Law
- Number of students per year: eight to ten
- Typical offer: A*AA or equivalent; we accept a wide range of
- Essential subjects: none
- Useful subjects: English (language or literature), History, Languages (ancient or modern)
Law is a large and supportive subject at °µÍø½ûÇø. It includes three groups: undergraduates, postgraduates and Fellows. The College admits eight to ten undergraduate students each year, as well as around ten LLM (Master of Laws) and MCL (Master of Corporate Law) students, and typically one to two students researching for a PhD in Law. There are four Fellows in Law (more information about them is provided below), and a number of Emeritus (retired) Fellows. Students and Fellows come from a range of backgrounds and jurisdictions.
Added to our Cambridge-based community are a number of Honorary Fellows, including three retired Lords Justice of Appeal (Sir Stephen Irwin, Sir Rupert Jackson and Sir Colman Treacy). These Honorary Fellows remain involved in Law at °µÍø½ûÇø, as do many other alumni.
The °µÍø½ûÇø Library has a dedicated Law room, which contains many resources (for example, textbooks and law reports) necessary for legal study. There are also computing facilities available, if needed.
Law is an intellectually stimulating and demanding subject for study. It is taught at Cambridge as an academic subject rather than as a vocation. While studying for the Law degree – the BA in Law – you will learn the skills necessary for critical engagement with legal materials, as well as obtaining substantive knowledge of various major areas of English law. More importantly, you will develop the ability to assess legal rules critically and make arguments regarding whether the law should be changed. You can see some examples of the types of issue that you will examine as a Law undergraduate at Cambridge. If you want to find out more about the course, please visit the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law’s guide to ‘’.
If students are studying for the three-year BA in Law degree, they study seven ‘Foundation’ papers. Three of these papers (Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Tort Law) are taken in the first year of the degree, alongside Civil Law I (Roman Law). An introductory course on Legal Skills and Methodology is also offered by the Faculty.
In the second and third years of the three-year degree, the remaining Foundation papers (Contract Law, Land Law, EU Law and Equity) must be taken, but students can also choose from a that explore entirely distinct areas of the law or examine the issues raised by the Foundation papers in more detail. There is also the option, in the third year of the degree, to apply to write a dissertation of around 12,000 words on a legal issue.
Students with a degree in a subject other than Law can apply to be affiliated students, which will mean completing a two-year BA in Law. The Foundation papers are taken within these two years, but there is still the opportunity to take some optional papers alongside them.
Studying Law at Cambridge requires significant time and effort. Our students apply themselves rigorously for three years. The majority of this work involves reading, analysing, and understanding legal material, primarily cases but also statutory documents and secondary sources such as law review articles. The normal rate of reading is 200 pages of text for each supervision (small group teaching session) for each subject. Supervisions in each paper occur every fortnight. The average first-year student will therefore be expected to read 800 pages of material every two weeks. Reflecting on what has been read, planning answers for the questions set by a supervisor (tutor) and the writing of essays for supervisors (one/two for each subject for each term) add to this independent workload. Revision and further reading needs to be completed over the Christmas and Easter breaks.
Societies
Law students at Jesus are life members of the student-run °µÍø½ûÇø Law Society (JCLS), which organises a variety of events for Law students, including social events, guest talks and mooting competitions (where students present competing legal arguments to a mock court). Law students at Jesus also become members of the Glanville Williams Society. (Glanville Williams was a very famous criminal lawyer, who was a Fellow of °µÍø½ûÇø.) The Society holds an annual gathering where current Law students and alumni (who studied Law or another subject at Jesus before entering the legal profession) can meet.
Law Fellows
Jesus currently has four Law fellows.
- Dr Raffael Fasel is the Yates Glazebrook Fellow in Law, and supervises students in Civil (Roman) Law and Constitutional Law.
- supervises students in Family Law.
- Ms Amy Goymour supervises students in Land Law.
- Professor Findlay Stark supervises students of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure and Evidence.
Requirements
There is no set range of A-Level (or equivalent) subjects that are required to apply to study Law at Jesus.
As noted above, studying Law involves a lot of reading, and the course at Cambridge is assessed entirely on the basis of written work. Applicants should thus have exceptionally strong reading and writing skills, which is often demonstrated by studying subjects that are essay-based (for instance, English and History). A science subject, or mathematics, can also be useful to hone logical and reasoning skills. There is no expectation at Jesus that applicants will have studied A-Level Law. On the one hand, studying A-Level Law can be advantageous, insofar as it introduces you to legal concepts and can help you decide whether studying Law at university is for you. On the other hand, A-Level Law is taught at a very basic level, and some students find it difficult to ‘re-learn’ material at the appropriate level of depth at Cambridge, which can impact negatively on their performance, at least initially.
Decisions regarding admission are made based on the applicant’s pre-existing school record, predicted school record (if applicable), performance on the National Admissions Test for Law (commonly referred to as LNAT) and interview performance, together with any other relevant circumstances (including extenuating circumstances). A holistic assessment of a candidate’s performance is made – in other words, if you do not do well in one aspect of the process, that does not mean that you will necessarily not be made an offer of admission.
Written assessment
All applicants for Law are required to take the (LNAT), for which pre-registration is required. Registration for the LNAT opens on 1 August 2024 and the final registration deadline is 15 September 2024. Applicants must sit the LNAT by no later than 15 October 2024.
Interviews
In 2024-25, we’ll be interviewing shortlisted applicants virtually, with interviews taking place in December.
The interview process aims to assess your intellectual ability, potential, and commitment to the subject. Candidates are typically interviewed by at least three subject specialists, including the Director of Studies, and total contact time will be between 35-50 minutes in total. This could be in a single interview, or in two separate interviews. Further details will be made available to candidates closer to the time.
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Preparation
No part of the admissions process requires any existing knowledge of the law. If you are interested in studying Law, useful resources are available on the . The Faculty of Law also runs a free online course called ‘’.
There are a number of books aimed at intending Law students, for instance Barnard, O’Sullivan and Virgo (eds.), What About Law? Studying Law at University (2nd edn., 2011) and McBride, Letters to a Law Student (5th edn., 2022). Most broadsheet newspapers cover legal issues in detail, and reading this material can give insight into the living, breathing nature of the law.
Written work
You do not need to submit any written work.
International applicants
We mostly refer to A-Levels and the International Baccalaureate for our entry requirements, but we accept a wide variety of qualifications from all over the world. The University website lists the . We expect students to be on track to achieve the highest grades in whichever qualification system they are studying. See our dedicated page for international students for more information.
Deferred and post A-Level entry
°µÍø½ûÇø accepts applications of students wishing to defer the start of their undergraduate studies for a year. It is useful to explain in your application what you intend to do in the relevant year.
Find out how to apply to study at Jesus.
