The Master of Laws (JM) is limited to non-law majors and is no longer divided into specific majors. Its knowledge structure is wide-calibre, thick-founded, and complex. It is mainly aimed at cultivating high-level compound and applied legal talents, such as lawyers, judges, prosecutors, corporate legal consultants, etc., for judicial organs, administrative law enforcement, legal services and legal supervision departments, social public administration departments and enterprise management departments.
The Master of Laws program mainly recruits undergraduate students majoring in law, including legal theory, legal history, constitutional law and administrative law, criminal law, civil and commercial law, procedural law, economic law, international law, etc. , mainly focuses on academic research and scientific research teaching, and cultivates advanced theoretical academic legal talents for universities and scientific research institutes.
The difference between LLM and LLM is as follows:
First of all, the training goals are different:
The professional degree of Master of Laws and the Master of Laws are at the same level, each with its own focus . The former are applied and compound senior legal talents, while the latter are academic and professional senior legal talents.
In some Western countries with relatively sound rule of law, their legal education is after university, such as the United States and other JDs. In the long run, as legal education develops, the number of law undergraduates will gradually decrease, and the LL.M. will eventually merge with the LL.M. Teaching and scientific research talents should be cultivated mainly through J.D. education. As a bridge between the past and the future, the professional master's degree in law will, on the one hand, provide talents for the legal practice department, and on the other hand, it will also provide a broad source of students for the doctoral education in law.
Second, the admissions conditions are different: the Master of Laws requires graduates from non-law majors, but the Master of Laws does not have such restrictions.
The legal majors that are not allowed to apply for the Master of Laws in 13 are: law, economic law, international law, international economic law, labor reform law, commercial law, notarization, legal affairs, administrative law, lawyers, foreign economics and law , intellectual property law, criminal law.
It is wrong to say on the Internet that "Master of Laws does not recruit students with equivalent academic qualifications".
3. Admissions propositions, test questions, and exam difficulty are different:
Both the Master of Laws and the Master of Laws postgraduate entrance examinations take part in the national unified examination, but the Master of Laws in professional courses is a national joint examination (unified examination) proposition, unified grading), the Master of Laws is a conditional independent proposition for colleges and universities.
The difficulty of the examination for the Master of Laws professional course is obvious to all. The LLM professional course examination is a national joint examination subject with a unified syllabus and standardized review textbooks with limited difficulty.
LLM candidates who have not studied law before the exam are on the same starting line. Because many candidates don't understand that as a new thing, the current admission score is relatively low, and they can pass the national level. The admission scores of prestigious schools are not much different from those of the national level, the admission ratio is high, and the admission competition pressure is low. However, most LLM candidates are law majors and the competition pressure is high. The admission rate to prestigious schools is as high as 1/20-50.
LLM’s pre-examination training has matured. Candidates participating in a good training can greatly improve their competitiveness. The passing rate of candidates who participated in the systematic training was as high as 50% or more, and some reached 70-80%.
However, as more and more people with lofty ideals who are not majoring in law join the legal industry, it is becoming more and more difficult to pass the postgraduate entrance examination for a master's degree in law!
Fourth, the education model is different: LLM has a fixed tutor when enrolling, and the majors are divided in detail. Generally, the research field has only one direction, and the research has been deeply developed. For Master of Laws, regardless of major, after admission, the main focus is to study current laws and regulations and focus on practical application. After admission, there are only tutors, and each tutor will guide multiple students.
For non-law candidates, if they choose a precise professional direction from the beginning of studying law, it will not be conducive to their own development. Therefore, the difference between the two education methods depends on the starting point and background of the candidates. Not the main difference.
5. The future employment situation and development potential are slightly different: Master of Laws vs. Master of Laws.
The employment scope of LLM is much wider than that of LLM. In addition to the employment scope of LLM, LLM also cultivates comprehensive management talents for enterprise operation and management. In legal practice, due to its interdisciplinary background, LLM is more likely to give full play to its professional advantages and become an expert in a certain field.
In legal teaching and research, a PhD is necessary. Because of other professional backgrounds, LLM can combine the professional characteristics of its research field, and there seems to be nothing better than this. With the increase in the number of graduates of the Master of Laws, the comprehensive ability of the Master of Laws has been generally recognized. At the same time, due to the shortcomings of the single Master of Laws training model, with the progress and development of society, it will gradually be replaced by the Master of Laws training model.