Quite a stupid question but....

..... I’m interested in a law degree but I don’t exactly know what it entails. What are considered some of the better unis for law so that I can look at the modules and that. What does a typical law exam question look like?

Bump

Universities Forum Helper

You don't need to bump a 20 minute old thread :tongue:

Currently all qualifying law degrees (QLDs) are required to cover core content of the following subjects:

Public law (constitutional/administrative)
European Union law
Procedural law (including law of evidence)
Criminal law
Law of obligations (contract, restitution, and tort)
Property law (real property)
Trusts and equity

Beyond those typically it's options in more specialised areas of law (such as corporate law, taxation, intellectual property law, family law, etc, etc), sometimes allied subjects like jurisprudence (the philosophy of law) and usually some core legal writing/research skills and optionally a thesis/dissertation/extended essay on a legal topic.

Here is an overview of some specific topics covered in contract and public law by a student on here:

Original post by RevisingHard

Contract -
Offer/ acceptance
consideration
damages
third party
discharge
duress
estoppel
inteention/certaint
- Off he top of my head - sure there is more

Public -
HRA/ ECHR / Delegated leg primary leg/ UK constitution/ EU law etc etc

Thanks so much :smile:

Here are two questions from a Contract Law Exam at King's Inns (an Irish law school - so there are likely some jurisdictional differences in how you would respond, not that it necessarily invalidates the question)

Spoiler

and below is some commentary by a student on TSR on how to answer questions in such an exam, if you click the quote to go to the original post:

Original post by jacketpotato

This isn't particularly hard to find, and not particularly useful or relevant anyway. None of it will make much sense until you actually study the course, and they will not expect anyone to have any idea what they're necessarily getting into, and will work with students to develop their writing skills to appropriately reflect legal writing styles and methods. Basically though you'll study an aspect of the law, and then a variety of cases where it was applied or called into question. You'll probably then be given exercises (such as essays or exam questions) where a hypothetical scenario is posed, and you need to use your knowledge of these different cases which may partially or not apply to the question at hand, and formulate a response based on that. It's unlikely a question would mirror an actual case identically because then if you'd read that case you would immediately know the resolution - the expectation is that you understand how the resolutions of those cases were reasoned to and then use similar reasoning to come to appropriate conclusions for others.

Reply 3

Notoriety

Original post by Reece.W.J

Original post by artful_lounger

I understand you got that list from the Essex Uni's website. I am not really sure why they say you need to do procedural law, such as the law of evidence. It is not listed by the SRA as a compulsory module and most courses offer the law of evidence as an optional module. I for one have never done the law of evidence. Plus on the website, Essex are using a dead link to a Wikipedia article as their source.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 4

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by Notorious_B.I.G.

All the unis offer pretty much the same modules, so you don't need to know what the "better unis" are before doing your research.

A law exam will include a combination of problem questions (scenarios which you need to give advice to your fictional client about) essays (usually a proposition which you analyse/critically discuss). In some exams, you will have to do one of each; one essay or one PQ; or you can choose any combination you like. As mentioned, there is no point really giving you a particular past paper because you won't have a clue what any of it means nor how demanding it is in terms of the content it is asking you to address.

I understand you got that list from the Essex Uni's website. I am not really sure why they say you need to do procedural law, such as the law of evidence. It is not listed by the SRA as a compulsory module and most courses offer the law of evidence as an optional module. I for one have never done the law of evidence. Plus on the website, Essex are using a dead link to a Wikipedia article as their source.

Fair point. I believe it's required for Scots law, although that's probably not relevant for OP. I didn't actually notice that addition, although the others are typical of what I've see of other universities, and to my knowledge what are required by the SRA for the current qualification format including e.g. Oxbridge (incidentally OP Oxford requires all students take Jurisprudence as a paper).

Reply 5

Student1191

Original post by artful_lounger

By time I get there (yr 12 atm) do you think EU law will still be required. Well they plan on copying it over to start with or depends on the deal

Reply 6

Notoriety

Original post by artful_lounger

Yes, the others are required subjects for a QLD.

Reply 7

Student1191

I think the questions seem interesting and I will certainly consider applying to law next year. Ik all the London colleges are great but do any of Birmingham, Bristol or Swansea offer good law because they’re slightly closer to home and cheaper living costs