Hi,

I've just received offers from UCL and the EMLE program to study law and economics. I'm just trying to debate the pros and cons but am finding it difficult to make comparisons between the two; I went to LSE for my undergraduate so I'm very familiar with the UK academic system but not at all with the continental European one.

I was hoping someone could help shed some light on a few questions, I noted that quite a few people seem to have attended the EMLE on this board previously.

Firstly, in terms of academic prestige how is it regarded in Europe? I know that league tables generally have a bias towards British and US Unis but how does the EMLE scheme fare on a reputation scale, especially in terms of the field law and economics?

I've been accepted into Bologna, Ghent and Hamburg, can anyone make any comments on the facultyand quality of teaching? I'd appreciate any comments on the UCL faculty for those topics also. I'm more interested in the international law aspect of the programs than the commercial.

Finally, since I've chosen three different universities in different countries, how did people feel about moving around so much?

Thanks in advance, any insight you could shed would be amazing and I really appreciate it.

A lot depends on what you want to do for your future career, the EMLE will not be much use if you are set on a career with a London law firm

Well it depends on your motivations for doing an LLM. In my opinion I dont think an LLM does much to help the career of a UK lawyer and should only be done if you have a genuine interest in the subjects or maybe if you have some time to kill before a training contract.

So taking that into account my advice would be to look closely at the course descriptions and individual modules of both and decide which looks more exciting to you. You should also consider if you see the travel required for EMLE as a bonus or a disadvantage.

From my quick look at the UCL website it seems their LLM program is not really a Law and Economics course but more a normal LLM with some Econ bolted on to change the focus so its quite different from EMLE which looks at law and economics as a discipline in itself. That said UCL does have one of the best economics departments in the country so if classes are taught in the Econ school you should put that on the pro list.

So in short just do the one you think you will enjoy the most and if you hate maths and travel go to UCL.

From my quick look at the UCL website it seems their LLM program is not really a Law and Economics course but more a normal LLM with some Econ bolted on to change the focus so its quite different from EMLE which looks at law and economics as a discipline in itself.

Look Im from an Economics background so I know that most LLMs dont compare to what you would learn in even the first 6 weeks of an Econ degree.
What I was getting at is that the EMLE course starts by giving a crash course in Maths and economic principles and then you go on to use what you have learned to analyse the law through the rest of the course.

The UCL program on the other hand requires you to choose 3 Law and Economics modules on top of your Law modules to be awarded the Economics and Law LLM. Looking at the system and the course choices this leads me to two conclusions,

1) The Law modules stand on their own so you wont be using Economic principles to analyse the law here.

2) If you were to choose for example Banking Law, Corporate finance and Regulation of financial markets you could be awarded an Economics and Law LLM without touching Economics!

What Im saying is at lease EMLE has a consistant underlying Economics theme not in the maths or theory sense but in the way an Economics methodology is used to analyse law throughout the course. In contrast Economic Analysis of Law at UCL is an optional half credit module!

With regard to George Mason's course, well it looks the same as other Economics and Law LLMs. This is by no means a bad thing just don't expect to spend much time on Economic theory, if that's what your looking for an LLM is not for you.