Areas of Study

Two students talking in library

NYU Law’s 16 areas of study offer students a wide choice of academic specialties with courses taught by faculty who are leaders in their fields. Our rigorous academic programs create a close-knit, dynamic community, enriched by an impressive roster of centers and student organizations, as well as opportunities to work directly with faculty on cutting-edge research.

Always an academic innovator, the Law School continues to lead the way in legal education on several fronts:

Interdisciplinary

NYU prides itself on being at the forefront of interdisciplinary research and teaching, with special strengths in law and philosophy, economics, politics, history, and social theory. Many faculty members in the Law School have PhDs in allied fields, and the faculty includes a number of the leading philosophers, political scientists, political theorists, and sociologists in the world. Interdisciplinary ideas and methodologies pervade the curriculum, intellectually enriching the study of law and connecting it to multi-faceted problems in the real world. Intellectual life centers around the dozen colloquia held each year, which bring together students and faculty from NYU and other universities to discuss cutting-edge interdisciplinary work. NYU students pursue dual degrees in the arts and sciences and train as scholars through the Furman Scholars and Academic Careers programs.

Experiential and Clinical

Experiential training is integrally woven throughout our curriculum. The carefully constructed sequence of courses and clinics developed by Anthony Amsterdam begins with the much-heralded first-year Lawyering Program, introducing students to real-world skills that every lawyer needs to be an effective practitioner. Upper-level simulation courses follow, and our clinics provides students with unparalleled experiences in working with clients and communities to address urgent problems, influence public policy, and improve the quality of legal problem-solving. A distinctive feature of NYU School of Law’s clinics is that the faculty who teach them are tenured or tenure track professors whose sole professional interest is the research and teaching they do at the Law School. The faculty-student ratio in clinical courses is extremely low (typically, a clinical faculty member teaches 8 to 10 students), in order to ensure students the intensive experience that the best of clinics should deliver.

Global

The Law School offers an unsurpassed array of courses, seminars, and colloquia in international, comparative, and foreign law. In fact, there are more than 50 courses typically taught in these areas each year, and International Law is now a first-year elective. Students develop cross-cutting expertise between areas that were traditionally studied separately, such as trade and environmental law, intellectual property and human rights, and global antitrust and international labor law. The Hauser Global Law School Program brings faculty and fellows to New York from around the world to teach, study, and collaborate. These outstanding scholars and practitioners are joined by more than 300 international students.

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