In La Trobe's Bachelor of Laws (Honours), you'll develop the knowledge and expertise to establish yourself as a forward-thinking legal professional. You'll combine outstanding intellectual and skills-based legal training with a progressive approach to law, preparing you for a rewarding career.

Explore the principles of key areas of legal practice. Tailor your degree to your career aspirations with a diverse range of electives. Study how legal practice shapes the most pressing challenges of our time, including in areas such as environmental law, international law, intellectual property law, and cyber law and policy.

As you study, you'll build your talents in advocacy, negotiation and dispute resolution, so you'll be ready to apply them in both legal and non-legal settings. You'll also have opportunities to test your skills in competitions – whether that's competing against fellow La Trobe students, going up against students from other Australian universities, or even competing with representatives from international universities like Harvard, Cambridge and the University of Hong Kong.

Learn from legal experts in our Law School and hone your skills in critical thinking, research, writing and teamwork. Then put your knowledge into practice with opportunities for real-world placement experiences – from working in environments including community legal centres, law firms and government agencies to building mentor relationships with judges, magistrates and coroners.

Want to use your legal training to pursue your passion? Study your Bachelor of Laws (Honours) as a double degree and add a new discipline to your expertise – such as arts, criminology, commerce, science, psychological science, global studies or media and communications. You'll be prepared for exciting careers that mix legal expertise and technical knowledge to meet the needs of modern employers.

You'll learn:

• Dispute resolution
  • Build key skills in negotiation and mediation to support your future practice. Learn about the processes of arbitration, conciliation, mediation and negotiation in private and commercial disputes.
• Evidence and criminal procedure
  • Build your understanding of the criminal legal system and procedure. Learn how to apply criminal law to real-world scenarios and provide legal advice.
• Contract law and company law
  • Learn how to apply the legal principles governing the creation, interpretation and termination of a contract. Develop the skills to specialise as a corporate legal expert through studies in incorporation, corporate governance and the various methods of financing.
• Public law
  • Discover how government power is distributed, exercised and controlled. Learn about federalism, grants and taxation, the €˜external affairs' power and how governments are held accountable for their actions.

The qualification awarded on graduation is recognised in the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) as Level 8 – Bachelor Degree Honours.

Sample course structure

Please note, the following course structure is indicative and subject to change depending on your course location, offer year or how you tailor your course with specialisations, majors, minors and electives. Structures for the following year are not normally finalised until October, so the sample provided is based on the most recently approved structure. For more information, please refer to the La Trobe University Handbook.