Legal Track
The Faculty of Law at Keio University offers a Legal Track that provides effective education for students aspiring to join the legal profession.
What Is the Legal Track?
The Legal Profession Program is an integrated educational program jointly organized by the Faculty of Law and affiliated law schools with partnership agreements, designed to provide effective education for students aspiring to join the legal profession. By completing the Legal Profession Program, graduating early from the undergraduate faculty in three years, and then advancing to the two-year course at Keio University Law School, the minimum period from university admission to the start of legal apprenticeship is five years.
Structure of the Legal Track at Keio University
The Legal Profession Track at Keio University is not one in which students formally enroll as members of a subjects. Instead, it is a curriculum-based program through which students gain eligibility to advance to law school by completing designated subjects from the major subjects of the Department of Law. Special seminar subjects, “Legal Practice Seminars I, II, and III,” are offered as part of the Legal Profession Program. However, since these subjects are established within the Department of Law curriculum, any student in the Department of Law may take them through the standard course registration procedures.
For the Legal Track
Students study for four years at the Faculty of Law and advance to the advanced program at a law school through a special selection process. Alternatively, students may graduate early in three years and advance to law school.
For the General Track
Students study for four years at the Faculty of Law and advance, through general selection, to either the three-year course (for students without a law degree) or the two-year course (for students with a law degree) at a law school. Alternatively, students may graduate early in three years and advance to law school.
About Required Coursework
Students are required to complete prescribed subjects to complete the Legal Track.
“Designated subjects” are subjects that must be taken and for which credits must be earned in order to complete the Legal Track. These subjects also require students to achieve outstanding academic performance for consideration in the special selection process.
“Recommended Subjects” are not requirements for completing the Legal Track; however, they are subjects that students are encouraged to take prior to advancing to law school.
First Year
Designated Subjects
Law I/II, Constitutional Law I/II (Principles And Human Rights), General Part Of Civil Code I/II, Civil Code I/II (Particulars Of Claim), Criminal Law: General Part I/II
Recommended Subjects
Legal Practice Seminar I (Constitutional Law, Civil Law, and Criminal Law)
Second year
Designated Subjects
Constitutional Law I/II (Government), Civil Code I/II (Law Of Real Rights), Civil Law I/II (Obligations), Criminal Law I/II, Corporate Law I/II
Legal Seminar II (Constitutional Law I), Legal Seminar II (Civil Law I), Civil Law II Legal Seminar II (Criminal Law I), Criminal Law II, Legal Seminar II (Corporate Law)
Third Year
Designated Subjects
Corporate Law III/IV, Civil Procedure Law I/II/III, Criminal Procedure Law I/II, General Administrative Law I/II, Civil Law (Family Law) I/II
Legal Practice III (Constitutional Law), Legal Practice III (Civil Law), Legal Practice III (Criminal Law), Legal Practice III (Corporate Law), Legal Practice III (Civil Procedure Law), Legal Practice III (Criminal Procedure Law)
Recommended Subjects
(Provisional And Final) Remedies In Civil Procedure Administrative Remedy Law I/II
(Provisional And Final) Remedies In Civil Procedure Administrative Remedy Law I/II
About Early Graduation
Students admitted to the Law School through the special selection process may, if they so wish, graduate early after six semesters (three years), provided that they have earned the credits required for graduation and meet specified academic criteria. These criteria are defined as having a grade point average (GPA) within the top 30 percent of the cohort in the Department of Law at the end of the second year, and within the top 25 percent at the end of the third year. In order to be eligible for early graduation, students must also meet the following requirements.
Students apply for early graduation at the end of their second year.
Students must apply for early graduation at the end of their third year and must have been accepted into the two-year course at Keio University Law School through the special selection process.
Students must complete the prescribed curriculum of the Legal Track.
Special Selection for the Law School
There are two types of special selection processes for law schools. One is the “Five-Year Integrated Selection,” which is open to prospective graduates of the Legal Track at Faculty of Law that have concluded legal education partnership agreements. The other is the “Open Selection,” which is not limited to partner faculties and is open to any prospective graduate of the Legal Track. Prospective graduates of the Legal Track at Keio University may apply for the Five-Year Integrated Selection at Keio University Law School, which is a party to such an agreement, and may also apply through the Open Selection to law schools that adopt this selection process, including Keio University Law School.