LJA - Law, Justice and Advocacy

An examination of the role of laws in society, the fundamental sources of law, and the legal system and its procedures. Develops the skills for legal research, writing and analysis. Introduces the substantive areas of constitutional, contract and criminal law and torts.

This course will introduce students to legal research and writing, general legal terminology and various legal concepts.  It will also introduce students to composing and editing legal writing.

This course examines the connections between race and the law in the United States, from colonial times to the present, using court cases, primary sources, and secondary legal and historical scholarship. Students will be asked to critically examine the intersection of the law and race in U.S. society and how this intersection has changed over time. As a part of this critical analysis, the course will explore major legal landmarks concerning race, including the fight over “Indian Removal,” the Reconstruction amendments, the development of de jure segregation (and challenges to that segregation), the 1924 Immigration Act and racially-informed legal battles over citizenship, legal decisions of the mid-20th century Civil Rights Movement, and the development of mass incarceration.

The course focuses on persuasive writing and oral advocacy. Specifically, the students will write an appellate brief and make oral arguments using a current or past hypothetical case developed by the American Collegiate Moot Court Association, resulting in an end of class mock appeal.

The course will focus on trial advocacy, process and evidence. Students will develop strategy, organize delivery, and apply critical thinking to a case problem, resulting in an end-of-class mock trial.

This is an advanced and intense trial advocacy experience.  Students must have the approval of the assigned professor to register.  To be selected for the course, students must earn a B or better in Trial Advocacy (LJA 316) during the fall semester, and earn high scores from mock judges during an in-class, end-of-fall-semester mock trial competition. Selected students will participate in a seven-week intensive preparation for an American Mock Trial Association regional tournament (held in either February or March of the spring term). This is a pass/fail class.

This is an advanced and intense appellate advocacy experience. In teams of two, students develop legal arguments on a hypothetical case developed by the American Moot Court Association. Each student is responsible for both petitioner and respondent positions on an assigned constitutional issue. Over the course of the semester, students will learn Supreme Court precedent for the constitutional issues that underwrite the hypothetical case, practice oral arguments in class, and compete in a regional tournament of the AMCA. Students will be required to submit a written brief.

An applied, experiential moot court or mock trial experience, which involves case-problem readings and participation in either moot court or mock trial tournaments. The course must be under the direction of a full-time LJA professor, and the subject matter will depend on the yearly national case problems devised by The American Mock Trial Association and The American Collegiate Moot Court Association.

One credit only, repeatable up to a maximum of four credits.