University College Programs & study at law schools
Bachelor of Laws (abbreviated LL.B., LLB , Ll.B.) is an undergraduate, or bachelor, degree in law offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and which originated in England. It was established as a liberal arts degree, which requires that the student undertake a certain amount of study of the classics, but has developed into a more specialized professional degree in recent years. Nonetheless, the goals of most LL.B. programs are to provide a scholarly education, and therefore jurisdictions which offer the LL.B. require additional education or training before a graduate is authorized to practice law. In Australia and Canada it is sometimes referred to as a post-graduate degree because in those countries a previous college degree is sometimes required for admission. The "LL." of the abbreviation for the degree is from the genitive plural legum (of lex, legis f., law), thus "LL.B." stands for Legum Baccalaureus in Latin. In the United States it was sometimes erroneously called "Bachelor of Legal Letters" to account for the double "L" (and therefore sometimes abbreviated as "L.L.B.").The USA is the only common law country that does not offer the LL.B., at all. Since the late-nineteenth century universities the United States awarded the professional doctorate J.D., which became the required degree for the practice of law in the U.S. in the 1970s. Many law schools in Canada and Australia are in the process of implementing J.D. degrees, although they differ from that in the U.S.
Historically, in Canada, Bachelor of Laws was the name of the first degree in common law, but is also the name of the first degree in Quebec civil law awarded by a number of Quebec universities. All Canadian common-law LL.B. programs are second-entry professional degrees, meaning that the majority of those admitted to an LL.B. programme are already holders of one or more degrees, or, at a minimum, have completed two years of study in a first-entry, undergraduate degree in another discipline.
Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the first degree in Scots law and South African law (both being pluralistic legal systems that are based partly on common law and partly on civil law) awarded by a number of universities in Scotland and South Africa, respectively.