LL.M. Program Description

london sign To earn the LL.M. degree, a student must.

  • complete a minimum of 24 credits of course work;
  • be in attendance at the Notre Dame Law School London campus for at least three terms;
  • and maintain a minimum overall grade point average of C (2.0 on a 4.0 scale).

Students ordinarily study for three terms, from late September through early June. A student may elect to study during the five-week summer term as well. Each term is followed by a one-week examination period. The program provides participants with a reasonable amount of flexibility in determining how to complete these requirements. Options available to the student include the following-

  • Of the 24 required credit hours, up to four credits may be earned through completion of a written work of substantial quality, done under the supervision of a member of the Notre Dame faculty. Any student who does not elect to complete such a thesis, however, must complete at least one paper in connection with one of the graded courses.
  • A student may study for three terms during the Law School’s full-year program; or a student may elect to take up to seven credit hours in the Law School’s summer program.

The London LL.M. Program offers a sufficiently diverse set of courses to expose students to American, British, international and comparative law. There is no prescribed curriculum for a student pursuing an advanced degree. However, every LL.M. candidate must participate in the LL.M. seminar; and every non-American student must take Introduction to the American Legal System. To satisfy the remainder of their credit-hour requirements, LL.M. students will participate in the courses and seminars offered to J.D. students in the full-year and summer programs. However, American law-school graduates pursuing the LL.M. degree cannot receive credit for courses that duplicate similar courses taken as part of the J.D. curriculum. Courses are graded in accordance with the standard Notre Dame grading system, which provides for grades as follows:

A …...4.000
A-......3.667
B+.....3.333
B …...3.000
B-......2.667
C+.....2.333
C …...2.000
C-......1.667
D …...1.000
F …...0.000

A grade of “D’ indicates minimally acceptable performance, and “F” is a failing grade.