Required Introductory Courses
American Legal System (3 credits)
This course will begin to help MSL students to "think like lawyers." Students will gain experience in reading and analyzing cases and statutes in order to begin to understand how to use the law to predict answers to legal questions. The course will also include a sampling of legal readings and guest lectures in the various areas of substantive law. Grading will be based on short papers and presentations and on one longer paper and a corresponding class presentation.
Torts (4 credits)
This course explores the methods and policies for allocating losses from harm to one’s person, property, relations, and economic and other interests. The study of Tort Law is particularly useful for a number of reasons. First, it demonstrates how judges make law, as almost all of tort law is judge-made, or “common,” law. Second, it teaches you how to read cases using fact situations that are easily understandable, such as automobile accidents, medical malpractice, and defectively dangerous manufactured items. Finally, Tort Law is an important basis for recovery for individuals who are injured by the actions of others, which is what many of the MSL specializations focus on.
MSL Specializations
MSL students may choose from over 200 first-year and upper-level law school courses in which they take these courses alongside Juris Doctor students. Almost all courses are open to MSL students. The major exception are clinical courses that require you to be in a JD program, a requirement imposed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Many upper-level courses have prerequisites and limits on the number of students who may enroll, but these limitations apply to all law students, not just to MSL students.
Explore each of the MSL degree's specializations below and learn more about the requirements on the law school's courses and curriculum website.
- Biomedical & Health Services Research
- Business Law
- Commercial Law
- Corporate Law
- Criminal Law and Justice
- Disability Law
- Elder Law and Estate Planning
- Employment and Labor Law
- Energy Law
- Entrepreneurship and Innovation Law
- Environmental Law
- Family Law
- Health Care Compliance
- Health Law
- Human Resources Law
- Intellectual Property and Technology Law
- International and Human Rights Law
- International Business Law
- Jurisprudence
- Real Estate Law
- Self-Designed
- Sports and Entertainment Law
- Tax Law