About the Duke JD/MA program.

The JD/MA program enables students to obtain both a JD through Duke Law School and an MA in Applied Ethics & Policy in three years and one summer. Under the umbrella of the MA in Applied Ethics & Policy, Science & Society offers two specialized curriculum opportunities: Bioethics & Science Policy and Tech Ethics & Policy.

Students apply to the joint degree program during the first semester of their 1L year. Current application deadline is October 1. (Applications may no longer be submitted along with the Law School application. Summer start is no longer available.) The curriculum requirements for the MA are undertaken along with the JD requirements and students will most commonly graduate with both degrees in the spring of their third year.

During the summer after their 1L year, students undertake their capstone projects. Past students have done their capstones in general counsels’ offices, law firms, university legal offices, research institutes, corporations, and non-profits.

Curriculum Requirements

A JD/MA student in Applied Ethics & Policy must complete 75 JD credits and 30 MA credits to receive both degrees. Dean Lacoff will meet with you after your enrollment to discuss how to integrate your JD requirements with your MA requirements and has created a spreadsheet for each of you to use in tracking your progress toward completing both degrees. Please remember that if you do not complete your MA, you cannot receive your JD.

MA Core Courses (Complete a Total of 15 Credits):

• BIOETHIC 602: Law Research & Bioethics (3 credits) (offered in fall)
• BIOETHIC 603: Clinical Bioethics & Policy (3 credits) (offered in spring)
  OR SCISOC 585: Digital Intelligence (3 credits) (offered in fall)
• BIOETHIC 606: Communicating Science Policy (3 credits) (offered in spring)
• BIOETHIC 704: Science Law & Policy (3 credits) (offered in fall) [This course is cross-listed with the Law School; please be sure to register under the Graduate School/BIOETHIC number, not LAW 333]
• Privacy class: The final core requirement is satisfied by taking one of Prof. Jolynn Dellinger’s courses on privacy, preferably SCISOC 615 Privacy: Concepts and Culture Informing Law and Policy (3 credits) in the spring of your 1L year. With permission of the Director of Graduate Studies, you could substitute SCISOC 614-01Privacy, Ethics, Data and Technology (3 credits) (offered in fall) OR LAW 331 Introduction to Privacy Law and Policy (3 credits) (offered in spring). SCISOC 615 is a seminar designed for the JD/MA students and we recommend that you take this course following admission to the program, although if your schedule requires, you may take one of the other privacy courses. If you take LAW 331, please notify Dean Lacoff prior to Add/Drop to reclassify this course for Graduate School credit.

We encourage you to take at least one of the 3 credit core requirements in your 2L fall semester.

 

Capstone Course (9 Credits):

In addition, you will complete a capstone project totaling 9 credits which will be taken the summer following your 1L year.

• BIOETHIC 705: Capstone – Bioethics and Science Policy – 9 total credits (graded)

Register for 4.5 credits for both Summer 1 and Summer 2 following your 1L year. Your summer job constitutes your practicum.

You will present the work you conducted for your Capstone with an MA Final during the second semester of your 3L year, when you are preparing to graduate.

 

Elective Credits (12 credits, with 6 of those credits counting toward the MA Degree:

You will also take a minimum of 12 credits from a designated list of Law School courses, selected by Science & Society in coordination with the Law School. These are listed on the Science & Society website. If there are other Law School courses which you believe should be included on this list, please contact us.

With the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies, 3 of these elective credits may be taken in another school within the university.

These elective credits may count either toward the MA or JD credit requirements (but not both) and at least 6 credits MUST be counted toward the MA degree. JD/MA students register for these courses using their law school priority status and must designate them as MA electives no later than the end of add/drop by contacting Dean Lacoff.

 

Research Credits (6 credits)

You must register for 6 research credits under Research 1-01. These research credits are a bookkeeping requirement of the Graduate School, do not require you to perform any additional work and do not count towards an overload. We recommend that you register for 3 of these credits during 2L fall and 3L fall.

 

Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)

In order to satisfy the requirements set by the Duke Graduate School, JD/MA students must register for the following RCR forums:

• The Law Research and Bioethics (BIOETHIC 602) counts as one of your RCR requirements.
• TGS714
• TGS715

GS714 and GS715 are given during fall MA orientation and we strongly recommend that you attend these programs. If, however, you are unable to attend due to law school conflicts, you may make up for these two RCR credits by taking two RCR forums offered by the Graduate School at any point before graduation. https://gradschool.duke.edu/professional-development/programs/responsibleconduct-research/rcr-forums/

MA Final (Required, but No Graded Credits)

The Graduate School requires each student receiving a Master’s Degree to sit for an MA Final during the semester prior to graduation. The requirements for the MA Final will be described in a separate memo.

You will have separate GPAs for your JD and MA curricula. Your Law School classes will be graded on the established Law School numeric curve.  You will receive alphabetic grades for your MA classes and a separate GPA calculated from these grades.