LLM in Legal Theory Requirements 2025-26

Course Requirements

Students must successfully complete 24 credits in fall and spring to earn the LLM degree. Students will participate in the compulsory Legal Theory Thesis seminar. They will also choose, in their first semester in the program a seminar that offers an additional writing credit in which to write and submit a substantial paper.  Students will enroll in the one-credit Legal Theory Thesis Workshop in which students will further develop and workshop their paper.

Students must also register for at least one colloquium during the academic year and choose (subject to the approval of the faculty director) 4-6 additional credits from the list of Legal Theory classes below. All students will design their course of study in close consultation with the faculty director. This is intended to ensure that students craft a program of study that is both relevant and valuable to the student’s background, interests, and professional goals.

Substantial Paper

In conjunction with a seminar (with a writing credit) in their first semester in the program, and under the supervision of the faculty teaching the seminar, students will write an original scholarly work on a particular topic in legal theory of at least 40 pages in length exclusive of footnotes. The paper should demonstrate mastery of a particular area of legal theory by mounting an original argument.

Legal Theory Classes

  • Advanced Administrative Law Seminar (LW.10090)
  • Advanced Antitrust Law (LW.10967)
  • Advanced Copyright Seminar (LW.11617)
  • Advanced Constitutional Law Seminar (LW.10176)
  • Advanced Trademark and Advertising Law (LW.11692)
  • America’s Penal State Seminar (LW.12251)
  • Animal Law Seminar (LW.11551)
  • American Legal History (LW.10820)
  • American Legal Thought (LW.12963)
  • Antitrust: International and Comparative Seminar (LW.11676)
  • Artificial Intelligence: Tort and Administrative Law Seminar (LW.12831)
  • Asian American Jurisprudence Seminar (LW.10603)
  • Basic Income Lab Seminar (LW.12949)
  • Beyond Criminal Justice Reform: Abolition Theory and Praxis Seminar (LW.12778)
  • Cities Seminar (LW.12771)
  • Climate Change Law and Policy Seminar (LW.10006)
  • Contract Theory Seminar: History, Race and Pedagogy (LW.10345)
  • Corporate Law’s Frontier Seminar (LW.10287)
  • Creation of the Constitution Seminar (LW.12140)
  • Critical Narratives of Civil Rights (LW.12188)
  • Current Topics in Criminal Justice Reform Seminar (LW.12967)
  • Decision-Making in the Federal Courts: Seminar and Simulation (LW.11836)
  • "Divine Madness:” Reconciling the Religion Clauses (LW.10292)
  • Economic Analysis of Law (LW.10853)
  • Economic Analysis of Public Law (LW.12695)
  • Economic Policy: Tax, Transfer, and Regulation Seminar (LW.12934)
  • Education Policy Seminar (LW.11448)
  • Effectively Advocating for Policy Proposals Seminar (LW.12467)
  • Free Expression and Social Media Seminar (LW.12072)
  • Free Speech Theory Seminar (LW.12969)
  • Global Data Law I (LW.12755)
  • History and Theory of International Law Seminar (LW.10997)
  • Human Rights, Investment Law, and Sustainable Development Seminar (LW.10709)
  • Iconic Delaware Cases Seminar (LW.12785)
  • Intelligence: Law, Strategy, Ethics Seminar (LW.10439)
  • International Law/International Justice Seminar (LW.11740)
  • International Organizations: The Law and Practice of the United Nations (LW.10256)
  • International Trade and Investment Law and Policy Seminar: The Challenge of Changing Energy Markets (LW.12528)
  • Introduction to Comparative Law (LW.11286)
  • Introduction to Ethical Theory (LW.11539)
  • Islamic Law and Society (LW.10886)
  • Jewish Questions: Antisemitism, Jewish Identity and the Law Seminar (LW.12817)
  • Judges, Democracy & Justice: Canadian and American Constitutional Law Seminar (LW.12951)
  • Law and Complexity Seminar (LW.12925)
  • Law and Cultural Studies Seminar (LW.12986)
  • Law and Development (LW.10295)
  • Law Film and Culture Seminar (LW.11457)
  • Law and Society in China Seminar (LW.10871)
  • Law and Society in Japan Seminar (LW.10562)
  • Law and Tradition in China: Change and Continuity (LW.11156)
  • Law, Film, and Society Seminar (LW.11457)
  • Law of the Welfare State Seminar (LW.11846)
  • Legal Change and the Single Case Seminar (LW.12970)
  • Legal Imagination and International History: Sovereignty and Property (LW.11952)
  • Natural Resources Law and Policy (LW.10028)
  • New Frontiers in Rights Protection, Property and the Environment Seminar (LW.12938)
  • Paths and Challenges of Political Reform Seminar (LW.12398)
  • Philosophical Foundations of Economic Analysis of Law Seminar (LW.12385)
  • Presidential Powers Seminar (LW.12122)
  • Problems in Jurisprudence (LW.11225)
  • Public Safety Seminar (LW.12962)
  • Questions of Transparency in Government and Politics Seminar (LW.12470)
  • Regulating Networks and Platforms Seminar (LW.12883)
  • Resisting Injustice Seminar (LW.10310)
  • Retribution in Criminal Justice: Political Violence and its Relation to Manhood (Shakespeare) Seminar (LW.10447)
  • Sex Discrimination Law (LW.12271)
  • Sexuality, Gender and the Law Seminar (LW.10529)
  • Sovereign Finance, Capital Markets and Global Regulatory Challenges Seminar (LW.12643)
  • Supreme Court Simulation Seminar (LW.12903)
  • The Civil War and the Constitution Seminar (LW.12347)
  • The Ethics of Identity Seminar (LW.12527)
  • The European Union and its Law: What every Lawyer Should Know about the European Union (LW.10851)
  • The First Amendment’s Religion Clauses (LW.12135)
  • The Law of Democracy (LW.10170)
  • The People’s Welfare Seminar (LW.12689)
  • The Political Economy of Human Rights (LW.10014)
  • Theories of Discrimination Law Seminar (LW.12699)
  • Trying Atrocity Crimes Seminar (LW.11220)
  • Urban Environmental Law and Policy Seminar (LW.12603)
  • War, the President and the Constitution (LW.11547)
  • Any of the Law School Colloquia in addition to the one required for the Legal Theory program.

Colloquia

The following is a listing of colloquia offered by the Law School:

  • Alternatives to the Prison System Colloquium (LW.12887)
  • Colloquium on Art Law (LW.11537)
  • Colloquium on Constitutional Theory (LW.10031)
  • Colloquium on Culture and Law (LW.10650)
  • Colloquium in Legal, Political and Social Philosophy and Seminar (LW.10596)
  • Environmental and Energy Law Colloquium (LW.12882)
  • Global and Comparative Public Law Colloquium (LW.12039)
  • Hauser Colloquium: Judicial Independence, Judicial Accountability
  • IILJ Colloquium: Space and Planetary Law & Governance (LW.10520)
  • Innovation Policy Colloquium (LW.10930)
  • Legal History Colloquium (LW.11160)
  • Tax Policy and Public Finance Colloquium (LW.10787)
  • US Asia Law Institute Colloquium: Globalization, International Law and East Asia Law (LW.12761)

Additional Courses

Through consultation with the program Director, students will be guided toward a course structure emphasizing theoretical understanding. The consultation will also ensure that the course of study is appropriately specialized or broad, depending on the student’s background and interests. Students will be able to choose courses both from NYU’s regular faculty and from Global Visiting Professors of Law who may be in residence.

Courses Outside the Law School

Students are permitted to take up to six credits in law-related classes that count toward the LLM degree of courses in other graduate divisions of the University. Such courses require the approval of the program director and the Vice Dean.

Contact Information

Prospective students should direct their inquiries to the Office of Graduate Admissions
Admitted and current students should direct their inquiries to the Office of Graduate Affairs.

Faculty advisement can be arranged by contacting Professor Kornhauser’s assistant, Monica Millay:
monica.millay@nyu.edu
Telephone: (212) 992-8811