Boston College’s LL.M. program is designed to provide a high quality educational experience that will expose legal professionals and recent graduates with a first degree in law, primarily but not necessarily of foreign origin, to the fundamentals of the United States legal system. We are most interested in applicants who have completed their prior legal studies with high rank and who intend to return to their home countries to contribute to the legal profession. Otherwise, we are ecumenical: we are equally interested in applicants pursuing careers in private practice, government service, the judiciary, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and legal scholarship. The diversity of the participants in the program contributes significantly to the educational and community experience of all members of the Law School community.
Students in the program may choose from among most of the courses in the Law School’s extensive curriculum, including both introductory and more advanced courses in their particular fields of interest. The program is a “general” one, in that we do not channel students into particular subject area tracks. However, the curriculum affords students ample opportunity to specialize in their particular fields of interest if their study plans call for it.
Each student meets with Gail Hupper at the beginning of the academic year to plan a schedule that best suits his or her interests and needs. The possibilities are endless – and endlessly exciting. Consider the following:
• In the business and commercial law field, our faculty includes the likes of Kent Greenfield, a leader in the “stakeholder” school of corporate law; commercial law scholar James Rogers, an authority on the international harmonization of securities holding; and Alfred Chueh-Chin Yen, an intellectual property law scholar who directs our new program on Emerging Enterprises and Business Law.
• Our International Law Program, led by public international law scholar David Wirth and taught by a world-class faculty, affords a range of educational opportunities – both inside and outside of the classroom -- in international and comparative law. Among these are Frank Garcia, whose work focuses on international trade law, and Thomas Kohler, an authority on comparative labor and employment law.
• Students interested in taxation can study under Hugh Ault, Special Advisor to the Center for Tax Policy and Administration of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, James Repetti, the author of numerous texts in the field, and Diane Ring, whose recent work examines cross-border tax arbitrage, advance pricing agreements, and international tax relations.
• In the field of constitutional law, we boast a uniquely rich range of voices, including constitutional theorist John Garvey; bioethicist Charles Baron; federalism expert George Brown; critical race theorist Anthony Farley; Jesuit scholar Gregory Kalscheur; first amendment expert Mary Rose Papandrea; and comparativist Vlad Perju.
• Our environmental law program boasts Zygmunt Plater, who has led groundbreaking environmental litigation, and (with David Wirth) is the co-author of a new casebook in the field. We also host the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, one of this country's leading environmental and land use journals.
• Our interdisciplinary Center for Human Rights and International Justice, co-directed by Daniel Kanstroom, aims to nurture a new generation of scholars and practitioners in the United States and abroad who draw upon the strengths of many disciplines, and the wisdom of rigorous ethical training in the attainment of human rights and international justice.
• In the family law area, our faculty includes Sanford Katz, former President of the International Society of Family Law and currently American Associate of the Centre for Family Law and Policy at Oxford University; American Law Institute member Scott Fitzgibbon; and Ruth-Arlene Howe, advisor to the school’s Third World Law Journal.
And this is just a sampling of what we offer. We also have significant strengths in criminal law, legal history, law and social thought, and a host of other areas. Finally, LL.M. students may cross-register for a course in Boston College’s other university departments.
Degree requirements
Students are required to complete at least 24 credits of work during the course of the academic year. This includes a core course, “The United States Legal System”, which is required of all foreign-trained candidates. Students also are required to produce a piece of writing of a breadth and magnitude commensurate with the school’s upper-level writing requirement for J.D. students. This can be completed in conjunction with one of the school’s regular seminar offerings, or written independently (for up to three credits) under the supervision of a faculty member. LL.M. students also have the option of taking a “Legal Research and Writing” course designed specially for them. Otherwise, students study alongside their J.D. classmates -- an immersion experience in American legal education.
Connections to practice
The Law School has always placed a great deal of emphasis on the professional knowledge that every good lawyer must possess. That includes not only the substantive law that governs particular cases or transactions, but also a range of environmental factors – business, economic, social, cultural and ethical – that structure the lawyer’s role. An understanding of these phenomena can both enrich a student’s understanding of how law functions in action, and enhance the student’s educational experience as a whole.
Our LL.M. program includes several features that help students develop insights along these lines. The course “The United States Legal System” will include several class meetings on different models of lawyering in the United States, and some of the professional and ethical issues involved. In addition, a number of courses in the regular curriculum are taught by adjunct faculty members who are leaders in their respective fields. Finally, we also are working to develop internships with law firms and other organizations in the Boston area – whether as a basis for an independent study project during the academic year, or for some period after completion of the LL.M. – so that students can actually experience how law is practiced here.
A word of caution: the LL.M. degree is not designed as a credential for practice in the U.S. over the long term. Applicants who seek long-term employment in this country should pursue our J.D. degree rather than the LL.M. However, those who complete the LL.M. degree may be eligible for admission to the bar in New York and a limited number of other states. For further information on eligibility requirements, please consult the bar authorities in those states directly.