LAW-JSM - Law (JSM)

The JSM (Master of the Science of Law) degree is awarded to individuals who hold a JD (or its equivalent) and are at the Law School participating in the Stanford Program for International Legal Studies (SPILS Program).

The Stanford Law School is committed to providing academic advising in support of graduate student scholarly and professional development. When most effective, this advising relationship entails collaborative and sustained engagement by both the adviser and the advisee. As a best practice, advising expectations should be periodically discussed and reviewed to ensure mutual understanding. Both the adviser and the advisee are expected to maintain professionalism and integrity.

Faculty advisers guide students in key areas such as selecting courses, designing and conducting research, developing of teaching pedagogy, navigating policies and degree requirements, and exploring academic opportunities and professional pathways.

Graduate students are active contributors to the advising relationship, proactively seeking academic and professional guidance and taking responsibility for informing themselves of policies and degree requirements for their graduate program.

For a statement of University policy on graduate advising, see the "Graduate Advising" section of this bulletin.

Leading to the completion of the Master of the Science of Law (JSM) degree, SPILS emphasizes interdisciplinary research, broadly defined—including the full range of social sciences (qualitative and quantitative), as well as more humanistic approaches.  SPILS is oriented toward international candidates with a primary law degree earned outside the United States who are committed to pursuing careers in teaching, research, the judiciary, public policy, or service in government or nongovernmental organizations. SPILS enrolls approximately 12 fellows per year. Students who are interested in pursuing a teaching or research career in the fields of Corporate Governance & Practice or Law, Science & Technology should apply to SPILS. The LLM program and SPILS make separate admissions decisions, so these students may also want to apply to the LLM program in the field of their specialization