Law students studying together

Dedicated Undergraduate Law Courses

Minnesota Law regularly offers two courses open to all undergraduate students at the University of Minnesota. These courses are designed to be accessible, having no prerequisites and open to students from all colleges and departments. Students are encouraged to begin their legal studies with Law 3000, Introduction to American Law and Legal Reasoning, as it is designed to be an introduction to the law school classroom and the case method approach. Law 3050, The Law of Business Organizations, is one of the courses that may be taken as part of the undergraduate Business Law minor.

Law 3000: Introduction to American Law and Legal Reasoning

Professor Francis Shen

Law pervades all areas of modern life. Yet it remains mysterious to those without legal training. Do you really know what that fine print says? Or what your constitutional rights actually are? This course will equip you to better answer such questions by exploring the tools that lawyers use to interpret and apply the law. The course introduces basic components of legal reasoning and examines law as a discipline for analyzing problems. Students will learn to think like lawyers through a series of contemporary case studies that require understanding and applying legal rules.

Topics may include contracts, constitutional law, business law, criminal law, civil rights, environmental law, sports and entertainment law, education law, privacy, law and religion, and regulation of the internet.

Law 3050: Law of Business Organizations

Professor Brett McDonnell

This course surveys the laws governing the operations of a variety of types of business firms. This includes laws governing agency, partnerships, limited liability companies, limited liability partnerships, and corporations.

In addition to learning about the relevant laws, students also learn about the sources of those laws, particularly statutes and legal cases, and about the methods that lawyers use in interpreting those laws, and that law students use in learning to understand the laws. We will also consider the economic and social roles of business associations in American society, and how the law regulates those roles.