At University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Canada, Juris Doctor (Common Law) is offered as a master's degree in Legal Studies programme. The programme runs for 3 years. Tuition for international students is CAD 38,552 per semester.
This professional program leads to a Juris Doctor (JD) from the University of Ottawa, accredited by the Canadian Federation of Law Societies and offered in both English and French. The curriculum includes mandatory foundational courses in contracts, property, dispute resolution, torts, and criminal law, along with required coursework in public law, private law, litigation and dispute resolution, Indigenous law, international law and human rights, technology law, and environmental law, complemented by a substantial block of optional units that allow students to build an area of focus. The program builds in numerous opportunities for experiential learning, including legal clinics, moot court and advocacy competitions, and practicum courses, with specialized practicum options available in areas such as international trade law and family law, and dedicated clinical legal aid courses. Its curriculum places particular emphasis on Indigenous law, framed around reconciliation. The program is designed for students seeking a professional legal education within Canada's common law tradition, preparing them for legal practice across varied practice areas, and suits students who want to combine required legal training with substantial hands-on, clinical, and advocacy-based learning.
Requirements
Admission Requirements: The Juris Doctor (Common Law) requires at least three years of undergraduate study (90 credits or 30 half-courses, per the Faculty of Law), and most successful applicants hold at least an A- (80%) cumulative average; the LSAT is mandatory without exception for the English program, and while there is no strict cut-off, the Faculty looks for a score above the 70th percentile (158 or higher), weighted alongside the rest of the file for candidates whose first language is not English. Applicants must also submit a personal statement of up to 8,000 characters addressing critical thinking, writing ability and capacity to manage law-school workload, along with at least two letters of reference, one of which must come from an academic referee. A diploma or certificate alone, without an accompanying undergraduate degree, is not considered adequate preparation.
Application Details
Application Deadline:Domestic applicants apply directly to uOttawa; for Fall 2027 entry, applications open September 17, 2026 and close June 1, 2027 for most programs (document deadline June 15, 2027), while Winter 2027 entry closes October 17, 2026 for domestic applicants only. International applicants use the same opening date, with a general Fall 2027 deadline of May 1, 2027 (documents May 15, 2027) and no Winter-term admission for most programs. Engineering programs (Software, Mechanical, Electrical and Computer) close earlier, on January 15, 2027, for both domestic and international applicants, and Computer Science's international deadline is also January 15, 2027 though its domestic deadline follows the general June 1, 2027 date. Admission is not described as rolling. These are institution-wide dates; this programme publishes no deadline of its own.
