This is a programme like no other offered in Europe. It is not simply one more programme focusing on European and International Law. Its purpose is to teach Law in a European and Global Context, employing innovative teaching methodologies and giving students access to a stellar international faculty.

A growing number of legal actors – lawyers, judges, policymakers and other legal professionals – increasingly need to operate in the context of multiple jurisdictions and be comfortable working with different legal sources. At the same time, economic and social integration promotes the cross-jurisdictional character of cases for which lawyers are called on to give legal assistance. This has also given rise to an emerging global market for legal services. All this requires a different type of lawyer from the traditional lawyer trained exclusively in a particular domestic legal system. It requires a truly international legal education, where courses are specifically tailored to meet the challenges of this pluralist legal landscape. That is exactly the ambition of this LL.M. programme.

Students enrolled in this LL.M. will face a significant challenge: the programme will demand a sustained level of very high commitment, preparation and engagement. But the rewards will be rich, both in intellectual excitement and professional development.

The Total Law™ Approach

The programme adopts the approach to teaching that Joseph H. H. Weiler has coined as Total Law™ – a bold pedagogical and intellectual break with the traditional ways of teaching law.

We believe that law can only be fully understood and properly and effectively practiced in its context. Our aim is to make students better – much better – lawyers by explaining how the economic, social and political context shapes legal problems and impacts the thinking about their solutions. The discipline is law. The focus is law. But the premise is that law cannot be understood, nor practiced competently without understanding its wider context.

Total Law™ implies a commitment to pro-active learning – an approach that requires a lot from both students and instructors. We cannot accept spectators and free riders. Students cannot go to Theatre School and then, when asked to recite, claim they suffer from Stage Fright. Students cannot come to the study of law, an eminently communicative discipline, and then sit quietly in the back, passively taking notes. Not, at least, in this programme.

Program Information

Attendance and ECTS
This LL.M. is a one-year full-time program, running from September to July. The academic calendar is structured into three terms. The students’ schedule depends on the courses that they have elected to follow, but, typically, on a given day students will have classes on either the morning or the afternoon. Also, since some courses are taught in a concentrated fashion (e.g., over the course of three days), some periods of the semester may be busier than others.

Students who wish to combine their LL.M. studies with a full-time professional activity are advised to enroll as part-time students, dividing the coursework over two academic years.

Semester Abroad
Following their LL.M. year in Lisbon, students are encouraged to spend an additional semester abroad, taking advantage of the exchange agreements that Católica Global School of Law has with a select group of top law schools from Europe, North America, South America and Asia. Each of these schools reserves a specific number of places for students from Católica Global School of Law to spend a semester. The semester abroad allows our students to have contact with different pedagogical and research methods, as well as to experience life in another country, while carrying on studying at a top law school.

Under these agreements, admission to our partner schools begins with the semester abroad application process at Católica Global School of Law, which takes place between November and December. Each student nominated by Católica for a semester abroad will then be subject to the approval of the host institution.

Master’s Thesis
Following the one-year LL.M. programme, research-driven students have the option of enrolling for a third semester and produce a masters’ thesis. The students that successfully write, submit, and defend their thesis will be awarded the Master of Transnational Law diploma, according to the Bologna Declaration.

Double Degrees
Católica LL.M. students have the opportunity to extend their studies earning a second LL.M. degree in one of the following prestigious partner Universities.

• King’s College London – The Dickson Poon School of Law
• Fribourg Law Faculty
• Cornell Law School
• University of Michigan Law School
• University of Illinois College of Law
• Boston University School of Law