Law 798:  Comparative Analysis of Legal Practice

Law 798 Comparative Analysis of Legal Practice is an individual research and writing offering for international students, designed to lend flexibility to the law school program, and allowing those student to relate that writing to an actual experiential opportunity.  This pairing provides a unique academic experience for the development of an international student.  This course is eligible to pair with an application for CPT status due to the required experiential work. Non-international students wishing to pursue similar topics may enroll in the Law 699 course.  A student wishing to write a research paper for this course credit should identify a faculty member willing to supervise the writing project. The student and faculty supervisor will work out the details of the project, including the scope of the paper, the number of hours of credit, and any other requirements.Students are required to identify the placement at which they will participate in the experiential component.

After working out these details, the student should fill out a petition for Law 798 Comparative Analysis of Legal Practice credit (available on the College of Law intranet), and turn it in to the Dean of Students.  The faculty supervisor must approve and sign the petition before it is submitted to the Dean of Students. The faculty has adopted these guidelines concerning Law 798 Comparative Analysis of Legal Practice: (1) Two hours of credit for this course, cumulatively, is the total allowable maximum.  This cumulative two credit hour cap is inclusive of any Law 699 credits as well. (2) This course is not available to students on academic probation. (3) To earn one credit hour, the student usually must produce a research paper of at least 20 pages (excluding footnotes). To earn two credit hours, the student usually must produce a research paper of at least 40 pages (excluding footnotes). (4) Most students will require at least 60 hours of writing and research to complete a one-credit Independent Study project, and at least 120 hours to complete a two-credit project. But in no event will the student receive credit without devoting at least 45 hours per credit to the project. To ensure that this minimum 45-hour requirement is satisfied, the student is required to track their time in the College’s Activity Log Application.  Faculty are given access to this Application to confirm the time requirement is met. (5) The supervisor must be a University of Illinois Law faculty member. Students may use Law 798 Comparative Analysis of Legal Practice to satisfy the upper-level writing requirement. In that case, the project must also satisfy the guidelines of that writing requirement.

Sequence and Prerequisites: None