Law - LLM - Thesis

We offer an LLM (general) and an LLM with a specialization in Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law (NREEL).

We accept students who have demonstrated strong potential for advanced legal research and writing. Most students in our thesis-based LLM program come from common-law legal systems. You will work with a supervising faculty member to produce a substantial piece of original legal scholarship.

The Faculty of Law has a wide range of research expertise. We have long been leaders in natural resources, energy and environmental law. Other areas of particular research strength include business and tax law, private law, administrative law and regulation, criminal law, Indigenous people and law, international law, human rights law, legal history and theory, and the law pertaining to privacy, security and technology. The Faculty of Law is a home of the Journal of Environmental Law and Practice and for our acclaimed law blog, ABlawg (ablawg.ca).

Our LLM program was included in the LLM Guide's top 10 energy law programs worldwide (2019). Our program earns this recognition for strengths in examining the relationship between society and the environment, in defining the interests we claim in the world around us, and in shaping the consequences of using those resources. The faculty has endowed chairs in natural resources law, in business law, and in business regulation. Our substantial law library complemented by the internationally-renowned Canadian Institute of Resources Law, which hosts symposia and publishes research on natural resources and energy law.

Admission to this program is highly competitive: meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission. This program is not usually especially helpful for students seeking to satisfy the National Committee of Accreditation’s requirements for legal practice in Canada.

Completing this program

• Core Courses: Graduate Seminar in Legal Research and Methodology and Graduate Seminar in Legal Theory.
• Thesis: Students will complete a substantial research thesis, approximately 100 to 125 pages, prepared under the supervision of a faculty member or other suitable person appointed by the Graduate Program Director.
• Additional Courses: Students are required to take two additional courses. Students in the NREEL specialization must take courses in the NREEL area.
• Residence: Two terms in residence, normally consecutive from September to April.

Specializations

• Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law
• Energy and Environmental Systems (Interdisciplinary)

An applicant whose primary language is not English may fulfill the English language proficiency requirement in one of the following ways:

• Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL ibt) score of 97 (minimum of 25 on the reading and writing components).
• International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score of 7.0 (minimum of 6.0 in each section and a reading and writing band minimum of 7.0).
• Pearson Test of English (PTE) score of 68, or higher (Academic version).
• Canadian Academic English Language test (CAEL) score of 70 (minimum score of 70 on writing and reading sections and 60 in all other sections).
• Academic Communication Certificate (ACC) score of A- in the Academic Writing and Composition course, a minimum grade of “A-” in the Research Writing and Form course, and a minimum grade of “B+” in all other courses.
• Cambridge C1 Advanced or Cambridge C2 Proficiency minimum score of 191.

*Please contact your program of interest if you have any questions about ELP requirements

The thesis-based program is for students passionate about research and writing in a focused area of law, and who may be interested in an academic or research career, although graduates also become in-house counsel and become employed in government, regulatory bodies and non-governmental organizations.

Attaining an LLM without a Canadian LLB or JD will not qualify graduates to practice law in Canada.