Legal Education Board resolution

Resolution No. 2019- 406 sets the graduate-level degree equivalency for basic law courses. Since 1994, the power to administer legal education systems in the country and supervise law schools was held with the Legal Education Board (LEB) by virtue of RA 7662, or the Legal Education Reform Act of 1993. On December 1, 2018, LEB issued Memorandum Order No. 19, Series of 2018, which adopted the juris doctor degree (JD) as the universal academic degree for all graduates of basic law courses in the Philippines. It discontinued the bachelor in laws and legislation (LLB) and made all previously-conferred LLB degrees equivalent to JDs.

The said resolution also considers the assumed equivalency between basic law degrees and master's degrees as “unfair and unreasonable” based on the coursework (a basic law degree requires a minimum coursework of 152 to 168 units while a master's degree requires approximately 36 to 40 units) and the curricular duration (a master's course takes two years while basic law takes four years).

The LEB held a consultative meeting last month that found no objections to considering LLBs as equivalent or appropriate education for purposes of appointment, employment, ranking, and compensation to doctoral degree holders in other academic disciplines.

The resolution also considers JDs equivalent to an academic doctoral degree since the aggregate graduate-level curricular requirement to finish a doctoral degree is approximately 100 units, while requirements for a JD run between 152 and 168 units.

While basic law degrees do not require dissertation, there is a significantly higher amount of curricular requirements than those for doctoral studies. In addition, the curricular duration to complete a combined master's and doctoral program is essentially the same as a basic law course.