Magister Juris

MJur (Magister Juris or Master of Jurisprudence; common abbreviations include MJur, M.Jur., Mag. Jur. and Mag. iur.) is an academic degree in law awarded by some universities.

The Magister Juris (MJur) is a one-year master's level course offered at the University of Oxford. It is a postgraduate degree requiring a previous undergraduate degree in law for admission, and is thus comparable to an LL.M. It is a counterpart to the long-established Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL), with which it shares all course options, but for students from a civil law rather than a common law background.

Historically, students from civil law jurisdictions were able to study for the BCL at Oxford, but had to meet additional requirements. Following the establishment of the Institute for European and Comparative Law at Oxford, in 1992 the faculty of law introduced a one-year degree programme of Magister Juris in European and Comparative Law, and in 1999/2000 closed the BCL to students from civil law jurisdictions. The Magister Juris at that time allowed to choose a number of undergraduate options, as well as an option in the history faculty. As the MJur and BCL programmes became more similar, the qualifier in European and Comparative Law was dropped in 2001.

The structure of the MJur nowadays is very similar to that of the BCL, and for the most part, BCL and MJur students study the same options in the same classes. Students select four options from a list of 40 or so available in common to BCL and MJur students. In place of one of the four taught options, students may also choose to write a dissertation of 10,000 to 12,500 words. Alternatively, MJur students may select one option from a list of approximately 12 courses from the undergraduate BA in Jurisprudence. All taught options are taught by a combination of lectures and/or seminars and tutorials. Tutorials, which involve an intensive discussion between a tutor and two or three students, are a feature of the MJur and BCL programmes which is not offered in any taught graduate course in law elsewhere in the world.

Admission to the MJur is slightly more competitive than to the BCL: According to data disclosed by the University of Oxford, for 50 places available each year, 343 people applied on average in the three years before the academic year 2017/18, which equals an average application success rate of 14.6 %. The success rate for BCL applications in the same period was 16.3 %.

Academic dress for the MJur is the same as for the BCL, an outward sign of their shared content and structure: A black gown of silk with a form of black lace sewn on the collar, the lower part of the back, and down the sleeves which are closed and cut straight, but have an opening just above the elbow. The hood, of Dean Burgon shape, is of blue corded silk or poplin with white fur fabric. Holders of the MJur degree rank directly below Bachelors of Civil Law, and above Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery.

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