Master of Studies in Law

rdf:langString Master of Studies in Law

rdf:langString InternetArchiveBot

rdf:langString January 2018

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rdf:langString A Master of Studies in Law (M.S.L.), also Master of Science of Law or Master of Legal Studies (M.L.S.) or Juris Master (J.M.) or Masters of Jurisprudence (M.J.) or Master in Law (M.L.), is a master's degree offered by some law schools to students who wish to study the law but do not want to become attorneys. M.S.L. programs typically last one academic year and put students through a similar regimen as first-year Juris Doctor (J.D.) students but may allow for further specialization. Despite having similar names, an M.S.L. is distinct from a Master of Laws (LL.M.), which is a postgraduate law degree. A Juris Doctor degree is a "first professional doctorate", like an MD medical degree. Both consist of overview survey courses to familiarize the student with the overall field, e.g., one course in contracts, one course in real property, one course in family law, etc. Physicians normally do Graduate Medical Education (GME) in a "residency", which is where they get specialized training such as surgery or cardiology or pediatrics. Attorneys normally do not go on to specialized education but instead learn their particular field of law on the job at the first law firm they work for. Basically, an LL.M. is the equivalent of majoring in a specific field of law with all courses taught at a college-senior honors program level—LL.M. programs typically are around 24 semester hours. M.S.L. students may study such staples as constitutional law, torts, contracts, civil procedure, and other requirements alongside regular law students, writing the same papers and taking the same exams. But they typically graduate after accumulating two semesters of credit instead of six. Some M.S.L. programs are designed for academics who hold Ph.D.s in a discipline related to the law, and who want to add a legal dimension to scholarship. Other programs aim to provide fundamental legal education to professionals who are not lawyers, but whose careers involve legal or regulatory issues. Responding to this need, M.L.S. degrees are increasingly offered to working professionals on an online or part-time basis, and allow professionals to tailor elective law courses to their particular career fields. Currently, there are approximately 15 online programs available from accredited universities.