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LL.M. Singapore

About the Program

Courses

The NYU@NUS academic calendar begins with an intensive Summer Term taught exclusively by NYU faculty (May to July), followed by NUS Semester 1 where students choose from classes offered by NUS and visiting NYU faculty (August to early December). A "Winter" Term offers additional exclusive NYU classes in December, followed by NUS Semester 2 (January to early May). Many students complete their studies between February and April. The NYU@NUS Convocation (graduation ceremony) usually takes place in February/March.

This allows ample opportunity to take advantage of courses in NYU and NUS's areas of strength, including corporate law, international and comparative law, US and Asian law, intellectual property, and technology law, to name a few.

The Big Picture
The program’s origins lie in a 2002 conversation between Professor Joseph Weiler, then the director of the Law School’s Hauser Global Law School Program, and NUS Dean Tan Cheng Han. Both were seeking to offer a new form of education that reflected the way students were increasingly required to think and to practice: globally. The result of these discussions is the NYU School of Law and NUS Dual Degree Program (NYU@NUS), where graduates earn an LL.M. from NYU and an LL.M. from NUS. This is a novel approach, a genuine collaboration between the two institutions that integrates courses from each law school into a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, and it has proven an attractive option for more than 120 students from 35 countries.

The NYU LL.M.
Students who successfully complete the program in Singapore are awarded the NYU LL.M. in Law and the Global Economy. All students may opt to complete the degree with a concentration in either U.S. and Asian Business and Trade Law or Justice and Human Rights by completing half of the 24 required credits for the master’s degree from a list of designated courses. 

As incoming students arrive to Singapore in May to begin the summer semester, NYU professors are also making their way from New York to teach classes specially designed for the program. Each course offered in the summer is structured as a two- to three-week intensive class, and students typically register for one class in each successive module through August in order to complete the majority of NYU credits required for the degree. These intensive, LL.M. only classes provide students with far greater attention from faculty than is possible in a larger class setting, and our faculty report that they are equally stimulated by the smaller seminar experience.

From August to November, students benefit from the variety of semester-long classes offered by the National University of Singapore. NYU awards credit toward its master’s degree for coursework completed in classes taught by NUS faculty. Students may also take additional semester-long classes with NYU faculty, who are typically Global Visiting Professors in residence in Singapore, or NYU intensive classes in December, to round out their curricula. Students will also have the opportunity to undertake an internship in a law firm, corporation, government entity, or NGO in the region. This may be undertaken part-time during the semester, during holidays, or at the end of the program.

The NUS LL.M.
The National University of Singapore offers an array of master’s programs from which NYU@NUS students may select for their second LL.M. degree.


Because NUS recognizes coursework taken in pursuit of the NYU master’s degree, the completion of only an additional four NUS courses of average credit (or equivalent research) are required to award the NUS LL.M. degree. Students may satisfy NUS degree requirements in a number of ways:

  • NUS courses offered during the regular academic year (the Semester 1 running from August to November and/or Semester 2 from January to May).
  • Intensive courses offered by NUS in the first three to six weeks of each semester.
  • A thesis, or a combination of thesis and coursework, completed while in residence at NUS.
  • Courses offered in Shanghai as part of the International Business Law program offered by NUS and East China University of Politics and Law (January-May or parts thereof).
  • In exceptional circumstances, students may also petition to complete the NUS degree through writing a thesis while located outside of Singapore.

New York Option
After completing their studies in Singapore, graduates may take part in an optional ten-week course at NYU in New York City. Starting straight after NYU's Commencement and Convocation ceremonies in New York City, this option enables students to supplement their studies with intensive exposure to legal institutions, thought and practice in the United States. Students will also be entitled to NYU library privileges over the summer for independent research and study. Completion of this program is a requirement for NYU@NUS students who wish to qualify to sit the New York Bar Exam on the basis of their LL.M. in Law and the Global Economy and their prior legal education.

We are still working out the costs to students of this program, but they will include travel to New York, room, and ordinary living expenses. There are no plans to charge tuition for the NYC program during the period covered by the Court’s ruling. As for room, we expect that students will be offered the option of living in a University dormitory.

 

Admissions Information
NYU@NUS was offered for the first time in May 2007. The launch of this program is being celebrated with a generous donation of scholarship funding, allowing up to fifty full-tuition scholarships; more information about the scholarships and application process is available through the Office of Graduate Admissions.



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