The University of the South Pacific

COMBINED BACHELOR OF LAWS / BACHELOR OF ARTS

This degree permits candidates to undertake a combined degree programme for the award of Bachelor of Arts and the Bachelor of Laws

The degree has been introduced as an option to be offered in addition to the four year Bachelor of Laws programme. Combined degree programmes have become the norm in legal education in Australia and in New Zealand. They build on the philosophy that law students are better equipped to study law and that lawyers are better equipped educationally when they come to the study of law with experience in another discipline. The current LLB adopts that general philosophy by requiring that students undertake courses at first year level in non-law areas. To some extent the combined degree programme is also a concession to the notion that law should be a graduate area of study, as it is in the United States of America.

Candidates for this combined degree shall take:

• thirty-five (35) courses in total;
• fourteen (14) of these must be from non-law areas
• the remaining twenty-one (21) from law;
• within the fourteen (14) non-law courses the student need to complete the requirements for a single major in the Bachelor of Arts;
• within the twenty-one (21) law courses the candidate must complete all seventeen (17) compulsory law courses for the Bachelor of Laws under the regulations for that degree, plus four (4) law electives.

The programme is available to both new students and to current BA students at the University.

The regulations for the combined degrees programme achieves a "trade off" between the respective non-law and law degrees. From the point of view of the Bachelor of Arts the candidate receives credit for their study in law and vice versa.

• The award of a combined degree will ONLY occur when a candidate completes the whole combined programme.
• IF a candidate wishes to withdraw from the combined degree programme in order to complete the Bachelor of Arts alone he or she can do this providing that he or she then completes the full requirements for the Bachelor of Arts as a stand-alone degree.

• A candidate for the combined degree programme must undertake their study for the Bachelor of Arts component first; i.e. before proceeding with the study of law.
• However, within the FIRST and SECOND years of study a candidate can undertake some or all of the 100 level courses in law (LA100, LA101 and/or LA102).
• A candidate who has already graduated with one or other degree (LLB or B.A.) may apply for cross credits up to a maximum of 50% of the relevant degree. This means that candidates will have to repeat some courses.

For further information on the above degree or any programme within the School of Law contact:

School of Law
Emalus Campus
University of the South Pacific
PMB 072
Port Vila
Vanuatu