Juris Master: Preparation for a Career in Policy Analysis
Beginning in fall 2005, the JM Program
will be available only to students who are pursuing
an MA or PhD degree in Economics and plan to earn
the JM through GMU’s joint degree program.
Joint degree candidates must apply and obtain admission
to both graduate programs (Economics Department and Law
School admission) and must meet the admission requirements
set by the respective programs. In order to be considered
for admission to the JM Program, students must take the
Law School Admission Test (LSAT).
Students admitted to the joint JM/MA program or to the
joint JM/PhD program must complete the first year of graduate
economics study before beginning the JM curriculum. In
order to be eligible to obtain credit towards the JM Degree,
students must have passed their comprehensive examinations
(“Prelims”) in Microeconomics and Macroeconomics.
Created in 1999, the Juris Master degree is a nontraditional
program that provides students pursuing a graduate economics
degree with valuable training in law and legal institutions.
This constitutes a rigorous and pragmatic alternative to
traditional joint degree programs in law and economics,
for those who wish to acquire legal training to enrich
their academic background without planning to practice
law. The program is designed to complement a graduate degree
in law and economics (M.A. or Ph.D. in Economics), giving
students the skills they need to deal effectively with
the legal and economic dimensions of theoretical and policy
issues. This is accomplished through extensive training
in fundamentals of American law coupled with advanced work
in theoretical and quantitative economic analysis of law.
This specialized training enables students to apply their
formal economic background and to become effective teachers
and scholars in law and economics.
This innovative degree can be pursued as a two-year, part-time evening program requiring completion of 34 to 36 credit hours of course work, including 9 to 11 hours of electives. Juris Master students are admitted to, and attend courses at, George Mason's top-tier School of Law, where they learn to analyze case law, statutes, and regulations from a distinguished faculty, including the winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, Vernon Smith. They learn how to identify pressing legal issues and to place those issues in the context of American jurisprudence and administrative procedure. Students in the Juris Master program put their intellectual training into operation in a series of writing and research courses specially designed to meet their needs. Further, students take a variety of applied economics and quantitative courses to deepen their understanding of the relationship between the market process and the political process.
Please contact Anne Richard (arichar5@gmu.edu) with
questions about the Juris Master program.
copyright © 2004
last updated:
Jun 15, 2005
