Bucerius Law School

Bucerius Law School (pronounced ) is a private law school located in Hamburg, Germany. The school was the first private school to teach law in Germany. It admits approximately 100 undergraduate students and 50 graduate students per year.

Origins and structure


Bucerius Law School was founded in 2000 by a charitable foundation, Zeit-Stiftung Bucerius, and is modelled after law schools in the United States. It was named after Gerd Bucerius, a German judge, attorney, journalist, politician and founding publisher of the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit. It is organized as a non-profit.

There are specific institutes for corporate and capital market law, the law of foundations and non-profit organizations, dispute resolution, IP and media law, and sustainability.

Programs of study
The school offers two different degree programs of study: The general law program, leading to a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) and to the German First Judicial Examination (Staatsexamen), and the Master of Law and Business (M.L.B.) program. Moreover, it grants doctoral (Dr. iur.) and habilitation titles, and offers four summer certificate programs.

Admission
Applicants for the LL.B. must first take a written exam with an essay and multiple choice components. The test is made and assessed by an outside evaluator. Generally, the 232 applicants with the highest scores are invited back for an oral component, including two personal interviews, a prepared presentation, and group discussions. All applicants must have English proficiency supported by a minimum score of 95 on the TOEFL, which is equivalent to that required of many American LL.M. programs. Approximately 116 students are then admitted each year. Admissions to Bucerius are competitive, with an estimated acceptance rate of 12%. In 2024, 8.41% of students were merit scholars of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes). This figure was the highest percentage of any institution of higher education in Germany.

Rankings and reputation
Bucerius Law School is generally ranked as one of the best law schools in Germany.

In an article published in Spiegel in 2014, columnist Svenja Hofert alleges that education at private universities, such as Bucerius Law School, is inaccessible to many people due to its high price and leads to an unfair career advantage. In the article, Hofert omits the fact that all students at Bucerius can finance their studies through a multi-generation student funding scheme regardless of their financial capacity and future income. This scheme allows students to repay their fees after completion of their studies. The rate of repayment is set at 9 % of the graduates' income and only applies as long as the annual income exceeds EUR 30,000. After 10 years of payments, all debts are cancelled.

LL.B. and Staatsexamen program
The three-and-a-half-year LL.B. program is divided into ten trimesters. After its completion, students focus on preparation for the German First Judicial Examination (the regular law degree) in order to be admitted to legal traineeship. The entire program lasts 4.5 to 5 years and includes a mandatory trimester or semester abroad.

Besides the extensive legal education, the school places special importance on the required Studium generale as well as an emphasis on foreign languages and economics. Students must complete internships at law firms, businesses or organizations, many of which support the school as donors. Students are required to spend at least one term abroad and study law in a language other than German. The school has formed extensive international partnerships with more than 100 law schools in 37 countries, including leading institutions such as Stanford University, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Columbia University, University of Texas School of Law, the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of York, Cornell University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, New York University School of Law, Sciences Po, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, The University of Queensland, The University of New South Wales, The University of Sydney, Osgoode Hall, Universität St. Gallen, Singapore Management University, National University of Singapore, ESADE, Victoria University of Wellington and others.

The Bucerius Law School accepts the top 116 applicants annually for its LL.B./Staatsexamen program. The admissions process is rigorous, involving two rounds of written and oral assessments in May and July. The majority of admitted students have achieved exceptional academic results in their high school careers. Notably, around 10% of the students are national merit scholars, which is the highest rate among German institutions of higher education. Additionally, over 75% of Bucerius graduates achieve an "outstanding" distinction (Prädikat) grade of over 9 points in the German Judicial State Examination. Career prospects for graduates are very strong, as demonstrated by hiring-manager rankings and the multiple employment offers each student typically receives.

The tuition fee is 5,200 Euros per trimester for a total of 12 trimesters. Financial aid includes scholarships, student loans and a special "study first, pay later". This is a multi-generation student funding scheme that ensures affordability concerns do not prevent the best and most highly qualified students from attending Bucerius. It allows any students to attend for free with an agreement that they pay the university back a fixed percentage of their salary for a period of time after graduation, provided they meet certain minimal earnings requirements. Moreover, many students are recipients of external scholarships.

LL.M./MLB program
The Bucerius Master of Law and Business (LL.M./MLB) is a consecutive Master's degree program. To be eligible for the program, applicants must hold a degree in law, economics, or business. The program aims to provide students with the skills to analyze corporate issues from a legal and economic perspective in an international context. The program is taught in English and runs from September to July, divided into three trimesters. The Fall trimester consists of two course periods, while the second trimester includes one course block and an eight-week internship. The third trimester involves writing a thesis following another course block. The program admits 50 students annually through a separate admissions test. The tuition fee for the program is 25,000 Euros.

Other programs
Bucerius also offers doctoral and post-doctoral studies.

Bucerius Law School has three Summer Programs: International Business Law, inaugurated in 2008; International Intellectual Property Transactions, offered in cooperation with the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, since 2014; and Legal Technology and Operations, inaugurated in 2018. The intensive English-taught programs bring together students and professors from around the world to explore the theory and practice of the given topic.

Each fall, about one hundred students from Bucerius' partner universities participate in the International Exchange focusing on International and Comparative Business Law. Approximately half of the students on Exchange at Bucerius are from English-speaking countries, with about thirty per cent from the United States. At the same time of the year, about one hundred students from Bucerius Law School visit the school's partner universities in exchange.

Extracurricular activities
There are two student-run publications: A political magazine called “Politik und Gesellschaft“ and the Bucerius Law Journal. There is a choir, orchestra, big band, theater group, Model United Nations Society, political student groups, Phi Delta Phi Inn and many sports clubs, whose teams compete against other universities in the annual "Champions Trophy." Moot Courts are offered in English law, international trade law, tax law and labor law.

Location and facilities
Bucerius Law School is located in the city center, near Hamburg's trade exhibition center and the park Planten un Blomen. Housed in a historic building that used to serve as the horticulture and botany buildings for the University of Hamburg, Bucerius features a full-service Mensa, or cafeteria, offering a variety of hot meals daily. A new library building with a capacity of 450 workspaces was added to the eastern side of the main building in 2007. The library comprises 76,000 books and 2,355 periodicals in printed and electronic form; it is not open to the public. There are several computer labs, a napping room, a theater and an on-campus and bilingual (German/English) kindergarten. Important events, such as major soccer matches can be watched on a full screen in the lecture hall. There is a gym on campus, which students are free to use once an initial registration fee of 50 Euro has been paid. Showers are available both inside the gym and in the main building. On its top floor, Bucerius Law School has 15 separate rooms for students who wish to study with their friends in small groups.

Alumni
The Bucerius Alumni Association is the independent association of Bucerius Law School alumni and was founded in March 2004 by the first class of Bachelor graduates. As of September 2021, the association has over 1,800 members; over 90% of the graduates of each class join the association after their Bachelor’s degree.

The association represents a network of former students, academic staff and participants of the International Program; it is dedicated to the promotion of education and student support as well as the advancement of science and research. Among other things, it organizes an annual graduate fair, an alumni dinner and various professional events. In addition, there are seven regional groups, three of which are located abroad, as well as various specialist and interest groups, which meet regularly for lectures and exchanges.