Required Curriculum

The following courses are required for graduation.

Course Credit Hours
Business Enterprises 4
Civil Procedure I 3
Civil Procedure II 3
Constitutional Law I 2
Constitutional Law II 4
Contracts I 3
Contracts II 3
Criminal Law 3
Evidence 4

Professional Responsibility

 3
Property 4
Research Writing & Advocacy I 2
Research Writing & Advocacy II 2
Torts 4
Total Credit Hours for Required Courses 44

UPPER LEVEL WRITING REQUIREMENT

I. Purpose.

In view of the fact that lawyers and other members of the legal profession are commonly called upon to communicate their expertise in writing, the faculty of the Michigan State University College of Law has instituted an upper level writing requirement (the ULWR) in order to assure that every student who graduates from this law school will have had the experience of researching, analyzing and writing about legal issues on a more sophisticated and in-depth level than is generally possible during the first year of law school.

The benefits of the ULWR are twofold. Each College student will not only acquire enhanced research, analytical and writing skills, but also will produce a paper that may be used as a writing sample for job interviews and/or that may improve the student's credentials if the paper is published in a law review or bar journal.

II. The ULWR as a Prerequisite to Graduation.

Beginning with the fall, 1996 semester, all students commencing their studies at the College will be required to complete successfully the ULWR as a prerequisite to graduation.

III. Prerequisites to Commencing Fulfillment of the ULWR.

Students may commence the process of fulfilling the ULWR only after successful completion of twenty-nine (29) or more credit hours of law school.

IV. Vehicles for Fulfilling the ULWR.

Each student meeting the prerequisites of paragraph III herein shall produce a paper, in accordance with the standards of paragraph V herein, as part of

(i) a seminar,

(ii) a directed study,

(iii) the law review program or other school-sponsored law journal programs, or

(iv) a school-sponsored moot court program or the Geoffrey Fieger Trial Practice Program.

The vehicles for fulfilling the ULWR described in paragraph IV (ii) - (iv) herein shall be supervised only by full-time College faculty members (including RWA faculty). The vehicle for fulfilling the ULWR described in paragraph IV (i) herein shall be supervised by either full-time or adjunct the College faculty members. However, acceptance of a casenote for credit by the law review editorial board fulfills the ULWR, under paragraph IV (iii) herein.

A professor who agrees to supervise a student's fulfillment of the ULWR will be referred to hereinafter as “the supervising professor.” No faculty member may serve as a supervising professor for more than three (3) ULWRs fulfilled through the vehicles described in paragraph IV, (ii)-(iv) herein, unless the College administration determines that exceptional circumstances warrant a faculty member's supervision of a maximum of five (5) such ULWRs.

V. Standards and Procedures for Fulfilling the ULWR.

A. Standards.
In order to fulfill the ULWR, each student meeting the prerequisites of paragraph III herein shall produce a paper in accordance with the following standards:

(i) Students may satisfy the ULWR at any time after completion of twenty-nine (29) credit hours of law school.

(ii) The paper must be on a topic of law approved by the supervising professor.

(iii) Satisfaction of the ULWR shall entail an outline and at least one rough draft, which are critiqued by the supervising professor, and a final draft. The supervising professor shall provide written comments concerning the outline and draft(s) and, if appropriate, the final submission.

(iv) The paper must be typed in a double-spaced format on 8-1/2 x 11 paper, and must be at least 7,000 words long, not counting endnotes.

(v) The paper must

(a) demonstrate an accurate understanding and analysis of the subject matter thereof;

(b) require the student to engage in substantial research to identify relevant authorities and to marshal those authorities in support of the propositions advanced in the paper;

(c) be supported by endnotes reflecting the student's research for the paper; and

(d) demonstrate an ability to present one's ideas in a clear and organized manner

(vi) Satisfaction of the ULWR under paragraph IV (iv) shall be by an additional paper beyond any work submitted as part of those programs and shall be the individual student’s work product.

No student may satisfy the ULWR with a paper that was prepared in any significant degree either prior to the completion of 29 credit hours of law school or in connection with a student's previous or present employment. No student may satisfy the ULWR with a paper that is the collaborative work of two or more students.

If the student is fulfilling the ULWR by means of a directed study, the supervising professor will have regular meetings with the student concerning the outline, rough draft and/or other matters pertinent to the student's fulfillment of the ULWR and follow rules 2, 3 and 4, relating to Directed Studies.

B. Procedures.
In order to fulfill the ULWR, the following procedures must be observed:

(i) Fulfillment of the ULWR will be indicated by a notation on the student's transcript upon written notification by the supervising professor to the Registrar that the ULWR has been successfully completed by the student. There will be no separate award of academic credit for completion of the ULWR.

(ii) The ULWR Workshop must be completed in a semester that is the same as or prior to the semester of the student’s enrollment in a ULWR-qualifying program. See Appendix 4D: ULWR Enrollment Form. See also Appendix 4E: Memorandum, dated February 20, 2003, Re Course Approval – Upper Level Writing Requirement Workshop.

Adopted in principle: April 19, 1995
Adopted: November 13, 1996
Amended: September 19, 2001; March 4, 2003, November 12, 2003 (effective Spring 2004); February 11, 2004