Academics: LL.M. Candidates

Graduate Program Handbook, 2012-2013

LL.M. COURSE AND WRITING REQUIREMENTS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND OPTIONS

Note: Information in this section relates specifically to requirements for HLS degree completion. It does not relate to qualification for any bar examination or other professional licensing.

A. GENERAL

To obtain the LL.M. degree, students must spend the entire academic year in full-time residence and satisfactorily complete a course of study consisting of a minimum of 22 credits and a maximum of 26 credits in one academic year. As an academic matter, all LL.M. degree candidates must register for at least eight to ten credits in each of the fall and spring terms, and at least two credits in the winter term. In some cases, different minimums may apply for visa purposes. The academic year is usually divided into nine to eleven credits in each of the fall and spring terms and two to three credits in the winter term. Any questions about academic requirements should be directed to the Graduate Program Office.

The typical study program will consist of a balanced arrangement of courses and seminar work, subject to the approval of Jeanne Tai, the Assistant Dean for the Graduate Program and International Legal Studies or Nancy Pinn, the Director of Administration and Student Affairs for the Graduate Program. Graduate students normally enroll in from seven to nine courses/seminars in an academic year. A course ordinarily requires a written examination. Most courses at the Law School carry two or three credits; some courses, such as Corporations, Constitutional Law, Commercial Transactions, and Taxation, carry four credits. A seminar typically requires assigned written work, such as a series of reaction papers or a research paper, and generally carries two credits. A reading group typically carries one credit and does not require an exam. An updated final examination schedule will be made available in early fall.

All degree candidates must register for course and/or seminar credits in each term and regularly attend all class sessions. Failure to register for any term or to attend classes on a regular basis will preclude eligibility for graduation. Please refer to the online Course Catalog for individual seminar requirements and course information at:  http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/curriculum/catalog/index.html

Additional course requirements for LL.M. students are described below. The written work requirement is described below. The cross-registration process and guidelines for courses outside of the Law School are described in section VI.

B. U.S. LAW COURSE REQUIREMENT, INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

LL.M. candidates who do not hold a J.D. degree from a law school in the United States (including Puerto Rico) are required to take one core course in American law from the following list of “primary” courses:

Civil Procedure*
Constitutional Law: First Amendment
Constitutional Law: Separation of Powers, Federalism, and the Fourteenth Amendment
Contracts*
Corporations
Criminal Law*
Family Law
Legislation and Regulation*
Property*
Taxation
Torts*

Courses marked with an asterisk (*) are first-year courses in the J.D. curriculum. The remaining courses on the list above are part of the upper-level curriculum. Descriptions of these courses can be found in the online Course Catalog (see above).

The Committee on Graduate Studies will consider petitions to substitute another substantive course in U.S. law. Petitions will be considered from students who have significant grounding in U.S. law or in a substantially similar common law equivalent (as determined by the Committee on Graduate Studies). Candidates may consult with the Graduate Program for suggestions on which courses might qualify as appropriate substitutions.

C. RECOMMENDED COURSES

The Committee on Graduate Studies strongly recommends that each LL.M. candidate also take at least one course focusing on legal history, legal theory, policy analysis, or legal process. In addition, students who hold a J.D. degree from a school in the United States (including Puerto Rico), and who are hoping to embark on a law teaching career, are strongly encouraged to take at least one course that is primarily focused on legal theory or jurisprudence. Students are invited to consult with Jeanne Tai or Nancy Pinn for further discussion of possible course selections in these areas.

D. CONCENTRATIONS IN CORPORATE LAW AND GOVERNANCE, INTERNATIONAL FINANCE, INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND TAXATION

Students who are interested in the fields of corporate law and governance, international finance, international human rights, or taxation may pursue a concentration in one of these fields. Each concentration consists of a series of requirements, as follows:

CORPORATE LAW AND GOVERNANCE CONCENTRATION

• Comparative Corporate Governance seminar (fall) (Visiting Professor Luca Enriques)
• Empirical Studies in Comparative CorporateGovernance seminar (spring) (Professor Reinier Kraakman)
• Corporations (fall) (any section
• At least six credits combined from a list of designated courses in corporate law and governance, provided to concentration applicants and on file in the Graduate Program Office

INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CONCENTRATION

• International Finance seminar (full year) (Professor Hal Scott)
• Derivatives Regulation (fall) (Mr. Daniel Waldman)
• Regulation of Financial Institutions (winter) (Visiting Professor Margaret Tahyar)
• International Finance (spring) (Professor Scott)
• A choice of either Capital Market Regulation (spring) (Visiting Professor Roger Glauber) or Securities Regulation (spring) (Professor Allen Ferrell)

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CONCENTRATION

• Advanced Human Rights Seminar for Human Rights Concentrators (full year) (Professor Gerald Neuman)
• International Human Rights (fall) (Professor Neuman)
• At least seven credits combined from a list of designated courses in international human rights, provided to concentration applicants and on file in the Graduate Program Office

TAXATION CONCENTRATION

• Taxation (fall) (Professor Daniel Halperin or Professor Stephen Shay)
• Taxation: Current Issues in Law, Policy, and Practice seminar (fall) (Professor Halperin)
• Tax Policy seminar (spring) (Professor Shay
• Taxation: International Aspects of U.S. Income Taxation (spring) (Professor Shay)
• Taxation of Business Corporations (spring) (Professor Alvin Warren)

Further information about each of these concentrations is available from the Graduate Program Office. Work successfully completed in conjunction with a concentration counts towards the requirements for the LL.M. degree. However, the concentrations will not, in themselves, satisfy the minimum credit requirements for the LL.M. degree. During course counseling, students should confirm that they are enrolled in a course of study designed to meet degree requirements. An LL.M. student may not participate in more than one of the four available concentrations. For international students pursuing a concentration, the requirement for a core course in U.S. law is satisfied by the course in Corporations (Corporate Law and Governance concentration), Securities Regulation (International Finance concentration), or Taxation (Taxation concentration). Students participating in the International Human Rights concentration will need to select at least one core course in U.S. law outside of the concentration requirements.

All of the concentrations provide opportunities for students to satisfy the written work requirement for the LL.M. degree. Students enrolling in one of these concentrations whose primary law degrees are from the United States or Puerto Rico must do so by writing, at a minimum, the 50-page paper, described below.

E. WRITTEN WORK REQUIREMENT

All LL.M. candidates must satisfy the Written Work Requirement for the LL.M. degree. To fulfill this requirement, LL.M. students must complete a paper that involves independent reflection, formulation of a sustained argument, and, in many cases, in-depth research. The paper may be written in conjunction with a Law School course or seminar, or as an independent paper supervised by a member of the Law School faculty (including instructors with Law School teaching appointments). Where there is no course or seminar in the field in which a student wants to work, normally a faculty member will be available to guide research in the particular field.

Students who hold J.D. degrees from a law school in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico) must write at least the 50-page paper (see description below). LL.M. students whose primary law degrees are from schools other than those in the United States or Puerto Rico may select any one of the three options described below. 

The parameters for paper length and credits earned are as follows:

• 25-page paper: one credit if written independently; no credit (beyond the associated course credit) if written in conjunction with a course that requires a paper
• 50-page paper: two credits if written independently; one credit if written in conjunction with a course that requires a paper
• 75-page paper: three credits if written independently; two credits if written in conjunction with a course that requires a paper

A series of shorter papers or journal entries does not satisfy the requirement.

F. WINTER TERM WRITING PROGRAM

Students who wish to spend the winter term pursuing their research and writing on a single piece of written work worth at least two credits, while in residence in Cambridge, instead of doing course work, may apply to the Winter Term Writing Program. Information and applications will be available through the Graduate Program Office in October. However, all students should register for a winter course, as submitting an application does not guarantee admission to the Winter Term Writing Program. If admitted, students will then have the opportunity to drop the winter-term course for which they had previously registered.

OPTIONAL GRADUATE ACADEMIC OFFERINGS

The Graduate Program organizes several optional academic offerings for graduate students throughout the year. These offerings, which have come to play a central role in the intellectual and community life of Graduate Program students, include the LL.M. Writers’ Workshop, the Byse Workshops, a year-long Law Teaching Colloquium, and the Graduate Forum. Participation is optional, and does not result in academic credit. Dates, times, and locations for fall-term workshops and colloquia will be provided in early September.

Schedules for academic programs in the spring will be announced on the HLS Administrative Updates site (see section VIII). Details for all of these offerings will also be forwarded through the Graduate Program Listservs (see section VIII).

A. LL.M. WRITERS’ WORKSHOP

The LL.M. Writers’ Workshop is offered on an optional, noncredit basis. The Workshop is principally designed to support those students writing a substantial work of at least 50 pages from the beginning of the research process through to the final writing stages. Organized in small groups on the basis of participants’ research interests, the Workshop places special emphasis on helping students strengthen their research techniques and organize their ideas into prose that is both scholarly and accessible. Group leaders also help students identify resources from around Harvard Law School, Harvard University, and the greater Boston area that may enrich their projects. Peer learning through regular group attendance and oral presentation is strongly encouraged. The Workshop begins with a plenary session for all LL.M. students, followed by periodic small group meetings throughout the year. The plenary session will be designed in part to help guide new LL.M. students in deciding how to satisfy the Written Work Requirement, and to review strategies for identifying a topic and selecting a supervisor. Separate sessions on research and writing for the 25-page paper will also be provided. While participation in the Workshop is voluntary, all eligible students are strongly encouraged to attend.

B. BYSE WORKSHOPS

The Byse Workshops, offered in academic areas of particular relevance to graduate students, provide in-depth treatment of the scholarship in their fields. The Workshops, led by the Byse Fellows, meet approximately every one or two weeks during the course of a semester. Discussion is generally organized around reading materials and/or an exposition by a workshop participant or guest speaker. The Workshops are offered on a noncredit basis, but participants who wish to write an independent paper based on the subject matter of a particular workshop can receive one credit for the paper provided that the paper is at least 25 pages long and a faculty member serves as the supervisor of the paper.

The following Byse Workshops will be offered during 2012-2013:

Fall 2012
“Property Rights and Socioeconomic Rights in Tension: A Constitutional and Comparative Analysis”
Ms. Namita Wahi

Fall 2012
“Law, Markets and Morals in the Commercial Context”
Mr. Roy Shapira

Spring 2013
“The Legal and Political Tensions of Constitutional Emergencies”
Mr. Jorge González-Jácome

Detailed descriptions, meeting schedules and related information will be provided in early September.

C. THE LAW TEACHING COLLOQUIUM

Offered in the fall and spring on a noncredit basis, this Colloquium is a series of information sessions highlighting various aspects of law teaching. In the past the Colloquium has drawn on the pedagogic expertise of faculty at Harvard Law School and other institutions to discuss issues such as pedagogical methods, how to develop research agendas, and various aspects of a career in law teaching. Topics may range from cutting-edge legal scholarship to internationalization to legal publishing to curricular issues. The Colloquium is designed for S.J.D., LL.M., and J.D. students who are contemplating a career in teaching, and has traditionally served as an interactive forum for students from the various Law School degree programs.

D. THE GRADUATE FORUM

The Graduate Forum, coordinated by two Graduate Program Fellows, offers graduate students an opportunity to express their views on legal and other issues outside the formal boundaries of the classroom. The Graduate Forum also coordinates social and integrative events for all graduate students and serves as a clearinghouse for ideas and suggestions. In the past, the Graduate Forum has taken different formats and directions; the unifying themes of these different formats have been to draw on the experience of both LL.M. and S.J.D. students, to bring a comparative perspective to the matters discussed, and to serve as a centralized function for the exchange of ideas.