Handbook of Academic Policies 2008-09
Back to Table of Contents
1. Optional Written Work
In addition to the Written Work Requirement for each degree, all students have the option of doing additional written work for credit. With the agreement of the instructor, a student may do such optional work for additional credit in the subject of a seminar or course, or may do it on an independent basis with Law School faculty supervision. Optional written work may receive one or more credits, depending upon the scope of the written work. The number of credits granted for a particular piece of writing must be arranged in advance between the student and the faculty member who has agreed to supervise the work. J.D. students are advised that a paper written for two credits must be of the same scope as a two-credit paper written to fulfill Option 1 of the J.D. Written Work Requirement. Additional approval may be required for projects of more than two credits and for multiple writing projects. J.D. students should consult the Registrar's Office with questions about op-tional written work. LL.M. students should consult with the Graduate Program Director of Admini-stration and Student Affairs before undertaking optional written work.
Second-year J.D. students asking for and receiving extensions past the current academic year for written work or course work that will result in grades being submitted after the calculation of academic progress at the end of the spring term may not be eligible for certain prizes, including the Sears Prize. Contact the Registrar's Office for more information.
See VII(F) and VIII(B) for optional written work registration and submission deadlines.
2. Winter Term Writing Program
Participants in the Winter Term Writing Program (WWP) will devote the winter term exclusively to the intensive research and/or writing of a paper under the supervision of a Law School faculty advi-sor. The work done during the winter term must be part of a larger project, such as Option 1 of the J.D. Written Work Requirement, or the LL.M. Long Paper. It is the full project for which a student registers and obtains a Law School faculty supervisor. The WWP itself does not confer credit. Placement in the program is in lieu of taking a Law School course for the winter term, and to meet the minimum residency requirement, the re-search/writing done during the term must be comparable at a minimum to completion of a two-credit course. Fur-ther information is available at http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/registrar/written-work/. Deadlines for registration and submission are listed below at VII(E) and VIII(B).
a) J.D. Program--The following standard Law School writing formats qualify for J.D. participation in the WWP. The credits listed are registered into the winter term.
i. Option 1 of the J.D. Written Work Requirement: an independent Option 1 paper (two or three writing credits) or an Option 1 paper written in conjunction with a course or seminar (two or three writing credits).
ii. J.D. Optional Written Work: a two-credit independent optional paper of the same size and scope as a two-credit independent Option 1 paper or an optional paper in conjunction with a course or seminar (one or two writing credits).
iii. Option 2 of the J.D. Written Work Requirement does not qualify for the WWP.
iv. Written work for which J.D. students registered in a previous academic year is not eligible for the WWP in the current year.
Students should note that taking the WWP instead of a winter course eliminates the winter term as a source of classroom credits. Third-year students considering the WWP in lieu of a winter course should first check their upper-level credits against HLS degree requirements to confirm that they will meet the required 36-classroom credit minimum set forth at I(C)(1) above.
b) LL.M. Program--Students who have registered for a written work project worth at least two credits, such as the LL.M. Long Paper, are eligible to apply for the WWP. LL.M. students who are accepted to the WWP must spend the winter term in Cambridge, working on the applicable paper.
c) Applications and Registration Process--Forms and instructions for J.D. students and LL.M. students are available online and in the Registrar's Office and in the Graduate Program Office respectively, and are due on the dates specified at VII(E).
1. Joint Degree Programs
a) The Law School offers the following Joint Degree Programs with other Harvard Schools:
i. J.D./M.B.A. with the Harvard Business School
ii. J.D./M.P.H. with the Harvard School of Public Health
iii. J.D./M.P.P. and J.D./M.P.A. in International Development with the Harvard Kennedy School
iv. J.D./M.U.P. with the Harvard Graduate School of Design
b) The Law School also offers a Joint Degree Program with Cambridge University, England leading to a Harvard J.D. and Cambridge LL.M.
2. Coordinated J.D./Ph.D. Program
The Law School, in conjunction with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard (GSAS), offers a coordinated degree program leading to the J.D. and the Ph.D. degrees. Law students enrolled in this program are subject to the relevant rules and policies established by the Law School and by GSAS. Such rules and policies are available online at http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/special_programs/jdphd.php and from the Law School Registrar. Questions relating to admissions and other policies of GSAS should be addressed directly to the relevant GSAS administrator or faculty member.
3. Rules and Policies
Law students enrolled in Joint Degree Programs are subject to all relevant rules and policies established by the Law School and by the other degree-granting School. Summaries of such rules and policies are available online at http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/special_programs/joint.php and from the Law School Reg-istrar. Questions relating to admissions and other policies of the second degree-granting school should be addressed directly to the relevant administrator or faculty member at that school.
4. Concurrent Degrees
a) Students may propose concurrent degrees with any Harvard School with which the Law School does not offer a joint degree program.
b) Students may propose concurrent degrees with the following non-Harvard schools: The Fletcher School at Tufts University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
c) Additional Information--Students interested in pursuing concurrent degrees must construct their study programs out of the academic offerings at the Law School and the other degree-granting school and obtain the appropriate faculty approvals for their programs. All student pro-grams must comply with the Harvard Law School academic requirements and residency re-quirements as defined above at I.
Further information about joint and concurrent degree opportunities at the Law School is available from Julie Barton, Joint and Concurrent Degree Advisor, at 617-495-7192 or jbarton@law.harvard.edu.
Clinical courses offer students the opportunity to use the analytical, negotiation, and prob-lem-solving skills they have learned in the classroom to assist clients, to develop policy posi-tions, and to work on legal reform while receiving academic credit. Students must have completed their first year of law school to enroll in a clinical course. Through the Clinical Program, students are mentored by an experienced attorney in a wide variety of settings. Most students work at the many Law School "in-house" clinics that are permanently staffed by Law School attorneys experienced in teaching and supervising students. Students can also be placed in externship placements where they work for an outside agency or organization. Students may also develop a new clinical placement through an independent clinical supervised by an at-torney and an HLS faculty member.
In general, clinical work is time consuming and students should plan accordingly. The clinical placements that emphasize direct work for clients are generally the most demanding, while others entail more policy and research work. Students should consult with the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs or review the on-line clinical evaluations of placements to find out more about a specific clinic.
A student may not receive academic credit for clinical work for which he or she also receives compensation.
For more information about clinical education including a list of the opportunities for participation in clinical programs offered by the Law School, see http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/clinical/.
1. Study Abroad for J.D. Students
Harvard Law School offers three types of opportunities for J.D. students to earn credit for course work at a foreign law school:
a) A semester abroad at one of the institutions with which Harvard Law School has signed formal exchange agreements that provide a designated number of places for J.D. students. The list of participating schools currently includes law programs at: University of Sydney (Australia); Fundacao Getulio Vargas (Rio de Janiero and Sao Paolo, Brazil); University of Chile (Santiago, Chile); Fudan University (Shanghai, China); University of Tokyo (Japan); University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa); University of Geneva (Switzerland), and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies--Geneva (Switzerland).
b) An independent semester abroad (during the 2L year or fall semester of the 3L year) at an institution selected by the student and approved by the Law School faculty.
c) A joint J.D./LL.M. program in which students who are not enrolled in another joint degree program are able to earn both a Harvard J.D. and an LL.M. from Cambridge University in England in three-and-one-half years.
For information about eligibility, application deadlines, and program requirements, see http://www.law.harvard.edu/ils/curriculum/study_abroad/ or contact Sara Zucker, Director, International Legal Studies Program, at 617-495-9030 or szucker@law.harvard.edu.
2. Berkeley Exchange Program for J.D. Students
A limited number of J.D. students are permitted to participate in an exchange program at Uni-versity of California, Berkeley-Boalt Hall School of Law during their third year for credit toward the Harvard J.D. degree. Interested students should consult the Dean of Students. Applications are due on the date specified at X(B).
3. Program for Third-Year Visits
In a limited number of cases, J.D. students in their third year may be permitted to spend a se-mester or a year at another approved law school on the basis of significant academic need or serious personal hardship. "Serious personal hardship" is generally limited to unforeseen emergencies relating to personal or family circumstances. Living apart from a spouse or significant other does not, in and of itself, constitute a circumstance of this kind. Applications must be submitted by the date specified at X(A). For further information, please consult the Dean of Students Office.
1. Cross-Registration from Harvard Law School
a) Overview. Cross-registration for eligible Harvard Law School students extends to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and to the following other graduate schools of Harvard Univer-sity: Business, Design, Divinity, Education, Government, Medicine, Dental Medicine, and Public Health. Law School students may also cross-register at M.I.T. and the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Students are responsible for knowing the cross-registration policies and procedures of the Law School and of the school offering the course. Cross-registration must be completed at the beginning of the semester in which the course is offered and by the dates posted in the Law School Cross-Registration Calendar at http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/registrar/cross-registration/calendar.php. A cross-registration petition may not be filed later in the year and operate retroactively.
b) Requirements. A student must be a currently registered, full-time student of Harvard Law School in order to cross-register. First-year J.D. students are not permitted to cross-register in the fall term. In the spring term, first-year students may petition the Vice Dean for Academic Programming to cross-register for a course offered by one of the other Harvard schools; however, the course, if ap-proved, would not be counted for degree credit. Petitions should include the student's rea-sons for wanting to cross-register.
Second- and third-year J.D. students must carry at least eight Harvard Law School credits per semester in order to cross-register, and to meet the Law School fall and spring semester residency mini-mum of 10 credits, the cross-registered course must convert to at least two Harvard Law School credits.
In order to cross-register, LL.M. and S.J.D. students must seek approval from the Director of Administration and Student Affairs for the Graduate Program; S.J.D. students should also consult with their faculty supervisors before starting the cross-registration process.
c) Credits. Harvard Law School allows a maximum of 10 credits of cross-registration toward the J.D. degree and a maximum of six credits of cross-registration toward the LL.M. degree. The maximum number of credits any Law School student may take in cross-registration per se-mester is six. The number of credits for a course will be assigned by the Law School Regis-trar's Office. Law School credits for cross-registration are based on lecture hours (e.g., a course meeting three lecture hours per week for a full semester will receive three credits). LL.M.s do not receive degree credit for language courses. Studio courses are generally limited to two credits.
d) Courses, Grades. The content of a cross-registered course may not dupli-cate or overlap course work taken previously or contemporaneously. The course cannot overlap or abut in meeting time with courses on the student's Law School schedule, and suf-ficient travel time between schools must be allowed.
Cross-registered courses and resulting grades appear on the transcript. Credits earned in cross-registered courses generally count toward the degree; however, the grades do not count in the GPA calculation. Grades awarded by the school offering the course are the grades of record for the Law School transcript.
Most schools do not allow graduate or cross-registered students to take courses pass/fail. Students may not negotiate pass/fail grading separately with faculty, and any offer of pass/fail grading from the course instructor will be verified by the Law School Registrar's Office. Any questions regarding the grading policies of a school should be directed to the respective Registrar's Office.
e) Academic Work, Examinations. All academic work for a cross-registered course must be completed in the term in which the course is taken. Students are responsible for taking the examination(s) in a cross-registered course when scheduled by the school offering the course. Students' academic, travel, and employment schedules should be arranged accordingly. The Law School does not support deferral of examinations in any course in which a student is enrolled except as specified in the Law School Deferred Examination Policy set forth at IV(B) below. In addition, the examination policies and procedures of the school offering the course must be observed.
Note: Degree candidates should plan carefully to complete all academic work and exams in cross-registered courses on schedule to avoid delay in receipt of final grades that may jeopardize clearance for Harvard Law School graduation.
f) Academic Calendars. Different academic calendars and schedules affect semester dates, daily class times, drop/add periods and deadlines, exams, and credits at the other schools. Harvard Law School students must follow the deadlines listed on the HLS Cross-Registration Calendar at http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/registrar/cross-registration/calendar.php or the deadline of the school offering the course, whichever date is earlier. Students should review the dates for start/end of classes and exam periods to see how the Law School academic calendar and the academic calendars at the other schools over-lap. Many catalogs and calendars are online at http://crossreg.harvard.edu/OASIS/CrossReg/index.html
More detailed information for Law School stu-dents is available at http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/registrar/cross-registration/ or from the Registrar's Office.
2. Cross-Registration into Harvard Law School--Students cross-registering into Harvard Law School from other faculties should consult with their home school Registrar's Office first. Cross-registration into the Law School is open to Harvard University students of the following Schools: Arts and Sciences, Business, Design, Divinity, Education, Government, Medicine, Dental Medi-cine, and Public Health and to graduate students of M.I.T. and the Fletcher School at Tufts University. For the duration of the cross-registration, a student must be registered at his or her home school and remain in good standing at both the home school and at Harvard Law School.
Cross-registrants into the Law School are allowed to take a maximum of six credits at the Law School in an academic year, audits included. Most Law School courses expect students to have a basic understanding of legal vocabulary and the legal system. Students should discuss their qualifications for a course/seminar in detail and in advance with the instructor. Cross-registration must be completed at the beginning of the semester in which the course is offered and by the dates posted in the Law School cross-registration calendar. A petition may not be filed later in the year and operate retroactively. There is no cross-registration into the first-year basic courses in civil procedure, contracts, criminal law, legislation and regula-tion, property, torts, and international or comparative law, or into Legal Research and Writing. All cross-registration placements are determined by the Law School Registrar's Office. Students may not make arrangements outside the Registrar's Office with a Harvard Law School in-structor regarding grades or credit for any academic work.
All academic work must be completed in the term in which cross-registration is taken and by Law School deadlines. All examinations must be taken as specified in the Harvard Law School examination schedule. No adjustments will be made, and Harvard Law School does not give make-up examinations. Papers are not accepted in lieu of exams unless the professor offers the option in advance to the entire class. Except in courses so designated, pass/fail grading is not an option and may not be arranged separately with the instructor.
Back to Table of Contents