The LL.M. (Master of Laws) Program

Located in Shanghai, a renowned International metropolis drawing more and more attention from all over the world, Shanghai Jiao Tong University is one of the first national institutions of higher learning in China with a shining history of more than 114 years (established in 1896). SJTU now offers many English-medium degree programs, such as bachelor's degree programs Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, master's degree programs LL.M. (Master of Laws), International MBA, Chemical Engineering and the S.J.D. (Doctor of Juridical Science) program. 

Objective:

The program has a focus on Chinese civil and commercial law and offers foreign law students and legal professionals an excellent opportunity to study Chinese law and legal process and engage in Chinese and comparative law research.

The two-year program is similar to the Master of Laws program offered to Chinese students and contains one year school curriculum and one year independent research and thesis writing. All of the LL.M. courses (see the Curriculum) are taught in English and specifically tailored for international students (including students from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan). The courses will be taught not only by our regular faculty but also experts from public and private practice. An academic advisor will be assigned to each student to supervise his/her research and LL.M. thesis writing. We encourage students to write publishable thesis.

Flexible Educational System

To suit the different needs of various students, our program is designed with flexibility. Students who plan to stay one semester may choose to take a minimum 12 credit hour program and get a certificate. Students who have taken a 12 credit hour program may return to complete another 14 credit hour program within two years and get a graduate diploma. Students who get a graduate diploma may apply to write a LL.M. thesis within two years to get the LL.M. degree. The LL.M. Program runs from August through June.

Degree Requirements

Students are required to complete a minimum of 32 credits, including 26 coursework credits and 6 thesis writing credits under the supervision of a faculty member.

To qualify for the LL.M. degree, students must:

1. Successfully complete at least 26 coursework credits
2. Successfully complete 6 credits of independent research and LL.M. thesis writing under the supervision of a KoGuan faculty member within a year
3. Carry a total of no fewer than 12 coursework credits per semester
4. Spend at least two semesters in residence

For the year of independent research and LL.M. thesis writing, students are not required to stay in Shanghai.

LL.M. Program Course Schedule 2012-2013

2012-2013 Fall Semester Class Schedule

Hours	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
9:00 am	Chinese Company Law (Start Sept. 10 )	Chinese Language * (08:00－09:40) An Overview of Chinese Culture* (10:00－11:40) (Start Sept. 11 )	Chinese Human Rights and Labor Issues (Start Sept. 12)	No classes	No classes
10:00am
11:00am
12:00am
13:00pm
14:00pm	Chinese Practice of International Law (undecided)	Chinese Competition Law* (Start Sept. 11 )	Chinese Criminal and Criminal Procedural Law (Start Sept. 12 )
15:00pm
16:00pm
17:00pm
18:00pm
19:00pm

• Courses on Monday and Wednesday will be held in Room in Engineering hall at Xuhui Campus.
• “Chinese Language” and “An Overview of Chinese Culture” will be held on Room 114 in Chen Rui Qiu Building (陈瑞球楼) at Minhang Campus.(The two courses are temporarily opened to the exchange students and welcome other students to attend)
• Chinese Competition Law will be held in No. 2 Multi-media classroom in Koguan Law School at Minhang Campus. (the 2nd floor of the law school building)

2012-2013 Spring Semester Class Schedule

Hours	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
9:00 am	International Commercial Arbitration in China Dr. GAO Wei	Chinese Contract Law Prof. SHEN Wei		Chinese Foreign Trade Law Prof. HU Jiaxiang
10:00am
11:00am
12:00am
11:00pm
13:00pm
14:00pm	Chinese and Comparative Financial Law Dr. WENG Xiaochuan	Chinese Foreign Investment Law Prof. XU Xiaobing		Chinese Intellectual Property Law Prof. LIU Yongpei Prof. WAN Yong
15:00pm
16:00pm
17:00pm
18:00pm
19:00pm

Tuition

The tuition for the two-year 32 credit hour program in 2010-12 is RMB 150,000: RMB 100,000 for the first year and RMB 50,000 for the second. Students should pay RMB 100,000 in the first semester before registration and RMB 50,000 in the second year.

Admission Policy

Admissions decisions are made on a rolling basis beginning in the fall semester. The LL.M. Admissions Committee reviews the whole application package carefully and selects qualified applicants who would best benefit from and contribute to the LL.M. Program. The Committee makes decisions on individual applications as quickly as possible.

In evaluating applications, the Committee takes into consideration factors including but not limited to the following:

1. Academic work, such as grades, class ranking, scholarly publications;
2. Letters of recommendation;
3. Professional and personal accomplishments;
4. Previous legal experience or careers in law teaching and research, government service, the judiciary, international governmental organizations, NGOs and private practice;
5. Proficiency in the English language.

Rapid Development of Economy of Shanghai

Shanghai is seen as the centre of finance and trade in mainland China. Since1992, Shanghai quickly took the lead in economic development and developed into business centre in mainland China. Shanghai also hosts the largest share market in mainland China.)

Agreeable Climate of Shanghai

Shanghai enjoys a humid subtropical climate and experiences four distinct seasons in a year. In winter, cold northerly winds from Siberia can cause nighttime temperatures to drop below freezing, although most years there are only one or two days of snowfall. Summer in Shanghai is hot and humid, with usually 8.7 days of the year exceeding 35 °C (95 °F). with occasional downpours or freak thunderstorms. The city is also susceptible to typhoons in summer and the beginning of autumn, none of which in recent years has caused considerable damage. The most pleasant seasons are Spring, although changeable and often rainy, and Autumn, which is generally sunny and dry. The city averages 4.2 °C (39.6 °F) in January and 27.9 °C (82.2 °F) in July, for an annual mean of 16.1 °C (61.0 °F). Shanghai experiences on average 1,878 hours of sunshine per year, with the hottest temperature ever recorded at 40.2 °C (104 °F), and the lowest at ?12.1 °C (10 °F). The average number of rainy days is 112 per year, with the wettest month being June. The average frost-free period is 276 days.

Culture of Shanghai

Because of Shanghai's status as the cultural and economic centre of East Asia for the first half of the twentieth century, it is popularly seen as the birthplace of everything considered modern in China. It was in Shanghai, for example, that the first motor car was driven and the first train tracks and modern sewers were laid. It was also the intellectual battleground between socialist writers who concentrated on critical realism, which was pioneered by Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Nien Cheng and the famous French novel by André Malraux, Man's Fate, and the more "bourgeois", more romantic and aesthetically inclined writers, such as Shi Zhecun, Shao Xunmei, Ye Lingfeng and Eileen Chang.

Languages of Shanghai

Most Shanghai residents are descendants of immigrants from two provinces: Jiangsu and Zhejiang where dialect wu is spoken. In the past decades, many migrants from other areas of China have come to Shanghai to work. Most of them cannot speak the local language and therefore Mandarin is used as a lingua franca. The vernacular language is Shanghainese, a branch of dialect Wu, while the official language nationwide is Standard Mandarin. The local language is mutually unintelligible with Mandarin, and is thus an inseparable part of the Shanghainese identity. The modern Shanghainese language is based on the Suzhou dialect of Wu, the prestige dialect of Wu spoken within the Chinese city of Shanghai prior to the modern expansion of the city, the Ningbo dialect , and the dialect of Shanghai are usually spoken within Hongkou, Baoshan and Pudong districts, It is less influential than languages of other nearby regions from which large numbers of people have migrated to Shanghai since the 20th century.

For Non-degree Students

The accommodation of pre-university program will be arranged by SJTU on Qibao campus. The specific dormitories are allocated by the school. Triple /quad/ five room; RMB 700 / month (water and electricity fee included)

About Apartment Buildings for International Students

Minhang Campus: Nanyang Bei Yuan International Student Apartment, No. 9 Apartment Building;

Xuhui Campus: Tao Li Yuan;

Nanyang Bei Yuan is located at No. 360, zhangjiali Road, Minhang District, Shanghai. Two types of room are available: single room with independent toilet and single room with shared toilet. All rooms are equipped with air conditioner, free Wi-Fi and basic furniture. The size of the bed is 120cm*200cm, and bedding need to be prepared by yourself.

Building No.9 is located in the Minhang campus. Each room is shared by two students with a private bathroom, air conditioner and basic furniture. The size of the bed is 100cm*200cm, and bedding need to be prepared by yourself.

Tao Li Yuan is located in the Xuhui Campus. Two types of room are available: single room and double room. Both types are equipped with a private bathroom, an air conditioner, free Wi-Fi and basic furniture. The size of the bed is 100cm*200cm, and bedding need to be prepared by yourself.

Types and Fees

Charging Standard for Accommodation                  unit: yuan (RMB)/person

Campus	Location	Type	Accommodation Fee for a Semester ( 18 weeks)	Short-term Accommodation Fee
Minhang	Nanyang Bei Yuan	Single room (with shared bathroom)	10080 yuan	125 yuan/day
		Single room (with private bathroom)	12600 yuan	155 yuan/day
	No.  9 Apartment Building	Double room	6600 yuan	80 yuan/day
Xuhui	Tao Li Yuan	Double room	6600 yuan	80 yuan/day
		Single room	10600-11900 yuan	140-150 yuan/day

You need to pay the accommodation fee in advance. Please pay attention that:

1、Full payment of the accommodation fee is required at the time of booking. The reservation would only be valid after the payment.

2、Online payment must be made at 22:00 on the day of booking, otherwise the system would be inaccessible automatically and the order will be invalid.

3、You can pay the fee via Alipay, WeChat, or with a bank card with such logos as UnionPay, Master, Visa, American Express, etc. Please make sure your account has opened online payment service.

4、If you pay by credit card through an international card organization channel such as Master, Visa or American Express, you will be charged a certain commission by the international card organization and bank. Therefore, it is recommended to pay via Alipay, WeChat or any bank card with the UnionPay logo so that you can enjoy a free handling fee.

5、It is advisable to make reservation and payment via Internet Explorer. If any error occurs during the payment process, you can try to refresh the webpage or use another browser.

6、Once the payment is finished, please wait until the page automatically jump to the “payment success page” . Click “Personal Center” and if you can see the paid order, it indicates that the reservation has been finished successfully.  

Common Questions

1. Can I move into the dormitory earlier than the registration day?

For new students who have successfully booked the dormitory, as some on-campus resources may not be available before formal registration, be sure to check in on the registration date as specified in the admission notice. Students arriving before the specified check-in date are required to resolve their own accommodation.

Moreover, students living on campus are required to check in and register within 24 hours after landing in Chinese mainland with valid credentials. The check-in and registration venue is listed as follows:

2. What should I do if I fail to make an online reservation?

The students without a successful online reservation will not be arranged for on-campus accommodation by the university. Therefore, students should look for an off-campus accommodation on its own before arrival. We provide the following information for reference. (This is only for reference, not an official recommendation. All actions and agreements made should be responsible by the student themselves)

3. Do I need to register if I live off-campus?

In accordance with the Article 39 of The Exit and Entry Administration Law of the People’s Republic of China, where foreigners stay in hotels in China, the hotels shall register their accommodation in accordance with the regulations on the public security administration of the hotel industry, and submit foreigners’ accommodation registration information to the public security organs in the places where the hotels are located. For foreigners who reside or stay in domiciles other than hotels, they or the persons who accommodate them shall, within 24 hours after the foreigners’ arrival, go through the registration formalities with the public security organs in the places of residence.

By the relevant regulations, you should complete residence registration in such cases like: 1) You currently live off campus without registration in ISSC 2) Your off-campus address have changed 3) You currently live on campus, however plan to move out. The operating steps refer to The Notice on the Off-Campus Accommodation for International Student of SJTU(see 4.3 part).

4.How do I commute between Xuhui and Minhang Campus?

The inter-campus shuttle bus service is provided for all students and teachers. It takes about 40 minutes if you take the shuttle bus. An alternative to this shuttle bus would be the public transportation such as metro line 5 and line 1 or bus.

3 Steps to Apply to a Chinese University

To be considered for admission to the LL.M. Program, an applicant must have a first law degree (J.D., LL.B. or the equivalent) from a law school/department outside Mainland China or meet one of the following requirements:
1.  Enrollment in a law school/department outside Mainland China, or
2.  Qualification to practice law in a jurisdiction outside Mainland China.

1.  Photocopy of valid passport
With photo, passport number &expiration date and name included.

2.  Passport-sized photo
A passport-sized photo taken recently of the applicant.

3.  Graduation certificate of high school
Graduation certificate should be in Chinese or English.If not, it should be translated into Chinese or English and be notarized.

4.   Academic transcript of high school

5.   Two recommendation letters
From professor,associate professor or equivalents.

6.  Certificate of English proficiency test
IELTS or TOEFl will only be required if the applicant is not a native English speaker.

7.  Personal Statement
Personal Statement with the applicant's signature, written in Chinese or in English. You can download a template or sample from here.