Every student takes Criminal Law in the first year. This course introduces students to the purposes of criminal punishment, the structure of criminal statutes, and basic liability and sentencing rules. In the second and third years, students may choose from an array of electives. Two criminal procedure courses, offered every year, cover regulation of the police, including search and seizure and interrogation rules, and “bail-to-jail” issues such as preliminary hearings, plea bargaining, the right to jury trial, double jeopardy, sentencing, and habeas corpus.
| First year (fall) | Criminal Law |
| First year (spring) | Constitutional Law I (prerequisite for Constitutional Law II) |
| Second year (fall) | Constitutional Law II*; Criminal Procedure: Investigation; International Criminal Law |
| Second year (spring) | Criminal Procedure: Adjudication*; Evidence*; Actual Innocence |
| Second year (summer) | Externship |
| Third year (fall) | Actual Innocence Practicum; Criminal Practice Clinic, Family & Domestic Violence Clinic, Appellate Litigation Clinic or Trial Advocacy**; Drug Law & Policy or Transnational Litigation, White Collar Crime Seminar |
| Third year (spring) | Advanced Criminal Law Seminar; Advanced Evidence and Trial Advocacy; Juvenile Justice or Mental Health Law: Deprivations of Life & Liberty |
| * Highly recommended for a criminal justice concentration |