LL.M. Specialization in Public Interest Law and Policy
To be awarded the specialization in the Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, students must obtain a B- (2.7) grade average in courses taken for this specialization. A minimum of four courses is required to earn the specialization. Detailed course descriptions are linked in the listings below. Prospective students should bear in mind that, due to curriculum scheduling and faculty availability, not every listed class is offered every year. This is most often true in the case of seminar courses. A sufficient number of courses will be available to enable students who choose to pursue this specialization to satisfy the requirements listed below.
Curriculum
For Elective Courses, A Minimum of One Course from Each Category Is Required.
- Required Core Course
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Elective - Category 1: Substantive Law
This requirement is designed to familiarize Epstein Program students with a doctrinal area of law relevant to their chosen public interest career goals, as well as the sites at which this area of law is practiced. To satisfy the Category 1 requirement, a student must take either a substantive law or advocacy sites course.
These courses are designed to familiarize Epstein Program students with a doctrinal area of law relevant to their chosen public interest career goals. For example, a student interested in pursuing a career in prison reform could choose Prison Law and Policy; a student who desires to become a legal services attorney specializing in domestic relations would likely take Family Law; and a student interested in community economic development might choose to take Business Associations.
LAW 201Constitutional Law II
LAW 202Criminal Procedure: Investigations
LAW 211Evidence
LAW 212Federal Courts
LAW 216Administrative Law
LAW 220Introduction to Federal Income Taxation
LAW 230Business Associations
LAW 240Antitrust Law I
LAW 260Labor Law & Collective Action
LAW 261Employment Law
LAW 267Federal Indian Law
LAW 270Public International Law
LAW 273International Human Rights Law
LAW 282Education Law & Policy
LAW 285Local Government Law
LAW 286Land Use
LAW 287Federal Indian Law II
LAW 290Environmental Law and Policy
LAW 293Public Natural Resources Law and Policy
LAW 295Criminal Procedure: Adjudication
LAW 298International Criminal Law
LAW 316Disability Law
LAW 317Family Law
LAW 319Election Law
LAW 322Legislation and Statutory Interpretation
LAW 325Public Benefits Law and Anti-Poverty Policy
LAW 326Health Law and Policy
LAW 331Immigration Law
LAW 337State Constitutional Law
LAW 348European Union Law
LAW 350Energy Law and Regulation
LAW 383Political Asylum and Refugee Law
LAW 389Prison Law and Policy
LAW 405Preventive Detention
LAW 415Financial Punishment
LAW 429Capital Punishment in America
LAW 449Business Crime
LAW 508Food Law and Policy
LAW 519Health Care Access
LAW 527Natural Resources Law
LAW 547Psychology and Criminal Law
LAW 552Food and Drug Law
LAW 627Public Health Law and Ethics
LAW 635Topics in Animal Law
LAW 636Chinese Law & Legal Institutions
LAW 692Water Law
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Elective - Category 1: Advocacy Sites
This requirement is designed to familiarize Epstein Program students with a doctrinal area of law relevant to their chosen public interest career goals, as well as the sites at which this area of law is practiced. To satisfy the Category 1 requirement, a student must take either a substantive law or advocacy sites course.
These courses are designed to expose Epstein Program students to the decision-making institutions where advocacy takes place. For example, a student interested in becoming a public defender might take Anti-Terrorism and Criminal Enforcement; a student pursuing women's rights advocacy could take Human Rights and Sexual Politics; a student dedicated to immigrant rights work could take Immigration Court Practice.
LAW 269National Security Law
LAW 296Criminal Procedure: Habeas Corpus
LAW 301Art and Cultural Property Law
LAW 350Energy Law and Regulation
LAW 363Nonprofit Law and Policy
LAW 376Law and Dissent
LAW 380State and Local Taxation
LAW 407Transnational Litigation in U.S. Courts
LAW 438International Environmental Law and Policy
LAW 443Comparative Environmental Law
LAW 444Indigenous Peoples in International Law
LAW 452Class Actions in Practice
LAW 463Regional Human Rights Protection: The Inter-American System
LAW 465Prospects for International Justice
LAW 467Human Rights Law Beyond Borders
LAW 468China and the International Legal Order
LAW 472Human Rights and the Climate Crisis
LAW 485Consumer Financial Protection
LAW 488Policy Challenges in Tax Law
LAW 497Critical Issues in Human Rights
LAW 493Housing Law and Policy
LAW 502Borders, Punishment, and Control
LAW 503Current Topics in Criminal Law
LAW 509Rights, Secrecy, and the Limits of Public Interest Litigation After 9/11
LAW 510Transnational Litigation in U.S. Courts
LAW 511A/BSocial Media and the Future of Democracy
LAW 513Topics in California Environmental Law
LAW 515The Entrepreneurial State
LAW 534Sentencing Law and Policy
LAW 535The Role of Public Interest Lawyering in Policy and Organizing Campaigns
LAW 556Power, Knowledge, and Procedure
LAW 564The Court of Today: Administration, Authority, and the Stuff of Adjudication
LAW 567Direct Democracy
LAW 589Successful Strategies for Human Rights Advocacy
LAW 591Climate Change Law and Policy
LAW 617Special Topics in Family Law
LAW 623Topics in Non-Profit Law
LAW 630International Queer Rights
LAW 639Political Asylum
LAW 643The Regulation of the Automobile
LAW 657Contemporary Issues Facing the International Criminal Court
LAW 658Human Rights and War Crimes Digital Investigations
LAW 660Cities in Distress
LAW 671Comparative Education: Law and Policy
LAW 688Philosophy of Migration Law
LAW 693Food, Beverage, and Consumer Products Litigation
LAW 696The Legal & Political Importance of State Attorneys General
LAW 697Gun Rights and Regulation
LAW 716International Climate Change Law and Policy Clinic
LAW 733Pre-Trial Criminal Litigation
LAW 742Regulatory Lawyering
LAW 766Information Policy Lab
LAW 784Administrative Hearings Simulation Course
LAW 788Advanced Trial Preparation
LAW 790Advanced Evidence Objections and Arguments
LAW 832Voting Rights Policy and Practice
LAW 837Domestic Violence Prevention Practicum
LAW 838Civil Rights Litigation Practicum
LAW 905The Law and Geopolitics of Green Development
LAW 908Suing the Police
LAW 941Law of the US - Mexico Border
LAW 951Human Rights Challenge
LAW 959Los Angeles Housing Law & Policy
LAW 965Higher Education Law and Policy
LAW 973Designing Real Utopias
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Elective - Category 2: Inequality
This course requirement is designed to expose Epstein Program students to the relationship between law and systems of power. These courses aim to explore the fundamental social, political, and economic issues that public interest lawyers confront and seek to change. Some courses in this category address a specific form or forms of group differentiation (such as race, gender, disability, sexuality, or tribal membership), while others address issues of economic equality that are implicated in most all areas of public interest practice. Finally, some courses address multiple forms of inequality in a single context (such as employment or criminal punishment). Although only one course in this category is required to earn the specialization, Epstein Program students are strongly encouraged to take more than one course in this category.
LAW 214Civil Rights
LAW 263Employment Discrimination Law
LAW 266Critical Race Theory
LAW 301Art and Cultural Property Law
LAW 318Law, Gender, and Sexuality
LAW 325Public Benefits Law and Anti-Poverty Policy
LAW 382Food as Commons or Commodity? The Case for Agroecology
LAW 411Liberty & Equality: LGBTQ & Reproductive Rights
LAW 429Capital Punishment in America
LAW 459Law and Gender: Equality, Rights, Citizenship
LAW 466Public Health, Migration, & Human Rights
LAW 496Race, Racism, and Law
LAW 505A/BMajor Problems in Environment & Sustainability
LAW 526Housing Segregation, Housing Discrimination, and the Evolution of Public Policy
LAW 529Criminal Procedure: Policing Poverty
LAW 533The Philosophy of Prisons and Punishment
LAW 542Race, Sexuality, and the Law
LAW 566Laws of War (International Humanitarian Law)
LAW 568Reparations for Black Americans: What, Why and How?
LAW 593Preventive Detention
LAW 597Place, Race, and Power
LAW 598Recentering International Law: Black Traditions, TWAIL and Other Critical Perspectives
LAW 609The American Civil Justice Crisis
LAW 612Reproductive Rights and Justice
LAW 613The Criminal (In)Justice System
LAW 614Global Perspectives on Criminal Procedure
LAW 618Your Professional Identity and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Law
LAW 619Environmental Justice Law
LAW 622Data, Policy & Legal Responses to the Attacks on Critical Race Theory
LAW 625Community Lawyering and Low Wage Worker Organizing
LAW 632Immigrants' Rights
LAW 653Critical Race Studies Scholarship Workshop
LAW 655Feminist Legal Theory
LAW 656Race, Law and Curriculum
LAW 661Latinx People and the Law
LAW 666The Law and Political Economy of Debt
LAW 668The 8th Amendment Punishments Clause
LAW 810Practicum
LAW 834Law, Organizing, and Low-Wage Workers
LAW 927Human Rights in Action Clinic - International Field Experience
LAW 952Re-envisioning the Lawyer’s Role: Trauma Informed Lawyering and Restorative/ Transformative Justice
LAW 964Comparative Sex Equality
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Elective - Category 3: Applied Advocacy
This course requirement is intended to provide Epstein Program students with hands-on training in public interest advocacy. In these advanced courses, students are exposed to simulated and real world opportunities to integrate their knowledge of law, procedure, and advocacy techniques to advocate on behalf of an individual or group client on a social justice issue. For example, a student interested in a career in international human rights could take the International Human Rights Clinic or the Asylum Clinic. A student planning a career in children’s rights might choose the Youth and Justice Clinic or the Education Law Clinic.
LAW 701Prisoners' Rights Clinic
LAW 712Street Law--Youth & Education
LAW 717International Human Rights Clinic
LAW 719Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic
LAW 725Supreme Court Clinic
LAW 727Supreme Court Simulation
LAW 728Tribal Legal Development Clinic
LAW 730Veterans Justice Clinic
LAW 731Community Lawyering in Education Clinic
LAW 734Housing Justice Clinic
LAW 738California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic
LAW 769Documentary Film Legal Clinic
LAW 773Immigrants' Rights Policy Clinic
LAW 775Food Law and Policy Clinic
LAW 785Negotiation Theory and Practice
LAW 786Pretrial Justice Clinic
LAW 792Immigrant Family Legal Clinic
LAW 794Human Rights Litigation Clinic
LAW 805Part-Time Externship: Criminal
LAW 806Part-Time Externship: Judicial
LAW 807Part-Time Externship: Public Interest
LAW 808Part-Time Externship: Government/Civil Practice
LAW 927Human Rights in Action Clinic - International Field Experience
LAW 972Negotiation Theory & Practice (J-Term)
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Writing Requirement
Students may satisfy the writing requirement for this specialization by writing the faculty-supervised graded paper required for Problem Solving in the Public Interest (Law 541).