2019-2020 Registration Guide

Directed Study

Click HERE for the Directed Study Registration Form

A student who has completed the first year of legal study may undertake a Directed Study, completing a substantial project of research and writing on a topic of academic interest under the guidance of a member of the full-time faculty or other faculty (with approval of an Associate Dean). To undertake supervised research, a student must first identify a faculty member willing to supervise the project. After agreeing upon a topic, the student and the faculty supervisor both sign a form describing the topic and agreeing to fulfill the requirements of this option. This form is available from the Office of Academic Services and the completed form must also be filed with that office. Each Directed Study is considered a new course requiring a unique course number for which we need to register you. You should expect to devote a minimum of 90 hours to the project. A time log of hours worked must be submitted at the end of the term, and certified by the faculty member. The student must submit an outline and complete draft to the faculty supervisor for review and comment, prior to the submission of the completed paper. The final paper must be submitted to the faculty supervisor by the date set in the approved proposal, which may be no later than the end of the examination period for the semester in which the paper is completed. The faculty supervisor will grade the paper on a Credit/No Credit basis. Although the student is awarded two credits for completion of the project, the grade is not included in the calculation of the student's grade point average. You may also submit the paper to the faculty supervisor for satisfaction of the law school's legal writing requirement. All written work must be completed in accordance with the provisions of the law school's Academic Integrity regulations (Rule II-F). A student may not receive more than two units of credit in any semester for non-classroom ungraded activities, as opposed to regular course work. Non-classroom ungraded activities which count toward the two-credit-per-semester limit include directed study; law journal work (including Law Review, Transnational Law Review, Journal of Health & Biomedical Law , Journal of High Technology Law ); Moot Court, including Moot Court teams and Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy; research assistantships; and concentration thesis credits.