Candidate of Law
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Candidate of Law (cand. jur. or candidatus/candidata juris, in Sweden jur. kand) is the degree awarded to jurists who have passed the law-exam in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland after studying law for about 5 years.
The Swedish jur kand is obtained after four and a half years at the normal pace. Danish and Icelandic degrees take five years, whereas the Finnish degree takes four years. In Norway, the degree is obtained after five and a half years, in addition to a compulsory single semester entrance-examination in philosophy and ethics, the Examen Philosophicum - a total of 6 years. In Norway it was replaced by the degree Master of Laws (LLM) in 2003, the final student to graduate as a cand.jur in the spring semester of 2007.
In Scandinavian countries, the exam can only be taken at a university with a Diploma privilege granted by the government - though any institution may provide legal education. University education was until recently based on large scale seminars rather than classroom education, thus several private institutions were established in the 1980s and 1990s in order to assist law-students.
Since 1837, at the then Royal University of King Frederik, candidates at the University of Oslo have been required to swear an oath to never stray from truth and justice nor encourage needless dispute, in order to acquire the accreditation. The oath is no longer spoken, but implied with a handshake whilst receiving the diploma from the Dean (during the rather formal graduation-ceremony).
The degree is roughly equal to the Master of Laws (LLM) in Europe and the United States.
