Since the winter semester 1987/88, the Faculty of Law offers a postgraduate course in German law for students who have already acquired a foreign legal degree.

The program has successfully completed the quality assurance process for Master's programs and has been accredited since December 2008. Since the summer semester 2009, the degree program has therefore been offered as a master's program in law for lawyers graduated abroad. The aim of this international postgraduate degree program is to familiarize students who have already successfully completed their law studies abroad with German law and to enable them to gain special knowledge. The Faculty of Law awards the degree of "Master of Laws" (LL.M.) after passing the Master's examination.

The study can be taken in both the winter and summer semester.

• The basic competences for German law are taught in the compulsory modules "Fundamentals of Law" and "Legal Terminology, Method and Professional Ability". In order to supplement these basic competences, the students determine their own focus by selecting a competence unit. You have the following options:

• 1st competence unit: Deutsches Zivilrecht (K1)
• 2nd competence unit: Deutsches Zivil- und Unternehmensrecht (K2)
• 3rd competence unit: Wettbewerb und Immaterialgüterschutz (K3)
• 4th competence unit: Finanz- und Bankwirtschaft (K4)
• 5th competence unit: Staat und Verwaltung (K5)
• 6th competence unit: Staat, Völkerrecht und die Europäische Union (K6)
• 7th competence unit: Öffentlichkeit, Reglementierung und Investitionsschutz (K7)
• 8th competence unit: Staat und Steuern (K8)
• 9th competence unit: Kriminologie und internationales Strafrecht (K9)
• 10th competence unit: Internationales Privat-, Wirtschafts- und Verfahrensrecht (K10)
• 11th competence unit: Deutsches Recht im Gesamtüberblick (K 11)
• 12th competence unit: Staats-, Luft- und Weltraumrecht (K12)

The topic of the master thesis should correspond to the area of the selected competence unit. The processing time for the Master thesis is four months.

Successfully completing your studies requires the acquisition of 60 credits. These are acquired in the different modules in accordance with the requirements of the Prüfungsordnung LL.M. Graduate Abroad and Modulübersicht LL.M. Graduate Abroad. The 60 credits to be earned are distributed to the modules as follows:

Application requirements:

In order to apply for the Master's program for graduates from abroad, you need a bachelor's degree with 240 credits or another qualification comparable to the German Law Degree First Examination.

It is also necessary that you have sufficient German language skills. This is based on the order of the University of Cologne for the German Language Examination for University Entrance (DSH).

You are able to apply directly with a DSH (only DSH-2 and DSH-3 accepted) or an aquivalent test result such as:

    - TestDaF (niveau 4 on all parts)
    - Goethe- Istitute C-2 certificate
    - Telc C-1 Hochschule
    - Telc Deutsch C-2

Further information is available on the DSH-Webpage.

Application process:

Please note the two-stage application process!

1. Request a preliminary review documentation (VPD) from uni-assist. You can find further information regarding the VPD here.

2. Application via the application portal of the University of Cologne Klips 2.0

The application deadlines on Klips 2.0 are for the following winter semester the 15th of July and for the following summer semester the 15th of January.

Please make sure to request the VPD at an early state to complete the application in time.

Required documents are:

• tabular CV (in German)
• Letter of motivation (in German)
• Certificate of school leaving certificate and subject form (certified copies of the original and the translation)
• University entrance examination (if required in your country, certified copies of the original and the translation)
• Proof of graduation with compilation of subjects and grades (certified copies of the original and the translation)
• VPD (Vorprüfungsdokumentation)
• German language certificate (please upload at "sonstige Dokumente")

Please note: The documents must be submitted via Klips2 portal.

Further information can be found in the Zulassungsordnung  and the notification letter.

Information regarding the pre-studying german course held by "Deutsch als Fremdsprache" (DaF) may be found on the website of the International Office.

The Master's degree in this programme is an additional qualification to the law degree already achieved in the home country. “Home country” or “country of origin” means the country in which the first law degree was obtained. The Cologne Master's degree programme intends to provide an overview of the German legal system and imparts a specialisation and particular expertise in addition to the knowledge gained in the home country. According to § 3 of the doctoral regulations of the Faculty of Law of the University of Cologne of 26 October 2010, it is a regular prerequisite for admission to doctoral studies at the Cologne Faculty for lawyers who have not graduated in Germany.

The career opportunities given by the Master's programme depend on the student's country of origin. Primarily, the programme prepares students for qualified cross-border work in their home country. In the past, particularly high-achieving graduates have qualified for positions in international business law firms based in Germany or other EU countries or as clerks in the German civil service. Others have gone on to complete a doctorate in law. The experience since the programme was founded in 1987 has also shown that the Master's programme can significantly facilitate the preparation for lawyers with a legal degree obtained in an EU state other than Germany for the qualifying examination to become a European lawyer within the meaning of §§ 16 ff. EuRAG. Passing this examination is required for practising as a lawyer in Germany without a German state law examination.