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

Emory University

"Making" Progress Teach-Out (Coursera)

Social Sciences

What is “progress”? How do we decide when we’re moving forward and not taking steps backward? And how do we explore the idea of progress around public sites of memory? This Teach-Out is an invitation to think about what progress means, and how you can look for it wherever you are—in your city, community, or neighborhood—and reflect upon your own ideas about the place you live in.

Sep 21st 2026

2 Weeks

Community Social Sciences Public Spaces

Coursera

Princeton University

Paradoxes of War (Coursera)

Social Sciences

The Paradoxes of War teaches us to understand that war is not only a normal part of human existence, but is arguably one of the most important factors in making us who we are. Through this course, I hope that you will come to appreciate that war is both a natural expression of common human emotions and interactions and a constitutive part of how we cohere as groups. That is, war is paradoxically an expression of our basest animal nature and the exemplar of our most vaunted and valued civilized virtues.

Sep 21st 2026

13-24 Weeks

History Sociology Democracy

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.

Sep 7th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Law European Union Foreign Policy

Coursera

University of London

Refugees in the 21st Century (Coursera)

Social Sciences

This MOOC provides insight into the refugee phenomenon as one of the most complex, compelling and (arguably) misunderstood features of the 21st century. Taking a global perspective, it will outline the fundamentals of who ‘refugees’ are, where they come from and where they go, as well as delving into the features of the global system for refugee protection and ‘solutions’ for those who have been forcibly displaced.

Sep 21st 2026

5-12 Weeks

Social Sciences Refugees Migrant

Coursera

Leiden University

EU policy and implementation: making Europe work! (Coursera)

Social Sciences

People have become more critical of EU policy and often seem to prefer local policy solutions in response to globalisation problems. How do you experience EU policy? Does it help? And if not, how can we change this? In this course, we learn how the European Union prepares and decides on policy, and how policy is transferred to member states and implemented by various authorities, including regional and local governments. We discuss the challenges of the European multi-level governance structure. We also focus on the main causes of policy failure or success. On this journey, we focus on actual policy and present the views of various experts: how easy is it to establish yourself in another EU-country?

Sep 28th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Europe Government Social Sciences

Coursera

University of Florida,University of Arizona,Drexel University

Introduction to the Orbital Perspective (Coursera)

Social Sciences

The goals of this course are to develop the student’s critical thinking skills, global awareness, and ability to work as an integral part of a team in an increasingly complex global job market. The course provides a foundation in such skills as team building, collaboration, and elevated empathy using real-world scenarios from some of world’s most effective collaborative projects including the Earthrise-2068 Project.

Sep 14th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Earth Social Sciences Space

Coursera

University of Amsterdam

Quantitative Methods (Coursera)

Engineering Statistics & Data Analysis

Discover the principles of solid scientific methods in the behavioral and social sciences. Join us and learn to separate sloppy science from solid research! This course will cover the fundamental principles of science, some history and philosophy of science, research designs, measurement, sampling and ethics. The course is comparable to a university level introductory course on quantitative research methods in the social sciences, but has a strong focus on research integrity. We will use examples from sociology, political sciences, educational sciences, communication sciences and psychology.

Sep 14th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Ethics Research Methods Social Sciences

Coursera

University of Geneva

International Water Law (Coursera)

Law Social Sciences

In recent decades, international law has undergone a series of major developments in order to accommodate the many new facets of freshwater management and protection. The adoption of universal, regional and basin instruments highlights how important it is to study the evolution of international water regulations and to be able to identify the main principles in this field. This course aims to provide the necessary background to understand and examine the regulation applicable to transboundary freshwaters especially to rivers, lakes and aquifers. It presents the principles and legal standards that govern the use, sharing, management and protection of these resources.

Sep 21st 2026

5-12 Weeks

Law International Law Water Law

Coursera

University of London,UCL Institute of Education

What future for education? (Coursera)

Education Social Sciences

Through this course you will start to critically examine your own ideas about education, teaching and learning. The critique will be developed through engagement with theories and ideas developed through educational research. You will be encouraged to use these ideas to challenge or support your own ideas about education. Each week we will focus on one key question, using video lectures, key readings and challenges to explore some commonplace notions about education.

Sep 14th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Education Learning Social Sciences

Coursera

University of California, Irvine

Chemerinsky on Constitutional Law - Individual Rights and Liberties (Coursera)

Law Social Sciences

Chemerinsky on Constitutional Law: Individual Rights and Liberties will highlight the construction and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution through the centuries with an emphasis on protections of individual liberties and the evolution of equal protection. You'll learn the history behind the Constitution, cases that formed important precedent, and how changes in interpretation have been dependent on shifts in cultural and political climate as well as the composition of the Supreme Court.

Sep 7th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Law Constitutional Law Constitution

Coursera

Duke University,Emory University,University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Copyright for Educators & Librarians (Coursera)

Education Social Sciences

Fear and uncertainty about copyright law often plagues educators and sometimes prevents creative teaching. This course is a professional development opportunity designed to provide a basic introduction to US copyright law and to empower teachers and librarians at all grade levels. Course participants will discover that the law is designed to help educators and librarians.

Sep 14th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Education Copyright Social Sciences

Coursera

Erasmus University Rotterdam

Digital Governance (Coursera)

Law Social Sciences

Big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, autonomous cars, chatbots, just a few terms that have become a part of our professional legal and political vocabulary. Emerging technologies and technological advancement have confronted us in our daily practice and will continue to do so in the future. Whether we’re buying something online, taking part in an election, or chatting with friends across the globe. Technology is here and it is here to stay.

Sep 21st 2026

5-12 Weeks

Law Courts Digital Age