BY REUBEN FOLLOWING my previous article on low cost and free MBA courses in Europe, here you will be able to find some free or low cost Master degrees in Law in Europe. If you are from the EEA (European Economic Area) or Switzerland, you will not have to pay any tuition fees for these courses, apart from some semester fees. So, if you want to expand your knowledge in the many Law disciplines that there are, here is where you can look.
Finland
The University of Lapland offers a Master’s Degree Programme in International and Comparative Law, running for two years and taught in English. Within this Master’s degree, you could specialize in Arctic Law or Transcultural Business Law, which could open career paths for you in entrepreneurship, research, management and even NGOs.
The University of Helsinki lists a Master of International and Comparative Law in International Business Law and Public International Law, also with the duration of two years and taught in English, and with career prospects such as working in academia, in legal firms, in a corporate legal department, or to pursue a career in international legal practice (e.g. foreign ministries, NGOs, international organizations).
Finally, the Åbo Akademi University offers a Master’s Degree Programme in International Human Rights Law, which also runs for two years and is taught in English. If you are interested in learning more about Human Rights, this could be one of your options, but you have many: as you will see below, there are a bunch of courses specialized in Human Rights.
Sweden
In Uppsala University you can find various programmes in Law, depending on your interests. For example, if you are interested in Tax Law, the Uppsala University lists a Master Programme in International Tax Law and EU Tax Law, running for one year and with all courses taught in English. On the other side, if you are more interested in Intellectual Property, this University also offers a Master Programme in Intellectual Property Law, also with the duration of one year and taught in English. The latter would offer you career paths such as becoming a patent attorney, an e-commerce entrepreneur, or a trademark specialist, among others.
If you, however, are more interested in human rights, Lund University offers a Master’s degree in International Human Rights Law, with the duration of two years. This University also offers other programmes in Tax and Business Law, such as the Master’s degree in European Business Law running for two years, and the Master’s degree in European and International Tax Law, with the duration of one year.
Finally, the University of Stockholm offers three different Master Programmes in Law depending on the topic. All of them are to be studied in one year and they are the following: Master’s degree in European Economic Law, Master’s degree in Intellectual Property Law, and the Master’s degree in International Commercial Arbitration Law.
Norway
The University of Oslo also offers different opportunities without any tuition fees to pay (for EEA and Switzerland nationals). If you are interested in the Human Rights side of Law, you will probably find interesting the Master’s degree in Theory and Practice of Human Rights, which lasts two years. But maybe you are interested more in how law affects new technologies – in this case, the University of Oslo also offers a Master’s degree in Information and Communication Technology Law, running for one and a half years. Also with the duration of a year and a half, you could study their Master’s degree in Maritime Law, if you are interested and curious about what happens when something goes wrong while transport is being carried out at sea, or if you want to learn more about the shipping industry in general. Finally, the University of Oslo also lists a Master’s degree in Public International Law running also for a year and a half, with specializations in international criminal and humanitarian law, international economic law, international environmental law, international public law, energy law, and human rights.
When applying to any of these universities you should of course take into account the peculiarities of each one of the countries and how the tuition fees work. In all these three countries, currently there are no tuition fees for citizens of the EEA, the EU and Switzerland, and it seems that will remain for the time being. However, for example, in order to study in Norway, you will need to prove that you can pay for your living costs (around 100,000 NOK). If you are an international student applying to study in Finland, you need to know that from 2017 you will have to pay around $1,500 per year. Although there may be no tuition fees for some students the cost of living in the Scandinavian countries can be higher than in others, and most universities charge at least a semester fee for studying your course. The fee amount depends on the University, though it is usually not too high.
So, if you want to apply the knowledge you got in your Bachelor’s and focus on one specific field of study in law while studying in great countries and universities, you should probably start by looking on the ones above!
