Doctor of Juridical Law

Program Code: LAW2-SJD
Degree Designation: Doctor of Juridical Science
Department: School of Law
Website: law.duke.edu/internat/sjd

Program Summary

Duke Law’s SJD program is a rigorous doctoral program designed to prepare students for high-level governmental or academic careers. The program is overseen by an annually-appointed Faculty Committee consisting of four governing faculty and the Associate Dean for International Studies, ex officio. This committee, together with the individual student’s dissertation advisor, guides each student’s participation in the program. Because SJD students at Duke Law hold not only undergraduate degrees in law but also an LLM degree and often an additional master’s degree in law, the program can be largely individualized with significant input from the student. Each student is assigned a dissertation supervisor from the Duke Law faculty upon admission, and the dissertation supervisor helps shape—and must approve—the student’s course of study.