Elective Coursework
- Consider focusing on one of 18 areas of study or doing a concentration.
- Take intensive compact courses.
The Juris Doctor degree at Miami Law is a full-time program combining a rigorous academic curriculum with professional training in critical lawyering skills. The 88-credit degree program is a full-time program requiring three academic years of study.
The unique introductory program helps first-year students master the technical aspects of the law as a basis for understanding its theory and substance.
The program provides students with an essential foundation for exploring the political, commercial, and social dimensions of legal institutions.
With 300+ course offerings and 338 faculty members, Miami Law's student to faculty ratio is 7:1.
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.
Examines the purpose and scope of the legal protection accorded agreements. The course focuses on: 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.Contracts
Property
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.
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.
Examines the purpose and scope of the legal protection accorded agreements. The course focuses on: 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.Contracts
Property
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:
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.
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.Second and Third Year - Build Knowledge & Put it into Practice
The law school offers a global perspective on the study of international law and offers extensive hands-on international opportunities for students on a path to a profession that becomes more international every day.
After the first year of law school, you can choose from a rich array of writing and research electives.
Sample Listing of Past Writing Courses: