Advanced Master of the European Academy in Legal Theory in the European Higher Education Area

In 2009 the cooperation between the European Association for the Teaching of Legal Theory, the Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis, and the Katholieke Universiteit Brussel has ended and the master programme offered in Brussels has expired (for information on the EALT Master Course in Legal Theory 1992-2009 see the archive section of this webpage).

The European Association for the Teaching of Legal Theory has launched an initiative to re-establish the EALT and to offer a new European Master Course in Legal Theory jointly organised by

• the University of Vienna
• the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
• the Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main
• the Jagiellonian University Cracow.

The new EALT curriculum for joint and/or double master degrees in legal theory is currently under construction and the re-launch of the EALT Master Course in Legal Theory is planned for the academic year 2011/12.

In the meantime, the EALT continues to offer a summer course in legal theory (currently offered at the University of Palermo).

The new 60 ECTS master programme starting in autumn 2011 (application information will be available on this webpage from 2011 onwards) will be open to persons holding a basic law degree and having completed 240 ECTS (= 4 years) of studies overall (exceptions for persons holding other social science and humanities degrees will be possible if they show a strong legal background and a total of 240 ECTS of university education prior to the EALT master as well). Students will enter the programme at the University of Frankfurt or at the University of Vienna in fall semester (October-January). They will jointly follow a global research management and ICT in legal research module organised by the Free University of Berlin and the University of Stockholm in February in Stockholm (compulsory mobility phase 1) and will chose to continue the programme either at the Université Libre de Bruxelles or the Jagiellonian University in Cracow in spring semester (March-June, compulsory mobility phase 2). From July-September, students will work on their master thesis either at one of the six curriculum offering partner universities, at one of the 3rd term network partner institutions or at home (optional mobility phase). Students (with a lack of prior advanced knowledge in legal theory) who wish to receive a special preparation for the EALT master course will be invited to follow a two weeks intensive summer school at the University of Luzern in Switzerland in September (optional mobility phase). Successful students will earn double LL.M. (lawyers) or M.L.S. (non lawyers) degrees in legal theory from the Universities of Vienna, and/or LL.M. degrees in legal theory from the Universities of Frankfurt, Cracow, and ULB (from those two universities where the students spend their first and second semester) and a joint diploma by all EALT Master Course in Legal Theory partner universities. Main language of instruction will be English. At least passive knowledge of the local language of instruction (Vienna=German, Brussels=French, Frankfurt-German, Cracow=Polish) of the chosen semester 1 and semester 2 host universities is of advantage (some of the courses on offer will be taught in the local language of instruction, its knowledge allows for a broader choice among different courses on offer).

This information on the new EALT Master Course in Legal Theory is preliminary and subject to ongoing accreditation procedures and their respective outcomes at each of the partner universities involved. Precise information will only be available together with the next call for applications in the course of 2011.