Law
- Sociology of Law
- Statutory Interpretation
- Theories of Rights
- Women's Legal History
- Women's Legal History: Tutorial
- Workshop in Sociology of Law
International and Comparative Law
- Chinese Law and Business
- Chinese Legal System: Introduction
- Comparative Constitutional Property Rights
- Comparative Law
- Corruption, Governance, and the International System
- Foreign Affairs and the Constitution
- Foreign Relations Law
- Guantánamo, Law, and the War on Terror
- Immigration Law: Current Constitutional and Civil Rights Issues
- International Business and Human Rights
- International Business Transactions I: Legal Practice in Developing Countries
- International Community Law Clinic: Ghana
- International Conflict: Management and Resolution
- International Criminal Law
- International Deal Making: Legal and Business Aspects
- International Development
- International Development and the Rule of Law
- International Economic Law and Policy: Current Issues
- International Environmental Law
- International Human Rights
- International Human Rights Clinic
- International Intellectual Property Law
- International Jurisprudence
- International Law
- International Law Workshop
- International Organization Reform Seminar
- Introduction to American Law
- Latin American Law
- Law and Development in India
- Law and Policy of the European Union
- Law and Society in Japan
- Law, Economics, and Policy of Trade
- Legal Analysis for American Practice
- Minority Rights in Israel
- SPILS Law and Society Seminar
- SPILS Research Methods Workshop
- SPILS Workshop
- State-Building and the Rule of Law Workshop
- Transnational Law: Introduction
- WTO: Law, Policy, and Politics
Labor and Employment Law
- Employee Benefits and Compensation Law
- Employment Discrimination
- Employment Law
- Executive and Equity Compensation
- Labor Law
Legal Theory
Professional Responsibility and Ethics
- Lawyer’s Ethics
- Legal Ethics
- Legal Ethics Seminar
- Luck, Law, and Morality
- Professional Responsibility
- Public Interest, Public Service, and Professional Ethics
Public Interest Law
- Advanced Evidence
- Antidiscrimination Seminar
- Community Economic Development
- Community Law Clinic
- Community Law Clinic: Advanced
- Disability Rights Law
- Education Advocacy Clinic: Advanced
- Immigrants' Rights Clinic
- Immigrants' Rights Clinic: Advanced
- Immigration Law
- Income Distribution
- Introduction to Public Interest Law Practice
- Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship
- Law, Litigation, and Educational Policy
- Lawyering for Social Change
- Local Government Law
- Poverty Law, Selected Topics
- Public Interest Litigation
- Public Interest, Public Service, and Professional Ethics
- Regulation of the Political Process
- The Law of Nonprofit Organizations
Public Policy
- Bayesian Statistics and Econometrics
- Corruption of Democracy
- Economic Analysis of Law
- Economics
- Empirical Research Seminar
- Land Use
- Law and Public Policy Colloquium
- Law, Politics and Ethics of Tobacco Control
- Legislation
- Local Initiatives
- Mathematical Methods in Game Theory
- Political Economy of Energy Policy
- Public Policy Analysis
- Statistical Inference and Empirical Research
- Statistical Inference in Law
- Statistical Inference: Mathematical Methods
- Uses of Policy Analysis in the Law
Race and Gender Law
Science, Technology, and Intellectual Property Law
- Biotechnology Law & Policy
- Communications Law
- Computer Crime Seminar
- Cyberlaw Clinic
- Cyberlaw Clinic: Advanced
- FDA's Regulation of Health Care
- 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: Trademark and Unfair Competition Law
- Intellectual Property: Copyright
- Intellectual Property: Patents
- International Intellectual Property Law
- Internet Business Law and Policy
- Introduction to Intellectual Property
- Law and Biosciences
- Law, Science and Technology Colloquium
- Patent Litigation Workshop
- Scientific Evidence and Expert Testimony