Traditional Law Degree - Law

Studying at the Faculty of Law

Whether you're a prospective student, a first-year student, or a candidate preparing for exams: Here you'll find all the information you need about the program!

Legal training consists of two parts: a university program that concludes with the first state examination, and a two-year practical training period (Referendariat), at the end of which the second state examination is taken. Only those who have successfully completed both phases qualify as “fully qualified lawyers” and are eligible to serve as judges or to practice any other legal profession in the judiciary, the legal profession, or in administration, business, and associations.

For more information on studying law, please visit our Student Information Center.

If you are still unsure about which major to choose, you can contact the Central Student Advisory Service (ZSB) at the University of Münster.

Application for the Law Program

In Münster, there is a fixed number of spots available each semester for the law program. As a result, admission to the law program in Münster is restricted and subject to the so-called Numerus Clausus (NC). This is composed of various quotas. After deducting places for hardship cases, second degrees, and international applicants, 20% of the places are allocated based on the top Abitur grades, and 80% through the university’s selection process.

Please note that the NC is determined retroactively based on the previous year’s applicant pool and is therefore never finalized before universities open their application periods.

The admission thresholds from previous semesters can be found on the University of Münster website, broken down into the NC for the top Abitur grades and the NC for the university’s selection process (AdH). These are provided for informational purposes only.

Explanation: In the university selection process, the Abitur grade is improved by 0.1 for each semester of waiting time. However, a maximum of seven waiting semesters can be taken into account. Waiting time is defined as all semesters following the completion of the Abitur during which the applicant was not enrolled at a German university.

Please note: Since only 20% of study places are allocated based on the highest Abitur grades, the minimum admission score (NC) listed on the Student Affairs Office website is very low (typically 1.0 or 1.1). However, every applicant is considered on both ranking lists—Abitur grade and the university’s selection process. This means that even an applicant without waiting semesters can be awarded a spot through the university’s selection process.

An example: Person A has a high school graduation grade of 1.7. Person B has a high school graduation grade of 1.9 and additionally two waiting semesters, which improves the grade by 0.2. In the winter semester 2024/2025, both individuals received a spot through the university’s selection process (the NC was 1.8).

Applications are submitted via the Hochschulstart portal as part of the so-called dialog-oriented service procedure. Detailed information about the degree program and the application process can be found in the study guide published by the Central Student Advisory Service.

For questions regarding the application process and enrollment, please contact the staff at the Student Secretariat.

Course Structure

Here's how the program works—from the first lecture to graduation.

Intermediate Examination

During the first semesters of study (also known as the introductory phase), students acquire basic legal knowledge and explore questions such as: “What is the style of a legal opinion? / What are the differences between the major areas of law? / What is law, anyway?”

To acquire this knowledge, students first focus on public law, as well as civil and criminal law. In addition, students may select one historical and one social science course from several foundational subjects. These range from criminology to sociology of law, legal history, and philosophy of law.

Furthermore, during the break between semesters in the undergraduate program, students complete two term papers covering the three major areas of law. These involve the preparation of extensive legal opinions based on scholarly research.

The intermediate examination consists of a three-hour written exam in each of the three major areas of law.

Specialization

The university-level specialization exam is taken after the intermediate exam and, as a rule, before the state-administered compulsory subject exam; together with the latter, it determines the grade for the First State Examination (in a 30:70 ratio). The specialization further customizes the course of study. The choice of specialization is left to each student individually. The specialization exam spans two semesters (lectures with final exams as well as seminars) and is typically taken concurrently with the student’s studies during the 5th and 6th semesters.

Review Course and State Examination

The review course is designed to prepare students for the state compulsory subject examination (commonly referred to as the “Examen”). During this course, all material relevant to the exam is reviewed and, where necessary, reinforced. Students are free to structure this phase of their studies as they see fit. However, the Faculty of Law offers its own exam review course, unirep.

Further information on exam preparation with unirep can be found on the “unirep” page.

The materials for the unirep courses as well as current course schedules can be found on the eLearning-platform unirep-online.

The university program concludes with registration for the state compulsory subject examination at a judicial examination office, the result of which accounts for 70 percent of the final grade. Since this is a state examination, it is not administered by the university but rather by one of the three judicial examination offices nationwide. As a rule, students from Münster take the exam at the judicial examination office in Hamm. The knowledge acquired is tested in six written exams and one oral exam as part of the mandatory state examination. Once you have successfully completed this and your university specialization, you have passed the First State Examination in Law and can apply for admission to the preparatory service (also known as the “Referendariat”).