Bachelor of Laws with Honours

Get a Bachelor of Laws with Honours at Victoria University of Wellington. This invitation only degree will enhance your skills and career opportunities.

The Bachelor of Laws with Honours is a chance for you to extend your research skills into areas of the law that you’re passionate about.

Pursue research during your Law degree

A Bachelor of Law with Honours LLB (Hons) gives you the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of law while also pursuing individual and directed legal research at undergraduate level. You’ll expand your research, analytical, and oral skills in a range of specialist areas. You’ll be prepared to pursue further legal research at postgraduate level.

Students are accepted into the LLB(Hons) by invitation only. Enrolments are limited to about 35 places each year.

The first part of this degree starts with the Bachelor of Laws (LLB). You’ll typically begin the Honours part of your study in your third or fourth year. During your Honours study, you’ll:

• complete the third-year core courses
• take a number of elective subjects
• enrol in seminar papers, under the close supervision of lecturers
• complete an 8,000-word research paper under supervision.

Selection criteria

To be selected for Honours study, you need to achieve good grades in your 200-level LAWS courses. Selection for the LLB(Hons) is based on the results of your best three 200-level Law courses ([LAWS 211–214](https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/study/programmes-courses/courses/by-subject?sub=79&filterToggle=f.

Course+level%7CcourseLevel=2&tab=courses211–214)). Your result for LAWS 297 may also be taken into account.

You will also need strong research skills to successfully complete the LLB(Hons).

Find out more about selection criteria for Law courses.

Scholarships for international students

We are currently offering a NZ$15,000 VUW Undergraduate International Scholarship to all eligible international students enrolling in a Bachelor’s degree. Your scholarship will be processed automatically when your programme application is accepted, and the amount will be deducted from your tuition fees.

Study with the Wellington Faculty of Law

Where you choose to study Law matters. A qualification from the Faculty of Law at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington is highly regarded both in New Zealand and internationally.

You’ll be supported on your study journey, and develop your thinking and skills along the way—rather than focusing solely on the outcome of getting your qualification.

Why Wellington

The Pipitea Campus in Wellington is right at the centre of legal and political action in Aotearoa—with Parliament, the Supreme Court, the High Court, and law firms nearby. Learn from award-winning, world-leading scholars—including practising lawyers—who care about teaching you.

Globally ranked

This programme is ranked in the top 100 worldwide in the QS World University Rankings 2026.

The QS World University Rankings is an annual global publication that gives overall rankings and subject rankings for more than 1,500 universities worldwide.

What you’ll learn

First and second years

You’ll start the first part of your degree studying for a Bachelor of Laws.

A new and developing aspect of the LLB and LLB(Hons) is the inclusion of legal principles and practices of tikanga Māori and its influence on the general legal system in first-, second-, and third-year law study.

Third and fourth years

In your third and fourth years, you’ll complete:

• the compulsory LLB courses
• nine 300-level LAWS electives from the LLB degree
• an 8,000-word research essay in your third year
• a 40-point 500-level course in your fourth year.

Over these two years, you’ll also do two 10-point Honours seminars. The timing of the seminars will depend on your timetable and interests.

How you’ll study

As an Honours student, you will hone your research, presentation, and advocacy skills and dive deeply into legal topics that interest you.

Apply what you learn

While you study, you’ll put what you learn into practice straight away. You’ll enter debates and legal competitions. You will also contribute to justice projects and community law organisations.

Learn through discussion

Many teachers in the Law School use a method of teaching known as discussion-based learning. Law lecturers teach by asking you questions about the material you study and using your answers to explore key points.

This method keeps you engaged while you study. It gives you the skills you need to reason, debate, and communicate clearly when you enter any career. It changes the way you consider complex topics.

Individual research

As part of Honours study, you’ll have the opportunity to do individual research on a topic that interests you, under the supervision of a lecturer. In the seminars, you will have the chance to research and present on a selected topic.

Combine your degree with another subject

During your study, you need to take courses outside of Law. You’ll complete 70 non-Law points by the end of your LLB(Hons).

Pairing Law with another subject that you love can help you carve your own pathway. It can complement your study and give you an employment edge after you graduate.

Choose any subject to study that you will enjoy and that ignites your curiosity. Some students choose Accounting, Criminology, Global Studies, History, International Relations, Political Science, or Psychology.

Conjoint degrees

You can choose to combine your LLB(Hons) with another degree in a conjoint degree. The majority of our students choose this study option.

A conjoint degree will allow you to complete the four-year LLB(Hons) and a three-year degree within five-and-a-half years. Popular combinations with an LLB(Hons) are the:

• Bachelor of Arts
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Science.

Conjoint degrees are more intense programmes of study—talk to a student adviser about making a plan that will work for you.

Pathway to becoming a lawyer

The LLB (with or without Honours) is the first step to becoming a professional lawyer. After getting your law degree, you’ll need to:

• complete a course in practical professional legal studies, often called ‘profs’
• be admitted to the High Court of New Zealand
• get a practising certificate from a district law society.

The New Zealand Law Society website has more information about becoming a lawyer.

Future careers with your degree

A Law degree opens up a world of possibilities beyond practising law in a firm. Your ability to communicate, work collaboratively, think critically, and solve problems will give you a competitive edge when applying for jobs.

You might work as a:

• lawyer
• judge
• journalist
• policy analyst
• politician* in-house legal counsel.

Honours students are particularly in demand. A Law degree with Honours could lead to work as a judge’s clerk in the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal.

Where you could work

After finishing your studies, you could work in:

• a law firm
• a government department—such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade or the Ministry of Justice
• a Māori governance body, such as a Post Settlement Governance Entity
• the corporate sector (as in-house counsel)
• universities and other academic institutions.

Our graduates’ success

Our Law graduates have gone on to roles ranging from Supreme Court judges to Cabinet ministers to Iwi and hapū rūnanga chairs, to members of Parliament, and prize-winning journalists.