Diplom-Jurist (Dipl.-Jur.) is a master's-level law degree awarded by some German universities.
Law is a system of rules that are created and enforced through social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior. It has been defined both as "the Science of Justice" and "the Art of Justice". Law is a system that regulates and ensures that individuals or a community adhere to the will of the state. State-enforced laws can be made by a collective legislature or by a single legislator, resulting in statutes, by the executive through decrees and regulations, or established by judges through precedent, normally in common law jurisdictions. Private individuals can create legally binding contracts, including arbitration agreements that may elect to accept alternative arbitration to the normal court process. The formation of laws themselves may be influenced by a constitution, written or tacit, and the rights encoded therein. The law shapes politics, economics, history and society in various ways and serves as a mediator of relations between people.
Background
Historically, German law students did not receive any academic degree upon completion of their curriculum. Instead, after usually four or five years of study, students would sit their First State Examination (Erstes Staatsexamen) in Law, which was administered by the ministry of justice of the respective state, not the university. More recently, however, some universities have begun to award their students a Diplom-Jurist upon passing the First State Examination, in order to indicate the equivalence of the education to a master's degree in other disciplines.
The Staatsexamen is a German government licensing examination that future physicians, teachers, pharmacists, food chemists, psychotherapists and jurists as well as surveyors have to pass to be allowed to work in their profession. The examination is generally organized by government examination agencies which are under the authority of the responsible ministry. These agencies create examination commissions which consist of members of the examination agency, university professors and/or representatives from the professions. The Staatsexamina are both legally equivalent to a master's degree in the respective operating ranges.
Germany is a federal republic consisting of sixteen states. Since today's Germany was formed from an earlier collection of several states, it has a federal constitution, and the constituent states retain a measure of sovereignty. With an emphasis on geographical conditions, Berlin and Hamburg are frequently called Stadtstaaten (city-states), as is the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, which in fact includes the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. The remaining 13 states are called Flächenländer.
Role for the legal profession
The "Diplom-Jurist" does not give the holder the right to work as, for instance, a fully qualified attorney (Rechtsanwalt) or a judge. The German legal education system requires examinees of the First State Examination to pass a two-year practical training period (Referendariat), at the end of which candidates sit the Second State Examination which, if passed, admits successful participants to the bar. As such, the "Diplom-Jurist" is a step towards qualifying as a lawyer, judge or prosecutor. Aside from that, the degree "Diplom-Jurist" is an academic degree in his own right. However, holders of the "Diplom-Jurist" degree may, of course, work as lawyers in unregulated legal professions where admittance to the bar is not required (e.g. in-house counsel).
Other universities have begun to award Magister Juris degrees following the same principles.
MJur is an academic degree in law awarded by some universities.
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