In the Faculty of Law at Kagawa University, the guiding principles for graduation requirements (diploma policy) are reflected in a curriculum that consists of both general education courses (34 or more credits in the daytime course, 28 or more credits in the evening course) and specialized courses (94 or more credits in the daytime course, 96 or more credits in the evening course. For the daytime course, this requirement consists of 6 credits of the compulsory course (“Seminar”), 16 or more credits of elective compulsory courses, 30 or more credits of elective courses and 42 or more free elective courses. In the evening course, all credits are regarded as free elective courses).

The principles outlined in the diploma policy are realized through the educational methods described below. In order to take the “Seminar” as a compulsory course, students must satisfy certain requirements.

① Linguistic competence
Communication courses within the general education curriculum are designed to develop the students’ fundamental foreign language skills, which are further refined in specialized foreign language courses offered at the Faculty of Law (“Business English”, “Reading Foreign Literature”, and “Overseas Training”) .
In order to develop legal and political communication skills, both general education seminar courses (“University Introductory Seminar”) and specialized courses (“Pro-Seminar” and “Seminar”) are offered, limiting the class size to a low number of students and providing for the opportunity to experience Problem Based Learning (PBL).

②Knowledge and comprehension skills necessary for 21st century law graduates
General education courses offer students a wide range of knowledge from various disciplines in addition to law and political science.
In the first year, students are offered introductory courses in addition to the general education courses in order to familiarize them with the legal and political domains. From the second year, various classes of public law (e.g. constitution and administrative law), private law (e.g. civil law and commercial law), and political science are offered to acquire specialized knowledge and application ability.
In addition, the following variety of courses provide students with diverse knowledge that will enable them to act and succeed on the global stage – “Peace Studies”, “Asia-Pacific Society”, “Political History”, “Comparative Politics”, “International Relations”, “International Law I-III”, “Private International Law”, and “Law of International Business Transaction”.

③ Problem-solving and information-gathering skills
In order to develop students’ problem-solving and research skills, a variety of courses that limit the class size to a low number of students are offered during the 4-year program. “The University Introductory Seminar” is an example of a course that helps to develop the students’ ability to study social issues from the perspective of law and political science.
The study of law and political science itself is the study of the resolution of social problems; and through this study, students will naturally gain problem-solving and research skills. The courses relating to legal procedure to resolve disputes such as “Criminal Procedure I-II” and “Civil Procedure I-II” helps to develop such skills especially.
In addition, the courses of basic law such as “Philosophy of Law”, “Sociology of Law”, “Comparative Law”, and ”History of Law” contribute to foster an ability to discover and examine problems through studying fundamental thought of law and long standing legal issues.

④ Ethics and social responsibility
As law can be considered as minimal ethics, the study of law leads to the maintenance of ethics and social responsibility. Students gain a greater understanding of ethical issues in society through an internship program. This understanding is also developed in Theme-based Course A: “Life and Career Course”.

⑤ Community-mindedness
Basic knowledge of problems in the community are introduced to students through Theme-based Course C: “Community-Mindedness”. Furthermore, students study the practical problems with which legal professionals in the local community or staff of local financial institutions face through other specialized courses (“Boundary of Land and Registration of Description”, “Local Financial Administration”, and “General Insurance Business Practice and Law”).
Students are rigorously evaluated of their achievement (on a five-level grading system and grade point averages [GPAs]) based on, levels of knowledge and ability that they gain in lecture courses; proficiency of the issue of the course and activity in the class in small classes; and levels of contents and formality in a graduation thesis.