Law (LMG 22/23)

The single-cycle master's degree course in Law has open access (no restricted admission numbers).

The course lasts 5 years and to obtain the degree you must achieve 300 academic credits.

The course is held in Alessandria, in via Cavour 84. For students enrolled prior to academic year 2021/2022, the course is also activated at the Novara campus, in Via Perrone 18.

Course organisers

The Chair of the Course Council is Prof. Federico Alessandro Goria.

The teacher representative for exams and assessment at Alessandria: Prof. Pierfrancesco Arces

The teacher representative for exams and assessment at Novara (for students enrolled prior to 2021/2022): Prof.ssa Maria Antonietta Ligios

Enrolment

All information is available on the Prospective student  page under How to register.

The Master's Degree Course in Law is single-cycle, lasting five years.

All those enrolled in the course will be required to undergo an initial evaluation test (which will be held between the end of October and the beginning of November of each year) in order to verify their logical and interpretative skills. If the test is not passed, the student will be obliged to follow a remedial course (30 hours), with the aim of filling the gaps in knowledge that emerged in the initial test and thereby acquiring the additional remedial credits. During the remedial course, the student will be assisted by a tutor (4th or 5th year student) and will have to carry out intermediate verification tests. If at the end of the course, the deficit has been filled, specific academic credits will be recognised and the student will be able to continue his/her studies; if he/she does not pass, it is necessary to repeat the evaluation test in the following year. Failure to pass the initial test does not preclude taking the first year exams. However, it precludes access to exams from the second year onwards. This restriction remains in force until the test is passed.

The test will take place on dates and in the manner published on the department's website, on the page relating to Initial Evaluation Test.

The study program is divided into courses (C) and modular seminars (S), partly compulsory and partly optional. However, to make the student's choice easier and foster a harmonious link between subjects that may seem rather diverse, the Degree Course Council has drawn up four possible paths that interested students can adopt. These are "suggestions" for the study plan, not binding for the student, but which, if followed, allows him/her to follow a coherent and specialised track, which in some cases could also open up further prospects for interaction with other master's degree programmes at the university, guarantting easy access. The tracks begin to separate from the second year of studies, as the first year courses are common to everyone.

The four paths are as follows:

• Legal applications of Artificial Intelligence (course outline): it allows the student to integrate traditional legal knowledge with basic IT notions. The goal is to train the future legal expert working alongside computer scientists and in the design of complex AI (Artificial Intelligence) systems, which are believed to be fruitful also in the field of law, and in particular in trials. Furthermore, the IT courses contained in the course would allow, at the end of the five-year period, direct access to the master's degree (2 years) in Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, based at the Department of Science and Technological Innovation (DISIT) of Alessandria.
• Biolaw and healthcare: This trains students to understand and address the problems that the progress of medicine and biotechnological research pose in the world of law: from reproductive issues, to the end of life, from the integration of biomechanical parts in the human body to replacement of organs or treatment of diseases using genetic engineering techniques.
• Law and the sustainable economy: this involves the integration of traditional legal knowledge with advanced economic notions, mainly focused on the public sector, to give the student the necessary tools to ensure a better sustainability of administrative processes.
• Law & Humanities: this prepares the student to face, on a more dialogic and problematic level, relationships between the world of law and other branches of humanistic culture, with particular regard to the historical-literary disciplines.

All four pathways also allow students, if they choose to replace some of the traditional courses held in Italian with their equivalent in English, to access (post-graduation) the English language course LEI (Law, Economics and Institutions) of the master's degree in EMI (Economics, Management and Institutions), with only one additional year of study, which would therefore allow for a double degree in Law and Economics. Click here for more information on this.

The Course provides a close synergy with the world of work: legal practitioners, business, public institutions on both the teaching and internship levels 

To achieve this, the Course uses two main operating platforms:

1. the 'Giorgio Ambrosoli' Forensic Training School, which provides pre- and post-graduate education in advocacy, in collaboration with the professional associations of: Alessandria, Novara, Vercelli, Verbania and Asti. The aim: to train law students, from the first year onward, in the legal professions
2. internships and traineeships in public or private bodies for effective integration into the world of work, already during the course

The Master's Degree Course in Law seeks a constant balance between the transmission of legal knowledge and the practical application of law. In doing this the students can also count on the contribution of tutors who follow them from the first year throughout the entire course. Furthermore, for years now there has been investment in internationalisation, in order to offer a wide-ranging view of the legal world

These objectives are achieved through a series of actions:

• seminars on writing and legal rhetoric
• development of 'transversal skills' (presentation skills; emotional control; preparation for job interviews; CV writing)
• seminar on Communication Techniques
• procedural simulations within the individual courses as an integral part of teaching
• interdisciplinary advanced training course on legal / political thinking organised by the “Galante Garrone” Chair
• legal clinics at the International University College of Turin (IUC)
• Extended stays abroad with the Erasmus Project
• Short stays abroad through the Free Mover initiative
• Participation in international competitions
• International Moot Courts (procedural simulations)

Course goals

The course aims to provide scientific-linguistic methodologies and skills for the achievement of in-depth legal knowledge in its various forms: national and international, supported by logical-argumentative and critical reconstruction skills, both inductive and deductive, exploiting the interdisciplinary scientific skills (sociological, historical and economic) of the Department.

The degree course was assessed for the academic year 2020/2021as first in Italy by CENSIS as regards public universities and third overall, also counting private universities, after Bocconi in Milan and LUISS in Rome.

Study plan: this is the set of exams you have to take each year. On the Didactics page you can download the study plans.

Internationalisation

The Master's Degree Course in Law devotes particular attention to internationalisation via:

• language workshops for the improvement of legal English
• participation of students in the Erasmus Project at affiliated foreign universities:
  • Bulgaria: "National and World Economics” (Sofia);
  • Czech Republic: Hradec, Masaryk (Brno);
  • Finland: Tampere
  • France:  Savoie (Chambéry), Sud-Toulon-Var (Tolone), Sophia-Antipolis (Nice), Rouen, Rennes I, Reims-Champagne-Ardenne (Reims), Catholique de Lyon, Paris Nanterres (Paris)
  • Germany: Treviri
  • Lithuania: Kaunas
  • Malta: Malta (Msida)
  • Poland: “Karol Adamiecki Economiczny” (Katowice), “Jagellllonsky” (Krakow), "Lazarki School of commerce and law" (Warsaw)
  • Portugal: Castelo Branco, Lisbona, Porto;
  • United Kingdom: Winchester;
  • Romania: “1 Decembrie 1918” (Alba Iulia);
  • Spain: Alicante, "Miguel Hernandez" (Elche), Jaen, Murcia, La Laguna (Tenerife), "Rovira i Virgili" (Tarragona).

Erasmus can also be used to prepare the degree thesis abroad.

The course of study in English "Law, Economics and Institutions" (LEI) of the EMI master's degree [can be completed by law students of DIGSPES with only one additional year of study after graduation]: The LEI course of the EMI master's degree (Economics, Management and Institutions), provides lectures and exams entirely in English and is aimed at those students who wish to operate in an international context. To access the LEI study path of the EMI master's degree, DIGSPES law students can choose specific exams in English during their course of study (identifiable with "or", e.g. Individual and organisation decision-making in "or "With Political Economy); by doing so they accrue credits that can be recognised in LEI and, once they have obtained the degree in law, they can also obtain the EMI master's degree (in the LEI course in English) by adding only one additional year of study. For law students who (after graduation) access the additional year in the LEI path (as for students of the other EMI master's degree courses), it is also possible to:

1. obtain a double degree (Italian and host country) through one or two semesters of study abroad at the following European partner universities: Rennes 1 (France), Tampere (Finland), Friborg (Switzerland), Masarik di Brno (Czech Republic);
2. carry out a semester of study abroad with the ERASMUS programme in the following countries: France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Czech Republic, Poland, Finland.

Mobility grants are available to cover student travel costs related to the semester abroad

Finally, an Internship at the European Commission is available for students of the LEI pathway (as for those of the other EMI master's degree courses). Carrying out this internship represents a unique and exceptionally important training opportunity (in Europe there are very few universities and degree courses that have agreements of this type with the European Commission). For this reason, there is a Call for a selection test for students who will be awarded the mobility grant (which covers the travel expenses of the period of stay in Brussels).

• Free Mover for short study stays abroad or individual courses abroad with academic credits which will be recognised and converted upon return to Italy.
• Moot Courts with selected teams abroad (Geneva, Nuremberg, Utrecht).
• Study trips abroad as part of research projects and international training (Beirut - Lebanon).
• International agreements with research centres for joint collaborative projects (CRASC - Oran, Algeria).