Undergraduate Education

The Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) Degree is not only an undergraduate honours degree; it is also a professional degree that is recognised for admission to practice in Singapore and Malaysia. It is also recognised in several Commonwealth jurisdictions such as Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, and some states in the United States such as California and New York. The programme is open to both Singaporean and international students.

Whether you pursue a four-year LL.B., a three-year Graduate LL.B. or any of our Double Degree /Concurrent Degree Programmes, you will be assured of a quality legal education at Asia’s Global Law School. Curriculum-wise, around half of the required modules in the LL.B. programme are compulsory common law courses that are critical for legal practice. There are also skills courses in the Legal Analysis, Writing and Research programme that foster creative thinking and independent learning. There is thus a good balance between compulsory and elective modules. With compulsories completed by Year Two, there is absolute flexibility for you to craft your own menu of elective modules in Years Three and Four. You can opt to specialise in areas as diverse as Corporate Law, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Criminal Law, World Trade Law, Asian Law, Shipping Law or International & Comparative Law (or to do any of these while on overseas student exchange). Such flexibility and course diversity are unparalleled, and are made possible only because of the excellent and diverse teaching staff at the law school.

3.1        Degrees Offered

There are two programmes in the Faculty of Law, available on a full-time basis, leading to the LL.B. (Hons.) degree:

Admission to the Four-Year LL.B. Programme

The detailed requirements for admission can be found on the NUS Office of Admissions website at: http://admissions.nus.edu.sg/apply.html. Admission requirements vary, depending on the qualifications presented for admission. Short-listed candidates are required to sit for a written test and an interview. Selection shall be solely based on the discretion of the University and will depend upon the number of places available in the Faculty.

Singapore- Cambridge ‘A’ Level (all nationalities)

Candidates with a GCE ‘A’ Level certificate should have good overall results, including either a grade of B or better in H1 General Paper (GP), or a good pass in H2 Knowledge & Inquiry (KI) OR SAT Critical Reading score of 700 accompanied by a minimum E grade for GP/KI.

An improved GP grade of B3 (for old syllabus) / B (for new syllabus) or better in GP or good pass in KI (for new syllabus) from another sitting can qualify one for application to Law, but only the GP or KI grade obtained in the same sitting as the other main GCE ‘A’ Level content papers can be used for computation of University Score (US).

International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma

Students completing the International Baccalaureate qualification in the year of admission to NUS may apply based on their projected results.

Applicants should possess good IB results, including a grade 5 or better in SL English, or a minimum SAT Critical Reading score of 700 accompanied by a minimum grade 4 for SL English.

International Applicants

A good IELTS score of minimum 6.5 or TOEFL score of minimum 600 (paper-based) or 250 (computer-based) or 100 (internet-based) is required if students possess high school qualifications of non-English medium.

Please refer to the International Applicant section on the NUS Office of Admissions website at http://admissions.nus.edu.sg/apply.html for the detailed admission requirements and application procedures. Please note that different application deadlines apply to different applicant category and high school qualifications.

Admission to the Three-Year Graduate LL.B. Programme

This programme is open to University graduates with a first Bachelor’s degree. The objective of this programme is to inject multidisciplinary talent into the legal profession, as the demands of the profession become more sophisticated and technical in certain areas like patent law, environmental law and computer law.

A good first degree from a good university, with two academic referees.

If you have left school for some years and are unable to submit academic referees, please provide two recommendation letters from your employers as an alternative.

Applicants must be prepared to do the course full-time for three years.

Consideration may be given to the level of contribution candidates are likely to make to the legal profession in Singapore.

Selection shall be solely within the discretion of the University and will depend upon the number of places available in the Faculty.

Foreign applicants may be required to submit proof of their proficiency in the English language, for example, a minimum TOEFL score of 600 (paper-based) or 250 (computer-based) or 100 (internet-based) or IELTS score of minimum 6.5.

Short-listed applicants will be required to sit for a written test and attend a formal interview.

For more information, please visit: http://www.nus.edu.sg/oam/

3.2        Degree Requirements

3.2.1     Undergraduate

The LL.B. degree is an honours degree. Students in the four year LL.B. programme must complete a total of 160 credits in four years. Students in the Graduate LL.B. Programme must complete a total of 120 credits in three years.

Successful completion of the LL.B. course leads to the award of the following classes of degrees:
•      First Class Honours
•      Second Class Honours (Upper Division)
•      Second Class Honours (Lower Division)
•      Third Class Honours

All LL.B. students are required to take the same compulsory core law modules during the first two years of their studies, as well as one compulsory module in the third year of their studies. For the remaining modules in the LL.B. curriculum, students are allowed to choose from a wide variety of elective modules. The elective modules enable students to specialise in a particular field of law, such as technology, finance and banking, investment and trade, or public international law.  The wide choice of elective modules also enables students to choose modules from different fields of law.

3.2.2     Compulsory Core LL.B. Curriculum

Note: With effect from Academic Year 2012-2013, LL.B. students will also be required to complete a pro bono module on a pass/fail, zero-credit basis. The details of this module will be provided later.

3.3        Special Programmes

(i) Programmes with New York University (NYU) School of Law

Double Degree Programme in Law [LL.B. (Hons.) / Graduate LL.B.(Hons.)] and Juris Doctor (J.D.)

This double degree programme allows NUS law students in the four-year LL.B. programme to spend their fourth year, plus one additional year, at NYU School of Law and receive the J.D. degree. The J.D. is a first degree in law in the United States and is read as a graduate degree. Students in the three-year Graduate LL.B. Programme at NUS will be able to spend their third year, plus one additional year, at NYU and receive the J.D. degree.

For more information, please visit: http://www.law.nus.edu.sg/student_matters/llb_prog/nyu_nus_llb_jd.html

Concurrent Degree Programmes in Law [LL.B. (Hons.) / Graduate LL.B.(Hons.)] & Masters of Law (LL.M.)

The LL.B.-LL.M. programme allows current NUS law students in the four-year LL.B. programme to seek early admission to the Masters in Law (LL.M.) at New York University (NYU) School of Law and commence the LL.M. in their fourth year of studies at NUS, before graduating with the LL.B.. The credits read at NYU towards the LL.M. will count towards the NUS LL.B. degree. Upon completion of the LL.M. requirements, students will receive the NUS LL.B. and the NYU LL.M.. Students on the three-year Graduate LL.B. Programme can also seek admission and commence the LL.M. in their second semester of their third year of studies to receive both degrees. They will complete two and a half years at NUS and one year at NYU to fulfil the programme requirements.

For more information, please visit: http://www.law.nus.edu.sg/student_matters/llb_prog/nyu_nus_llb_llm.html

(ii) Programme with Boston University (BU) School of Law

NUS-Boston University Law School (Boston) LL.B.-LL.M. concurrent arrangement is available to students on the four-year LL.B. programme. Under this concurrent arrangement, students will complete three years at NUS and then go to Boston to read an LL.M. in American Law for one year, on a fee waiver basis. Upon successful completion of the LL.M. at Boston, NUS law students will graduate with an LL.B. (Hons) from NUS and an LL.M. in American Law from Boston.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.bu.edu/law/prospective/jd/abroad/foreignexchange.html

(iii) Double Degree Programmes with Law

The Faculty of Law offers Double Degree Programmes, jointly offered with The School of Business, the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

For more information, please visit: http://www.law.nus.edu.sg/admissions/llb_prog.html

(iv) Minor Programmes

Students may choose to do a non-law minor programme from other faculties and count the non-law modules towards the credit requirement of the LL.B. However, where the student has read more than 12 credits outside the Faculty of Law, the student’s non-law credits will be aggregated and pro-rated so as to accord them a weighting of 12 credits in calculating the Class of Honours.
For the list of minor programme, and the detailed requirements of each Minor, please refer to the relevant sections under each Faculty/School in the NUS Bulletin.

(v) International Mooting and other Competitions

One of the most valuable and educational experiences a student can have at the Faculty is to be a member of a team participating in an international competition.  NUS has an unparalleled record of successes in international mooting competitions, and is fast gaining a reputation in negotiation and mediation competitions. In these competitions, NUS Law students pit their skills against law students from all over the world, including graduate law students from the US and Europe, before judges from the International Court of Justice, other jurisdictions, academics, or international practitioners of law.  That NUS does well in this competition is a testimony to the quality of foundational legal education provided at NUS.

Law students who wish to participate in international mooting competitions take the International Legal Process course in their third or final year. At the end of the course, the participants will undergo a strict selection process to represent NUS at the following international mooting competitions:

• The prestigious Jessup World Cup Championship in the USA, which the Faculty has won a record four times (1982, 1985, 1994 and 2001);
• The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna, which the law school won when it first joined in 2002 and became the first Asian law school winner;
• The Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition, which the Faculty topped in the 2001 World Finals and its Asia-Pacific Regional Round three times (2000, 2001, and 2005);
• The International Maritime Law Moot Competition in Australia which the Faculty has won in 2001 and 2002;
• The Asia Cup International Law Moot Court Competition in Tokyo, which the law school has won three times (2001, 2004 and 2005);
• The Red Cross International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Moot Competition held in Hong Kong, which the Faculty won in 2004;
• The Oxford International Inter-University Intellectual Property Mooting Competition, which NUS won in its first year of participation in 2006;
  
• The Jean-Pictet International Humanitarian Law Competition (finalists in 2006, 2007 and 2009).

NUS moot teams have made the finals of these competitions a record number of times - Jessup World Cup Runner-Up seven times (1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2004) - and have won numerous best oralist and best memorial (written argument) awards in the various competitions. Many of the leading lawyers in Singapore, including High Court Judges, the Attorney General Mr. Sundaresh Menon, and Senior Counsels, were members of the NUS Jessup Moot teams when they were law students.

Since 2008, NUS has participated in the ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition.  We won in 2009 and reached the Quarter Finals in 2010.  NUS also won the inaugural Copenhagen Competition in 2009 where the focus was on Climate Change.  The winning NUS entry was presented to the Prime Minister of Denmark for presentation to the participants of the Copenhagen round of the Climate Change negotiations.

(vi) Internship Programmes

The law school encourages our undergraduates to acquaint themselves with legal work through vacation internships with local and foreign law firms, companies and institutions, and through the judicial internship scheme, where they are attached to the courts. Around 85-90% of students do an internship in two of their four years at the law school and there is no lack of internship places available. As such, the law school has made a conscious decision not to make internships a compulsory part of the curriculum preferring to give our students the flexibility to use their vacation time to pursue other interests, including doing voluntary work.

For more information, please visit: http://www.law.nus.edu.sg/student_matters/vac_int_prog.html

(vii) Student Exchange Programme

The Student Exchange Programme offers an excellent opportunity to study the laws of a foreign legal system up close. Exchange students experience different cultures and lifestyles, make new acquaintances, and of course, travel.

The Programme enables NUS law students to spend either one or both semesters of their third year in one of the partner law schools. Students in the double degree or concurrent degree programme may spend one semester of their fourth year in one of our partner universities. The Faculty of Law also hosts incoming exchange students, adding to the vibrancy of the law school.

For more information, please visit: http://www.law.nus.edu.sg/student_matters/student_ex.html

3.4        Financial Assistance and Awards

Various scholarships, bursaries and loans are available for our undergraduates.

For more information, please visit: http://www.law.nus.edu.sg/admissions/financial_aid_fees_sch.html

The Faculty also has a list of medals and prizes awarded to students who have achieved high academic performance. The top students in the respective LL.B. cohorts, and several subject prizes, will be awarded after each semester’s examination.

For more information, please visit: http://www.law.nus.edu.sg/student_matters/medals_prizes.html