Please note: The University of Münster’s Student Admissions Office is responsible for questions regarding the application and enrolment process, particularly the recognition of specific language certificates. Please direct any such enquiries to them. Due to the deadlines, please ensure you contact the Student Admissions Office well in advance if you have any questions.
Admission requirements
To be eligible to study the Bachelor’s degree programme in ‘International and Comparative Law’, students must have:
- A general university entrance qualification (usually Abitur)
- Proof of proficiency in German and English (both: C1 level according to the Common European Framework of Reference)
- Proof of English language proficiency (C1 level) may be provided by a university entrance qualification that explicitly states the C1 level, or by language certificates (e.g. TOEFL, IELTS, C-Test). If you are unsure whether your language certificate is acceptable, please contact the Student Admissions Office in advance.
- Applicants who did not obtain their university entrance qualification at a German-speaking institution must provide evidence of active participation in courses demonstrating sufficient knowledge of the German language in accordance with the provisions of the DSH examination regulations of the University of Münster. This proof is not required for applicants whose first language is German (Section 5(3) sentence 1 of the Examination Regulations).
Please note: To assess your own level of English, you can use the demo version of the C-Test at the University’s Language Centre. A score of 70 can be used as a guideline, as you will need this later on to register for the language courses. Furthermore, this sample text from the British Constitutional Law lecture provides a further basis for assessing your language skills yourself. You do not need to understand every word, but you should be able to grasp the main points of the text.
Application and Enrolment Process
The Student Admissions Office at the University of Münster is responsible for the application and enrolment process for a place in the first semester of the Bachelor’s programme in International and Comparative Law.
Enrolment in higher semesters of the Bachelor’s programme is expected to be possible from the summer semester of 2024 at the earliest, subject to certain conditions. If you have already completed a module as part of the Law degree programme, it may be possible to have this recognised for the Bachelor’s programme. Information on progression to higher semesters can be found below.
Further questions can be found in the FAQs on admission requirements and the application process.
Placement in higher semesters
Students may, in principle, also apply to join a higher semester of the Bachelor’s programme. For enrolment in the summer semester, applications are only accepted for even-numbered semesters (2nd, 4th, 6th); for the winter semester, applications are only accepted for odd-numbered semesters (3rd, 5th). The possibility of placement depends on various requirements.
Concurrent enrolment in another programme
Admission to the Bachelor’s programme is restricted in the first semester. From the 2025/26 winter semester onwards, admission to the Bachelor’s programme will be unrestricted from the second semester onwards. As it is not possible to enrol concurrently in two programmes with restricted admission, additional enrolment in the Bachelor’s programme (e.g. alongside the state examination law programme) can only take place in the higher, unrestricted semesters of the Bachelor’s programme.
Whether placement into a higher semester is possible depends on how many modules from the Bachelor’s curriculum have already been completed.Admission to higher semesters
Enrolment for higher semesters is handled by the Student Admissions Office at the University of Münster. If you have any questions regarding the process, please do not hesitate to contact them. Please take particular note of the deadlines listed on the Student Admissions Office’s website.
Degree and Career Opportunities
Upon successful completion of the programme, students are awarded a German Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.). This qualification opens up a range of opportunities for students.
An LL.B. is not sufficient to practise a traditional legal profession (e.g. judge, solicitor, or public prosecutor). Students wishing to pursue a career in these fields must, in addition to the Bachelor’s degree, pass the First State Examination (‘1. Staatsexamen’), complete a legal traineeship and pass the Second State Examination (‘2. Staatsexamen’). It is possible to have various credits from the Bachelor’s programme recognised towards these requirements. If, in addition to the LL.B., you are also aiming to take the First State Examination, you can also structure your Bachelor’s programme to prepare you for subsequent law studies. The option of studying in parallel is explained in more detail at the top of the page under ‘Placement in a higher semester’. For further information or if you have any questions regarding your individual study plan, please feel free to contact us.
Without precluding traditional legal career paths, the Bachelor’s programme broadens the range of possible career paths and professional fields. Thanks to its international focus, the LL.B. provides an ideal qualification for starting a career in globally active companies and organisations, with potential areas of work ranging from the management of bilateral and multinational business relationships to in-house legal advice. In many cases, a career in such international legal fields will not be possible with a Bachelor’s degree alone, but will require a subsequent Master’s degree. The LL.B. enables graduates to undertake a subsequent LL.M. or M.A. programme abroad or in Germany. Unlike the First State Examination, these Master’s programmes offer a significantly higher degree of specialisation.
For particularly high-achieving students, once they have completed their university studies (Master’s degree or State Examination), there is the option of writing a dissertation as part of the standard doctoral programme.