Outside North America, law is studied as a first degree and is effectively mandatory for the bench; the civil-law judicial exams in France, Germany, Japan and Korea all presuppose a full legal education.
Pay78
Resists AI90
Barrier to entry88
A Law background connects to 4 professions on this site, ranked by pay. Each card explains why the major still matters for that job.
Where it leads
A legal background is unusually useful for treaty negotiation, consular casework and dispute resolution, and law degrees feed directly into several countries' foreign services, including a large share of France's diplomatic corps historically.
Pay52
Resists AI78
Barrier to entry82
A law degree is common preparation almost everywhere civil servants must interpret and apply statute, and it is close to mandatory for entry into judicial or regulatory branches of the civil service.
Pay40
Resists AI42
Barrier to entry58
France's commissaire track and similar European command pathways expect legal training well beyond what a patrol constable needs, reflecting a more centralized, civil-service model of policing leadership.
Pay38
Resists AI66
Barrier to entry40
Where this major is taught
École nationale de la magistrature
FranceThe state school in Bordeaux that trains virtually every French judge and prosecutor; entry by concours of a few hundred places a year, trainees salaried for 31 months.
Harvard Law School
United StatesHas educated more US Supreme Court justices than any other school; its JD and LLM programs are a global common-law credential.
University of Oxford, Faculty of Law
United KingdomWith Cambridge, the traditional nursery of England's senior bench; its BCL graduate degree is the common-law world's most storied advanced law qualification.
University of Tokyo, Faculty of Law
JapanThe dominant feeder of Japan's judiciary and elite ministries; graduates proceed through the bar exam to the Supreme Court's Legal Training and Research Institute.
National Law School of India University
IndiaBangalore's NLSIU, founded 1987, tops India's law-school rankings; admission is through CLAT, taken by tens of thousands for a few hundred seats.
Heidelberg University, Faculty of Law
GermanyGermany's oldest university and one of its most respected law faculties, preparing students for the state examinations that gate the German bench.
Leiden Law School
NetherlandsA center of international and European law an hour from The Hague's tribunals; a common credential among international-court judges and staff.
Seoul National University School of Law
South KoreaKorea's most selective law school since the 2009 shift to US-style graduate legal education; the historical training ground of the country's senior judiciary.
Sciences Po
FranceHistorically the dominant feeder into the French diplomatic corps and civil service, producing a large share of France's foreign ministers and ambassadors.
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
United StatesFounded in 1933 as the first exclusively graduate school of international affairs in the US, with a long record of placing graduates into the State Department and UN system.
London School of Economics and Political Science
United KingdomA leading feeder into the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and international organizations, known for its international relations and diplomacy programs.
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
SwitzerlandBased in Geneva alongside dozens of UN agencies and permanent missions, giving students direct proximity to multilateral diplomacy in practice.
Credentials on this path
Judicial Appointments Commission selection
England & WalesSince the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, judges are chosen by an independent commission through open competition — application, qualifying tests, references and panel interviews — ending three centuries of appointment by the Lord Chancellor's private soundings.
Article III nomination and Senate confirmation
United States (federal)Federal judges are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to lifetime appointments. There is no exam and no formal qualification beyond the politics of confirmation — unique among major systems, and the reason US confirmation hearings are televised battles.
Concours and diploma of the ENM
FranceEntry to the French magistrature runs through the École nationale de la magistrature's competitive examinations, followed by 31 months of salaried training and a ranked graduation that determines the first posting. Judges and prosecutors qualify together as magistrats.
Bar examination and the Legal Training and Research Institute
JapanWould-be judges pass the national bar examination, complete the Supreme Court's own institute in Wako, and are then selected as assistant judges — a ten-year apprenticeship on the bench before full judgeship, inside one of the world's most centrally managed judiciaries.
Foreign Service Officer Test & Oral Assessment
United StatesThe US State Department's entrance process: a written test of job knowledge, English usage and a personal narrative, followed by a full-day oral assessment; combined pass rates have historically run from the low single digits to around six percent.
Concours, Institut national du service public (INSP)
FranceSince 2022, France's INSP, successor to the ENA, administers the competitive exam that selects candidates for the senior civil-service track diplomats are drawn from, alongside a separate, more specialized diplomatic-track exam.
Civil Service Fast Stream – Diplomatic track
United KingdomThe Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office recruits primarily through the UK Civil Service's Fast Stream graduate scheme, a multi-stage process of online tests, exercises and an assessment center.
Civil Services Examination (UPSC)
IndiaIndia's Union Public Service Commission exam, taken by well over half a million candidates a year for a few hundred Indian Foreign Service slots, is routinely described as one of the most competitive entrance exams in the world.