Which of these free online law courses give a certificate
Of the 6 courses on this page, one carries a certificate that costs nothing, the other Harvard courses on edX sell theirs, and the Princeton and Yale courses award none.
The free certificate: CS50's Computer Science for Lawyers
CS50's Computer Science for Lawyers is free in full through Harvard's OpenCourseWare, and scoring at least 70% on every assignment earns a free CS50 Certificate issued at a unique URL. A free edX account is needed to submit the assignments for feedback. If you want the edX verified certificate instead, Harvard lists it at $299 on the edX edition of the same course, and a certificate of completion from Harvard Law School Executive Education requires a separate application. Harvard rates the course introductory, at 3 to 6 hours a week over ten weeks, each week with a lecture and an assignment. It is also listed under free Harvard certification courses.
Harvard courses on edX with a paid certificate
Harvard lists Contract Law: From Trust to Promise to Contract, Justice and Child Protection: Children's Rights in Theory and Practice as free to audit on edX: the lectures and readings are open, graded work and the certificate are paid, and audit access is time-limited. The verified certificate costs $299 for Contract Law, $209 for Justice and $149 for Child Protection. None of them is Harvard credit. The Harvard free online courses page explains the audit track.
Free with no certificate: Princeton and Yale
Constitutional Interpretation is free to audit on edX, but Princeton offers no certificates, statements of accomplishment or other credentials for its open courses, so there is no paid track at all; edX limits audit access to the active course run. Environmental Politics and Law is an Open Yale Courses lecture course, free without registration, and Yale states that no course credit, degree or certificate is available through the site. If a free certificate is the point, CS50 for Lawyers is the only option here; the wider free online courses with certificates page covers other subjects.
What each of these free law courses teaches
The list spans the fields a first law course usually touches: contracts, constitutional law, regulation, rights and the philosophy behind them.
Contract law from Harvard Law School
Contract Law: From Trust to Promise to Contract, taught by Charles Fried, starts from what a contract is and why contracts matter, then works through offer and acceptance, the difference between gifts and bargains, limits on enforcement, mistake and fraud, issues that excuse performance, remedies for breach and when third parties can enforce. This version adds units on interpretation, agency, partnerships, corporations and government regulation. It is rated intermediate, eight weeks at 3 to 6 hours a week, and its summary is explicit that it is not a substitute for legal advice.
Princeton's free constitutional law course
Constitutional Interpretation, taught by Robert P. George, compares the basic approaches to interpreting the United States Constitution, traces the development of judicial review, weighs claims of judicial supremacy against Congress and the presidency, explains the relationship between a federal government of enumerated powers and the states, and covers the courts' role in freedom of religion, speech and property rights. edX lists it as intermediate, seven weeks at 2 to 5 hours a week. It assumes the American system throughout, which matters if you are reading from another jurisdiction.
Environmental regulation, children's rights and theories of justice
Environmental Politics and Law is John Wargo's EVST 255, 24 lectures asking whether law can change behaviour that damages the environment, answered through United States case histories: nuclear testing and secrecy, mercury in food chains, pesticides, drinking water, air quality and vehicle emissions, plastics, land use in the Adirondacks, coastal management and energy policy. Each lecture is available as video, audio and a searchable transcript, and the syllabus lists the books read on campus.
Child Protection: Children's Rights in Theory and Practice, led by Jacqueline Bhabha, traces child protection from its origins in international human rights law through the actors involved, the developmental effects of violence and abuse, standards for children in conflict with the law, and how to assess a protection system. It is rated introductory, the longest course here at sixteen weeks but among the lightest at 2 to 5 hours a week. Michael Sandel's Justice is political philosophy rather than legal procedure: Aristotle, Locke, Kant, Mill and Rawls read against affirmative action, income distribution and the role of markets, over twelve weeks.
Do you need prior knowledge, and how long do the courses take
No course on the page states a prerequisite, and every course is self-paced. The edX courses estimate between seven weeks and sixteen weeks, with a weekly effort of at most 3 to 6 hours a week, and the Yale lectures state no duration at all.
Where these law courses also appear
Contract Law appears again under free online business courses, Justice under free online history courses, and CS50 for Lawyers under free online computer science courses, where it sits beside the CS50 course it was adapted from. The Yale free online courses page lists every Open Yale Courses course on this site.