Otago Law

Law at Otago University

Law is one of the University's longest established disciplines, lectures having started in July 1873, just two years after the University itself opened. Today the Faculty of Law has 26 full-time teaching staff, drawn from seven different countries, 12 part-time teaching staff, and the equivalent of approximately 800 full-time students, the majority from outside the immediate region.

From the beginning, the Faculty has been home to many prominent New Zealanders, including Ethel Benjamin, the first women to be admitted (in 1896) to the Bar in New Zealand and the Commonwealth. In the past decade alone, Otago has produced ten Rhodes Scholars, more than any other faculty or school in any discipline in any other university in New Zealand. The Law Faculty is a leader in legal research in New Zealand. It ranked first in the recent New Zealand Government ranking of research performance in New Zealand universities.

Academics at the Law Faculty include prominent scholars of legal history, philosophy, health law and bioethics, environmental law, international law, and many other fields. They have worked and studied at – and have close connections with –  many prestigious institutions, including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, the National University of Singapore, and Toronto. The Faculty also hosts a number of visitors each year: members of the judiciary, practising lawyers, and guest lecturers from many parts of the world. In recent years, distinguished visitors have included: Professor Stanley Fish of the University of Florida; Justice Michael Kirby (High Court of Australia); Professor Trudo Lemmens (University of Toronto); the Right Honourable Chief Justice of Canada, Beverley McLachlin (Supreme Court of Canada); Lord Rodger of Earlsferry of the House of Lords; Professor Graham J. Zellick (President of The Valuation Tribunal for England); Lord Walker (Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom); Justice Edwin Cameron (Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa); Lady Brenda Hale (The Right Honorable The Baroness Hale of Richmond) and Professor Jeremy Waldron (New York University).

Bachelor of LAWS (LLB)

The Faculty of Law offers a four-year professional degree, which provides an excellent grounding in legal thinking, analytical skills, negotiation and decision-making. Law graduates from the University of Otago find careers in many exciting areas all over the world. Our degrees cross credit systems opens up opportunities in areas like media, foreign affairs, public relations, IT, the arts and entertainment and sciences.

Second Year Law (Criminal Law, Contract Law, Property Law, Public Law) will be limited to approximately 200 places. We will consider you on the basis of your Legal System mark, provided that you have also reached a threshold standard of at least a B- average (65 - 69%) in your best non-law papers worth 72 points (which is normally four papers), or equivalent. These can be papers from any other subject area. Summer school papers will not be taken into account for 1st year students. We also recommend not overloading your Second Semester as you will have two Legal System exams, 101A and 101B at the end of the Second Semester.

Other entry methods to Second year law such as students from other NZ Univerisites who have completed a first year of law or those with a First Class Honours degree (or equivalent) in another subject are further explained on the Notes pages of our Second Year Law application forms. These forms are available from August of each year.

Bachelor of LAWS with Honours (LLB(Hons))

Unlike most of the undergraduate Honours degrees at Otago, the Law Honours degree does not take an extra year. This makes it excellent 'value for money'. The critical component for Honours is the Research Paper (or Dissertation), which counts for 60 points, and is done in a student's final year. In a straight LLB a student will typically write their dissertation in their fourth year and, in a double degree, in their fifth.

Many of our Honours students go on to undertake postgraduate research here or in England, America etc, become Judges' clerks, join major New Zealand or foreign law firms, enter academia, work for tribunals and commissions and so on.

Master of Laws

The Otago Faculty of Law’s post-graduate programme offers a unique opportunity in New Zealand for advanced study, independent research, and intellectual growth. The Master of Laws (LLM) is a research-intensive programme that allows students to explore their particular interests through research undertaken under the supervision of a Faculty member. The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programme provides an opportunity for students to pursue intensive research in a wide range of topics. In addition to these core post-graduate programmes, the Law Faculty works with other departments to offer students interdisciplinary post-graduate experiences. It works closely with the Bioethics Centre in offering a Master of Bioethics and Health Law (MBHL). In addition, it provides teaching input into the Master of Planning (MPlan) offered by the Geography Department.

Admission to the Faculty’s post-graduate programmes is selective. We are looking for diverse and highly qualified students. We've had students from various countries, including Germany, Brazil, the Maldives, Malaysia, Ireland, Australia, China, Canada, and New Zealand. We view post-graduate students as a vital part of the intellectual life of the Faculty and it is therefore important to us that students share our passion for high-quality and original research.

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