LAW STUDENTS in the Republic are examining their options in the light of last week's Supreme Court decision, which effectively removed the exemption for graduate entry to the Incorporated Law Society.

The Supreme Court declared that the regulation under which the exemptions were granted was invalid under the Treaty of Rome, which means that future law graduates will now have to sit entrance examinations to the Incorporated Law Society, from which they have been exempted for several years.

"The law degree has effectively been devalued," says law postgraduate student Malcolm Byrne, a spokesman for UCD students' union. "Now it's the same as any other degree, when it comes to entering into the professions."