Faculty-led specialty programs allow faculty and students to interact with distinguished leaders who influence disciplines, society, the nation, and the world.
Program activities include lectures, guest speakers, conferences, and symposiums, and offer enhanced learning opportunities to prepare students for the evolving legal market. These are not majors or concentrations in the traditional sense but faculty-led areas of academic interest and strength within the College of Law.
Explore Our Programs
Business Law
The Illinois Business Law Program highlights business-law expertise and activity within the College of Law, including in the areas of corporate governance, M&A, antitrust, securities law, bankruptcy, and tax. The Program aims to promote excellent scholarship and enrich business-law education and engagement at the College of Law.
Chicago Business Law
The Chicago Business Law Program facilitates student, faculty, and alumni engagement with Chicago-area corporations and attorneys through executive education programs, workshops, conferences, and business classes in the Chicago Program.
Comparative Criminal Procedure and Policing
The Illinois Program in Comparative Criminal Procedure and Policing seeks to further knowledge and appreciation of comparative criminal procedure and the comparative study of policing through regular conferences.
Constitutional Theory, History, and Law
The Program in Constitutional Theory, History, and Law fosters scholarship, discussion, and debate on subjects relating to constitutional interpretation and history through workshops, lectures, and conferences.
Criminal Law and Procedure
From Albert J. Harno to Charles Bowman to Wayne LaFave, the University of Illinois College of Law has long enjoyed a strong presence in the field of criminal law and procedure. To capitalize on this strength, the Program in Criminal Law and Procedure was created in 2005, with a goal to promote scholarship and discussion on criminal law related topics, by funding conferences and other programs, by promoting teaching and service related to criminal law, and by publicizing the work of the Illinois faculty who are nationally and internationally renowned for their work in these fields.
Epstein Health Law and Policy
The Epstein Health Law and Policy Program promotes cutting-edge research, policy analysis, and public service/public engagement on critical issues in health care; fosters collaboration between scholars focused on health law and policy; and facilitates collaboration among government leaders, practitioners, and academic researchers on issues of increasing complexity.
Family Law and Policy
The Family Law & Policy Program at the University of Illinois College of Law is the place for creative and innovative thinking about challenges facing the modern family. The public discussions hosted by the Program range from the New ART of Family and questions raised by assisted conception, to the status of polygamy, end-of-life decision making in families, and conversations on the linkages between family, work, healthcare, and poverty.
Innovation Law and Technology Program (ILTP)
The Innovation Law and Technology Program (ILTP) is an interdisciplinary initiative at the College of Law that explores the legal, regulatory, and policy dimensions of emerging technologies. Designed as a collaborative hub for faculty across the University of Illinois campus, ILTP fosters connections between law and diverse scientific and technical domains, supporting both foundational research and applied innovation.
The Jury Program
Juries decide less than 4% of criminal cases and less than 1% of civil cases. This phenomenon occurs despite the democratic role the jury was to play in the United States. Three amendments in the U.S. Constitution and numerous state constitutions and statutes provide rights to juries. This Program has the mission to increase the number of jury trials in the U.S. and worldwide. Increasing judicial and lawyer interest in jury trials are among the Program’s goals.
Law, Behavior, and Social Science
Reflecting and advancing recent trends in interdisciplinary legal scholarship, the program in Law, Behavior, and Social Science seeks to broaden and deepen knowledge at the intersection of law and various fields of social science, including economics, behavioral law and economics, empirical legal studies, sociology, and psychology.
Law and Philosophy
The primary mission of the Law and Philosophy Program (IPLP) is to advance knowledge about legal topics of philosophical significance, particularly those that implicate moral, political, economic, and environmental issues. IPLP regularly sponsors lectures, conferences, roundtables, and dinner seminars that involve scholars from across the departments of the University of Illinois with leading theorists from around the world.
Legal History
The Illinois Legal History Program seeks to further knowledge and appreciation of legal history through an ambitious series of workshops, conferences, and public lectures. Since its formation in 2004, the Program has hosted numerous distinguished scholars in its workshop series. With a particular emphasis on American, British, and comparative legal-historical scholarship, the Program draws upon the intellectual expertise of numerous faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.