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 410 Staffing and Compensation Administration - 3 Hours
This course examines the planning for and implementation of the management of the hiring and compensation of employees. Topics include wage and hour regulations, workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, personal leave laws, other employment benefits regulations and Federal pre-emption of state wage and benefit laws. 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. Deliverty mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 415 Labor Law and ADR - 3 Hours
This course examines the legal and policy implications of employee organization, bargaining and dispute resolution. Topics include employee organization -formal or informal, collective bargaining laws and processes, state and Federal regulation of organizing and bargaining, and arbitration of labor and employment disputes. Delivery mode: traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 421 Performance Assessment - 3 Hours
This course examines the institutional models for assessing the efficiency and contractual performance of employees. Topics include organizational planning for and implementation of standards and expectations on the part of employees and management, the efficient, fair, and ongoing assessment of management and worker performance, and the imposition of rewards for satisfactory performance and the remediation for under-performance. 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 - 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 Human Trafficking - 3 Hours
This course in an overview of the global issue of trafficking in persons for forced labor or sexual exploitation; examination of factors that contribute to the issue and how it is being addressed through legal, economic and other solutions. The course will also examine 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.
MLS 543 Human Trafficking and Economic Development--Cambodia - 3 Hours
This is an advanced course in human trafficking and economic development. Students will analyze and discuss current issues in human trafficking, focusing on sex trafficking in Southeast Asia. Students will learn the history of human trafficking, and how human trafficking is combatted in the modern world. Students will also learn about economic development in Southeast Asia, and how it is a modern way of combating human trafficking. Trinity Law School teaches this course from a Christian perspective and actively incorporates Biblical principles into the curriculum. Thus, this class/trip has three major aspects or themes to it: (1) basic concepts and laws relevant to human rights; (2) human trafficking; and (3) the role and relationship of worldviews and economic factors and development or lack thereof to human rights and human trafficking. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 558 Legal Fundamentals - 3 Hours
This course provides fundamental coverage relating to the key subjects of Constitutional Law, Civil Procedure, Tort Law, Contract Law, the Law of Property, and Criminal Law and Procedure. Also covered is the course of litigation, trials, appeals, and the foundational concepts of jurisdiction, and burdens of proof. 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 567 Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Criminal Justice - 3 Hours
This course examines the ways in which race, ethnicity, and gender impact the offender through the criminal justice system. The course considers crimes and justice patterns, overrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities, policies, and reintegration into society. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 570 Forensic Mental Health - 3 Hours
This course provides an overview of the laws pertaining to the evaluation of a criminal defendant's mental health and how the diagnosis of a mental illness may impact juvenile and adult criminal proceedings. Topics covered include the role of forensic mental health experts, mental defenses and trial practice. 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 will focus on the Christian view of reconciliation and the reintroduction Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 573 Cyber Criminology - 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. 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 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 will present the use of third party intervention as an alternative collaborative process for dispute resolution. Analysis of the skills needed to be an effective mediator. Ethical and practical limitations on the use of mediation. This course will include 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 will include simulated negotiation exercises. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 685 ADR in the Workplace - 3 Hours
Exploration of the background and the types of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedures that are used in both the union and non-union workplace to resolve labor and employment disputes. This course introduces students to the ADR mechanism such as negotiation, mediation and arbitration long used and widely accepted in the unionized setting for more than 100 years and grown drastically in the non-union sector for the recent years. The course examines the common law, including the U.S. Supreme Court decisions, 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 will examine the impact of cultural differences on resolution of interpersonal and international disputes. 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 691 Conflict Management in Business and Nonprofit Organizations - 3 Hours
This course presents an overview of the litigation process and its advantages/disadvantages in dispute resolution. The course will also focus on how organizations have effectively developed and institutionalized programs tailored to manage conflict among employees and managers. 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 700b Intensive Bioethics Institute - 3 Hours
This course surveys the Bible from the standpoint of its unfolding history of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation, with special attention to Scriptural applications of ethical thought and ramifications for ethical behavior. The course considers how precedents, themes, truths, and strategies that established God's will in earlier times provide direction for God's people today. Students will practice interpreting scripture responsibly and thinking creatively about current bioethical issues in the light of biblical principles. Offered as in-person 6-day intensive at the Deerfield, IL campus (BE 5100). 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 710a Bioethics National Conference - 3 Hours
The annual national/international bioethics conference provides a unique opportunity to learn from and interact with Christian leaders in bioethics from around the country and beyond. The course includes a preconference reading program and post-conference writing program tailored to the topic of the conference. Class meetings with the professor immediately precede and are interspersed throughout the conference. This is a 3-day in-person intensive held at the Deerfield, IL campus (BE 5900). Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 710b Bioethics Regional Conference - 3 Hours
The regional bioethics conferences held by Trinity International University in various parts of the U.S. and world provide special opportunities to learn from and interact with Christian leaders in bioethics from around the country and beyond. The course includes a preconference reading program and post-conference writing program tailored to the topic of the conference. Class meetings with the professor take place at the conference. This is a 3-day in-person intensive course (BE 5800). Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 720 Landmark Cases in Bioethics - 3 Hours
This course covers the many of the major issues in bioethics have been shaped by pivotal medical and legal cases. The course examines those cases in detail and uses them as a springboard for understanding the larger ethical issues that they address. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 750 Bioethics Seminar - 3 Hours
This is a topical course conducted as a seminar on a question such as autonomy and informed consent, health care systems, resource allocation, genetic intervention, or end-of-life decision making. BE 7700 is the equivalent of this course (3-day intensive after Bioethics National Conference in Deerfield, IL in June). Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 760 Bioethics and Public Policy - 3 Hours
This course is an interface of bioethics and public policy in North American and international contexts, with special attention to religious perspectives in the public square; important cases and bioethics commissions; and other documents. Students will have the opportunity to create a public policy strategy as they become familiar with basic federal and state governmental structures and legislative processes. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 760a The Public Policy Context - 1 Hour
This course covers the explanation of basic federal and state governmental structures and legislative processes for students not already familiar with them. Designed to be taken concurrently with MLS 760b. Offered as guided study at the Deerfield, IL campus (BE 5499). Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 760b Bioethics and Public Policy - 2 Hours
This course is an interface of bioethics and public policy in North American and international contexts, with special attention to religious perspectives in the public square; important cases and bioethics commissions; and other documents. Students will have the opportunity to create a public policy strategy. Offered as a two-unit course for students familiar with basic federal and state governmental structures and legislative processes. Students must take MLS 760a concurrently with this course. Offered online and face-to-face at the Deerfield, IL campus (BE 5500). Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 783 Criminal Procedure - 3 Hours
This course is designed to provide 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 790 Advanced Bioethics Institute - 3 Hours
This course is a methodological investigation of how to do bioethics with a range of approaches critically assessed from a biblical-theological perspective. End-of-life treatment provides a test case. A national/international team of 15-20 top Christian bioethicists address special areas of expertise. This course is a 6-day intensive offered at the Deerfield, IL campus only (BE 6500). 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 830 Legal and Ethical Issues in Fundraising for Nonprofits - 3 Hours
This course examines the various approaches nonprofit organizations take to fundraising, including solicitation of monetary donations, in-kind gifts, planned giving and joint ventures with for profits. The legal implications of fundraising in each of these contexts, including the oversight of professional fundraisers will be addressed. The development of ethical standards for fundraising and the impact they have on the legal environment of fundraising will be addressed. 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 855 Religious Organizations - 3 Hours
This course addresses the unique legal issues faced by religious organizations, with an emphasis on government regulation of religious organizations, the unique legal issues faced by churches, political activism by charities, and the handling of deputized giving and foreign charitable work. 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 and applications of strategic planning theories, methods, and group processes in different nonprofit organizational environments. The course will emphasize 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 870 International Non-Governmental Organizations - 3 Hours
This course will explore the world of international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) by reviewing the types of, and institutional issues related to, NGOs. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 901 International Criminal Law - 3 Hours
This course examines issues in the field of international criminal law, which encompass: individual responsibility for conduct that is labeled as criminal under international law; nation-state responsibility for conduct that may be considered a crime under international law; and, individual responsibility for conduct with international dimensions that is labeled a crime under U.S. domestic law. The course will expose students to the prosecution and punishment of individuals alleged to have committed crimes considered to be among the most serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 905 The Theory and Law of Armed Conflict - 3 Hours
This course studies the law of armed conflict (also known as the law of war and international humanitarian law) applicable in times of both international and non-international armed conflict, examining both the right of states to use force (jus ad bellum) and the rules governing conduct during conflict (jus in bello). Issues to be addressed include: the history, sources (e.g., treaty and custom), principles (e.g., proportionality, distinction), and application of this law; the obligations and protections of state and non-state combatants, non-combatants, civilians, and prisoners; permissible means and methods of warfare; and occupation and neutrality. 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: Women, Children and the Impoverished - 3 Hours
This course is a survey of the international treaties and bodies intended to protect the rights of women, children, and families. Issues to be 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; slavery 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 will be addressed. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 916c Human Trafficking: Prosecution of Domestic Cases - 1-3 Hours
This class will focus on Domestic Human Trafficking. However, it will also focus on the advocacy and all aspects of trial presentation of Domestic Human Trafficking cases from jury selection to closing argument. Students will learn about the current understanding of Human Trafficking in California and the advocacy against Human Trafficking. This understanding includes the realities of Human Trafficking from recruitment of victims, the typical trafficker, the laws that effect trafficking and the prosecution of trafficking. This course will also give a basic overview of a human trafficking jury trial and discuss how to advocate for or against the human trafficker during trial. The first session will be a tutorial on domestic human trafficking with a broad overview of the subject including case studies from real situations. The second session will largely be a performance exam in which each student will perform the closing argument that they have prepared as if it were a real case to present to a jury. We will then discuss each presentation.
MLS 920 International Institute of Human Rights - 4 Hours
This course covers the legal foundations for recognition, protection, and advocacy of human rights under international law. This unique course is taught over five weeks in June and July in The Hague, Netherlands and in Strasbourg, France. The course is presented in conjunction with the annual program of the International Institute of Human Rights, giving students the opportunity to study and network with law students, practitioners, and advocates from around the world. This also provides students with a first-hand experience of the competing views of human rights theories and practices.
MLS 921 International Forum on Human Rights - 2 Hours
This course (held in The Hague, Netherlands and Strasbourg, France) is presented in conjunction with the annual program of the International Institute of Human Rights. Students will investigate and discuss the jurisprudence of human rights, including its history and development, as well as the theological and rival philosophical foundations for reflecting on the nature and scope of human rights. The doctrines of God, human nature, and the nature of civil society are of particular interest, as well as those concerning the Church, the family, the State, and vocation. Delivery Mode: Traditional Graduate.
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 951 Religious Liberty and the Law - 3 Hours
This is an advanced course that examines critical issues of law and religion both in the United States and internationally. Issues to be 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; and the principles of law and regulations relating to churches and religious organizations, schools, and the military. 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: Tradtional graduate, online, and accelerated.
MLS 995 Genocide and the Law - 3 Hours
This course introduces students to the laws governing the crime of genocide. Topics include efforts to name and identify incidents as genocide, and then to prosecute and punish the perpetrators. Students will also investigate specific occurrences of genocide in the Ottoman Empire, Nazi Germany, Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur, Iraq and Syria, and other places. Delivery mode: Traditional graduate, online, and accelerated.