While either law or arts can be a fine start to your career, you can enhance your options and professional expertise by combining them in this double degree course.

A feature of the law component is the large number of specialist units available. Coupled with some 40 arts majors and minors, you can enhance your study of law with subjects such as bioethics, criminology, international relations, holocaust or genocide studies, or indulge your passion for the performing arts, language, music or theatre.

You will acquire a solid foundation in the concepts, procedures and reasoning underpinning the Australian legal system and the research, analytical and communication skills of the legal profession. You will also be challenged to think critically and creatively, to resist easy answers or simplistic solutions and to develop an ethical and intellectual framework within which to understand what it means to be human, and how this changes over time.

Gain the skillset for an influential career.

To understand the big issues of our age, we need to examine social and economic issues from a range of different angles. Because of this, tomorrow’s leaders will benefit from legal expertise*, while successful lawyers will require emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills.**

La Trobe's Bachelor of Laws (Honours)/Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics gives you a practical, progressive and multi-disciplinary education with a unique social and ethical perspective on how the law operates. Gain a comprehensive legal skillset, then put it to work in real-world environments through placement opportunities.

Enhance your political expertise by learning how governments manage their economies and achieve important social objectives. Study the interaction between inflation, unemployment, economic growth and foreign debt, along with the effects on social wellbeing. From there, you'll examine competing theories of political economy, including institutional, feminist, post-Keynesian, behavioural and ecological economics.

Learn skills in advocacy, negotiation and dispute resolution and how to apply these in both legal and non-legal settings. You'll also have the opportunity to put your skills to the test in Law School competitions, and even international ones in Vienna, Hong Kong and Washington DC.

Develop sought-after skills in critical thinking, research, communication and teamwork. Pursue placement opportunities and gain firsthand experience in community legal centres, law firms and government agencies. You'll also be able to forge mentor relationships with judges, magistrates and coroners.

Graduate ready to tackle real-world problems, including climate change, the need for sustainable innovation, and the unequal distribution of wealth, opportunity and power.

A distinctive feature of our law degree is the unique balance between legal principles and practice. You will gain an understanding of the key areas of law and develop advanced knowledge in areas that interest you. You will also develop necessary legal skills such as legal research, problem solving, critical analysis, dispute resolution, as well as oral and written communication skills.