JD Concentration in Criminal Law & Procedure
Intro
The JD Concentration in Criminal Law & Procedure is designed to enhance career paths of UIC Law students who pursue careers as criminal defense attorneys or prosecutors. The concentration curriculum immerses degree candidates in the doctrines of criminal law and hones their skills related to practice before Illinois and federal courts.
Requirements and Learning Outcomes
Declaration to Pursue the Concentration: Students who intend to pursue this concentration are strongly encouraged to consult the faculty director at the end of the semester in which they complete 30 credit hours, in order to ensure that they will be able to complete the concentration.
General Requirements
JD students may earn only one concentration. Degree candidates pursuing the JD Concentration in Criminal Law & Procedure must complete a minimum of 16 credits, including 8 required credits, and must graduate with a cumulative overall GPA of 3.0 and a GPA of 3.25 in coursework taken to fulfill the concentration.
Candidates are strongly encouraged to take Lawyering Skills IV: Drafting: Criminal Litigation (TADR 460) and Externship: Criminal (TADR 470/473).
Elective Courses
- Counseling & Negotiations (TADR 426, 3 Credits)
- Cyber Crime, Information Warfare and Economic Espionage (JD 472, 3 Credits)
- Expert Witnesses (TADR 429, 2 Credits)
- Externship: Criminal Law Fieldwork (TADR 473, 2-3 Credits)*
- Externship: Restorative Justice Class (TADR 476, 2 Credits)*
- Federal Courts (LAW 571, 3 Credits)
- Federal Criminal Law (LAW 570, 3 Credits)
- Human Rights, Race & Mass Incarceration (LAW 474, 3 Credits)
- Independent Study in Law (LAW 596, 1-2 Credits)†
- Jury Selection (TADR 424, 2 Credits)
- Lawyering Skills IV: Drafting: Criminal Litigation (TADR 460, 2 Credits)
- Litigation Technology (TADR 428, 3 Credits)
- White Collar Crime (TADR 430, 2 Credits)
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Legend
*- Concentration candidates who take this experiential learning component must take both the class and placement components.
†- Topic must be approved in advance by the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and the faculty director.
If approved in advance by the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and the faculty director and, if necessary, the appropriate person in the UIC college offering the course, a student may take one graduate-level course at UIC in criminal justice, forensic science, or another highly relevant field.
Learning Outcomes
JD Concentration in Criminal Law and Procedure
- Graduates of the concentration will understand and be able to apply core principles of criminal law.
- Graduates of the concentration will be able to identify the components of the police investigative process and understand how the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution affect them.
- Graduates of the concentration will be able to identify the stages of the criminal adjudicative process and be able to understand and apply the law of criminal procedure to the charging process, trial, and sentencing of the accused.
- Graduates of the concentration will understand the components of trial practice,be able to construct legal theories, and be able to conduct opening arguments,witness examinations, objections, and closing arguments.
Adopted April 2023
