Doctor of Juridical Science, Doctor of the Science of Law, (in Latin) Scientiae Juridicae Doctor or Juridicae Scientiae Doctor (sometimes also referred to as a Doctor of Laws), abbreviated S.J.D. or J.S.D., respectively, is a research doctorate in law and doctorate equivalent to the Ph.D. It is offered primarily in the United States, where it originated, in Canada and in Australia. As a research doctorate, it follows professional training in law (LL.B. or J.D.) and the first graduate-level training in law (Master of Laws), and is primarily aimed at educating professors, legal scientists, and other scholars in law.
United States
The J.S.D., or S.J.D. is a research doctorate, and as such it is generally accepted as equivalent to the more commonly awarded research doctorate, the Ph.D. It is considered the "terminal degree in law" by Indiana University and as the "most advanced law degree" by Harvard Law School, Yale Law School (J.S.D. Handbook), George Washington University, New York University, Stanford University, UCLA, and Tulane University. The University of Kansas School of Law and Pace University also offer the S.J.D. The National Association of Legal Professionals states that the J.S.D./S.J.D. is "typically the most advanced (or terminal) law degree that would follow the earning of the LL.M. and J.D. degrees." Some law schools, such as Case Western Reserve University and Widener University, offer the S.J.D. in Health Law.
Applicants for the program normally must have a first degree in law (such as a J.D. or LL.B.) and an LL.M., but an LL.M. is not always required. The S.J.D. typically requires three to five years to complete, and requires an advanced study in law as a scientific discipline and a dissertation, which serves as an original contribution to the scholarly field of law.
Notable recipients of the degree of Doctor of Juridical Science include: Sang-Hyun Song (Cornell Law School, 1970) (President of the International Criminal Court (ICC)); Harvey L. Strelzin (New York U., 1906) (New York State Assembly member and professor at New York U.); Charles Hamilton Houston (Harvard, 1923) (prominent civil rights attorney); Lowell Turrentine (Harvard, 1929) (prominent professor of law at Stanford University); renowned legal scholar and appellate court Justice Bernard Jefferson (Harvard, 1934); Pauli Murray (Yale, 1965) (prominent civil rights advocate); Ayala Procaccia (University of Pennsylvania, 1972) (Israel Supreme Court Justice); Christos Rozakis (University of Illinois, 1973) (President of the Administrative Tribunal of the Council of Europe and former vice-president of the European Court of Human Rights); Ma Ying-jeou (Harvard, 1980) (President of the Republic of China); Theodor Meron (Harvard Law School), professor of law (New York University) and president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; Hanoch Dagan, (Yale Law School, 1993), (Stewart and Judy Colton Professor of Legal Theory and Innovation and former Dean of Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law, Justin D'Atri Visiting Professor of Law at Columbia University); Katherine Franke (Yale Law School, 1998) (Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law; Director, Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia University); W. Michael Reisman (Yale Law School 1965), (Myres S. McDougal Professor of International Law at Yale Law School); Lucian Bebchuk (Harvard Law School 1984), (William J. Friedman and Alicia Townsend Friedman Professor of Law, Economics, and Finance Director, Program on Corporate Governance, Harvard Law School).