The Human Rights & Comparative Constitutional Law concentration provides students with a comparative, critical, and robust foundation in both human rights and constitutional law. It offers students a comprehensive understanding of contemporary human rights practices, including uses of constitutional law, in both domestic and international settings.
Each student can design an individual course of study tailored to their academic and professional interests, taking advantage of extensive curricular and clinical offerings and devoted interdisciplinary faculty. Clinics specializing in Capital Punishment, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Immigration, and Transnational Worker Rights give students the opportunity to learn firsthand through cases and projects how to integrate theory, skills, strategy, and law.
This concentration is open to students with a foreign law degree and students with a J.D.
Additionally, students have access to programs and centers at Texas Law. The Law School’s Bernard & Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights & Justice (Rapoport Center). The internationally recognized Rapoport Center serves as a focal point at the University for critical, interdisciplinary analysis and practice of human rights and social justice. The Texas Journal on Civil Liberties & Civil Rights began in 1992 at the University of Texas School of Law and is one of the premier civil liberties and civil rights journals in the country. The Texas International Law Journal is dedicated to providing its readership with cutting edge legal analysis of recent developments in international law.
Internal Scholarships
- Good Neighbor Scholarship (separate application required and March deadline)
- Rapoport Center Human Rights Scholars Program (separate application required and April deadline)
- Application instructions: (1) The applicant’s current standing is other/LL.M. (2) Search the Course Schedule for fall courses the applicant is interested in taking. (3) LL.M. students should list the Law School’s Assistant Dean for Graduate & International Programs as a reference. Email LLM@law.utexas.edu for the Assistant Dean’s contact information. The other two references can be academic or professional references outside Texas Law. (4) Search the Richard and Ginni Mithoff Pro Bono Program, student journals, and student organizations for extracurricular activities the applicant is interested in joining as a Texas Law student.
- Tuition Assistance for Mexican Students (separate application required and April deadline)
Visit Scholarship Opportunities for more information.
General Requirements
- A total of 24 credit hours that must be completed in one academic year (fall and spring terms).
- 12 concentration-specific credit hours (see below).
- U.S. Constitutional Law for Foreign Lawyers (This is a requirement for students with a foreign law degree. Students with a background in common law may request a waiver from this requirement.)
- Writing Requirement: A three-credit writing seminar or a two-credit directed research paper (30-40 double-spaced pages).
- Non-U.S. J.D. students planning to take a U.S. state bar exam must also complete certain bar-required courses as part of their LL.M. degree program to be eligible to take the bar examination.
Concentration Requirements
Concentration Requirements:
- 12 credit-hours
- All credits must be completed in Tier #1, International Human Rights Law
- At least 3 credits must be completed in Tier #2, Comparative Constitutional Law.
- The remaining required credits for the concentration may come from any of the courses listed in Tier #2 or Tier #3.
Sample Courses
Tier #1 International Human Rights:
- International Human Rights Law 348E
- Public International Law 382G
Tier #2 Comparative Constitutional Law:
- Con Law II: Constitutional Amendments in the United States & Around the World 381C
- Seminar: Colloquium on Comparative Constitutional Law & Politics 397S
- Seminar: Explorations in Constitutional Law & Politics Around the Globe 397S
Tier #3 U.S. Human Rights, U.S. Constitutional Law, Clinics:
Human Rights
- Americans with Disabilities 348D
- Capital Punishment 378R
- Capital Punishment Advanced 379M
- Civil Rights Litigation 248C
- Domestic Violence and the Law 378J
- Election Law & Policy 335F
- Employment Discrimination Law 368N
- Employment Law 361J
- Equity & Diversity in Higher Education 379M
- Health Law and Policy 379M
- Immigration 373C
- International Human Rights Litigation 379M
- Nat’l Security Law & Terrorism 379M
- Nat’l Security Law & the Intelligence Community 379M
- Reentry: Criminal Justice 279M
- Seminar: Antidiscrimination Law 397S
- Seminar: Citizenship 397S
- Seminar: Equal Opportunity Law 397S
- Seminar: Human Rights & Global Inequality: Law, History & Politics 397S
- Seminar: Inequality, Labor, and Human Rights: The Future of Work in the Age of Pandemic 397S
- Seminar: International Human Rights, Anti-Impunity, and Criminal Law 397S
- Seminar: International Humanitarian Law 397S
- Seminar: Law of the United States-Mexico Border397S
- Seminar: Legal/Medical Services for Vulnerable Populations 397S
- Special Education Law 397S
- Directed Research Study (arranged on individual basis)
U.S. Constitutional Law
- Con Law II: Civil Rights 381C
- Con Law II: Constitutional Design 381C
- Con Law II: Constitutional History*** 381C
- Con Law II: Constitutional Interpretation381C
- Con Law II: Constitutional Litigation381C
- Con Law II: Corporations & the Constitution381C
- Con Law II: Due Process/Equal Protection381C
- Con Law II: Election Law 381C381C
- Con Law II: Equality/Liberty 381C
- Con Law II: First Amendment 381C
- Con Law II: Free Speech381C
- Con Law II: Jurisprudence and Const. Law381C
- Con Law II: Race/Sex Discrimination381C
- Cutting-Edge Constitutional Litigation – Trial Court to Supreme Court 279M
- Federal Courts 486
- Seminar: Homeland Security Law 397S
- Seminar: Supreme Court***397S
- Supreme Court 279M
- Supreme Court Practice: 20th Anniversary of the Texas Solicitor General’s Office 179M
- Terror/Consent: Constitutional/International Law 379M
- Youth Justice & the Policy Development Process 371V
- Directed Research Study (arranged on individual basis)
Clinics
- Capital Punishment Clinic ***697C
- Civil Rights Clinic 697C
- Human Rights Clinic 697C
- Immigration Clinic 697C
- Transnational Worker Rights Clinic 697C
Note: The sample courses listed above are sample course offerings only and are not necessarily offered every term. Past, current, and future courses can be accessed on the Law School’s Course Schedule. Clinics are competitive and require an application.