JMM,

I would offer a slightly different angle. I've taken courses that dealt with legal topics in graduate school (contracts, torts, property, secured transactions, agency, partnerships, corporate law). I've also taken each of those classes in law school. The course descriptions were very similar, but the approaches were fundamentally different.

The graduate approach is to familiarize students with basic concepts and to apply them, with the intent of being able to interact intelligently with a legal professional. For example, in business school, the goal was for students to better interact with their in-house counsel. There is little to no emphasis on understanding how the law evolved, how to attempt to change it, and we never read a single case.

In law school, as you surely recall, it is the exact opposite. The semester generally begins with older cases that have been overturned in whole or in part, followed by the landmark cases that caused the changes, and analysis of the issues in each case, with the intent of the students being able to "spot issues" in any given scenario and argue each side of the issue to make an assessment of how the law is likely to be interpreted and whether/how to approach it.

By analogy, the former would be equivalent to getting a class on how to select a lawyer, how to prepare for a meeting with him, and what services you can reasonably expect from him. The latter would be equivalent to learning how to address clients' legal needs, how to extract necessary information from them to fully analyze the issues relevant to their situations, and what you can expect to do for them.

That said, in looking at the core curriculum that you posted, I don't know why a person wouldn't just go to law school. It would probably open more doors and, as you noted, it is very similar to most 1L curricula. Why anybody would subject themselves to the tedium of those courses without getting a JD in return is beyond me. After the 1L year, students can take whatever courses their hearts desire, to include those listed (though my school, I'll admit, does not offer a course on "Islamist warfare" but there are equally enlightening and interested courses to choose from that have an international flavor to them).

I do agree with your overall analysis that it looks like a good program, though.