The purposes of the second-year curriculum are to:

1. Expose students to a wide range of important legal subjects and problems not treated in the first year and to clarify the fundamental issues, policies and arguments involved in such subjects and problems;

2. Significantly increase students' competence to perform legal research and legal writing, using theories and data from other relevant fields of knowledge as well as more conventional legal materials; and,

3. Strengthen knowledge, methodology and skills acquired during the first year.

All second-year students are required to take Constitutional Law I in the Fall semester. In addition, each student is assigned by lottery to one of the several Second-Year Seminar (Law 530) sections offered in the Spring semester. Although offerings vary each year, recent Seminar sections have included Family Law, Native Hawaiian Rights, Property, Labor Law, Torts, Electronic Commerce, Consumer Law, Civil Rights, Race, Culture & Law, Professional Ethics, Intellectual Property, Environmental Law, and International Law.