To be considered for the program, applicants must have received, or expect to receive by the summer of 2010, a first complete law degree (such as a Bologna Master degree, a J.D. or an LL.B.) or another academic qualification deemed equivalent by the Program Directors.

Applicants whose primary language is not English and who did not receive their university education in the English language must take a language proficiency test (TOEFL or IELTS). The admissions committee looks for a TOEFL score of 550 in the paper-based test, 213 in the computer-based test and 79 in the Internet-based test, or an IELTS overall score of 5.5. Applicants with at least two years of professional experience in English may request a waiver of this requirement. A passive understanding of French is an asset, though not a requisite.

In order to keep our faculty-student ratio low, we seek to enroll no more than 30 to 35 students each year, based on the strength of their record of academic or professional achievements.

For the 2010-2011 program, the deadline for applications was set to 1 February 2010. However, is it the program's general policy to give all due consideration to late applications, as and if places remain in the program or become available through cancelation or other.

There is no application fee.

To apply to the program, applicants must submit a complete application file, containing:

1. a filled in Application Form;
2. a curriculum vitae;
3. a personal statement explaining the applicant’s interest in the program;
4. two letters of recommendation;
5. photocopies of relevant degrees and diplomas, with an officially certified translation when not in English, French, German, Italian or Spanish;
6. photocopies of official records of university examinations taken and grades obtained, with the same need for translation as above;
7. the tables of contents and 10-page excerpts of the main theses written by the candidate in the course of university studies, if and where such theses exist and are available in English, French, German, Italian or Spanish;
8. TOEFL or IELTS score.

Please do not staple or bind the pages of your application and do not send original documents, as all submitted materials become the property of the Master program upon receipt and will be neither returned to the applicant nor forwarded to other schools or agencies.

We accept applications submitted through our online submission system, or sent by mail to our standard contact address, or submitted by email.

A notification will be sent to you confirming receipt of your application.

We make every effort to keep our admission process as swift as possible and therefore regret that we cannot reply to telephone, fax, or email inquiries asking us to verify receipt of application materials, confirm application status or give indications on the chances of admission.

Our applications office deals exclusively with admission to the MIDS. Inquiries regarding other programs, including PhD programs, at the University of Geneva or the Graduate Institute should be addressed to their respective secretariats.