Laws / Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Double Degree Bachelor (Hons) / Bachelor

La Trobe University's Bachelor of Laws (Honours)/Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics offers a practical, progressive, and multidisciplinary education, emphasizing a social and ethical lens on legal operations. Students develop a comprehensive legal skillset and apply it through real-world placement opportunities, fostering hands-on experience.The program enhances political expertise by exploring how governments manage economies to achieve social goals, including the interplay of inflation, unemployment, economic growth, and foreign debt on societal wellbeing. It also covers competing theories of political economy, such as institutional, feminist, post-Keynesian, behavioural, and ecological economics. Additionally, students gain skills in advocacy, negotiation, and dispute resolution for legal and non-legal contexts, with chances to compete in law school and international events in Vienna, Hong Kong, and Washington DC.

The major in Political Economy can only be taken by students in either the Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics or the double degree with Law (LLB (hons)/ PPE). The goal of the Political Economy major is two-fold. First, in conjunction with PPE degree cores, the major’s core units ensure that students cover a minimum amount of Economics, Politics and Philosophy in the degree overall. Second, core-choice in the major then allows students to specialise in one of three different types of political economy, cultivating the knowledge and skills that you can later employ in specific types of jobs. Students may choose to hone the skills that study the political economy of inequality (analysing how economic marginalisation occurs along axes of gender, race, religion, class, and other identity categories). Or students can analyse the political economy of global institutions (analysing the impact of the behaviour of states and other global actors on the organisation of our economies). Or students can study the political economy of climate crisis (analysing how power and business interests undermine our ability to solve collective action problems, and what opportunities might exist to overcome this). This major will equip you with skills and knowledge to understand how economies might be reoriented, and how the behaviour of consumers and producers might be modified (through incentives and institutions) to achieve particular social objectives.

Undertaking a major in Political Economy will connect you with experts in economics, politics, political theory, ethics, development studies, sociology, public health, and environmental humanities. It will also prepare you for a variety of jobs (concerned with various types of inequality, global institutions, and the  climate crisis) which will require intersecting and interdisciplinary skills.