About the Faculty
1. Introduction
The Faculty of Law was established in 2007 with the vision of becoming the leading center for legal education and knowledge production in the country and attaining a distinguished position among law faculties. Having largely achieved its former vision, the faculty now continues its mission with a renewed outlook: to transform into an entrepreneurial law faculty at the national level.
The Faculty of Law at Kateb University initially began its work with two departments—Judiciary & Prosecution and Public & Private Law—and continued with these two departments until 2020. In that year, following the introduction of a unified national curriculum by the Ministry of Higher Education, all law faculties across the country adopted a single program under the title Law, designed to align more closely with Afghanistan’s job market. The new curriculum seeks to strengthen practical and clinical components so that law students acquire essential professional skills alongside academic knowledge.
In addition to core subjects such as Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, Civil Law, and Commercial Law, students also study courses such as Mining Law, Consumer Protection Law, Environmental Law, Intellectual Property Law, and Labor Law.
2. Academic Programs
a) Bachelor’s Degree
Currently, the Faculty of Law offers one undergraduate program in Law based on the national curriculum. A new undergraduate program in Fiqh and Law is planned for the near future.
b) Master’s Degree
The faculty offers three graduate programs:
Criminal Law & Criminology
International Law
Private Law
3. Class Structure
Courses in the Faculty of Law are offered as one-credit or two-credit modules, with each theoretical credit equivalent to 50 minutes of instruction. Undergraduate students submit their monograph topic in the eighth semester, and master’s students do so in the third semester. After approval, students complete their research under the supervision of an advisor.
Career Opportunities for Law Graduates
Career paths for graduates of law are broad and diverse. As a discipline concerned with the governance of society, law equips graduates to work in areas such as:
The Presidential Office
Ministries and governmental directorates
Judiciary (Judges)
Prosecution (Prosecutors)
Defense Lawyering
Legal Consulting (national and international)
Diplomatic Representations
Domestic and international commercial arbitration
and more.
4. Legal Clinic
Unlike the traditional approach in many Afghan law faculties—where teaching is predominantly theoretical—law schools in many other countries, particularly in the West, regard law as a profession grounded in practical skills rather than a purely academic discipline. When viewed through this lens, legal education should rely considerably on experiential learning, rather than on an overly theoretical method of instruction.
Unfortunately, the theoretical teaching model common in Afghanistan does not sufficiently equip students with practical abilities such as legal writing (drafting complaints, indictments, defenses, appeals, contracts, legal opinions, and other documents). This gap leads to difficulties for graduates when entering the job market, reducing their confidence and creating long-term challenges for the legal profession.
With awareness of these challenges and recognizing the practical needs of law students, the Faculty of Law at Kateb University has established a Legal Clinic to strengthen practical legal training and reduce dependence on purely theoretical instruction. The Legal Clinic consists of four credits taught over two semesters—seventh and eighth—and is offered as an elective.
Pre-Clinic Courses
Students in the seventh semester who choose the Legal Clinic elective must complete two credits of Pre-Clinic Courses. These include:
Legal writing (complaints, defenses, indictments, appeals, forms used by prosecution offices, contracts, legal opinions, etc.)
Legal research methods
Interviewing clients
Providing legal consultation in family and commercial disputes
Other essential practical skills
Students who successfully complete these two credits become eligible to enter the practical phase of the clinic.
Clinical Phase
During the practical phase, qualified students work under the supervision of active defense lawyers who teach in the clinic. Students participate in real cases belonging to clients who have officially contracted the clinic’s lawyers. They assist in all stages of litigation—case preparation, drafting pleadings, advising clients, and more.
At the end of the eighth semester, the supervising lawyer evaluates each student’s performance and reports to the Head of the Legal Clinic and Head of Department. Students who pass both the pre-clinic and clinic courses gain hands-on skills preparing them to work effectively as defense lawyers or in related legal professions.
Structure of the Legal Clinic
The Legal Clinic at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of Kateb University operates as a specialized legal institution within the university and is licensed by the Afghanistan Legal Aid Board. Its dual mission is:
1. Providing legal services and legal aid to underprivileged clients;
2. Offering practical legal training to law students.
Thus, the Legal Clinic functions as both an academic and a service-oriented institution. The clinic integrates its academic components into the official curriculum approved by the Ministry of Higher Education and simultaneously holds a legal aid license from the Ministry of Justice.
The clinic consists of:
One Director
Two Instructors
Two practicing defense lawyers In the seventh semester, instructors teach the pre-clinic courses, and in the eighth semester, the defense lawyers supervise students working on real cases.
Eligibility Criteria for Joining the Legal Clinic
Students interested in the Legal Clinic must meet the following requirements:
1. Be an active student of the Faculty of Law and Political Science
2. Be enrolled in the seventh semester
3. Select both the Pre-Clinic and Clinic courses as electives
4. Pass the clinic entrance examination5. Successfully complete the interview process6. Maintain a GPA above 75%7. Demonstrate strong writing and speaking skills
8. Possess good ethical and social behavior and a distinguished character
9. Have an interest in judicial and legal professions
10. Show commitment to the responsibilities and obligations of the Clinic
