LLM in Legal Theory Requirements 2026-27

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

• Achieving Public Safety Seminar (LW.12962)
• Advanced Administrative Law Seminar (LW.10090)
• Advanced Antitrust Law: Big Tech and Beyond (LW.10967)
• Advanced Antitrust Seminar: The Antitrust/Intellectual Property Interface (LW.10927)
• Advanced Constitutional Law Seminar (LW.10176)
• Advanced Topics in Employment and Labor Law Seminar (LW.10246)
• Animals and Climate Change Seminar (LW.12827)
• Animal Law Seminar (LW.11551)
• 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)
• Challenges to Prosperity: Rule of Law and Citizen Security in Latin America and the Caribbean Seminar (LW.11150)
• Climate Change Law and Policy Seminar (LW.10006)
• Comparative Constitutional Law Seminar (LW.10221)
• Contract Theory Seminar: History, Race and Pedagogy (LW.10345)
• Corporate Law’s Frontier Seminar (LW.10287)
• Criminal Antirust Theory and Practice Seminar (LW.12994)
• Critical Narratives of Civil Rights (LW.12188)
• Current Topics in Criminal Justice Reform Seminar (LW.12967)
• Democratic Theory Seminar (LW.11867)
• Economic Analysis of Law (LW.10853)
• Economic Policy: Tax, Transfer, and Regulation Seminar (LW.12934)
• Education Policy Seminar (LW.11448)
• Effectively Advocating for Policy Proposals Seminar (LW.12467)
• Federalist Papers Seminar (LW.11957)
• Free Expression, Social Media, and Artificial Intelligence Seminar (LW.12072)
• Global Data Law I (LW.12755)
• Global Environmental Law, Science, and Governance Seminar (LW.11614)
• Global Issues in Labor Law and Global Labor Strategies Seminar (LW.11162)
• History and Theory of International Law Seminar (LW.10997)
• Human Dignity Seminar (LW.11797)
• Iconic Delaware Cases Seminar (LW.12785)
• Illiberalism in Legal and Political Theory Seminar (LW.10069)
• Intellectual Property and Human Rights Seminar (LW.12551)
• International Organizations and International Courts (LW.10256)
• International Trade and Investment Law and Policy Seminar: The Challenge of Changing Energy Markets (LW.12528)
• Introduction to Political Philosophy (LW.11381)
• Islamic Law and Society (LW.10886)
• Jurisprudence (LW.12359)
• Law and Complexity Seminar (LW.12925)
• Law and Cultural Studies Seminar (LW.12986)
• Law and Development: Historical Perspectives (LW.13027)
• 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, Economics and Journalism Seminar (LW.10254)
• Law, Film, and Society Seminar (LW.11457)
• Law of the Welfare State Seminar (LW.11846)
• Legal Imagination and International History: Sovereignty and Property (LW.11952)
• Life of Honor Seminar (LW.12372)
• Maimonides Mishneh Torah: Jewish Law and Legal theory Seminar (LW.11987)
• Mental Disability Law Seminar (LW.11545
• Modern Legal Philosophy Seminar: The Books (LW.11033)
• Narrative Strategies for Racial Justice and Equality (LW.12869)
• New Frontiers in Rights Protection, Property and the Environment Seminar (LW.12938)
• Paths and Challenges of Political Reform Seminar (LW.12398)
• Political Polarization and the Question of Reform Seminar (LW.12398)
• Presidential Powers Seminar (LW.12122)
• Psychological Dimensions of Criminal Law Seminar (LW.11376)
• Race and the First Amendment Seminar (LW.12861)
• Readings in American Legal History Seminar (LW.10201)
• Resisting Injustice Seminar (LW.10310)
• Retribution in Criminal Justice: Political Violence and its Relation to Manhood (Shakespeare) Seminar (LW.10447)
• Rights in Chines Law Seminar (LW.12941)
• Rule of Law (LW.10342)
• Seminar on Federalism: Law, Policy and History (LW.11962)
• 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 Business Corporation: Its First 400 Years (LW.13026)
• 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 Listening Guide Method of Psychological Inquiry (LW.12549)
• The Political Economy of Human Rights (LW.10014)
• The Structure of the Executive Branch Seminar (LW.13005)
• Topics in Museums Studies: Museums & the Law (LW.12121)
• 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:

• Colloquium in Legal, Political and Social Philosophy and Seminar (LW.10596)
• Colloquium on Art Law (LW.11537)
• Colloquium on Constitutional Theory (LW.10031)
• Colloquium on Law and Psychology (LW.11049)
• Colloquium on Law and Security (LW.11698)
• Environmental and Energy Law Colloquium (LW.12882)
• Hauser Public International Law Colloquium (LW.13025)
• 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, Henrieke Dekker:
henrieke.dekker@nyu.edu
Telephone: (212) 998-6617