Our taught postgraduate programme, designed to serve outstanding law students from common-law backgrounds

The aim of the course is to acquaint students with the fundamental principles of Civil Procedure. These principles are not specific to England but are common to all advanced systems of law. The operation and implications of these principles is discussed against the background of English law and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. A short introduction to English civil procedure is provided so that students not familiar with the English system could soon acquire a working knowledge. However, students coming from other jurisdiction are encouraged to consider how the principles and the ideas discussed in the lectures can play a part in their own home litigation systems.

Both lectures and seminars involve active student participation. The course consists of 16 to 22 lectures (some of 2 hours each), 8 seminars and 4 to 5 tutorials. The lectures are normally held in Michaelmas and Hilary Terms and the seminars in Trinity Term.

The seminars address central issues in contemporary procedure in England and elsewhere. The sessions are conducted by Professor Zuckerman with guest speakers, such as scholars, practitioners and judges from England and abroad. Tutorials may be concentrated in one term or spread over two or three terms and will be taken with Professor Zuckerman and Mr Higgins.

The course contains the following topics:

1. General theory of civil adjudication
2. An introduction to English civil procedure
3. The procedural implications of the European Convention on Human Rights
4. Adversarial Freedom, Court Control and Timely Justice; Sanctions for non-compliance with rules or orders; Summary Adjudication
5. Interim injunctions
6. Disclosure, including legal professional privilege and search orders
7. Class Actions
8. Appeal and Finality of Litigation
9. Justice and Costs: The “winner recovers costs from loser” rule v. The no-costs rule; Economics and justice: hourly fees, conditional fees, contingency fees; Protection from costs: payment into court; security for costs; wasted costs orders
10. Public Law Litigation: Intervention in proceedings; funding of public law litigation; peculiar features of litigation in specialist tribunals such as the Immigration Appeal Tribunal

Our taught postgraduate programme, designed to serve outstanding law students from civil law backgrounds.

The aim of the course is to acquaint students with the fundamental principles of Civil Procedure. These principles are not specific to England but are common to all advanced systems of law. The operation and implications of these principles is discussed against the background of English law and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. A short introduction to English civil procedure is provided so that students not familiar with the English system could soon acquire a working knowledge. However, students coming from other jurisdiction are encouraged to consider how the principles and the ideas discussed in the lectures can play a part in their own home litigation systems.

Both lectures and seminars involve active student participation. The course consists of 16 to 22 lectures (some of 2 hours each), 8 seminars and 4 to 5 tutorials. The lectures are normally held in Michaelmas and Hilary Terms and the seminars in Trinity Term.

The seminars address central issues in contemporary procedure in England and elsewhere. The sessions are conducted by Professor Zuckerman with guest speakers, such as scholars, practitioners and judges from England and abroad. Tutorials may be concentrated in one term or spread over two or three terms and will be taken with Professor Zuckerman and Mr Higgins.

The course contains the following topics:

1. General theory of civil adjudication
2. An introduction to English civil procedure
3. The procedural implications of the European Convention on Human Rights
4. Adversarial Freedom, Court Control and Timely Justice; Sanctions for non-compliance with rules or orders; Summary Adjudication
5. Interim injunctions
6. Disclosure, including legal professional privilege and search orders
7. Class Actions
8. Appeal and Finality of Litigation
9. Justice and Costs: The “winner recovers costs from loser” rule v. The no-costs rule; Economics and justice: hourly fees, conditional fees, contingency fees; Protection from costs: payment into court; security for costs; wasted costs orders
10. Public Law Litigation: Intervention in proceedings; funding of public law litigation; peculiar features of litigation in specialist tribunals such as the Immigration Appeal Tribunal

Our taught postgraduate programme, designed to serve outstanding law students from common-law backgrounds

The Law of Evidence is a valuable subject in the BCL because it is in all common law jurisdictions still dominated by common principles. This means that overseas graduates can both bring more to it, and gain more from it.

The aim of the course is to establish the basic structure of this branch of the law to which all students can relate the knowledge they acquire so as to be able to grasp it instinctively and to be able to “think on their feet.” It is the one area which lawyers need to know in detail rather than know how to acquire since problems arise, often unexpectedly, in the course of a trial for which no preparation has been possible. The more thorough the understanding of basic principles the more readily the detail can be slotted in, or created. All of these features owe their existence to the fact that the law has been gradually accreted by individual decisions of the judges in the course of trials, sometimes without the benefit of extensive reference to materials. It is because judges have so often drawn upon their instinct for the fundamentals of this branch of the law that it has developed so similarly in different jurisdictions, and has largely resisted radical statutory intervention.

These factors have also created an opportunity for useful academic reflection to draw out the principles often left unarticulated beneath the surface of the decisions. The subject has benefited from a succession of particularly talented commentators such as Thayer and Wigmore in the United States, and Cross in the United Kingdom. It tends to be in the forefront of change as increasing efforts are made to streamline civil litigation, and to cope more effectively with an increasing tide of criminal cases. These have led to the proposal of a number of innovations such as the reform of the hearsay rule, and changes in the evidential use of silence or an accused person’s previous record. The law is also adapting to newer forms of record-keeping, and the exploitation of the possibilities offered by video-recording.

In all jurisdictions the subject is in constant ferment with new codes and consolidations under consideration or implemented. Since the subject tends to highlight perceived tension between the efficient resolution of disputes and the importance of resolving them fairly, it is never short of topicality or fierce controversy.

The course in Oxford concentrates more on central principles than on the minutiae of procedure, and makes an effort to draw upon the experience of the whole of the common law world.

Unlike most other BCL courses, the Law of Evidence is taught, as to the core, through 7 tutorials. There are also a range of lectures. Seminars, 6 in number, are held in Trinity Term.

A comprehensive reading list is available to support students reading the subject, and this is supplemented by a number of courses of lectures each developing a particular central aspect of the subject in more depth than is possible in a general survey of the whole subject. The main seminar currently takes place in Trinity term and is designed to explore particularly topical or difficult subjects by setting problems. The teaching group regards tutorials as very important, and these are arranged by the course convenor, at instance of college tutors. The examination is in the third week of the Summer vacation.

Our taught postgraduate programme, designed to serve outstanding law students from civil law backgrounds.

The Law of Evidence is a valuable subject in the BCL because it is in all common law jurisdictions still dominated by common principles. This means that overseas graduates can both bring more to it, and gain more from it.

The aim of the course is to establish the basic structure of this branch of the law to which all students can relate the knowledge they acquire so as to be able to grasp it instinctively and to be able to “think on their feet.” It is the one area which lawyers need to know in detail rather than know how to acquire since problems arise, often unexpectedly, in the course of a trial for which no preparation has been possible. The more thorough the understanding of basic principles the more readily the detail can be slotted in, or created. All of these features owe their existence to the fact that the law has been gradually accreted by individual decisions of the judges in the course of trials, sometimes without the benefit of extensive reference to materials. It is because judges have so often drawn upon their instinct for the fundamentals of this branch of the law that it has developed so similarly in different jurisdictions, and has largely resisted radical statutory intervention.

These factors have also created an opportunity for useful academic reflection to draw out the principles often left unarticulated beneath the surface of the decisions. The subject has benefited from a succession of particularly talented commentators such as Thayer and Wigmore in the United States, and Cross in the United Kingdom. It tends to be in the forefront of change as increasing efforts are made to streamline civil litigation, and to cope more effectively with an increasing tide of criminal cases. These have led to the proposal of a number of innovations such as the reform of the hearsay rule, and changes in the evidential use of silence or an accused person’s previous record. The law is also adapting to newer forms of record-keeping, and the exploitation of the possibilities offered by video-recording.

In all jurisdictions the subject is in constant ferment with new codes and consolidations under consideration or implemented. Since the subject tends to highlight perceived tension between the efficient resolution of disputes and the importance of resolving them fairly, it is never short of topicality or fierce controversy.

The course in Oxford concentrates more on central principles than on the minutiae of procedure, and makes an effort to draw upon the experience of the whole of the common law world.

Unlike most other BCL courses, the Law of Evidence is taught, as to the core, through 7 tutorials. There are also a range of lectures. Seminars, 6 in number, are held in Trinity Term.

A comprehensive reading list is available to support students reading the subject, and this is supplemented by a number of courses of lectures each developing a particular central aspect of the subject in more depth than is possible in a general survey of the whole subject. The main seminar currently takes place in Trinity term and is designed to explore particularly topical or difficult subjects by setting problems. The teaching group regards tutorials as very important, and these are arranged by the course convenor, at instance of college tutors. The examination is in the third week of the Summer vacation.