Entry Profile

In accordance with Royal Decree 64/2023 of 8^th February that approves the Implementing Regulations of Act 34/2006 of 30^th October on Access to the Legal Profession, the entry profile for this programme requires students have an official undergraduate degree in law and an interest in practising law.

Entry and Admission

Students interested in applying for a place on the master's programme must submit their pre-registration application within the deadline and as per the methods set by the UIB Centre for Postgraduate Studies (CEP). 

The CEP will verify whether applicants fulfil the requirements for admission to the programme and, subsequently, submit the application to the programme coordinators to consider and decide on admission.

Finally, the CEP will publish the list of admitted students and provide the enrolment dates.

This procedure is governed by Regulatory Agreement of 23^rd March 2022 that regulates access and admission to official master’s degree programmes, published in the extraordinary issue of the FOU no. 534 of 31^st March 2022 (https://seu.uib.cat/fou/acord/14423/), implementing Article 18 of Royal Decree 822/2021 of 28^th September that sets out the Organisation of Official Higher Education Programmes and the Quality Assurance Procedure.

Information on pre-registration, entry, admission and enrolment for the master’s programme will be published on the CEP website: <https://cep.uib.es/es/Com_hi_puc_accedir/>.

Admission Requirements

The CEP will consider the following with a view to ensuring that applicants meet the entry requirements for the master’s programme: 

1. Have an official Spanish undergraduate degree in law

2. Where candidates wish to practice law, the aforementioned degree must accredit that students have attained the following legal skills (Article 3 in RD 64/2023):

   a) Knowing and understanding the elements, structure, resources, interpretation and application of legislation, and interpreting the fundamental legal sources and concepts for the different parts of the legal system

   b) Knowing and understanding the mechanisms and procedures for rulings on legal disputes, as well as the legal status of individuals in their dealings with the public administration and, in general, public authorities

   c) Knowing and being able to apply criteria to rank sources in order to determine applicable regulations in each instance and, particularly, in compliance with constitutional rules, principles and values

   d) Interpreting legal texts from an interdisciplinary perspective, using legal principles, and social and ethical values and principles as analysis tools

   e) Providing convincing legal arguments on a theoretical issue on different legal matters

   f) Solving practical cases in compliance with current positive law. This involves preparing material in advance, identifying problematic issues, selecting and interpreting applicable positive law, and setting out reasoned subsumption

   g) Skilfully and precisely using legal language and terminology from the different branches of law. Drafting comprehensible and ordered legal documents. Communicating legal ideas, arguments and reasoning orally and in writing, using the appropriate registers for each context

    h) Using ICT to search for and obtain legal information (legislation databases, jurisprudence, bibliography, etc.), as well as work and communication tools.

Admission Requirements and Criteria

In accordance with Regulatory Agreement 14423/2022 of 23^rd March that regulates entry and admission to official master’s degree programmes, the Board of Studies shall be in charge of admission to the programme. This responsibility may be delegated to other specific committees or master's programme coordination.

The master’s programme coordination shall be responsible for managing admissions to the Master’s Degree in Legal Practice.

In accordance with point 6 in Article 18 of Royal Decree 822/2021, academic committees reserve at least 5% of the spots offered on official master’s programmes for students who have an accredited disability level equal to or above 33%, as well as for students who have permanent support needs linked to a personal disability, who required resources and support for their full educational inclusion on previous study programmes.

Admission Criteria

Where the number of applications exceeds available spots (80 are available), places shall be granted considering the average grade in applicants’ academic records. In order to assess transcripts, average marks (out of 10) in the academic record will be considered. The following will be added to the average:

• 1 point for undergraduate degrees in law from the University of the Balearic Islands
• 0.5 points extra for graduates in law who also have a Degree in Business Administration, or Labour Relations
• 0.3 points extra for graduates in law who also have an official diploma in business or labour relations. (Points b and c are incompatible within the same branch, e.g. candidates will not be awarded 0.5 points for a degree in business administration and 0.3 for a diploma in business; however, they will be awarded 0.5 points for a degree in business administration and 0.3 for a degree in labour relations)
• 0.2 points for those who have an undergraduate degree (in addition to a degree in law) in a subject not mentioned in point b
• 0.1 points for those who have a three-year diploma (in addition to the degree in law) in a subject not mentioned in point c.

These criteria shall be applied in July where the number of applications exceeds the number of spots. They shall also apply in September where any spots are left open from July and the number of applications in September exceeds unfilled spots.

In the event of a tie, the pre-registration date shall be taken into consideration.

While the main aim of this programme is to provide students with the core practical knowledge they need to begin practising law, the curriculum also includes content and tests similar to those that graduates in law must pass in order to become certified lawyers, i.e. the programme will prepare students for the bar exam.

Therefore, the programme is designed to train students to become professionals, rather than for established professionals. Nonetheless, it may be of some interest to them.

Skills

Core Skills

CB10 - Possessing the relevant learning skills for largely self-directed or independent study
CB6 - Possessing and understanding knowledge that provides a basis or opportunity to originally develop and/or apply ideas, often in a research context
CB7 - Being able to apply attained knowledge and problem-solving abilities in new or relatively unexplored settings within wider or multidisciplinary contexts linked to the area of study
CB8 - Integrating knowledge and addressing the complexity in devising opinions based on information which, being limited or incomplete, includes reflections on social and ethical responsibilities linked to applying acquired knowledge and opinions
CB9 - Being able to clearly and unambiguously present conclusions, and their underlying knowledge and reasoning, to specialised and non-specialised audiences.

General Skills

C1 - Being aware of the theoretical foundations underpinning academic work in the field of philosophy
C2 - Acquiring advanced techniques to produce academic work in the field of philosophy
C3 - Possessing the core planning skills to produce academic work
C4 - Being aware of the core knowledge transfer approaches in the field of philosophy
C5 - Being able to resolve problems and drawbacks when producing academic studies in the field of philosophy
C6 - Presenting hypotheses and ideas in line with academic and scientific criteria in the field of philosophy
C7 - Being aware of how research groups and the Spanish R&D&i system operate with regard to philosophy.

Specific Skills

C8 - Being fully aware of specific and current aspects, topics and debates in the history of philosophy and contemporary philosophy, beyond the general content studied at undergraduate level or equivalent
C9 - Attaining a through and rigorous knowledge of specialised terminology in the history of philosophy and contemporary philosophy
C10 - Presenting the outcomes of individual study coherently, clearly and logically to a specialised and knowledgeable audience
C11 - Incorporating knowledge from different areas of philosophy
C12 - Organising information obtained from primary and secondary documentary resources and databases
C13 - Applying knowledge and techniques acquired through independent study
C14 - Developing critical thinking through a respectful approach to different authors, traditions, schools of thought and cultures.

Access to Other Programmes and Career Opportunities

The Master’s Degree in Legal Practice is required for official certification to practise law. In addition to passing the programme, Royal Degree 64/2023 of 8^th February that approves the Implementing Regulations of Act 34/2006 of 30^th October on Access to the Legal Profession sets out other general requirements to attain professional accreditation to practise law. They are as follows:

1. Have an official undergraduate degree in law

2. Pass the final professional accreditation test to practise law.

In order to fulfil the first requirement, graduates who have finished an overseas qualification granting access to the legal profession in Spain, and are interested in obtaining the corresponding professional accreditation, must apply for accreditation or validation of their qualification, in accordance with Royal Decree 889/2022 of 18^th October that sets out the Validation, Accreditation and Equivalence Requirements and Procedures for Non-Spanish Official Higher Education Qualifications, and the Equivalence Procedure for Official Spanish Qualifications from Previous Academic Arrangements as per the Levels in the Spanish Qualifications Framework for Higher Education.

For more information on practising law in Spain, please view the following website: Spanish General Bar Council.

The Master's in Legal Practice also grants access to PhD programmes.

The curriculum comprises two modules, a master's thesis and mandatory external placements:

The general module is worth 19 credits and includes three blocks:

• Professional ethics: relationships between lawyers and clients, the other parties, courts or authorities, and between legal professionals
• Core:
  • Obligations linked to professional practice, how legal aid operates, how the bar association is organised and the framework of professional legal practice
  • How law firms are organised and managed, teamwork and interpersonal relationships techniques, and information search, processing and management tools. The impact of European and Spanish personal data protection legislation on professional legal practice
  • Information and administration technology for the legal system: electronic, computer and remote systems
  • Communication with the judicial system, and the relationship with registry and notary duties
  • Taxation for lawyers and barristers, and fees
  • Negotiation techniques.
• Cross-cutting:
  • Civil procedural law (I). Legal organisation and jurisdiction, technical defence and representation of parties, active/passive right of action, injunctions, and preliminary hearings
  • Civil procedural law (II). Trial practice: presenting evidence and conclusions
  • Civil procedural law (III). Appeal system
  • Criminal procedural strategy. Legal organisation and jurisdiction, the parties, investigation measures, injunctions, trial and appeal system
  • Aspects regarding judgments
  • Transnational elements in conflict resolution: international legal jurisdictional issues and applicable law
  • Alternative conflict resolution methods: mediation and arbitration.

The specific module is worth 26 credits and includes five blocks:

• Civil practice
  • Family law. Introduction to family law practice. Mutual agreement procedure. Adversarial proceedings
  • Commonhold property
  • Urban leases
  • Bringing legal action: compliance/incompliance
  • Bringing breach of contract proceedings
  • In rem proceedings
  • Bringing inheritance proceedings.
  • Mock civil trial (defence and prosecution interventions
• Commercial practice
  • Corporate law. Corporate practice (including accounting, companies register)
  • Insolvency law
• Criminal practice
  • Special criminal law (I)
  • Mock criminal trial (defence and prosecution interventions)
  • Special criminal law (II) Minors. Prison law
• Labour and social security practice
  • Labour contracts. Social security
  • Labour proceedings
  • Mock labour trial
• Administrative practice
  • The liability of public administrations
  • Mock administrative trial
  • Tax proceedings
  • Administrative proceedings in the EU. Access for private citizens to international bodies and tribunals in the area of fundamental rights.

The master's thesis is worth 15 credits. Students must select two subject areas from civil, criminal, labour and administrative jurisdictions to produce two practical dossiers. Each dossier must contain a general report, the briefs for each stage of full proceedings and communication interventions.

There will be mandatory external placements worth 30 credits. They comprise a placement with a lawyer or barrister aimed at dealing with professional ethical issues: becoming acquainted with the operation and problems of institutions linked to professional legal practice; observing the work of other legal professionals; gathering updated information on the professional career and possible areas of action, as well as management tools.

There is no final global examination on the programme.

The assessment criteria are set out in the course guide for each subject. These guides are published every year before the start of the enrolment period and may be viewed in the 'Subjects' section.

Programme directors

Dr. Joana Maria Socias Camacho

Sr. Bernardo Garcías Vidal

E-mail

bernardogarciasbalearabogados.com

Sr. Frederic Xavier Ruiz Galmes

Programme coordinator

Dr. Bartolomé Trias Prats

List of professors and subjects they teach: Subjects.

Further information on the credit transfer and recognition system, regulations and procedure