WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT LAW DEGREES
By Unknown Writer, modified by Flying Colours Crew
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The undergraduate degree in Law is Bachelor of Laws (LLB). In Nigeria and the US, you need a Law degree (LLB in Nigeria; JD or LLB in the US) before you become a lawyer. LLB is spelt LLB or LL.B., never L.L.B. JD (Jurist Doctor) is the American equivalent of an LLB. An SJD (Doctor of Juridical Science, Doctor of the Science of Law, or Scientiae Juridicae Doctor) is a research doctorate in Law. It originated from the US and is offered in that country as well in Canada.
Most lawyers do not understand the reason for this strange acronym or what each letter represents. Well, it comes from Latin. The Latin world lex means law. The plural of lex is legume. Creating an abbreviation for a plural, especially in Latin, is done by doubling the first letter of the noun. An example is ‘cc’ for copies and ‘pp’ for pages; hence, LL for laws. LLB stands for Legum Baccalaureus, the Latin word for Bachelor of Laws. Your degree is a bachelor of Laws, not Bachelor in Law and not Bachelor of Law.
LLM (or more rarely LL.M., but never L.L.M) stands for Legum Magister, Latin for Master of Laws.
LLD (or more rarely LL.D, but never L.L.D.) stands for Legum Magister, Latin for Doctor of Laws.
The discipline Law, is already expressed in the degree titles. So you cannot have “LLB in Law”, or “LLM in Law” or “LLD in Law”- just LLB, LLM or LLD.
Be informed! Knowledge is power!
