School of Law’s Bachelor of Laws (LLB) Program
The Bachelor of Laws (LLB) program is a flagship undergraduate program in legal studies of the School of Law at Addis Ababa University. Launched with the inauguration of the then Faculty of Law, the LLB program is the first undergraduate program of legal studies in the country. The program iscurrently structured into five years with the first year of studies dedicated to common courses. A number of substantive, procedural and skills-oriented law courses are offered to students in the following years of study. Subject to only slight difference in the length of study, the program is offered in regular and extension streams. Taught mainly on evenings and weekends, the extension stream has enabled students with different study and professional backgrounds to study the law.
Close to five hundred students are currently enrolled in the regular program with an equivalent number of students in the extension program. In line with successive legal education reform initiatives undertaken in the past few decades, the LLB program has seen significant changes in terms of course content, types of courses and length of study. The most recent revision of the LLB Curriculum has recently taken place in light of new developments at the global, regional and national levels.
Over the past several decades, the School of Law’s LLB program has contributed significantly to the advancement of legal education, rule of law and justice in the country. Since the early days, graduates of the program have been pivotal in the nation’s justice sector, training prosecutors and others who continue to play important roles in the administration of justice. Graduates of the School sit over benches of all levels of court in the country, or have been licensed to practice law before courts around the country. Many more have served as attorneys in public and private enterprises. No less important is the contribution of the program in producing academics who have been instrumental in the establishment of law schools in newly established public and private universities across the country.
The LLB program has also been an important tool to establish linkage and cooperation with other bodies in the justice sector. Over the years, the program has involved legal professionalswho are actively working as judges, prosecutors, and advocates in the teaching-learning process of the School of Law. Practitioners are regularly invited to teach practice and skills-oriented law courses in the regular and extension streams of the LLB program. Part of this effort of forging linkage with actors in the justice sector is through externship programs by which LLB students spend some time in different institutions. The externship program allows students to gain some exposure to the world of legal practice.
Office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs
Programs and admission requirements
Undergraduate Admission Requirements
Students who have completed the national preparatory education with acceptable grades and wish to join the School of Law will be selected from a list of students assigned to the social sciences stream on a competitive basis or be placed in the regular program by the Ministry of Education.
Undergraduate Program Objectives
The LL.B. Program at the School of Law aims at providing basic legal training to produce high caliber graduates. Specifically it aims at
- equipping students with the basic knowledge of major national legislations and procedures, along with the skills of legal interpretation required to solve legal problems;
- training professionals who will be able to undertake the technical aspects of drafting and revising laws;
- enhancing the critical thinking abilities of students so that they can understand and implement laws as judges, practicing lawyers, prosecutors, public defenders or academicians;
- training professionals who can deliver legal advice in public and business laws either by working for particular firms or individuals seeking such advice;
- educating individuals who will be able to speak to and advise clients with professionalism, understanding and responsibility;
- preparing dedicated persons who can research and publish, and hence reinforce Ethiopian legal jurisprudence;
- producing legal professionals who serve society with the highest heed to ethical values, strive to defend rights and liberties and uphold the fundamentals of the rule of law.