Programme Overview

In our global economy, businesses now deal with more complex issues concerning government regulations and international trade policies. Conversely, the law has had to grapple with constantly evolving commercial organisations and business practices. With the growth in the size of legal practices and the expansion of the work of the legal profession into areas of mergers, acquisitions and taxation, the work of legal graduates and business graduates has blended in many aspects.

This joint degree aims to give students a firm grounding in the disciplines of law and business and to develop a critical understanding of both the legal framework of business activity and the economic and commercial context in which law operates. Students will have the opportunity to focus upon the many areas of overlapping interest between the two disciplines, for example, the structure of companies and other forms of business organisation, competition law and regulation of markets, consumer law, labour law, finance and financial markets, taxation, the protection of intellectual property and international perspectives on law and business.

Is this Programme right for me?

This course is aimed at individuals seeking a career defined by the application of legal principles and management practices. The programme will provide students with a firm grounding in law along with strong management skills, enabling students to choose from a wide range of career opportunities or further study. Both schools enjoy a strong international profile, with excellent relationships with Irish and global organisations in both the private and public sectors.

Programme Structure

Law and Business is a four-year honours degree programme. The first year introduces you to core topics in law and business. This includes developing your legal skills through the Foundations of Law module.

At the end of the first year of your programme, you will have several options in relation to the balance between Law and Business modules and your degree pathway/award. You can choose to:

1. Major – Law, Minor - Business
   focus more on Law (Major – Law, Minor - Business) – Degree Awarded - LL.B. (Law with Business);
2. Joint
   continue with an equal combination of the Law and Business; – Degree Awarded - BA (Law and Business);
3. move to single honors in Law from your second year onwards – Degree Awarded - LL.B.;
4. Major – Business; Minor – Law br> focus more on Business - Degree Awarded - BA (Business with Law);
5. move to single honors in Business from your second year onwards – Degree Awarded - BA.

In the final year of your programme, one-third of your credits will be devoted to the completion of a research project, which we call the ‘Capstone’. This allows you to apply and enhance the research skills that you have developed in the previous three years of the programme. If you choose Law as a Major, then you will complete your Capstone within the School of Law. You will be part of a research group with other students where you will work independently and collaboratively to explore in-depth a topical issue. If you choose to major in Business your Capstone project will comply with the School of Business curriculum.

Optional Study Abroad

You may choose to apply to study abroad in your third year of studies.  Students may apply to spend a semester or full academic year on an exchange programme with one of the Schools or University’s partners.  Details can be found on our Study Abroad page (below).

Professional requirements and Career Opportunities

The programme will provide students with strong management skills and an in-depth specialisation in law. Graduates will be well prepared for demanding and rewarding careers in both the legal and business professions; particularly in areas where the two disciplines coincide. We expect graduates to accept positions in law, business, taxation, finance and accounting, general management, employment relations and the civil service.

In order to complete the modules that are currently pre-requisites for the professional stage of training to become a solicitor or barrister in Ireland, then you will have to choose to focus on Law from your second year onwards. See option 1 above, Law as a Major subject and Business as a Minor subject.

Should you choose to spend your third year abroad, you will have the opportunity to choose to follow the relevant part of the third-year syllabus when you return for your final year of studies. This ensures that you are able to complete all the modules currently required in order to fulfil the pre-requisites for entry to the professional stage of training to become either a solicitor or barrister in Ireland.

What will I study? 

For more description of each modules below, please visit the Modules page.

Programme Outcomes

Having successfully completed this programme, students should be able to:

• Use appropriate legal and business and other relevant social science theories, doctrines and concepts to identify, formulate, analyse and solve legal, business and management problems within national and international contexts;
• Apply the relationship between law and business and society, including the role of law in promoting and responding to social change and the business-society relationship in the context of business ethics, corporate social responsibility and corporate understanding;
• Conduct effective and targeted research in case law, legislation and academic legal commentary at both the national and international levels;
• Communicate effectively in oral and written modes in professional and academic settings and work effectively as an individual and in teams in multi-disciplinary settings;
• Engage in the pursuit of knowledge in greater depth and over time in support of life-long learning, either as a practitioner or an academic;
• Use appropriate ICT tools in analysing, solving, and communicating a variety of problems in law, business and the social sciences;
• Demonstrate flexibility, adaptability and independence in order to engage productively with a changing social, cultural and technological environment.