Doctor of Laws

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Doctor of Laws (Latin: Legum Doctor, LL.D) is a doctorate-level academic degree in law.

In the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, the degree is a higher doctorate usually awarded on the basis of exceptionally insightful and distinctive publications, containing significant and original contributions to the study of law. Some universities, such as the University of Oxford, award a Doctor of Civil Law degree instead. In Canada, LL.D and Doctor of Civil Law degrees are awarded as substitute of Ph.D. in law. The LL.D may also be awarded as an honorary degree based upon a person's contributions to society.

In the United States, the LL.D. is almost always an honorary degree. The Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) is the degree awarded for research in the form of a dissertation, the equivalent to a Ph.D. in law.

Most people who pursue the SJD intend upon a career as a law professor or other legal scholar, as the Juris Doctor (JD) is the professional doctorate-level degree required for contemporary law practice in the United States and the SJD is not required for professional practice. Moreover, lower graduate (not professional) degrees in law (e.g., LL.M.) exist for further study of specific areas of law, such as taxation. Therefore, most scholars who take the doctoral graduate degree intend study in a very specific field of law or to continue work beyond what research experience a Master of Arts would provide. Legal scholars who intend to teach in the United States but who were educated elsewhere are attracted to the doctoral degree because many hold degrees that would be considered equal to the bachelor's rather than a master's or JD in the United States.

Plural abbreviations in Latin are formed by doubling the letter, hence the double "L."

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