The Masters of Law Common Law (LLM CL) Program is a year-long, course-based professional program that provides foundational training in the Canadian common law system for foreign trained law graduates. The program has two start dates. Applicants with common law legal training may begin the LLM CL Program in either May or September. Applicants without formal common law training, such as civil law trained or applicants from mixed legal traditions must begin the LLM CL Program in May. The May start date allows student to complete a number of foundational courses in Canadian common law before joining the advanced graduate or upper-year J.D. courses offered in September.
This program supports students in completing their assigned National Committee on Accreditation subjects and in addition allows students to choose from the broad array of graduate and upper-year JD course offerings in the Peter A. Allard School of Law.
For specific program requirements, please refer to the departmental program website
The Peter A. Allard School of Law, one of Canada's leading law schools, is proud of its tradition in graduate student training and is home to one of the country's oldest and most well-established graduate programs.
The program, the first of its kind in Canada, offers students the opportunity to complete a masters' degree in Law while also working towards the course-work requirements for the practice of law in Canada. If you have a foreign legal training and are interested in practicing law in Canada, then you must consult with and apply to the National Committee on Accreditation (NCA), the body charged with determining the additional qualifications required for foreign-trained lawyers to practice in Canada. The courses in the Masters of Law (LLM) Common Law Program degree are designed to meet NCA requirements.
The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies establishes the minimum admission requirements common to all applicants, usually a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC). The graduate program that you are applying to may have additional requirements. Please review the specific requirements for applicants with credentials from institutions in:
Each program may set higher academic minimum requirements. Please review the program website carefully to understand the program requirements. Meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission as it is a competitive process.
Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application. Tests must have been taken within the last 24 months at the time of submission of your application.
Minimum requirements for the three most common English language proficiency tests to apply to this program are listed below:
Overall score requirement : 5.0
Reading
5.0
Writing
5.0
Speaking
4.0
Listening
5.0
Overall score requirement : 100
Reading
25
Writing
25
Speaking
21
Listening
25
Overall score requirement : 7.0
Reading
7.0
Writing
7.0
Speaking