Graduate Schools for Law and Politics Faculty of Law The University of Tokyo

Undergraduate Program

About Us

Undergraduate Program

The Faculty of Law offers the Bachelor of Laws. Students are expected to fulfill the requirements in one of the following three courses: General Legal Studies, Legal Profession, and Political Science.

 

Law is not the only subject of study and research at the Faculty. Rather, law is coupled together with political science. In modern society, law and politics are both indispensable and inseparable. These two fields support each other mutually: politics establishes and enacts laws, while laws shape and guide politics.

 

At the Faculty of Law, students study the administrative, legislative and judicial branches of the government from a wide range of angles. They learn the most important concepts to grasp huge, complex and important phenomena that have a direct influence on people’s existence, lives, and well-being. Students are expected to acquire fundamental legal thinking skills and basic political insight. For some people, the title “Faculty of Law” may suggest a school that strictly trains students to be lawyers. The Faculty of Law’s graduates, however, go into diverse career paths. Students who aspire to be lawyers are subjected to a broader education as well. It is the Faculty’s policy to provide education that does not focus strictly on a narrow definition of “law.”

 

The Faculty has fashioned its curriculum and the number of credits required for graduation based on this policy. All students are required to register to core courses in the curriculum. In addition to this requirement, students may freely select from a variety of courses focusing on law and politics, based on their interests and future academic or career paths. Thus, students are allowed and expected to develop their individual abilities.

 

Finally, the Law Library, as a facility that supports this policy, cannot go without mention. As a library specialized in law and politics, it boasts one of world’s largest collections. The library houses more than eight hundred thousand books, and the majority of them are published in Western languages. Upon encountering this huge collection, one cannot help but appreciate the history and depth of this academic discipline.