Program Overview

General Law, LLM Program

The General LLM program allows students to design their own courses of study. General LLM students may enroll in virtually any course, with the general exception of clinical programs and Trial Advocacy. Some students pursue a broad range of courses, and others focus their choices more narrowly.

Many international students use the General LLM program as a way to gain exposure to a variety of areas of US law. They may choose to enroll in a combination of introductory and more advanced courses in a variety of areas. Because the typical first-year courses are open to our graduate students, some choose to take such courses as Torts, Contracts, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, and Property.

Program Requirements

• Satisfactory completion of 24 hours of coursework, at least 21 of which must be at the Law School, and up to three of which may be earned in a summer term.
• Students are required to write papers for at least three, but not more than nine, hours of coursework, in courses requiring or permitting completion of a paper in lieu of an exam.
• Directed research credit falls in this category and may be used to satisfy up to three hours of the writing requirement.
• Students may not receive credit for Directed Research beyond the nine-hour writing credit maximum.
• The course Legal Research and Writing for International Graduate Students may not be counted toward the writing requirement.

Ad Hoc Concentrations

Students find that the General LLM program lends itself to the development of ad hoc concentrations. For example:

• Students interested in intellectual property might take Intellectual Property, Copyright & Trademarks, Patent Law, one or more specialized courses in the area, a Directed Research project supervised by a faculty member who is an expert in the area, and even one or two unrelated courses.
• Students interested in international trade might take such courses as: International Trade, Finance & Banking; Financial Institutions; International Tax; International Business Transactions; and a variety of related courses.

Required Courses for International LLM Students

• Course List:
  • 4LAW 5600: Intro to Law of the US (for international students only) - 1 or 2 credits
  • 4LAW 5910: Legal Reasoning, Research & Writing for LLM Students (for international students only) - 2 to 3 credits

Program Details

• Program String and Field of Study: LSLLM_PR, GLAW
• The General LLM program has no distribution requirements, allowing students to make independent choices about the courses in which they enroll.
• Students may even find it possible to concentrate in two areas through the General LLM program.