Upper Year Curriculum
During their upper years, students are required to take Administrative Law, Civil Procedure, and Corporate Law. The remaining courses are elective, and can be chosen from a wide array of subjects, including clinical and intensive courses. In selecting their courses, students may be guided by Western Law’s curricular streams, which provide students with informal guidance on the courses and co-curricular activities they may wish to pursue in light of their personal interests and career aspirations.
A complete list of Western Law’s course offerings can be found on Western’s official Academic Calendar.
Current Western Law students can find detailed curriculum and course information on our OWL page.
Writing Requirements
Students must also satisfy the Faculty writing requirements. This can be done in either of two ways, namely: (1) by completing two research essay requirements, or (2) by completing one research essay and one legal writing requirement.
To satisfy a research essay requirement, a student must take an upper year course that requires a written essay worth at least two credit hours. To satisfy a legal writing requirement, a student must take an upper year course (or courses) requiring a legal writing assignment (or assignments) totaling at least two credit hours.
Intensive Courses
In upper years, students may elect to take short intensive courses allowing for the study of advanced and specialized topics. Intensive courses diversify learning opportunities by offering interactive and experiential training, including through simulations, advocacy exercises, field trips and externships.
For-credit Moot Competitions
Upper-year students can compete in external advocacy competitions for academic credit during the Winter term. Most moot teams can expect to spend the first week of January dedicated to more intensive work on their moot experiences before winter term classes formally begin.
