During your studies

During the first three to four semesters, you will receive training in the fundamentals of law and (legal) economics. As part of the required-elective track, you will have the opportunity to deepen your knowledge in the fields of law, legal economics, or economics. Please note that of the total 40 credit points, you must earn at least 10 credit points in the required elective area of law and economics and at least 6 credit points in the required elective area of economics.

Further information on the course of study can be found here.

Aligning the course of study with future academic plans:

Students who are already planning, during their Law and Economics studies, to switch to law studies (state examination) or the Master’s in Economics after graduation should adjust their course of study starting in the 4th semester to ensure the smoothest possible transition without losing time:

• Further information on how to align your studies with the state examination in law can be found here.
• Further information on aligning your studies with further economics-related academic plans can be found here.
• A brief summary of the “tracks” (according to the current examination regulations) can be found here.

Please note that these are only general suggestions, and in individual cases, other study plans may be appropriate. Please feel free to contact the academic advising office of the program for further assistance.

If you are studying under the 2017 Study Regulations (or the amended 2023 Study Regulations), please feel free to seek individual advice on planning your course of study. We cannot provide general recommendations based on “tracks” in this context.

You can find an overview of the modules offered and course registration options for each semester here. This overview applies to students in the 2017 (or 2023) curriculum as well as the 2025 curriculum.

Law Student Study Groups

Seminar groups are in-depth courses that complement legal lectures and are led by a seminar instructor. Here, you will learn how to write legal opinions and the techniques of case analysis.

Detailed instructions on how to register in BASIS can be found here.
If you encounter any technical difficulties, please contact castle@uni-bonn.de.

Unlike lectures, attendance is mandatory here, at least for two civil law seminars. 

Participation and receipt of the seminar certificate are mandatory for the following seminars: 

• First Academic Semester: BGB AT
• Third Academic Semester: Schuldrecht BT II

The seminar certificate is a prerequisite for participating in the BGB AT term paper (which is a required course requirement). Participation in the Contract Law BT II seminar is a required course requirement.

While all other seminar certificates are not strictly required, they are practically indispensable for academic success.

Regular attendance at a seminar is required to receive a seminar certificate. This is considered met if the participant has missed a maximum of three sessions, at least one of which must be a hardship case (“excused absence”). In the Contract Law BT II course, only “excused absences” are permitted.

In the seminars “BGB AT,” “Constitutional Law I,” “Contract Law AT and BT I,” “Constitutional Law II,” “Criminal Law I,” and “Criminal Law II,” there are separate study groups exclusively for Law and Economics students. In the study groups “Contract Law BT II,” “General Administrative Law with Administrative Procedure Law,” and “Property Law,” you will be taught together with law students.

Tutorials for the Economics Modules

No registration is required for the economics tutorials. Students are free to choose which tutorial they attend. We recommend the four-hour intensive tutorials.

All tutorials can be found on BASIS under the Economics (Bachelor’s) program.

For important information about the internship and where it can be completed, please refer to the information sheet on the practical training period.

The template for a certificate of completion of the practical training period can be found in the Form Center under “Additional Forms”.

Those interested in having the internship credited toward a later state examination program in law will find all important information regarding the required prerequisites in the information sheet. Students who complete a judicial and an administrative internship while pursuing the Bachelor’s program in Law and Economics may have both internships credited toward a later law program in North Rhine-Westphalia.

International Legal Terminology (starting in the second semester)
Here, students gain insight into foreign legal systems and their respective characteristics while learning the basics of the associated technical terminology. Click here for more information.

Language Learning Center (starting in the second semester)
Students from all faculties can choose from a wide range of language modules here. The goal is to develop multilingualism as a key competency for future professional life. Instructions on how to apply for a spot in a language module as a Law and Economics student can be found here.

Subject-Specific Foreign Language Training for Lawyers in English (starting in the third semester)
The Unicert-certified FFA language program offers additional legal training over three semesters:

• Legal terminology training program
• Intensive language skills training
• Study of foreign and international legal matters as well as comparative law topics
• Courses taught by highly qualified instructors with experience in both academia and the professional field
• A valuable additional qualification to prepare for your future career
• 3 semesters, for a total of 16 hours per week
• A maximum of 25 participants per semester
• Completion with a Level III UNIcert® certificate (corresponding to Level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, CEFR)
• Exclusive alumni program designed to maintain ongoing contact with participants and instructors

You can find information about the FFA program and the application process here. If you are interested, please contact the Student Advising Office of the Law and Economics program.

Key Skills (starting in the second semester)
Professional training in key skills is provided in small groups. The program includes courses in public speaking as well as voice training and is offered by the Department of Law. Further information is available here.

Career Center Bonn
The Career Center at the University of Bonn is a service facility for students and graduates of the University of Bonn. It prepares students for their career start and supports entrepreneurs. The offerings also include part-time professional development programs.

Studium Universale
As part of its Studium Universale program, the University of Bonn regularly offers the general public courses, lecture series, lectures, discussions, exhibitions, and guided tours that go beyond the university’s regular academic offerings, as well as cultural events in the fields of music and the arts. This program is aimed at anyone who wishes to explore other fields of knowledge, gain a general orientation, acquire supplementary skills (e.g., in foreign languages), or engage in musical or artistic activities. Students from all faculties at the University of Bonn are warmly invited to participate.

Exam periods vary. This depends on whether the course is in law or economics.

For law courses and all interdisciplinary courses (courses in law and economics), there is only one exam period per semester, following the lecture series (end of the lecture period / beginning of the break).
In the event of failure or illness on the exam date, retake exams for the law exams are offered specifically for students in the Law and Economics program during the following semester. Re-registration is required for the retake.

For all economics courses in the Department of Economics, there are two exam periods per semester following the lecture series:
1. Exam phase at the end of the lecture period / beginning of the break
2. Exam period at the end of the break
This results in two registration periods for the exams. Students may freely choose between the first and second exam periods. Repeat exams are not held in the following semester.

Definition:

Exam period = The regular exam period for a semester. 

Retake = If a registered exam is failed or if a student withdraws from a registered exam (due to illness, etc.), the subsequent exam in the same module is considered a retake.

Important: If a student withdraws from a registered exam within the withdrawal period, the subsequent exam attempt is not considered a retake.

To receive credit for coursework, students must take exams, which are held during the break between semesters. You can find a list of required exams in our academic calendar.
Registration for exams and term papers is done electronically via BASIS.

Dual Enrollment

For students enrolled in both Law and Economics and another degree program (e.g., Law or Economics), any course work intended to be applied to multiple programs (i.e., more than one degree program) must also be registered for multiple times.

This applies to all exams: written exams, term papers, proseminars, and the bachelor’s thesis (in Law, this may be the seminar paper).

Anyone who wishes to have a seminar paper in Law recognized as a proseminar paper for Law and Economics must, in the event of dual enrollment at the time of registration, also submit a dual registration (i.e., register the paper as a seminar paper with the Law Examination Board and as a proseminar paper with the Law and Economics Examination Board).

The following procedure applies:

1. Students enrolled in both Law and Law and Economics may register for exams or case studies via BASIS twice: once for Law and once for Law and Economics. In case of technical issues, registration on paper (within the deadline) is also possible.

2. Students enrolled in Economics and Law and Economics must register for the Economics exam via BASIS and also submit a paper registration form to the Law and Economics Examination Office by the deadline. The relevant forms (either for the 2014 or 2017 Study Regulations) can be found in the Form Center.

Dual Enrollment with Law During the Semester of the Seminar

Students planning to pursue dual enrollment with Law during the final semester of the Law and Economics bachelor’s program in order to maintain the option of deferring the state-mandated compulsory exam must note the following special provision when registering for the bachelor’s thesis:

At the time of registration for the bachelor’s thesis, dual enrollment has not yet taken place. However, since the bachelor’s thesis—just like the seminar paper—is a preliminary assignment, it already counts as a course requirement for the following semester.

To use the seminar paper for both the bachelor’s thesis and as a seminar paper in the major area, you must submit two separate registrations to the department: Once using the form from the Law and Economics Examinations Office to register it as a bachelor’s thesis, and once using the form from the Law Examinations Office to register it as a seminar paper to be credited at a later date.

If you have any questions, please contact the relevant examinations offices (pruefungsamt.lawecon@uni-bonn.de or pruefungsamt@jura.uni-bonn.de).

If you are ill on the day of the exam, please submit a medical certificate confirming your inability to take the exam and a cover letter (including your student ID number and the exam(s) in question) to the Law and Economics Examination Board immediately (no later than 3 business days after the exam date). Please use mailbox no. 35 across from the Dean’s Office or send it by mail. A medical certificate from a public health officer may be required.

Please use the appropriate form from the Form Center for this purpose.

Guidelines for module exams in all law courses and bridge courses:

Before the exam

• Please ensure that you bring only pens, beverages, a law book, and paper into the lecture hall. Any other items you bring with you may not be taken to your seat and must be placed at the front of the lecture hall.
• The permitted aids will be announced by the instructors before the exam.
• The legal texts used must not contain any personal comments, handwritten notes, or underlining. Marking laws in the law collections with stickers of any kind or self-adhesive notes is not permitted. It is your responsibility to bring the appropriate legal texts. The university cannot provide any missing legal texts. Tampered legal texts and other unauthorized aids (e.g., “cheat sheets,” diagrams) may neither be used nor brought to the examination station. Cell phones must be turned off during the examination. Even an attempt to cheat may be sanctioned under examination regulations pursuant to § 24 PO 2025 or § 22 PO 2017 (2023).
• Please arrive approximately 15 minutes before the start of the exam for all exam dates due to admission checks.
• Please bring a government-issued photo ID and your student ID to the exam.

Due to possible last-minute changes in room assignments, please check the notices posted in the Juridicum and the Law and Economics Examination Board’s website.
Changes to dates and/or rooms for valid reasons cannot be ruled out. Therefore, please double-check the details before each exam!

During the Exam

• The time allotted for module exams is a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 240 minutes.
• The use of cell phones is not permitted. This also applies to use while using the restroom. During written exams, students may only bring permitted aids into the exam room. Cell phones must be turned off and may not be carried directly on the person. Mobile phones that are turned on—especially when using the restroom—may be considered an attempt to cheat. You can avoid having your exam terminated or facing disciplinary action for attempted cheating by handing your mobile phone over to the proctor until the end of the exam or by placing the bag containing the turned-off mobile phone at the front of the lecture hall.

After the Exam

• Students may submit a written appeal against the grading to the exam administrator within two weeks of the exam results being announced (known as a “remonstration”). To do so, you must provide clear reasons why you believe a re-evaluation of the exam is necessary. You must raise substantiated objections, meaning you must specifically explain in which areas the assessment of certain exam performance, in your opinion, contains grading errors. The examiner will inform you of the outcome of the appeal.
• Exam results are published online. The deadline for filing an appeal for students located abroad begins on the day the results are published online. If submitted by mail, the postmark date must be on or before the last day of the appeal period.

As a general rule, each exam in the Law and Economics program may be retaken twice (§ 15 I PO 2025).

For exams in the required-elective area, three attempts are also permitted for each exam (§ 15 III PO 2025). However, there is a distinction in that, in the event of failing or definitively failing a module, you may take another module as compensation or take the exam in that module. Such compensation is permitted twice.

Under the previous examination regulations of 2017 (or the amended version of 2023), each exam may also be retaken twice. In the elective-required area, however, compensation with another module is not possible. This means that when you first register for a module in the elective-required area, you commit to it, and if you fail it three times, you will definitively fail the bachelor’s examination (see § 15 III PO 2017 or 2023).

The law and economics seminar rooms and the department libraries are available for research.

They also provide useful information, tips, and tricks for conducting research.

You can find a guide, videos, and other helpful information for writing legal papers here.

In the Bachelor’s program in Law and Economics, the required term paper “BGB AT” takes the form of a legal case analysis. Additionally, within the mandatory elective area of law, students may write a term paper in public law.

The focus of a legal term paper is typically the preparation of a legal opinion, in which the student is expected to engage with case law and legal literature in a case-specific manner.
The goal of writing a term paper is to learn the scientific methods of legal scholarship.

The paper must be an independent piece of work. Group collaboration or accepting assistance from third parties is prohibited.

Please note that participation in the BGB AT term paper requires prior registration! The prerequisite for admission is the seminar certificate, which is issued only upon proof of attendance.

The aim of this introductory seminar is to provide students in the bachelor’s program with the necessary foundational knowledge for writing and presenting academic papers. Seminar participants will then apply and build upon the knowledge they have acquired through presentations and a term paper.

At the beginning of the course, the general fundamentals of writing a term paper will be covered. This will be followed by the presentation and assignment of topics. Participants will then write an academic paper (minimum 5 to maximum 30 pages) over a period of approximately 3–4 weeks during the lecture period. At the end of the semester, students will present the results of their work to all participants in the introductory seminar in short presentations (approximately 10-minute presentation followed by a 20-minute discussion). Details are available in the module handbook.

You may choose to take either the “Proseminar in Law and Economics,” the “Proseminar in Law,” or the “Academic Writing” seminar offered by the Department of Economics.

Proseminar on Law and Economics

To register for the introductory seminar on the economics of law, please contact the program office at: castle@uni-bonn.de.
Registration deadlines will be announced under “News.”

Proseminar in Law

Registration for a law proseminar is done electronically via the Faculty of Law’s course registration platform. Please enter “L&E” in the comment field (and, if applicable, a 4.0 under “Interim Exam”). The deadlines for each semester will be announced by the Faculty of Law.
A preliminary meeting is held for each introductory seminar, during which you will receive information about the content and schedule of the respective seminar. Information regarding these preliminary meetings can be found on the respective department pages.

It is important that you have your respective examiner fill out the registration form with the specific topic (available at the Law and Economics program office) and submit it to the Law and Economics Examination Office for processing.

Adademic Research

To complete the economics seminar “Academic Writing,” students must follow the relevant procedures of the Department of Economics. First, a registration process takes place. Following this, students can register for the exam.

All further information regarding the “Academic Writing” module, as well as the allocation of spots and registration, can be found here.

If you are interested in the “Scientific Work” module, please contact the Economics Examination Office by email: vwlpa@uni-bonn.de

It is important that you have your respective instructor fill out the registration form and submit it to the Law and Economics program office for processing. Please also inform your instructor that the proseminar must be graded for the Law and Economics program.

According to the academic calendar, the bachelor’s thesis is written during the break between the fifth and sixth semesters.

Students who wish to have the thesis credited later as a seminar paper in the Law concentration must accept a 6-week processing period during the break. Students who do not require credit for the thesis at a later date may be granted up to 8 weeks to complete it and, if necessary, may write the thesis during the lecture period.

The bachelor’s thesis is written on a topic assigned by the primary examiner and must include elements of economic analysis of the law.

Admission Requirements

Before a bachelor's thesis can be registered, certain admission requirements must be met:

• Successful registration for the bachelor's degree examination process
• at least 90 ECTS credits
• Successful completion of the required modules for the first and second semesters
• Successful completion of the required module “Law, Economics, and Institutions”
• Successful completion of a module from the “Proseminar” required elective track
• additional modules totaling 14 ECTS credits

According to the 2017 Examination Regulations (or the amended version of 2023), the following are prerequisites for the thesis topic: the completion of 90 credit points, as well as the successful completion of the required modules of the first and second semesters, the required modules “Law of Obligations II (Statutory Obligations)”, Criminal Law I and Criminal Law II, as well as a module from the subject-specific required elective area “Proseminar.”

Procedure

The bachelor’s thesis may be written under the supervision of various faculty members (from the Department of Law or the Department of Political Science). It is the student’s responsibility to approach a primary supervisor and secure their agreement to supervise the thesis. The formal administrative process is then handled by the supervisor’s office in collaboration with the Law and Economics Examination Office. Therefore, it is important to inform the Law and Economics program office as soon as possible after receiving confirmation of supervision from the faculty member. Each semester, the Examination Committee or the Examination Office announces the deadlines by which registration must be completed in order to graduate within the standard period of study.

The actual registration for the bachelor’s thesis is completed by signing the corresponding paper form when the topic is assigned.

After the written thesis is completed, a seminar is held. Here, all seminar participants present the content of their own work. The seminar takes place after the completion of the bachelor’s thesis. As a rule, the seminar is offered as a block seminar in the sixth semester.

Amount of characters/words

The main body of the bachelor’s thesis should not exceed 55,000 characters (including spaces and excluding footnotes). This corresponds to approximately 30 standard A4 pages.