The Graduate School of Law of Waseda University was founded as a graduate school firstly under the new graduate school system, with the objective of fostering legal academics. Since then, our Graduate School of Law has produced many academics as well as legal professionals and others in related fields. Based on the establishment of a Law school to foster legal professionals in 2004, we succeeded in offering two individual education systems: the Waseda Law School for students aiming to master law, and the Graduate School of Law for the study of law. The Graduate School of Law of Waseda University is still the largest academic graduate school of law in Japan by any measure including the number of students, academic staff, and subjects offered.
In 2007, The Graduate School of Law started an education system providing a 5-year doctoral course integrating a 2-year Master's Program and a 3-year Doctoral Program for Master's Program students. With the organic connection of each phase in course works, instructions in thesis-writing, and degree thesis examinations through 5 years, our Graduate School is aiming to organizationally develop a curriculum which leads students toward a doctoral degree of law.
Our Graduate School provides an ideal academic research environment not only for students who have their sights on specified legal study, but also other types of students, with the examination test of the doctoral program for active legal workers. This environment enables various types of students to develop through friendly competition.