Graduate schools of Kanagawa University Graduate School of Law

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Education & Curriculum

Features

Graduate Law School Features
Our Graduate Law School constructs curricula appropriate for supporting the achievement of each graduate student’s goals, whether it be “research” for those who aim to become legal specialists or “learning” for those who are aiming for the public service or paralegal positions. In addition, we have established day and evening classes to create broader learning opportunities for those, such as public servants, who are currently working, and would like to move up the career ladder by specialising. The day and evening class system has two rounds of entrance exams for admission in autumn and spring terms (admission is evaluated on the submission of a research plan and an interview).
Supervision support structure
We provide thorough guidance on the fundamentals needed to progresss in research by placing you in your supervising professor’s seminar activities, and in the general seminars of other professors in fields related to your research. When it comes to writing your dissertation, you will hone the ability to write independently. So that you can develop an original dissertation, you will be given guidance in writing a dissertation suitable for course completion through general supervision at the preparation stage and suggestions tailored to your progress by your supervising professor. In addition, you will receive guidance that goes beyond the boundaries of your major in the form of the diverse perspectives of multiple faculty members and the advice that you receive at the presentation of your interim report.
Pathways after completion
Students who have completed Masters degrees at the Graduate School of Law apply and develop the legal thinking that they have cultivated, and are enjoying success at the forefront of various companies or in local government as public servants. Other graduates have obtained quasi-judicial qualifications and work as licensed tax accountants or judicial scriveners, and still other graduates who have passed the Japanese Teaching Staff Exam are teachers at High Schools. Students who have completed the doctoral course have sread their wings as opinion leaders in their fields, teaching at university or working in think tanks.

Feature of the curriculum

Under a loose classification, our specialised subjects can be categorised into foundational law subjects, civil law subjects and public law subjects, and form a diverse curriculum. On the basis of foundational law subjects that nurture thorough and substantive legal literacy through research in specialised fields, Kanagawa University Graduate School of Law provides a diverse range of civil and public law subject from which knowledge and technical skills can be gained, and appropriately applied in each student’s future vision. Among these subjects, the “Tax Law Course” is a class that has been created for those who aim to gain the licensed tax accountant qualification.


At Kanagawa University Graduate School of Law, we are undertaking a large-scale revision of the curriculum in order to respond to new needs in contemporary society, and in order to implement a comprehensive graduate school education that welcomes diverse graduate students. Under the new curriculum that was implemented in 2010, a course that concretely supports learning and research in the graduate school on academic writing and legal research methods (Research skills course), a course that aims to position awareness of issues stemming from various social experiences in the framework of the social sciences (Contemporary society course), and a course in the form of a research group that is based on a collective guidance system (General Seminar on Law and Politics) have been delivered and are showing results. Courses such as these are indispensible for the guidance of graduate students with diverse backgrounds and whose research themes straddle more than one specialisation. In terms of time necessary for completion of degrees, the Graduate School of law has prepared a long-term completion system for planned long-term completion, as well as a short-term completion system that allows a student to gain a Master’s degree in one year. In addition, in order to effectively use the flexibility of the systems for the length of time needed to complete degrees, the Graduate School of law has introduced a semester system and a “Master’s Research Paper”, under which social and other types of experience can be used as research results in lieu of a master’s dissertation. So that students may get the full use out of these new systems, the Graduate School of Law also has special credited auditor and credited auditor systems in which students can register to listen to classes.


Further, we are also currently engaged in reshaping our doctoral course in terms of completion time, to make it a space for flexible and substantive learning and research.

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