Country

/ Who is authorised / recognised to provide the law degree?
(State source of law.) / Format of law degree? / How long does the law degree take? / Which courses are compulsory? / How is knowledge graded and assessed? / Is ECTS used for crediting and grading? / What system of quality assurance is there? /

Austria

/ Universities / Universitäts-Studiengesetz – UniStG (BGBl. I Nr. 48/1997, zuletzt geändert durch BGBl. I Nr.121/2002.) (There are five law faculties.) / The law degree (Diplomstudium) is divided in two sections (First and Second Studienabschnitt). University education is non-lawyer-specific. Courses are partly compulsory, partly optional. / 4 years
The Diplomstudium lasts at least eight semesters (i.e. four years in total). It takes at least two terms to conclude the first section and at least six terms to conclude the second one. / First degree exam courses (compulsory):
- Introduction to Legal Method
- Roman Private Law
- Austrian legal history and the basic features of the development of European law in consideration of social and economic history.
- The basic feature of economics and politics.
2nd degree exam – it consists of 10 exams, differentiating between 3 groups:
- 1 group / compulsory (Oral & written exam)
- Civil law
- Criminal law
- Constitutional law
- Administrative law
- 2nd group / compulsory (these exams are oral unless the curriculum says otherwise)
- civil procedure law
- trade law and law on security
- folk law
- labour law and social security law.
- 3rd group / 2 topics out of optional courses list (these exams are oral unless the curriculum says otherwise) – includes six jurisprudence and economic law subjects. Another group includes six jurisprudential economic and social topics. Students must choose a subject from every group to sit an exam in. / Grades (both for written and oral examinations) range from: fail (5), pass (4), satisfactory (3), good (2), and very good (1). // Written and oral exams. / The evaluation decree of 1997 introduced quality assurance measures at universities. In 2000 an accreditation law was passed for private universities. The Universities Act 2002 foresees a new relationship between the state and universities which is governed by full legal autonomy, performance-based contracts and management structures. In October 2003 an Austrian agency for quality assurance was implemented. It is a body of private law that will be independent from government as well as from individual institutions. The agency offers a meta certification of quality assurance mechanisms at institutional level, thus recognizing that quality management is primarily a responsibility of the institutions. Secondly, it offers administrative and organisational support for evaluation projects as well as general advice and information on all aspects of quality assurance in higher education.
Belgium / University / - / The academic requirement is the qualification of Licence en droit. The period of study is five years, of which the first two are spent studying for what is called the Candidature en droit (candidature in law) and the next three studying for the full Licence en droit (Bachelor of law degree). / 5 years
The candidature in law consists of two examinations and at least two years of studies.
The Licence en droit is obtained after at least three years of studies. The examination takes place in three stages. / The first examination of ‘candidature in law’ includes:
- Introduction to Public Law
- Parliamentary and legislative history of Belgium
- Theory of Natural Law
- Introduction to Judicial Law
- Introduction to Criminal Law
- Historical introduction to Private Law
- Roman Law
- Psychology and Sociology
The second examination includes:
- Introduction to Private Law
- Initiation into methods of application of Law and exercises
- Foundations of Public Law
- International System
- Introduction to the Law of companies' annual accounts
- Philosophy of Law
- Political economy
- Optional history course
-  Other optional course
The first examination of ‘license in law’includes:
- Civil Law of Property (Mortgages)
- Civil Law of Contract and practical exercises
- Criminal Law and practical exercises
- Public and Administrative Law
- Private judicial law and practical exercises
- Public International Law
- Social Law
The second examination includes:
- Civil Law of securities
- Civil Law of persons
- Civil Law of Contract
- Civil Law of Succession
- Donations and practical exercises
- Criminal procedure and practical exercises
- EC Law
The third examination includes:
- Private International Law and practical exercises
- Tax law and practical exercises
- A total of 250 hours of options teaching (at least four subjects) / Grades vary from:
Excellent: 19-20
Very Good: 17-18
Good: 14-16
Satisfactory: 11-13
Sufficient: 10
Insufficient: 7-9 / The Nederlands-Vlaamse Accreditatie Organisatie (NVAO) was founded in 2002. The decisions made by the board of the NVAO. are independent. There is no influence of universities or universities of professional education or the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The NVAO is authorized to do the accreditation of all programmes in Dutch Higher Education, i.e. universities, universities of professional education (HBO) and other institutes of higher education. Accreditation means ‘awarding a hallmark that indicates that certain quality standards have been satisfied’. As far as accreditation in higher education is concerned, the Netherlands and Flanders have chosen for accreditation at the level of study programmes. To this end NVAO drafted and laid down accreditation frameworks for Flanders and the Netherlands.
The NVAO is responsible for accreditation of existing degree courses and the assessment of new degree courses. In the Netherlands and Flanders, accreditation is a precondition for government funding of a bachelor’s or master’s degree programme, for the right of awarding recognised diplomas and, in the Netherlands, for granting financial assistance for students. In the light of the internationalisation of education and the labour market, accreditation provides for comparable quality assurance of higher education. In Flanders, bachelor’s as well as master’s degree courses provided by officially recognised institutions, including hogescholen and universities, and study programmes provided by recognised institutions, need to be accredited.

Czech Republic

/ A masters university degree in law obtained after study at a university in the CR (also legal faculties in the former CSFR or its legal predecessors - Article 61 of the LPA). One has reached graduate-level education within BA study programme in the field of law at a university in the Czech Republic. Graduate education referred to in § 5, para. 1, letter b), and § 37, para. 1, letter b), includes graduate education acquired at college of law seated within the territory of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic or its legal predecessors. / The Master´s programme in law and jurisprudence is a five year full-time programme leading to a Mgr. degree. / Grading varies from
1 = Excellent
1.5 = Very good
2 = Good
2.5 = Satisfactory
3 = Sufficient
4 = Fail / The Accreditation Commission of the Government of the Czech Republic was founded in 1990 It is an independent body taking care of quality in higher education. The Accreditation Commission takes care of the evaluation and accreditation of all existing study programmes. The Accreditation Commission performs comprehensive evaluation of educational, scholarly, research developmental, artistic or other creative activities of higher education institutions.

Cyprus

/ Council of Educational Evaluation-Accreditation (CEEA) is an independent body functioning outside Higher Education Institutions. It receives administrative and logistical support from the Ministry of Education and Culture. The CEEA has the right to re-evaluate and revoke the accreditation of a programme at any time if it judges that the standards of the programme have been compromised. The CEEA has the overall responsibility for organizing and overseeing the Evaluation - Accreditation process for Private Institutions of Tertiary Education. Methods used to accreditate and evaluate are the establishment of minimum criteria to be fulfilled for the award of an accredited degree from the Cyprus Government; and provision of a basis of comparison with degree titles granted from foreign institutions of higher education.

Denmark

/ Universities / -
(There are two universities that provide Law Degrees, the University of Copenhagen and the University of Aarhus.) / The law degree is divided into two parts. The first, "basic" part (grunduddannelsen) consists of all compulsory courses. The second part (candidatus (candidata) juris or cand.jur.) has 12 courses including two obligatory elements (Tax Law and Economics). / 5 years
The first, “basic” part lasts for three years, and the second part lasts for two years. / The compulsory part of the training programme consists of the following subjects:
- Family Law and Inheritance
- Public Law
- Private Law
- Criminal Law and Procedure
- Legal History and Jurisprudence
- Law and Society and Legal Sociology
- Economics and Tax Law
There are additionally many other courses offered. The Law Faculty will typically offer between fifty and fifty-five courses to choose from. / Grades (both for written and oral examinations) are within the range 0 - 13. The following scale sets the marks within this range (0-5: fail; 6-7: pass; 8: good; 9-10: very good; 11: excellent
13: extraordinary).
The average on this scale is 8. The bulk of examination results are between 7.5 and 9.5. It is rare to achieve average grades above 9.5. // Written and oral exams. / Since 1992, external and systematic evaluations of Danish higher education programmes have been carried out by an independent evaluation agency: The Danish Evaluation Institute. It is a founding member of the European Network of Quality Assurance (ENQA). The University Act increases the universities’ duty to conduct continuous and systematic quality development of their education programmes. Evaluation and planning for the follow-up process must be included in the universities’ Performance Contracts, which they enter into with the Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation. The universities will have the option of choosing the Danish Evaluation Institute or a foreign evaluation agency to conduct the evaluations. For short-cycle higher education programmes, requirements have also been set down centrally regarding the internal quality assurance system of the education institutions. For exams, the Danish education institutions are required to use a corps of external examiners who are also required to provide an evaluation of the total exam results.
Estonia / Bachelor’s studies with the volume of 120 national credits (180 ECTS), official standard study period 3 years. Master’s studies with the volume of 80 national credits (120 ECTS), official standard study period 2 years. / 5 years
Finland / University / The Statute regulating Higher Education of 1998 sets out the basic requirements of the Law degree. / There are three universities that run the law degree (Master of Laws (oikeustieteen kandidaatin tutkinto / juris kandidatexamen)) which is necessary for becoming an advokat / asianajaja; the universities of Helsinki, Turku and Lapland. The minimum length of time for completion by a full time student is four and a half years, though generally it takes five to six years.
st graduate laws degrees are the Licienciate in Laws (oikeustieteen lisensiaatin tutkinto / juris licentiatexamen) and the Doctor of Laws (oikeustieteen tohtorin tutkinto / juris doktorisexamen). There is also a lower law degree (Diploma in Law) (varanotaarin tutkinto / vicenotarieexamen), which takes two and a half to three years to complete.
The Swedish-speaking Åbo Akademi University offers the Bachelor of Laws programme. Turku and Lapland offer the full curriculum in Finnish. University of Helsinki has the national responsibility to educate
Swedish-speaking lawyers, and at least three professorships at the faculty have to be reserved for instruction and research in Swedish. Presently, there are four Swedish chairs.
Students have to pass an entrance examination to gain admission to a Finnish law faculty. Each of the three faculties organize the examinations themselves, and the requirements vary between faculties. Contents of the examinations resemble each other in that for each the applicant has to read a number (ranging for the year 2000 from two to four) of books on legal topics. The exams are highly competitive; e.g. in 1999, ca 20 % of the applicants to Helsinki were admitted.
There are some minor exceptions to the obligation to pass the entrance examination, depending on the university. Most notably, Helsinki accepts outside the entrance examination applicants who have completed their upper secondary education in Finland and obtained the Swedish juris kandidat degree in Sweden. The faculties also accept to a varying extent applicants who have completed the varanotaari or oikeusnotaari degree. / 4,5 years / Each university is free within the framework set out in the Statute to decide its own curriculum. Legal education is governed more specifically by the Regulation on Law Degrees (Asetus oikeustieteellisistä tutkinnoista) of 1996.
The regulations leave the content and organization of studies to a great extent at the discretion of the universities. Some general guidelines are however included: the studies must be organized so that the oikeusnotaari degree can be taken in three years, oikeustieteen kandidaatti in five years (or two years after oikeusnotaari), oikeustieteen lisensiaatti in two years and oikeustieteen tohtori in four years (or two years after lisensiaatti). / Grades vary from:
Excellent: 3
Very good: 2,5
Good: 2
Satisfactory: 1,5
Sufficient: 1 / The Finish Higher Education Evaluation Council (FINHEEC) was founded in 1996 and is funded by the Ministry of Education, but independent of the Ministry and the higher education institutions. FINHEEC is a co-ordinating and implementing expert organisation independent of both educational administration and institutions of higher education and does not make administrative decisions. FINHEEC organises evaluations of quality work and institutional, programme and thematic evaluations. It provides advisory and consultancy services in the implementation of the evaluations, develops evaluation methodology and disseminates good Finnish and international practices to higher education institutions and the Ministry of Education. The main focus of FINHEEC is on development of higher education institutions and education. Evaluation of university and polytechnic programmes of a certain discipline are carried out within one project. Methods used by FINHEEC are institutional evaluation of universities, accreditation of new polytechics, audit of quality work in polytechics, programme and thematic evaluations, nomination for high-quality units in education and adult education, accreditation of continuing education and specialist programmes.