The Legal Studies & Ethics Doctoral Program at Wharton program focuses on the study of ethics and law in business. It is designed to prepare graduates for careers in university teaching and research at leading business schools, law schools, and other programs.Students take a core set of courses in the area of ethics and law in business, along with courses in an additional disciplinary concentration such as management, finance, marketing, or accounting. Resources for current PhD students can be found here.

 

Faculty and student interests range over topics including international business ethics and human rights, corporate governance, social impact, environmental law and policy, securities, normative political theory, negotiation, sports law and policy and corporate criminal law.The course of study for the PhD requires the completion of sixteen graduate course units, including courses in statistics. Some graduate-level credit from courses at other universities may transfer to Wharton.

 

At the end of the first year of study, each student must present and publicly defend a research paper. At the end of the second year, each student must pass two comprehensive written exams, one in law and one in ethics, and successfully defend his or her answers in a public forum before advancing to write a dissertation. The expected time required to complete the degree is four years, though many students will take five years. Students are expected to play an active and engaged role in the scholarly community of the Department and of the University of Pennsylvania’ while pursuing their degree; accordingly, they are expected to be resident in the local area as they progress through the program.

 

Applicants are not required to have a law degree, although prior coursework in law, ethics, social sciences or philosophy is considered a plus.

 

Prospective candidates may apply to the Ethics & Legal Studies Doctoral Program online at Wharton’s Doctoral Programs Application Page. The application deadline is December 15 of each year. Strong GRE or GMAT scores are required. GRE scores are preferred, but GMAT scores are accepted. Results must be available by mid-January, and preferably before December 15.