Master of Laws in Business Law: Employment Law and HR Management
The master's degree in Employment Law and HR Management is exactly the right degree program for you if you have already successfully completed your first degree in business law and would like to obtain comprehensive additional qualifications as part of a master's degree program.
The degree program qualifies its graduates for demanding management positions in all areas of employment law and human resources management. Important cross-connections from the fields of law and business are interlinked in this degree program and ensure an attractive, practical degree program.
The combination of theory and practice is ensured through excursions (e.g., to the Federal Labor Court in Erfurt) and company visits. In addition to professors from our university, lecturers from human resources departments, labor court judges, and lawyers also teach in this program. We offer tutorials led by experienced students to prepare you for exams.
In addition, through our cooperation partner, you can obtain the certificates “Compliance Officer with TÜV Rheinland-certified qualification” and “Data Protection Officer with TÜV Rheinland-certified qualification” at significantly reduced costs.
Applicants with a first professional qualification of 180 ECTS credits from a previous six-semester bachelor's degree program are offered a bridge module (internship semester) at our university - even before the official start of studies in the winter semester - in order to acquire the total 300 ECTS credits required for the master's degree. Find out more here.
What's in store for you
The content guideline of our consecutive master's degree program in business law is the application-oriented combination of jurisprudential and business studies curricula in the fields of employment law and human resources management. A further component of the program is the targeted transfer of relevant key competences and interdisciplinary skills.
The main focus in the area of employment law is on these areas:
- Establishment & content, termination of the employment relationship
- Company pension schemes/social security law
- Collective employment law
- Employment law in restructuring and corporate crisis
- HR compliance (GDPR)
- European & international labor law
- Judicial protection
From an economic point of view, the modules in the area of human resources management are closely linked to these employment law topics:
- Human resources management & organization
- Conflict resolution & mediation
- Business practice I and II
- Performance management
- Change management
In the third semester, the master's thesis will be followed by a colloquium. The exam preparation course offers a condensed transfer, update, and consolidation of the module content from the first and second semesters. In addition, a six-week internship is completed as part of the coursework.
Who is this degree program interesting for?
The master's program in Employment Law and Human Resources Management is designed for graduates with a first degree in business law (bachelor's degree in business law or first state examination).
The degree program serves to further qualify and improve professional opportunities through a recognized and valued master's degree. It prepares for the assumption of demanding specialist and managerial tasks in private and public companies in higher civil service. In addition, it will then enable further academic training as part of a doctoral program.
Program Structure
The master's degree program in business law comprises three semesters, 90 ECTS and 54 weekly semester hours. The contents of the three semesters are as follows:
In the first semester, the modules Justification & Content of the Employment Relationship, Termination of the Employment Relationship, Company Pension Schemes/Social Security Law, and Collective Employment Law impart sound knowledge of employment law on a high level. Closely linked to these labor law topics from an economic perspective are the modules Human Resource Management & Organization, Conflict Resolution & Mediation, and the term paper in Business Practice I.
In the second semester, the four modules Employment Law in Restructuring and Corporate Crisis, HR Compliance (GDPR), European & International Employment Law, and Judicial Protection cover complex, current special issues in labor law practice as well as the judicial enforcement or defense of claims. The economic modules Performance Management, Change Management, and Business Practice II accompany the labor law issues with practice-oriented topics on performance management, resource commitment in companies, and methods for dealing with operational change situations.
The practical module takes place in the third semester. The internship, which lasts at least 6 weeks (32 hours/week), is completed in the employment law or human resources department of a company, an association, or public agency and is equivalent to a coursework achievement. In the examinatorium, the knowledge acquired in the first and second semesters is intensified and updated. At the end of the examinatorium you will write a final exam.
As part of your master's thesis, you will deal with a complex issue of employment law and/or economics using legal and/or economic methods and argumentation techniques. In a subsequent colloquium, you will defend your thesis argumentatively.
Your professional prospects
The degree program qualifies you for activities in the private and public sectors, which are characterized by a content-related linkage of employment law and economic tasks and comprise competences from the two areas of employment law and human resources management. Depending on your interdisciplinary training, you will have the opportunity to carry out demanding specialist and management tasks in the employment law and human resources departments of industrial, commercial and service companies, insurance and financial services companies, as well as business organizations and associations.
