Coursera

A Law Student's Toolkit (Coursera)

Offered by Yale University,

Whether you are an advanced law student looking to review the basics, or an aspiring law student looking for head start, this course will help you build the foundation you will need to succeed in law school and beyond. This course will introduce you to terminology, concepts, and tools lawyers and legal academics use to make their arguments. It will help you follow these arguments—and make arguments of your own.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

This course consists of a series of short lectures and assignments. A reading list complements each lesson, providing you with a roadmap to help you explore the subject matter more deeply on your own. Although the lessons may cross-reference each other, they are modular in nature: you should feel free to approach them in whatever order fits your schedule, interests, and needs.

Syllabus

WEEK 1

Introduction

An overview of what you will learn, how it will help you, and how to get the most from it.

Categories and Distinctions

Dichotomies and oppositions that will help you categorize legal rules and frame policy questions.

WEEK 2

Law and . . .

Interactions between the law and academic disciplines such as economics, philosophy, and psychology.

Legal Structures

Fundamental frameworks of legal analysis and procedure.

WEEK 3

Evidentiary Tools

Concepts from the law of evidence that can help you respond to questions and make compelling arguments

Preparation Tools

The tools you need to get the most out of law school.

Postscript

Go to Class

MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Coursera

University of Michigan

Community Awareness: Police Brutality in the U.S. (Coursera)

Social Sciences

The tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery have sparked a wave of renewed protests against police brutality across the United States. These nationwide uprisings have transformed into an intense interest from the public around understanding systemic racism and abuse of power. Millions of Americans and people around the world are watching incidents of police violence and excessive force captured on video, but are looking to learn about the inequalities at the root of these incidents. While the calls of Black Lives Matter protesters to #DefundThePolice are being heard for the first time by many Americans, they are part of a longstanding effort by communities and activists to reinvest in communities rather than policing and prisons.

Nov 16th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Social Sciences United States Violence

Coursera

Lund University

African development – from the past to the present (Coursera)

Economics & Finance Social Sciences

African development – from the past to the present -- offers a unique economic history perspective on Africa's development. Over a period of five weeks, the course covers a logical account of historical events and decisions that have shaped the current political-economical landscape of Sub-Saharan Africa - from the pre-colonial and the colonial era, to the era of liberalisation, modern day Africa and the future prospects of the continent.

Nov 16th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Economic Social Sciences Global Economy

Coursera

University of Western Australia

Agriculture, Economics and Nature (Coursera)

Economics & Finance Social Sciences

Sound economic thinking is crucial for farmers because they depend on good economic decision making to survive. Governments depend on economic information to make good policy decisions on behalf of the community. This course will help you to contribute to better decision making by farmers, or by agencies servicing agriculture, and it will help you to understand why farmers respond to policies and economic opportunities in the ways they do.

Nov 23rd 2026

5-12 Weeks

Agriculture Economics Social Sciences

Coursera

University of Copenhagen

Constitutional Struggles in the Muslim World (Coursera)

Law Social Sciences

Learn what motivates the restive Muslim youth from Tunis to Tehran, what political positions Islamists from Mali to Chechnya are fighting for, where the seeming obsession with Islamic law comes from, where the secularists have vanished to, and whether it makes sense to speak of an Islamic state. This course is a survey of the constitutional ideas and institutions that have developed since the mid 19th century throughout predominantly Muslim countries, but its focus will lie on the actors that have dominated this discourse and shaped its outcomes. We will look at the large body of classical writings on the Islamic state only in so far as it is necessary to understand the contemporary debate, but concentrate on the legal and political developments of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Nov 9th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Law Indonesia Malaysia

Coursera

Sciences Po

Cities are back in town : urban sociology for a globalizing urban world (Coursera)

Social Sciences

Urbanization is reaching a new peak in the contemporary world with the rise of mega cities. Researchers try to make sense of these large urban areas using a variety of concepts. The class will review debates and present social science models of cities to analyse and compare contemporary developments. The class will review debates and present social science models of cities and metropolis to analyse and compare contemporary developments.

Nov 16th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Cities Sociology Social Sciences

Coursera

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - HKUST

Social Science Approaches to the Study of Chinese Society Part 2 (Coursera)

Education Social Sciences

This course is intended as a first step for learners who seek to become producers of social science research. It is organized as an introduction to the design and execution of a research study. It introduces the key elements of a proposal for a research study, and explains the role of each. It reviews the major types of qualitative and quantitative data used in social science research, and then introduces some of the most important sources of existing data available freely or by application, worldwide and for China.

Nov 16th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Education China Social Sciences

Coursera

Lund University

European Business Law: Understanding the Fundamentals (Coursera)

Law Social Sciences

The European Union is one of the world’s largest and most important economies. This five week course is the first in a series of three that will provide students with an insight into European Business Law. The series ranges from considering the basic structures and principles of the European Union to focusing on various specialized areas of law. Each course will give the students an understanding of the laws and policies that regulate the internal market of European Union, as well as relevant case law and useful inputs from leading practitioners in the field.

Nov 2nd 2026

5-12 Weeks

Law European Union Foreign Policy

Coursera

Johns Hopkins University

ERPO: A Civil Approach to Gun Violence Prevention Teach-Out (Coursera)

Health & Society

Evidence shows that 1 life is saved for every 10-20 Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) issued. ERPOs are legally issued civil orders that allow people on the front lines to ask a court to prevent a person at imminent risk of harm to themselves or others from purchasing or possessing firearms during a critical period of risk. As of October 2020, ERPO laws have been enacted by nineteen states and the District of Columbia and while some aspects differ by state, the general process for applying and issuing ERPOs are quite similar.

Nov 16th 2026

2 Weeks

Law Prevention Gun Violence

Coursera

University of Alberta,UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Arctic Economy (Coursera)

Economics & Finance Social Sciences

Arctic communities have diverse histories and roles in local, regional and global economies. However, the scope and scale of globalization has increased so quickly that vulnerable Arctic communities are facing new kinds of challenges to their survival. In this 3-week MOOC, a unique collaboration between the University of Alberta and UiT The Arctic University of Norway, you will investigate the challenges faced by Indigenous, North American, Russian and Nordic Arctic communities in a modern world. So join us as we venture above the 60th parallel North, and explore how these fascinating communities adjust to change while maintaining their ways of life, socio-economic histories, and cultural traditions.

Nov 9th 2026

4 Weeks

History Economics Economy

Coursera

Wesleyan University

Designing and Building Institutional Anti-Racist Spaces (Coursera)

Personal and Professional Development

Designing and Building Institutional Antiracist Spaces (D-BIAS) is a course whose mission is to teach and apply tenets of equity, anti-racism, and cultural justice to students from Institutions to achieve social change. The course is aimed at educators and administrators in educational spaces, lawyers and advocates in spaces that touch civil rights, equity, and whose Institutional mission it is to achieve greater cultural equity.

Nov 16th 2026

4 Weeks

Law Justice Personal Development

Coursera

Commonwealth Education Trust

Foundations of Teaching for Learning: Developing Relationships (Coursera)

Education Teacher Professional Development

The Foundations of Teaching for Learning programme is for anyone who is teaching, or who would like to teach, in any subject and any context - be it at school, at home or in the workplace. With dynamic lessons taught by established and respected professionals from across the Commonwealth, this eight course programme will see you develop and strengthen your skills in teaching, professionalism, assessment, and more. As you carry on through the programme, you will find yourself strengthening not only your skills, but your connection with colleagues across the globe. A professional development opportunity not to be missed.

Nov 16th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Education Learning Social Sciences

Coursera

University of Pennsylvania

Introduction to Key Constitutional Concepts and Supreme Court Cases (Coursera)

Law Social Sciences

This course offers an introduction to the U.S. Constitution and landmark Supreme Court cases interpreting it. It explores the Constitution’s origins, its amendment over the years, and methods of constitutional interpretation. Topics include the nature and structure of the federal government, the powers of the federal government, and individual rights.

Nov 2nd 2026

4 Weeks

Law Government Federalism