Course Section | Columbia Law School

Section Description Provided by Instructor

This course surveys the first-year curriculum through a close reading of cases and materials spanning the fields of constitutional law, private law, criminal law, and the main points of civil and criminal procedure. Its purpose is to introduce students already trained in a foreign legal system to American law and legal institutions, by way of an overview of the material covered in the first year of law school in the United States. The course begins with a discussion of the differences between the common law and civil law, and then turns to a range of topics including judicial review, federalism, the court system, jury trials, and more.

For purposes of further instruction as well as training in research and writing, the class is divided into smaller sections that meet with an Associate in Law one hour for every two hours of the main course.