- Degree
- Master of Laws in Legal Theory (LLM Legal Theory)
- Course location
- Frankfurt am Main
- In cooperation with
- University of Bologna (and EUI Florence), University of Glasgow, University of Lucerne, University of Stockholm and many other partner universities
European Academy of Legal Theory
- Teaching language
- • English
- Languages
- English (only)
- Mode of study
- Fully on-site with voluntary online elements
- Programme duration
- 2 semesters
- Beginning
- Winter semester
- Additional information on beginning, duration and mode of study
- You can arrange for online options individually, but you will still be required to spend at least six weeks of the winter semester (November/December) in Frankfurt.
- Application deadline
- Mid-September
We suggest applying early. First come, first served. For the on-campus (in-person) track, overseas applicants have to take care of visa requirements, taking into account the possible long period of time it may take to get a visa in their respective countries, accordingly, they should apply early.
- Tuition fees per semester in EUR
- 3,600 EUR
- Additional information on tuition fees
- The tuition for the whole academic year is 7,200 EUR and, typically, must be paid two weeks after admission. Prospective students may apply for a partial waiver (see application form).
- Combined Master's degree / PhD programme
- Yes
- Joint degree / double degree programme
- No
- Description/content
- This programme engages with the rapid digitalisation and use of AI and the connected structural transformation of normativity in law. It introduces both the Anglo-American Common Law and the Civil or Continental Law tradition of legal theory. Its focus is to safeguard European traditions as the basis of constitutionalism in a global perspective, developing legal scholarship and jurisprudence as a science, and developing jurisprudence as applied legal theory so as to enable students to solve system conflicts. Such conflicts occur regularly because national law is becoming supra-, inter- and transnational and because of the growing weight of transnational law-making on the part of non-state actors.
This is reflected in the unique European design of the programme. Moreover, it offers an excellent institutional setting on the impressive and charming Westend campus of Goethe University Frankfurt.
• The programme's exclusive concentration on legal theory makes it unique in the field of advanced legal studies in Europe, enabled by the university cluster of EALT.
• It rests on synergies between three institutions located on the same campus: a large law faculty, the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory (www.lhlt.mpg.de/en (http://www.rg.mpg.de)), the Normative Orders Research Centre (www.normativeorders.net (http://www.normativeorders.net)) targeting at the integration of all Frankfurt social sciences with the focus on normativity, and the House of Finance (Institute for Law and Finance, www.ilf-frankfurt.de (http://www.ilf-frankfurt.de)).
• It also connects the reputation of Goethe University (GU) with that of other renowned German and European universities.
Besides GU, the partners in the programme are the universities of Bologna (and EUI Florence), Krakow, Glasgow, Lucerne, Stockholm, and associate partners.
Further associated partners contribute in a specific way within the activities of the "Third Term Network", namely, in the supervision of students' Master's theses. They currently include renowned instructors from the universities of Glasgow and Oxford, Lucerne, Stockholm, and further universities as in Barcelona, Belgrade, Palermo, Torino, and others. In addition, a close cooperation exists with the International Association for Legal and Social Philosophy (IVR). The programme also has ties to major legal theory scholars at German universities such as Freiburg, Göttingen, Hamburg, and Munich.