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Argue from evidence in this 2-week law program for high school students on the University of Michigan campus.
Course Description
A court’s ruling can shape disputes long after the original case ends. Follow the facts and reasoning behind a landmark decision and consider what might come next.
In this course you will enter the American legal system through the rule of law, constitutional principles, the Bill of Rights, and the relationship between common and constitutional law. Daily landmark case studies help you identify facts, evaluate reasoning, and trace precedent’s effect on public life.
Contemporary criminal-justice questions bring the work closer to young people and communities. Examine juvenile justice, school discipline, restorative justice, cyberbullying, policing, victimology, reentry, and root causes of crime. Research, discussion, and case presentations help you use legal vocabulary while separating evidence from assumptions.
Choose a landmark criminal decision for your final multimedia presentation. Investigate its background, verdict, reasoning, and social impact, then explain how its precedent could influence future disputes. Preparing an argument and answering questions let you practice the research and public speaking behind legal analysis.
This two-week Summer Discovery course takes place on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The course is available to residential and commuter students.
What You Will Do
• Examine the rule of law, constitutional principles, and the Bill of Rights
• Brief landmark cases by identifying facts, issues, rulings, and reasoning
• Debate contemporary questions involving schools, technology, policing, and juvenile justice
• Compare punitive, rehabilitative, and restorative approaches to crime and conflict
• Research the history, social impact, and future influence of a legal precedent
• Present a multimedia criminal-justice capstone and respond to audience questions
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Explain how courts, law enforcement, victims, and offenders interact within criminal justice
• Analyze a landmark decision through facts, reasoning, precedent, and social impact
• Support a prediction about future cases using legal precedent
You’ll leave with your completed landmark-case analysis and a certificate of completion.
Why Legal Reasoning Skills Matter
Legal reasoning helps students distinguish facts, interpretations, rules, and consequences. Landmark decisions show how a court’s reasoning can shape institutions and individual conduct long after a case ends.
Examining multiple perspectives also strengthens civic judgment. Students consider how legal systems affect different groups, why subjective truth may conflict with objective facts, and how precedent constrains future decisions. These habits support research, argument, and informed participation in public life.
Who Should Attend?
For students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade.
Court decisions can raise as many questions as they settle. For students curious about how judges reached a ruling and who it will affect, this course offers a way to investigate. It connects interests in law, government, history, policy, and civic debate. You’ll read legal material, compare contested perspectives, research a landmark case, and explain your analysis through a multimedia presentation.
Recommended by More Than 9 out of 10 Students
Based on students surveyed in Summer Discovery’s 2026 program at the University of Michigan.
Your Summer at University of Michigan
Programs on the University of Michigan campus give high-school students the experience of exploring an academic interest in Ann Arbor, a college town where campus and community life blend together. Tree-lined streets, downtown bookstores and cafés, the Nichols Arboretum, and trails near the Huron River create different ways to experience the setting beyond class.
Students learn alongside peers, navigate a large and active campus, and gain independence through everyday choices in a new environment. The experience helps students understand what university life can feel like while giving them space to deepen an interest without having every next step decided. For families, the program offers a meaningful combination of academic depth, community, personal growth, and clearer direction about what a student may want to study or pursue next.
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive