Master of Legal Studies (MLS)
MLS 400 Human Resources Compliance - 3 Hours
This course examines the institutional models and regulatory schemes governing the management of employees in the workplace. Topics include a survey of the creation, maintenance and termination of the employment relationship, employee/employer duties, employment protections, torts in the workplace, workplace privacy and workplace safety and health. Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 414 Employment Discrimination - 3 Hours
This course examines the legal rules and public policies surrounding employer practices and employee claims sounding in discrimination against members of protected classes or in hostility in the workplace. Topics include the state and federal regulations governing employment discrimination; employer planning, best practices, and prevention of claims; and the legal processes for determination and redress of discrimination in the workplace. Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 450 SHRM-CP/SCP Exam Prep: Core HR Strategies and Functions - 3 Hours
This course combines expert instruction with the official Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) certification preparation tool: the current SHRM Learning System. As an official SHRM Education Partner, TLS offers this two-part course which is a comprehensive and effective way to prepare for success on the SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP exam while completing the MLS degree. MLS 450 covers HR strategy, talent acquisition, employee engagement and retention, learning and development, total rewards, and structure of the HR function. MLS 450 is a prerequisite for MLS 451; MLS 451 must be taken within the same calendar year as MLS 450. Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 451 SHRM-CP/SCP Exam Prep: Organizational Effectiveness and Risk Management - 3 Hours
This course combines expert instruction with the official Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) certification preparation tool: the current SHRM Learning System. As an official SHRM Education Partner, TLS offers this two-part course which is a comprehensive and effective way to prepare for success on the SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP exam while completing the MLS degree. MLS 451 covers organizational effectiveness and development, workforce management, employee and labor relations, technology management, managing a global workforce, risk management, corporate social responsibility, and U.S. employment law and regulations. MLS 450 is a prerequisite for MLS 451, and MLS 451 must be taken within the same calendar year as MLS 450. Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 505 Philosophy and Theology of Justice - 3 Hours
This course surveys foundational sources in history, philosophy, Christian theology, and the Bible as the basis for law, justice, and governmental order in the United States. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 521 Contracts - 3 Hours
This course studies the fundamentals of contract law, including the common law and selected portions of the Restatement (Second) of Contracts and the Uniform Commercial Code. Topics include remedies, offer, acceptance, discerning the agreement, the parol evidence rule, Statute of Frauds, flaws in the agreement process, unconscionability, third-party interests, enforceability, consideration, promissory estoppel, performance and non-performance, warranties and conditions, breach, and defenses. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 523 Contract Drafting and Analysis - 3 Hours
This course teaches students practical contract drafting skills, including how to translate a business deal into contract concepts, how to draft each of a contract's parts, how to draft with clarity and without ambiguity, how to negotiate a contract, and how to review and analyze a contract. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 531 Criminal Law - 3 Hours
This course teaches students how to deal with substantive criminal law problems in both practical and policy terms. The course inquires into the proper scope and objectives of criminal law, limitations on the State's power to define criminal liability, and general principles of liability and defenses for offenses against the person and property. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 540 International Human Trafficking - 3 Hours
This course is an overview of the global issue of trafficking in persons for forced labor or sexual exploitation and an examination of factors that contribute to the issue and how it is being addressed through legal, economic, and other solutions. The course also examines applicable international conventions and the United States policy responses to human trafficking. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 541 Torts - 3 Hours
This course examines common and modern law dealing with compensation for injuries to persons and property. Topics include intentional torts and defenses, negligence and defenses, strict products liability, strict liability, defamation, invasion of privacy, nuisance, misrepresentation, vicarious liability, survival actions, wrongful death, immunities, and torts affecting businesses and familial relationships.Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 544 Domestic Human Traffficking - 3 Hours
This course provides an overview of domestic human trafficking issues by looking at each facet of human trafficking from recruitment of the victims to the execution of the crime. The course examines what domestic trafficking actually looks like in the United States versus the perception of it in the media and provides insight into the victims of human trafficking and how they fall prey to the traffickers. The course examines the crime of trafficking and legal avenues that may be available both to deter trafficking as well as to help those victims that are discovered; this is accomplished by looking at investigation and prosecution models that may be effective in combating human trafficking. Finally, the course examines the roles and responsibilities of third party actors as it relates to this crime. Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 545 Human Trafficking: Law and Policy (Cambodia) - 3 Hours
In this study abroad course in Cambodia, students are introduced to international and domestic laws and policies governing various forms of human trafficking, including forced labor, sexual exploitation, and other modern forms of slavery. Cambodia is considered a source, transit, and destination country for many forms of human trafficking. Students explore Cambodia's history as well as its legal responses to the Cambodian genocide and human trafficking. Students examine the diplomatic and policy tools employed by governments, non-governmental organizations, and other institutions to combat trafficking, including foreign aid, local investment, education, and economic development. Students have the opportunity to meet with multilateral organizations, government officials, NGOs, survivor organizations, and other key individuals involved in the anti-trafficking movement. Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 558 Legal Fundamentals - 3 Hours
This course introduces American law, including the sources of law, the constitutional system, and the judiciary. This course gives an overview of major legal doctrines in the United States, with a special emphasis on Civil Procedure, Property Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, and Criminal Procedure. Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 565 Juvenile Law and Delinquency - 3 Hours
This course is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of important issues surrounding juvenile delinquents and different stages of prosecution of these crimes. Topics include theories of causations of delinquency, gangs, drugs, interventions, court procedures, different types of consequences available for punishment, search and seizure, and interrogation of juveniles. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 568 Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Criminal Justice - 3 Hours
This course examines the ways in which race, ethnicity, and class impact the offender through the criminal justice system through both a cultural and Christian worldview. The course considers the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color as well as how one's race, ethnicity, and/or class may affect prosecutorial discretion when it comes to charging, plea bargaining, sentencing, the death penalty, and indigent counsel. Additionally, this course examines the use of imprisonment in the United States as well as reentry into the community. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online and accelerated.
MLS 572 Victimology and Restorative Justice - 3 Hours
This course covers the relationship between victims and their offenders, interaction between victims and the criminal justice system, the impact of crime on victims' families and the reintroduction of offenders to society. The course focuses on the Christian view of reconciliation. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 575 Law and Theory of Corrections - 3 Hours
This course introduces students to penology, probation, punishment theory, and trends in alternatives to institutionalization. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 600 Constitutional Law - 3 Hours
This course covers the powers of the federal government and selected topics regarding the relationship of the branches of the federal government to each other and to the States, as well as selected topics regarding the Bill of Rights, due process, equal protection, and the effect of the Fourteenth Amendment on the application of the Bill of Rights to the States. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 601 Churches and the First Amendment - 3 Hours
Students examine the First Amendment, emphasizing its critical role in protecting the rights of churches and religious organizations in the United States. Students explore the key provisions of the First Amendment that directly impact religious institutions, including the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause, as well as the freedoms of assembly and speech. Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 660 Property - 3 Hours
This course focuses on the acquisition, disposition, and use of personal and real property. Topics include the nature of ownership and possession, bailment, adverse possession, common law classifications of estates in land, concurrent ownership, present and future interests in land, and landlord-tenant law, transfers of interests in real property, real estate contracts, legal descriptions, conveyances and deeds, recording systems, title insurance, private land-use restrictions (easements, covenants, and equitable servitudes), public land-use regulations, eminent domain, and regulatory takings. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 670 Alternative Dispute Resolution - 3 Hours
This course provides students with foundational skills for helping people resolve conflict outside of court using peacemaking principles. In this intensive-style Christian Alternative Dispute Resolution course, students are taught to utilize critical thinking and peacemaking principles necessary for resolving personal conflict, and to practice personal peacemaking skills. Personal peacemaking is a prerequisite to acquiring advanced skills necessary for assisting others resolve conflict through Christian Mediation and Arbitration. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 675 Mediation - 3 Hours
This course presents the use of third party intervention as an alternative collaborative process for dispute resolution. Students analyze the skills needed to be an effective mediator as well as the ethical and practical limiations on the use of mediation. This course includes simulated mediation exercises. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 680 Negotiation Theory and Practice - 3 Hours
The course covers the theory and practice of negotiation as a process to reach contractual agreements and resolve disputes. The course examines negotiation strategies, Christian principles, and ethical issues to develop a Christian approach to negotiation. This course includes simulated negotiation exercises. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 685 Labor Law and ADR in the Workplace - 3 Hours
This course examines the legal and policy implications of employee organization, bargaining, and dispute resolution. Topics include employee organization, collective bargaining laws and processes, state and federal regulation of organizing and bargaining, and arbitration of labor and employment disputes. Additionally, the course examines common and statutory law dealing with arbitration and mediation issues arising from the workplace. Delivery Mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 686 Cross Cultural Dispute Resolution - 3 Hours
This course examines the impact of cultural differences on resolution of interpersonal and international disputes and examines cultural differences such as long-term versus short-term horizons, risk aversion and individual/community expectations. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 700 Introduction to Bioethics - 3 Hours
This course is an overview of the ethical issues in health care and biotechnology that make up the field of bioethics. Biblical-theological and other prominent contemporary perspectives are developed and assessed. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 702 Business Organizations - 3 Hours
This course covers the formation of agency relationships, partnerships and corporations, the fiduciary duties of agents, directors and officers, shareholder voting, shareholder lawsuits, rules around corporate disclosures, insider trading, and corporate control transactions. Particular attention is given to the way in which corporations organize and operate. The course also examines the respective roles, relationships, and liability exposure of shareholders, directors, and officers. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 710 Current Issues in Bioethics - 3 Hours
This course addresses the current state of the law regarding a wide range of bioethical issues. With the help of case discussions, the course addresses questions such as how the law of bioethics responds to changes in moral, social, and political landscapes, and the proper role of law in shaping bioethical views and practices. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 783 Criminal Procedure - 3 Hours
This course provides a comprehensive understanding of important issues of criminal procedure arising during the investigation and early stages of prosecution of crimes. Topics include constitutional limits on arrests and stops, search and seizure, interrogation of suspects, right to counsel, exclusionary rule, identification procedures, and the privilege against self-incrimination. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 800 Wills, Trusts, and Estates - 3 Hours
This course examines rules pertaining to intestate succession, testamentary dispositions, execution, modification, and revocation of wills, testamentary capacity and will contests, interpretation of wills, protection of spouse and children, and the use of will substitutes. The creation, types, and characteristics of trusts are also examined, including coverage of the construction of trusts, trust administration, and wealth transfer taxation. Fiduciary administration issues also are considered. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 850 Exempt Organizations - 3 Hours
This course surveys government regulation and oversight of nonprofit organizations by federal and state tax agencies, and addresses the attorney's role in annual reporting requirements, managing unrelated business income, and bequests to charities. Nonprofit Law is a prerequisite for this class. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 860 Strategic Planning - 3 Hours
This course provides an overview of and applications of strategic planning theories, methods, and group processes in different nonprofit organizational environments. The course emphasizes the application of strategic planning specifically to the mission, fundraising, operations and human resources of charities. Delivery mode: traditional, online, and accelerated.
MLS 861 Nonprofit Law - 3 Hours
This course is the foundation course for studying nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations, with an emphasis on governance issues. The course addresses formation, board responsibilities, fundraising, operations and dissolution. Application for tax exempt status and annual informational tax returns are surveyed in this class. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 910 The Right to Life and the Law - 3 Hours
This course studies the complex medical, social, legal, and ethical issues raised by topics such as: abortion, embryonic research, IVF, infanticide, and euthanasia. The course includes a survey of U.S. Supreme Court and other U.S. and international judicial decisions pertaining to these issues. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 913 The Rights of Vulnerable Persons - 3 Hours
This course is a survey of the international treaties and bodies intended to protect the rights of women, children, and families. Issues addressed include pertinent international instruments and principles of international law relating to gender-based discrimination; violence against women; children's rights to privacy, education, and information; pornography; enslavement and servitude; child soldiers; and the implications of religious liberties on the family. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 914 The Rights of Minorities - 3 Hours
This course surveys international and regional efforts to articulate and protect the human rights of ethnic, racial, religious, linguistic, and national minorities; persons with disabilities; and indigenous groups. Related issues such as identity, autonomy, self-determination, xenophobia, nationalism, and racism are addressed. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 923 Introduction to International Human Rights Law - 3 Hours
This course provides an introduction to international human rights law. Topics include the foundational and historical development of human rights, and the development of international and regional legal systems to protect human rights. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 932 International Human Rights Protection (Europe) - 3 Hours
In this study abroad course in The Hague, Netherlands, and Strasbourg, France, students address the recognition and protection of human rights under international law. Students address the protection of human beings in the international human rights protection system, the regional systems for protecting human rights, as well as under international criminal law and international humanitarian law. Students investigate the jurisprudence of human rights, including its history and development, as well as the theological and philosophical foundations for reflecting on the nature and scope of human rights. Students visit numerous international courts, museums, and a Nazi concentration camp, and have the unique opportunity to interact with human rights lawyers, judges, government officials, academics, and activists from around the world. Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 951 Religious Liberty and the Law - 3 Hours
In this advanced course, students examine critical issues of law and religion both in the United States and internationally. Issues addressed include the theological foundation of law and the legal foundation of theology; the relationship between church and state; religious discrimination and accommodation; prohibitions on blasphemy, apostasy, and defamation; persecution of and by religion. Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 952 Religious Freedom and Parental Rights - 3 Hours
Students explore the intersection of religious freedom and parental rights within the framework of the U.S. Constitution and broader legal principles. Students examine how the First Amendment and other legal protections safeguard the rights of parents to raise their children according to their religious beliefs while balancing the interests of the state in regulating education, health, and welfare. Key topics include homeschooling and religious education, medical decision making and religious exemptions, and the role of religious beliefs in child custody disputes. Students will also address contemporary challenges, such as vaccination mandates, gender identity issues, and the rights of minors in religious contexts. Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 953 Faith in the Workplace - 3 Hours
Students explore the complex relationship between faith and the workplace, focusing on the legal, ethical, and practical aspects of religious expression and accommodation in professional environments. Students examine issues such as the rights of employees to observe religious practices, the obligations of employers to provide reasonable accommodations, and the boundaries of religious expression at work. Students will also address contemporary challenges, such as religious attire, prayer in the workplace, and conflicts between religious beliefs and workplace policies on issues like LGBTQIA+ rights and gender equality. Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 954 Law, Religion, and Public Policy - 3 Hours
Students survey the interaction between law, religion, and public policy as a basis for forming individual patterns of public engagement and establishing habits toward good citizenship. Topics range from the interaction of law and religion, the role of faith in forming legal judgment, and the public engagement of the church in the contested public square. Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 962 Real Estate Transactions - 3 Hours
This course presents the basic statutory and common law principles of the fundamental elements of a real estate transaction including arranging the deal, performing the contract, closing the contract, assuring title, financing the purchase, federal income tax considerations, and condominium and other communal arrangements for home ownership. Delivery Mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.