Curriculum for Law

Your career in law begins now with Champlain’s Upside-Down Curriculum. Discover the difference that doing on day one has on your success.

Law Curriculum

Our curriculum is designed to provide you with a well-rounded education in legal studies. From foundational courses in constitutional law, contracts, and criminal law to specialized topics like family law, business law, and intellectual property, our curriculum covers a wide range of legal subjects that only a law major can offer.

Our faculty are not only your teachers, but they’re also practitioners—which means you’ll learn from the experts who have tried cases, scrutinized legalese, and represented real clients. They’ll be your guide to real-world insights and experiences, like internships with law firms, government agencies, and non-profit organizations; mock trials; and moot court competitions.

Learning Outcomes for Law

First Year
Fall Semester
Spring Semester
Second Year
Fall Semester
Spring Semester
Third Year
Fall Semester
Spring Semester
- MTH 180 Statistics, Introduction to
- SCI XXX Natural Science w/Lab
- XXX Law Elective or General Elective
- COR 303 Core Foundations: Connecting Past and Present
- COR 304 Digital Methods
Fourth Year
Fall Semester
- LEG 390 Law Externship
- LEG 480 Law in Context Seminar
- XXX Law Elective or General Elective
- XXX Law Elective or General Elective
- XXX Law Elective or General Elective
Spring Semester
- CCC 410LEG College Capstone: Law
- LEG 310 Wills, Trusts & Estates
- LEG 390 Law Externship
- XXX Law Elective or General Elective

Students will meet together in an interdisciplinary, seminar-style setting to build a foundational understanding of integrative thinking and learning and to begin to make connections among the various elements of the Champlain College student-experiences and competencies. Students will take part in a real-world community awareness or service experience as a class and then examine the experience from the perspectives of social work, criminal justice, the law, environmental policy, education, and psychology.

Prerequisites
Credits	1

A country's continued existence is based on the strength of its government. Government has the power to shape economic, legal, and social attitudes of society. Students study the United States government with emphasis on the powers and actions of the Congress, the President, and the Courts. Students will also examine federalism, political parties and elections, and the influence of special interest groups and the media on American political culture.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

This course introduces students to the structure and function of the American legal system. Students will survey major areas of substantive and procedural civil and criminal law. Legal vocabulary and electronic legal research and analysis are emphasized.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Students analyze the broad range of civil wrongs known as torts. Among many subjects covered are intentional torts, negligence, products liability, strict liability, defamation, wrongful death, toxic torts, and mass torts. Students will also examine various defenses to liability such as consent, necessity, assumption of risk, contributory and comparative negligence, and sovereign immunity.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Why go to college? What does it mean to be educated? In this course you'll begin to answer these questions. We'll explore the academic expectations of higher education, college as a diverse community, and the significance of education around the world. By examining how these issues are negotiated and implemented at Champlain and elsewhere, you'll gain perspective on your own education and a deeper understanding of the ways that the college experience can be both liberating and transformative.

Prerequisites	Take Cor-102 concurrently.
Credits	3

Inquiry is about learning how to ask the right kinds of questions, and figuring out how to answer those questions through discussion and reflection. This course introduces you to the types of inquiry necessary to succeed at Champlain and beyond. You will explore the intersections of reading, writing, and thinking by focusing on a specific topic or theme. You will approach that focus through the interrogation of relevant texts and analysis that draws upon multiple analytical frameworks. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-one

Prerequisites	Take COR-101 concurrently.
Credits	3

This course focuses on the rules and procedures governing how the American criminal justice system must process individuals suspected, accused, and convicted of law violations. (Spring only)

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Provides a comprehensive analysis of the fundamentals of substantive criminal law. Students will learn the essential elements of crimes and the rationale underlying criminal law. The nature of jurisdiction, the criminal act, the criminal state of mind and matters affecting responsibility for criminal conduct are included.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Students learn about fundamental principles governing the formation, interpretation, performance, and enforcement of contracts under both the common law and the Uniform Commercial Code. Topics include offer and acceptance, consideration, breach of contract, defenses and remedies.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

What makes an argument good or bad? What counts as evidence in our post-truth world? How can you understand and assess the truth value of a claim when you're not an expert? In this course you'll learn rhetorical strategies about how to examine arguments and types of evidence in different disciplines and fields of study. To help learn these strategies, you will do close readings of texts from a variety of disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences, popular culture, and social media.

Prerequisites	Take COR-104 concurrently.
Credits	3

This course introduces you to interdisciplinary inquiry using applied, project-based, and/or experiential methods. Regardless of the specific course focus, you'll have opportunities for making and doing interdisciplinary knowledge creation through a variety of approaches and activities. You will collaborate with other students, iterate on ideas, and work to develop a project. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-one

Prerequisites	Take Cor-103 concurrently.
Credits	3

Students will learn to prepare and deliver informative and persuasive speeches, with an emphasis on researching topics, determining purposes and goals, and organizing content. They will also learn to construct well reasoned persuasive arguments, and how to improve aspects of delivery such as controlling nervousness and developing use of vocal variety.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

This course examines the requirements to file a civil lawsuit. Topics include, but are not limited to the court system, personal and subject matter jurisdiction, pleading requirements, motion practice, discovery, e-discovery, joinder, res judicata and conflict of laws.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Students will develop skills related to finding, analyzing, and writing about the law; utilizing legal databases, law libraries, and a variety of legal publications, treatises, and other legal writings encountered in the day-to-day practice of law. Legal writing style conventions and the format of common legal documents will be emphasized.

Prerequisites	Complete LEG-110
Credits	3

Science holds an elevated place in society. The knowledge and meaning that science makes are seen as having a particular and special value. This course explores knowledge and meaning making in order to allow a thoughtful analysis of, and then engagement with, science as a way of knowing, and then engages with the methods and theories of the sciences themselves, to understand the analytical, creative, and generative possibilities of science.

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104.
Credits	3

While each section of COR 202 addresses a different problem, issue, or topic, they all focus on interdisciplinary research. You will collect, analyze, and assess information from different disciplines in order to recognize patterns, contextualize arguments and synthesize ideas while collaborating on a project. Emphasis will be placed on helping you translate and apply what you learn about interdisciplinary research to other professional contexts. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-two

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104.
Credits	3

Students will meet together in an interdisciplinary, seminar-style setting to build a greater understanding of integrative thinking and learning and to add a focus within a social justice context. Students will participate in an off-campus service learning project and critically examine the experience from the perspectives of social work, criminal justice, the law, environmental policy, education, psychology, and additionally consider their experiences in Core, and LEAD.

Prerequisites	EHS 100 is a prerequisite for EHS 210, except for the following circumstances: 1) Student taking EHS 210 is a non-EHS student. OR 2) Student taking EHS 210 is a transfer student who came in as a sophomore or junior.
Credits	1

Students build upon their knowledge of civil procedure and continue to examine and produce legal documents in more advanced facets of civil litigation including, but not limited to: discovery, interrogatories, depositions, witness and expert testimony, settlement, appeals, and class actions.

Prerequisites	LEG-210
Credits	3

Students learn the strategies of effective written advocacy and produce significant legal correspondence, transactional documents, memoranda, and briefs, while also exploring advanced legal research sources and tools and refining skills in a variety of different subject areas and procedural contexts.

Prerequisites	Complete LEG-120 LEG-160 LEG-170 LEG-240
Credits	3

Students investigate legal relationships within the American family and consider topics such as validity of marriage; divorce proceedings; property division; spousal support; child custody and child support. Students will also examine legal issues surrounding in-vitro fertilization, surrogacy, adoption, and abortion.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Culture impacts everything we do, experience, and learn, but what is culture? Where does it come from, how does it form, and why does it have such a wide and deep impact on people's lives? This course explores culture as a system of meaning and meaning-making in order to allow for a more thoughtful analysis of, and then engagement with, cultural texts and media using different methodological approaches.

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104.
Credits	3

In this course, you will go in depth about a theoretical perspective that asks you to interrogate systems of power and power relationships. You will learn about the history of that perspective, including how it too was shaped by multiple contexts and compares with other viewpoints. You will use that perspective to analyze a specific topic, collection of texts, or cultural phenomena. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-two

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104.
Credits	3

Students examine real property concepts of estate-holds, concurrent ownership, adverse possession, eminent domain, easements and landlord-tenant issues. Topics also include the preparation and validity of associated legal instruments such as mortgages, purchase and sale contracts, and deeds.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Students focus on the procedures required to introduce evidence in a court of law, specifically focusing on the Federal Rules of Evidence. Topics include hearsay exceptions, the best evidence rule, relevance, authenticity and privileged communications.

Prerequisites	60 COMPLETED CREDITS
Credits	3

Students examine federal constitutional law, focusing on the separation of powers and the concept of judicial review of executive and legislative action. Topics include the rights, privileges and immunities conveyed to citizens by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Prerequisites	Must complete 60 credits before enrolling in this course.
Credits	3

Where we are shapes how we understand ourselves and each other. In this course, we will dig into the relationship between place and identity. We will learn how to think spatially, recognizing how one's identity is situated within and constructed through movement through different spaces--be they natural and built environments, rural and urban, or actual and virtual. COR 301 will help us understand the complex meanings of identity in a world defined by movement and change.

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104, COR-201, COR-202, COR-203, COR-204
Credits	3

Field methods are a collection of practices used in the sciences, arts, and humanities to understand phenomena in situ or as it is happening in a specific time and place. In this course, we will apply one or more field methods to research a topic, theme, or question that varies by section. We will learn practices associated with research in the field including but not limited to participant observation, data collection, and experimentation in order to navigate an uncontrolled environment. We will also examine the power dynamics between the researcher, informant, and subject matter to help us understand how, if not practiced ethically, field methods can create or reinforce biases rather than helping us learn with and make sense of the world around us. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-three

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104, COR-201, COR-202, COR-203, COR-204
Credits	3

Teaches a statistical approach to decision making under uncertainty. Topics are descriptive statistics, probability distributions, inferential statistics, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, linear regression and correlation.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

By learning from the past, we can make sense of the present and prepare for the future. In this course, we will learn how the 21st century has been and continues to be shaped by past social practices, ethical frameworks, power relations, and discourses. COR 303 is a course about how we know what we know about the past, and the ways different narratives about the past shape the present. Making connections between past and present will help us better understand how to live and make decisions in a globalized world defined by constant change.

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104, COR-201, COR-202, COR-203, COR-204
Credits	3

Digital methods are widely used forms of inquiry that employ technological tools to interrogate research questions important to the humanities and sciences (including the social sciences). Some examples include digital archiving, data mining, and story mapping. In this course, we will use one or more digital methods or tools to research a topic, theme or question that varies by section, with the express purpose of critiquing and reflecting on its application. This includes an examination of the values, flaws, and impacts of the methods or tools we are using, paying particular attention to their ethical implications and power dynamics. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-three

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104, COR-201, COR-202, COR-203, COR-204
Credits	3

Students independently secure an externship at a law office, governmental agency, or corporate legal department under the guidance of an on-site supervisor for a total semester commitment of at least 140 hours. Over the course of the semester, the student will engage in ongoing, contemporaneous, faculty-guided reflection at regular intervals and document his or her experience during the externship. This course is intended to be taken during the student's final year in the program.

Prerequisites	60 completed credits.
Credits	3

Students utilize learned principles of law when analyzing and exploring current and emerging legal issues of the day that they help select. Students will further develop their legal research, analysis and advocacy skills in several areas of law. In addition to current hot topics in law, students will explore emerging areas such as animal rights law; food & drug law; and sexuality, gender & the law, among others.

Prerequisites	90 credits completed, Law Majors only.
Credits	3

Students will pursue a self-directed experience in their professional program that intentionally integrates their liberal learning in the Core curriculum with their major. In addition to the substantive professional-based hands-on project in this class, the capstone will include a self-evaluation/self-reflection component.

Prerequisites	Must complete COR-310, COR-320, and two sections of COR-330
Credits	3

Students examine the common forms of wills and trusts, the legal principles involved and the drafting of various documents. They also explore the administration of estates, the powers and trust law, intestacy and probate practice.

Prerequisites	LEG-210
Credits	3

Prerequisites	60 completed credits.
Credits	3

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Curriculum for Law

Law Curriculum