Law (Jurisprudence)
State examination

The admission requirement is the general or relevant specific ‘Hochschulreife’ secondary school certificate.

The four-semester basic programme comprises compulsory events that include:

• Lectures in civil law, criminal law and public law with accompanying working groups in small groups
• Foundation events covering the philosophical, historical and social fundamentals of law and its methodologies
• Foreign-language legal studies events or language courses with a focus on legal studies

In addition to the compulsory events, a wide range of other events are offered, e.g. international and in-house moot courts, summer school, rhetoric for legal practitioners.

The basic programme concludes with the intermediate exam, which is completed alongside the studies.

The advanced programme serves to supplement and deepen students’ knowledge of the compulsory subjects and to allow them to specialise.

Students at the Faculty of Law can choose from the following specialisations:

• German, European and international private law and procedural law
• Companies and markets / corporate law
• Companies and markets / commercial law
• Labour and companies
• Criminal law
• Public law
• Law of politics
• International and European law
• Tax law
• Medical law

The advanced programme also offers an extensive programme for preparing for all exam sections to be completed as part of the state compulsory subject exam (exam revision, exam course and mock oral exams).

The eight-semester legal studies programme constitutes the university part of legal training and is completed with the First Exam. The First Exam is made up of 30% from the university specialisation exam and 70% from the state compulsory subject exam (prior to the First State Exam).

The regular course duration including all exam components is 9 semesters. The programme is designed such that the students can register for the university specialisation exam at the end of the lecture period for the 6th semester and for the state compulsory subject exam up to the end of the 8th semester. Further details can be found in the course regulations, the intermediate exam regulations and the specialisation exam regulations for the legal studies programme at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf as well as in the JAG NW 2003 (“Juristenausbildungsgesetz Nordrhein-Westfalen”: North Rhine-Westphalia Legal Training Act).

Practical placement
The students must complete a practical placement in accordance with Sec. 8 JAG NW 2003. The placement lasts for a total of three months. During this time, students should gain an insight into practice and, to the extent possible, be given an opportunity to participate in practical work. Generally at least six weeks of the placement is spent in the administration of justice, predominantly with a lawyer, or a private-sector company, and at least six weeks are spent at a government agency.

The student placement forum of Freundeskreis der Düsseldorfer Juristischen Fakultät e.V. aims to assist students in finding a suitable placement in the administration of justice. In addition, Rechtsanwaltskammer Düsseldorf, the Faculty of Law and the Freundeskreis association regularly offer a dual lawyer-based internship programme that combines the practical training with theory as part of the compulsory internship.

The authority to practice as a legal professional in justice, as a lawyer, in business and associations follows on from successful completion of the two-year legal clerkship and the Second State Exam after the First Exam.

The authority to practice as a legal professional in justice, as a lawyer, in business and associations follows on from successful completion of the two-year legal clerkship and the Second State Exam after the First Exam.