Hello everyone! I’m Leila from the United States and in October I’ll be entering my third year in the School of Law.

Today’s article is about what to expect from life in Law. Let’s get started!

A photo of me!

Life as a Law Student

Law is actually known as the freest major here at Nagoya University. Our required classes for graduation are not laid out as strictly as they are for other majors, and if you take enough classes, you can actually complete the graduation requirements in three years’ time.

Moreover, we actually have quite a lot of free time even during the school year, and people split it up with studying, part time work, club activities, travelling, and other activities.

School

Law may be a free major, but it doesn’t mean we aren’t working hard! A lot of our final grades are determined primarily by a final presentation or essay, and it is common to have several 5-10 page papers due at the end of the semester.

Because we are studying law at an undergraduate level, our classes are essentially a broad introduction to the field of law combined with liberal arts courses to give us background in other subjects. In the first year, law students (and everyone else) will spend a lot of time together in general coursework.

This also includes a daily Japanese class. For law students, our specialized courses are  introductory, building a foundation in political systems, common and civil law, democracy, and other principles surrounding law and politics.

The combined English teams from the Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition with our professor.

For the next three years, we spend more time in specialized courses.

This year, the second year students studied contemporary Japanese law, the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, legal philosophy, politics in Asia, and political science, among other subjects.

Third and fourth year classes offer continuations of second year classes as well as further introductions into different areas of law and politics.

Outside of Class

As I said earlier, Law is a relatively free major. So what do we do with our off time? In terms of things academically related, there are opportunities to compete in competitions, such as the Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition. For the 2017 competition, all the second year law students participated!

As for clubs, law students have joined the Kyudo, Iaido, and Tennis Clubs within the last four years. Sometimes people join on special seminars or field trips hosted by the school, such as local factory tours or presentations by visiting professors.

A group picture of a rafting trip with students from Law, JACS, and BioSci.

As for travel, there’s a lot of places that work well for a day trip, from Nagoya Castle and the downtown shopping areas to Korankei in nearby Toyota, famous for its autumn scenery. We second years like to go out as a group!

It was short, but I hope this helped give you an idea about what life is like for law students at Nagoya University! And if you have any questions, feel free to contact me!