Bachelor of Laws (Latin: Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong S.A.R., Macau S.A.R., Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Japan, Pakistan, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Botswana, Israel, Brazil, Tanzania, Zambia, and many other jurisdictions.
In the United States, the Bachelor of Laws was also the primary law degree historically, but was phased out in favour of the Juris Doctor degree in the 1960s. Canadian practice followed suit in the first decade of the 21st century, phasing out the Bachelor of Laws for the Juris Doctor.
History of academic degrees
The first academic degrees were all law degrees in medieval universities, and the first law degrees were doctorates. The foundations of the first universities were the glossators of the 11th century, which were also schools of law. The first university, that of Bologna, was founded as a school of law by four famous legal scholars in the 12th century who were students of the glossator school in that city. The University of Bologna served as the model for other law schools of the medieval age. While it was common for students of law to visit and study at schools in other countries, such was not the case with England because of the English rejection of Roman law (except for certain jurisdictions such as the Admiralty Court) and, although the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge did teach canon law until the English Reformation, its importance was always superior to civil law in those institutions.
Origin of the LL.B.
“LL.B.” stands for Legum Baccalaureus in Latin. The “LL.” of the abbreviation for the degree is from the genitive plural legum (“of laws”). Creating an abbreviation for a plural, especially from Latin, is often done by doubling the first letter (e.g., “pp.” for “pages”). It is sometimes erroneously called “Bachelor of Legal Letters” to account for the double “L”.
The bachelor’s degree originated at the University of Paris, whose system was implemented at Oxford and Cambridge. The “arts” designation of the degree traditionally signifies that the student has undertaken a certain amount of study of the classics.[10] In continental Europe the bachelor’s degree was phased out in the 18th or early 19th century but it continued at Oxford and Cambridge.
The teaching of law at Oxford University was for philosophical or scholarly purposes and not meant to prepare one to practise law. Professional training for practising common law in England was undertaken at the Inns of Court, but over time the training functions of the Inns lessened considerably and apprenticeships with individual practitioners arose as the prominent medium of preparation. However, because of the lack of standardization of study and of objective standards for appraisal of these apprenticeships, the role of universities became subsequently of importance for the education of lawyers in the English speaking world.
In England in 1292 when Edward I first requested that lawyers be trained, students merely sat in the courts and observed, but over time the students would hire professionals to lecture them in their residences, which led to the institution of the Inns of Court system. The original method of education at the Inns of Court was a mix of moot court-like practice and lecture, as well as court proceedings observation. By the seventeenth century, the Inns obtained a status as a kind of university akin to the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, though very specialized in purpose. With the frequent absence of parties to suits during the Crusades, the importance of the lawyer role grew tremendously, and the demand for lawyers grew.
Traditionally Oxford and Cambridge did not see common law as worthy of study, and included coursework in law only in the context of canon and civil law and for the purpose of the study of philosophy or history only. The apprenticeship programme for solicitors thus emerged, structured and governed by the same rules as the apprenticeship programmes for the trades. The training of solicitors by apprenticeship was formally established by an act of parliament in 1729. William Blackstone became the first lecturer in English common law at the University of Oxford in 1753, but the university did not establish the programme for the purpose of professional study, and the lectures were very philosophical and theoretical in nature. Blackstone insisted that the study of law should be university based, where concentration on foundational principles can be had, instead of concentration on detail and procedure had through apprenticeship and the Inns of Court.
The Inns of Court continued but became less effective, and admission to the bar still did not require any significant educational activity or examination. Therefore in 1846 the Parliament examined the education and training of prospective barristers and found the system to be inferior to the legal education provided in the United States. Therefore, formal schools of law were called for, but not finally established until later in the century, and even then the bar did not consider a university degree in admission decisions. When law degrees were required by the English bar and bar associations in other common law countries, the LL.B. became the uniform degree for lawyers in common law countries.
Structure of LL.B. programmes
Historically, law students studied both canon law and civil law. Today, this is much less common among common law countries, who now study the English-derived common law system, which includes the criminal law of some jurisdictions. In Scotland however, the law faculties of the Universities continued to teach ‘civil’ law, that is, the Roman Law basis is the majority of the world’s legal systems. Countries where the legal system was “mixed” (that is, where a mixture of the common law and the civil law form the foundations of the legal system), such as Scotland, Louisiana, South Africa and Quebec, continue the study of civil law. However, a few institutions in common law countries continue to offer alternatives to strictly English common law: for example Cardiff University’s Department of Canon (Ecclesiastical) Law, or combined programmes in common and French civil law (pertinent to Canada’s pluralist legal system) at McGill University and University of Ottawa.
Common law jurisdictions in general
In most common law countries (with the exceptions of all Canadian provinces except Quebec, and the U.S.), the Bachelor of Laws programme is generally entered directly after completion of secondary school.
Common law
The programme of study for common law has traditionally been an undergraduate LL.B. degree, which has now been re-designated as a J.D. at nearly all Canadian common law schools. Entrants to the J.D. programme generally hold an undergraduate degree before registration in the law programme and a significant number hold a graduate-level degree as well. However, admission may be granted to applicants with two years of undergraduate studies towards a degree. Unlike the United States, the J.D. is considered a bachelor’s degree-level qualification, albeit a “second-entry” one. The common law programme is three years in length. Upon graduation, one holds a Bachelor of Laws or Juris Doctor degree, but cannot yet practise law. To practise law, the graduate must obtain a licence from the Law Society of the province where they wish to practise law, which also requires a year of articling. Those law graduates wishing to become law professors instead of lawyers often obtain a more advanced academic degree, such as the Master of Laws (LL.M.) or the Doctor of Laws (LL.D., S.J.D. or D.C.L.).
Civil law
The civil law programme in Canada is three years in length. The programme of study for the first degree in Quebec civil law (called LL.B., B.C.L. or LL.L.) is a first-entry degree programme. Like other first-entry university programmes in Quebec, it requires a college diploma for entry. Law schools that offer civil law B.C.L., LL.B., or LL.L. degrees include McGill University, Université de Montréal, Université du Québec à Montréal, Université de Sherbrooke, Université Laval and the University of Ottawa.
Bijuridical
Because of Canada’s dual system of laws, some law schools offer joint or dual degrees in common law and civil law: McGill University, Université de Montréal, Université de Sherbrooke and the University of Ottawa. The law degree offered by McGill University is a mandatory joint common law LL.B. / Quebec civil law B.C.L. degree. The programme is four years in length. Admission to that programme is a first-entry programme in the case of Quebec students (as a college diploma is required) while it is a second-entry programme in the case of students from other provinces (since two years of university studies is required—effectively one extra year of studies more than for a college diploma). The University of Ottawa offers a civil law degree (LL.L.) on its own.
A number of Canadian law schools offer students the opportunity to earn, besides their three-year first degrees in common law, programmes in common law for holders of baccalaureate degrees in Quebec civil law enabling those individuals to earn the LL.B. in common law in two or three semesters, depending on the offering university’s programme. Similarly, the University of Ottawa offers, besides its three-year LL.L. programme in Quebec civil law, a one-year LL.L. programme in Quebec civil law for holders of an LL.B. or J.D. degree in common law from a Canadian law school.
Additionally, some Canadian universities with common law law schools have an arrangement with a Canadian university with a Quebec civil law law school enabling students to obtain the home school’s law degree in three years and the exchange school’s law degree in the fourth year.
Lawyers
Upon completion of the LL.B. degree (or its equivalent), graduates are generally qualified to apply for membership of the bar or law society. The membership eligibility bestowed may be subject to completion of professional exams. A student may have to gain a further qualification at postgraduate level, for example a traineeship and the Legal Practice Course or Bar Vocational Course in England and Wales or the Postgraduate Certificate in Laws in Hong Kong.
In Australia some LL.B. graduates practice as a solicitor or barrister, while others work in academia, for the government or for a private company (i.e. not as a practicing solicitor or barrister). For LL.B. graduates who do choose to practice law, in some states of Australia (namely, Victoria and New South Wales), LL.B. graduates are required to undertake a 1-year articled clerkship or the Legal Practice Course (commonly Practical Legal Training or PLT) before applying for registration as a solicitor. In other states, (namely, South Australia) an LL.B. graduate is required to undertake a 6-week PLT course before applying to be admitted to the bar as a barrister and solicitor. Depending on the state where a lawyer is admitted to practice, membership in the Bar may be either restricted to barristers or open to both solicitors and barristers. In the states that maintain as split Bar system, barristers are a separate and distinct profession to that of a solicitor, and entry is attained through the successful completion of an exam and a 9-month reading period (in other words, tutelage) under a senior barrister.
In Canada, the lawyer licensing process usually requires the law graduate to (1) take further classroom law courses taught by the Law Society itself and pass a related set of written examinations, known as bar exams, and (2) undertake an articled clerkship, commonly known as articling, under the supervision of an established lawyer called a principal. The vast majority of law graduates article (i.e. work and learn) in a law firm, a government legal department, an in-house legal department of a business corporation, a community legal clinic or some other type of non-profit organization involved in legal work. However, a small minority of law graduates (with exceptional academic records) undertake instead a judicial clerkship with a specific court and under the supervision of a judge instead of working in a more “lawyer-type environment”. In either articling or clerkship, there is the expectation that the law graduate will work in a variety of legal fields and be exposed to the realities of legal practice that are absent from law school’s academic atmosphere.
For example, the licensing process for the Law Society of Ontario (the Province’s governing law society) consists of three mandatory components: The Skills and Professional Responsibility Program with assignments and assessments, Licensing Examinations (a Barrister Licensing Examination and a Solicitor Licensing Examination), and a 10-month Articling term. At the conclusion of the licensing process, the law graduate is “called to the bar,” whereby they sign their name in the Rolls of the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Superior Court of Justice and swears lawyer-related oaths in a formal ceremony where they must appear in a complete barrister’s gown and bow before judges of the local superior court and benchers of the licensing law society. After the call ceremony, they can designate themself as a “Barrister and Solicitor”, and can practice law in that province.
Licensed lawyers may also exercise the powers of a Commissioner of Oaths. In the Province of British Columbia, licensed lawyers are automatically qualified to practice as a notary public subject to appointment. In Ontario and other provinces, a licensed lawyer must submit a form and pay a one-time fee to the provincial attorney general before they are appointed as a notary public.
Although not required by the licensing process, many first- and second-year law students work in law firms during the summer off-school season to earn extra money and to guarantee themselves an articling position (with the same law firms) upon their graduation from law school, because there is always fierce competition for articling positions, especially for those in large law firms offering attractive remuneration and prestige, and a law graduate cannot become a licensed lawyer in Canada if they have not gone through articled clerkship.
