Juris Doctor (J.D.) Program

Miami Law’s 1L Program Is Unique

Class Size

With 300+ course offerings and 338 faculty members, Miami Law's student to faculty ratio is 7:1.

Electives & Courses

Electives are available as soon as the spring of your 1L year.

In addition to the traditional, required first-year courses, all entering students take:

Elements of Law - Focuses explicitly on legal institutions, the theories underlying them, the process of legal reasoning and the ways in which the law evolves.

Legal Communication and Research Skills - An intensive program in legal research and writing.

The First Year – Learn to Think Like a Lawyer

• Contracts or Property (4 Credits)

  Contracts

  Examines the purpose and scope of the legal protection accorded agreements.

  The course focuses on:

  • Problems of contract formation and interpretation
  • Remedies for breach of contract
  • The offer and acceptance of a contract
  • The effect of changed circumstances, and more complicated questions, such as contracts that are impossible to perform.

  Property

  Focuses on basic principles governing private and public control over tangible and intangible resources, especially land.

  The course addresses concepts and policies concerning property and special concepts concerning real estate, such as estates in land, future interests, and the rule against perpetuities.

  The course also studies real estate transactions, recording, methods of title assurance, easements, covenants, and land use controls.

• Torts (4)

  Considers the issues involved in assessing whether the law should require a person to compensate another for harm intentionally or unintentionally inflicted.

  It analyzes the public policy positions implicit in the legal concepts that courts use in tort cases, as well as the ways in which social problems and the law of torts interact.

• Elements of Law (3)

  Focuses explicitly on legal institutions, the theories underlying them, the process of legal reasoning and the ways in which the law evolves.

• Civil Procedure I (3)

  An introduction to the process of civil litigation, emphasizing questions of jurisdiction, pleadings, discovery, remedies, and appellate review.

• Legal Communication & Research Skills I (2)

  Enables each first-year student to work closely with an instructor to develop skills in legal research, writing, and analysis, as well as brief-writing and oral argument.

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• Contracts or Property (4 Credits)

  Contracts

  Examines the purpose and scope of the legal protection accorded agreements.

  The course focuses on:

  • Problems of contract formation and interpretation
  • Remedies for breach of contract
  • The offer and acceptance of a contract
  • The effect of changed circumstances, and more complicated questions, such as contracts that are impossible to perform.

  Property

  Focuses on basic principles governing private and public control over tangible and intangible resources, especially land.

  The course addresses concepts and policies concerning property and special concepts concerning real estate, such as estates in land, future interests, and the rule against perpetuities.

  The course also studies real estate transactions, recording, methods of title assurance, easements, covenants, and land use controls.

• Criminal Procedure (3)

  An introduction to the criminal process with special emphasis on constitutional issues. It covers arrest, interrogation, search and seizure, the right to counsel and related topics.

• U.S. Constitutional Law I (4)

  A study of the American constitutional system, concentrating on the idea of judicial review, relationships among the three branches of government, and allocations of responsibility between federal and state governments.

• Elective (3)

  Second-semester students will choose an elective from a list of five courses for first-year students.

  These courses deal with regulatory issues, statutory law, international and comparative law, other matters of public law and process, and conceptual perspectives not generally available in the traditional first-year program.

  The following are representative of the elective course offerings:

  • Administrative Law
  • Analysis of Evidence
  • Environmental Law
  • European Community Law
  • Family Law
  • Housing Discrimination
  • Jurisprudence
  • Labor and Employment Law
  • Social Justice
  • Substantive Criminal Law

• Legal Communication & Research Skills II (2)

  Enables each first-year student to work closely with an instructor to develop skills in legal research, writing, and analysis, as well as brief-writing and oral argument.

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Second and Third Year - Build Knowledge & Put it into Practice

Miami Law students receive a broad-based legal education, and in their 2L and 3L years have the option to concentrate on special areas of interest. Accordingly, after the first year, the list of courses, seminars and workshops offered is extensive.