Law thesis cover colour: blue, red or bordeaux

You are graduating in Law and wondering which colour to choose for your cover. Two strong traditions coexist: the navy blue of the academic robe (rationality, authority of the law) and the bordeaux red of the Roman robes worn by high public offices. Red and bordeaux refer here to the same colour family: bordeaux is simply a dark, intense red, which is why the two shades are traditionally mentioned together.

Both traditions are accepted and widely chosen: blue evokes the rationality and authority of the law (the colour of academic robes), while bordeaux recalls the tradition of the Roman robes of high public offices.

For Law the most requested combinations are:

The decision depends on three factors: (1) your university — at LUISS blue is almost compulsory, at Sapienza you can choose freely; (2) the thesis subject — public/constitutional law leans towards bordeaux, comparative/international law tends towards blue; (3) your aesthetic preference — there is no wrong choice, both fall within tradition. For Canon Law (LUMSA, Cattolica) dark green is a characterising and well-accepted choice.

Both are dark colours, so both are forgiving: gold and silver foil stand out on either without surprises. The difference is in the feel and in the light.

Midnight blue on leatherette looks darker than it does on screen, and under the light of a graduation hall it edges towards black: if you want it to read as blue, choose it from the real samples, not from a monitor. Burgundy does the opposite, it opens up slightly and shows its red component, especially on eco-leather.

For Law the combination we see most often is midnight blue with gold foil, and it is also the one that photographs best on discussion day. Burgundy with gold is equally solid; LUMSA's dark green only holds up with gold, while silver tends to deaden it.

Your programme's regulations almost certainly say nothing about colour. It is the question we get most often at the counter, and the answer surprises people: submission rules prescribe the binding type, the number of copies and the digital file format, and practically never the shade of the cover. Colour is tradition, not rule.

There are two practical exceptions. The first is your supervisor: if they have a preference it outweighs any tradition, and one email is all it takes to find out. The second is cohort submissions, where the registrar asks for uniform theses within the same session: more common in the science faculties.

So: no committee has ever rejected a thesis over the colour of its cover. What does get challenged is the wrong binding or a non-compliant PDF/A. If you have not done so yet, it is worth reading which binding you need and how to create a PDF/A.

Looking for another faculty? Ingegneria · Economia · Medicina. The full map of the nine traditional colours is in the thesis colours by faculty guide; the colour of the laurel-wreath ribbon, which follows the same tradition, is in the graduation day guide.