BA in Jurisprudence Options

This subject is an introduction to the legal concepts and legal thought of Roman private law, which inspired and influenced our modern private law. The course therefore shows where many of the ideas which we take for granted have come from. The course is based on primary materials, the set texts from Gaius (second century AD) and Justinian (sixth century AD). The texts are studied in translation. No Latin is needed, nor is Latin an advantage. Contact with primary materials is one of the great merits of the study of law. It allows the mind to form its own judgments, freed from second-hand opinions.

The course has five sections: I. Sources of Law and the Scheme of the Institutes; II. Property; III. Obligations (A) Contract, (B) Delict (Tort); IV. Influence of Roman Law.

This course covers the law of the constitution, including the structure and basic principles of the British constitution, and the impact of European Union law on the constitution. It also provides an introduction to the protection of human rights in English law.

It covers the following topics:

Structure: separation of powers, the role of the courts, the powers of the executive (including prerogative powers), devolution (to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), the supremacy of European Community Law as it relates to national law, and the European principle of state liability. Questions will not be set on the detail of the legal effect of directives or on the detail of European Institutions. General principles: constitutional conventions (including ministerial accountability), parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law. Human rights: the structure and effect of the Human Rights Act 1998 (focusing in particular on its impact on parliamentary sovereignty and the judicial role); the application of the Human Rights Act 1998.

Coverage

Whilst all topics are examinable, not all of the topics in the syllabus are required to be covered in tutorials.  Tutors may focus on some parts of the course at the expense of other areas, and may include additional materials on their reading list that are not included on the core list. 

Learning outcomes

Familiarity with the structures and underlying principles of the British constitution, and the impact of EU Law on the constitution.

This course may be taken as an Option by Diploma in Legal Studies students.

The course deals with the following: (i) General principles of criminal liability: actus reus and mens rea, omissions, causation, negligence, strict liability, complicity and inchoate offences. (ii) General defences. (iii) The law relating to offences against the person (including sexual offences) and offences against property and other economic interests.

The subject requires attention to cases and statutes, and is an important bridge to subjects studied for the Final Honour School, in particular the opportunity it provides to study problem questions. It is hoped that students will find it interesting for its intellectual challenge, as well as for the colourful material.

The subject comprises the following topics:

1. General principles of criminal liability: actus reus (including liability for omissions); mens rea (including different kinds of fault, such as intention, negligence, strict liability); causation.

2. General defences to criminal liability.

3. Liability as a party to a crime, including participation as a principal and secondary participation (including ‘joint enterprise’). Questions will not be set on sections 4 or 5 of the Criminal Law Act 1967 (assisting offenders after the fact and compounding offences).

4. Liability for the inchoate offences of statutory conspiracy, attempt and the offences created by sections 44, 45 and 46 of the Serious Crime Act 2007.

5. Liability for the following kinds of homicide: murder; manslaughter (excluding corporate manslaughter). No question will be set requiring knowledge of infanticide or of encouraging or assisting suicide.

6. Liability for the offences created by sections 1, 2 and 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Candidates will be expected to know of the existence of the other offences created by that Act.

7. Liability for the following offences: common assault and common battery; the offences created by the following sections of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861: 16, 18, 20, 23, 24, 47.

8. Liability for the following offences: the offences created by the Criminal Damage Act 1971 sections 1-3; the offences created by the Theft Act 1968, sections 1, 8 and 9; and the offences created by the Fraud Act 2006, sections 1-4. Candidates will be expected to know of the existence of the offences created by sections 12, 21, 22 and 25 of the Theft Act 1968 and section 3 of the Theft Act 1978.

NB Second BA students taking Criminal law study a slightly different syllabus and should refer to the FHS Handbook for details of what that syllabus covers.

Coverage

Examiners may set questions on all the topics listed above. In every case, candidates are expected to have knowledge of the statutory provisions and case law relevant to the interpretation of the examinable offences

Learning outcomes

A general understanding of the principles and theory of criminal law and a specific knowledge of criminal liability for the offences listed above. An ability to demonstrate this knowledge in both essays and problem questions.

This course may be taken as an Option by Diploma in Legal Studies students.

Administrative Law is concerned primarily with judicial control of the activities of the executive branch of government. The main topics covered are: (1) the grounds on which decisions and rules made by the executive can be challenged in the court - some of these relate to the substance of the decision or rule and others to the procedure by which it was made; (2) the remedies which can be obtained by applicants challenging administrative decisions; (3) the liability of public authorities in contract and tort.

Some tutors also deal with tribunals, public local inquiries, next steps agencies, contracting out and public sector ombudsmen. Some of these topics are the subject of lectures, which also occasionally deal with more theoretical aspects of the subject. Administrative Law is now one of the compulsory standard subjects within the Final Honours School syllabus. It also covers material in the “foundations of legal knowledge” and so must be taken by those seeking a professional qualification in England and Wales. The subject is taught in tutorials arranged by your college tutor.

The syllabus comprises the general principles of the law governing enforceable agreements. It is not concerned with special rules governing specific types of contracts, such as sale, carriage or employment, except where these are significant for the general principles. The principal topics normally discussed are: (a) the rules relating to the formation of agreements and to certain further requirements which must be satisfied to make agreements legally enforceable; (b) the contents of a contract and the rules governing the validity of terms which exclude or restrict liability and unfair terms in consumer contracts; (c) the nature and effects in a contractual context of mistake, misrepresentation, duress and undue influence; (d) the general principle that right and duties arising under a contract can only be enforced by and against the parties to it and its main exceptions; (e) performance and breach, including the right to terminate for failure in performance and the effects of wrongful repudiation; (f) supervening events as a ground of discharge under the doctrine of frustration; (g) remedies for breach of contract by way of damages, action for the agreed sum, specific performance and injunction. (h) the basis of contractual liability.

Contract is one of the compulsory standard subjects within the Final Honour School syllabus. It also covers material in the “foundations of legal knowledge” and so must be taken by those seeking a professional qualification in England and Wales.

The subject is taught in tutorials arranged by your college tutor. Particular areas are also explored in lectures.

Syllabus:

Candidates will be required to show a knowledge of such parts of the law of restitution as are directly relevant to the law of contract. Questions may be set in this paper requiring knowledge of the law of tort.

Teaching Conventions:

The teaching is based on the assumption that questions will not be asked on contracts that are illegal or contrary to public policy or on gaming and wagering contracts; and that detailed knowledge will not be expected of formal requirements, agency, assignment or contractual capacity.

The law of the European Union is based largely on the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union, and legislation made under the Treaties by the Council, the Parliament, and the Commission. The case law of the European Courts is of considerable importance and looms large in the study of EU law. EU law takes immediate effect in English Law, and is enforceable by English courts. EU law raises issues of intrinsic theoretical interest, and considerable practical importance. No linguistic expertise is necessary, since EU legislation and case law are published in all official EU languages, including English.

 The Oxford course deals with: (i) the institutions of the EU, including the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice and General Court; (ii) the essential features of the EU law, and its incorporation into national law; (iii) the principle of free movement of persons and services within the EU; and (iv) the rules governing the free movement of goods within the EU. Study of the institutions entails consideration of the majority voting rules used by the Council in making EU legislation, and examination of the roles of the Commission and European Parliament in decision-making. Emphasis is placed on the scope of the law-making competence of the institutions, in particular as regards the internal market, and on the principle of subsidiarity, which is intended to act as a brake on the exercise of such competence. Most of the course, however, is concerned with the nature and operation of rules of EU law rather than with institutional matters.

 The ‘general part’ of the course covers such matters as the aims and policies of the European Union, the sources and supremacy of EU law, its direct effect before national courts and its impact on domestic legal rules, procedures and remedies, including the principle of State Liability for breach of EU Law. The court of final recourse in matters of EU law is the Court of Justice of the European Union. It has jurisdiction, e.g., to give preliminary rulings on references from national courts (references are an increasingly common occurrence in the U.K.), and to review the legality of EU legislation. Such matters receive detailed treatment in the course.

 The free movement of persons aspect of the course presents a combination of social and commercial law. The rights of EU employed and self-employed persons to free movement and non-discrimination graphically illustrate the significance of the EU legal system for such persons, while at the same time being of considerable significance to commercial undertakings and their advisors. General principles applicable to mutual recognition of qualifications are covered, as are the Directives on establishment and service provision by lawyers. All nationals of Member States are also “EU Citizens” and this status is of increasing importance as regards rights of free movement, residence and equality. The syllabus also includes study of EU rules on the free movement of goods. These have been given wide-ranging effect by the European Court and have given rise to considerable litigation in English courts, which have made many references to the European Court.

 The subject is taught in tutorials arranged by your college tutor.

Jurisprudence is one of the compulsory standard subjects within the Final Honour School syllabus. It is, however, taught and examined in a distinctive way (see below).

Jurisprudence, in the sense relevant to this subject, is the philosophy of law. In studying it you will learn to reflect in a disciplined and critical way on the nature, role, and importance, of legal systems, legal reasoning, and legal institutions, often using examples from other parts of your law studies. By choosing a suitable ‘mini-option’ (see below) you could also examine the philosophy of a particular area of law such as criminal law or tort law.

Teaching: In the second year of the Final Honour School your Jurisprudence teaching will be as follows:

(i) Core topics:   You will have six tutorials covering some core topics in philosophy of law, in the traditional way.

(ii) Mini option: You will then choose a mini-option from a list that the teaching group will provide. The mini-options will be taught in classes and you will not necessarily be taught by the same person who was your tutor for the core topics.

Authoritative guidance on the core topics will be issued at the start of the Hilary Term of your second year. An indicative list of mini-options will be released later in Hilary Term, with the sign-up window typically opening in Week 8 of HT.

Examination:

Core topics: your Jurisprudence unseen written examination (at the end of your final year) will take a new form. Instead of our traditional finals paper taking three hours and requiring you to answer three out of sixteen questions, your finals paper will take two hours and will require you to answer two out of ten questions. This examination paper will cover only core topics on the tutorial syllabus.

 Mini option: your mini-option will be examined by an essay that you must write in your own time during the summer vacation at the end of your second year (this applies to Law with Law Studies in Europe students too). You will be provided near the end of TT with a list of questions arising from your mini-option and you will choose one to answer. The essay writing will be unsupervised. However guidance on what is expected will be given, including one or more classes on how to write an essay for assessment.

 Arrangements for lectures and other teaching will be explained in full during the course.

The focus of attention within the course is on interests in land: interests which do not merely operate not merely between the parties to a particular transaction involving the land, but can also affect third parties - other people coming into contact with it, such as later purchasers. Examples of such interests are the fee simple (virtually equivalent to ownership of the land), leases, easements and mortgages. The course concerns itself with questions such as: What interests count as interests in land? How are they created? Exactly when will they affect third parties?

Land Law has a well established set of principles, often regulated by statute, to govern it. In part this is because people dealing with land need to know with certainty what the result of a particular transaction will be. Even so, there are many areas of the subject which are currently being developed by case law.

The course is not about conveyancing, the buying and selling of land. It is true, however, that in Land Law we are conscious of the needs of purchasers. Thus, for example, the circumstances in which purchasers will be bound by interests are inextricably tied in with the way land is bought and sold.

Land Law covers material in the “foundations of legal knowledge” and so must be taken by those seeking a professional qualification in England and Wales. Candidates in the FHS examination must offer both Land Law and Trusts.

The subject is taught in tutorials by your college tutor. For an introduction to the subject see Simon Gardner with Emily MacKenzie, An Introduction to Land Law (Hart Publishing, 3rd edn, 2012).

Tort is one of the compulsory standard subjects within the Final Honour School syllabus. It also covers material in the “foundations of legal knowledge” and so must be taken by those seeking a professional qualification in England and Wales. The law of tort is mainly concerned with providing compensation for personal injury and damage to property, but also protects other interests, such as reputation, personal freedom, title to property, enjoyment of property, and commercial interests.

The subject is taught in tutorials arranged by your college tutor.  Lectures in Michaelmas and Trinity terms cover most, but not all, of the topics on the agreed reading list.  Revision lectures on contract and tort take place in Hilary term.

The institution of the Trust is one of the most important ideas in English law. Its very definition is heavily contested, but most would agree that a trust arises where someone (a trustee) nominally owns property, and may wield many of the powers of ownership, but is generally unable to take advantage of that ownership. Instead the trustee-owner holds the property to the benefit of some other person (known as a beneficiary), a class of persons, or an object such as a charitable purpose bringing benefit to the public. Trusts can arise in two main ways – by intention; or because the law has other reasons to make an owner into a trustee. The purpose of the intentional trust is to transfer wealth in a more complex way than would be easy or possible to achieve by straight-out conveyance, such as to have the property distributed on particular terms and conditions, or to disperse ownership to win tax advantages, or to allow ongoing management of the asset. There are myriad situations in which the law has other reasons to make an owner of property into a trustee; one very important one is where a couple’s home is nominally owned by only one partner, but the other partner deserves a share in it. The course looks at the scenarios in which the different kinds of trusts arise, and at how they behave.

In one respect, the course also looks outside trusts. A trustee is a fiduciary, being someone having a duty to act for another’s benefit through the control of property. But there are other examples of fiduciaries too, such as solicitors, who must act for their clients’ benefit; or agents who can contract on behalf of their principals. The course looks at the law’s control of fiduciaries in general, whether they are trustees or persons otherwise charged with promoting the interests of others.

Trusts is one of the compulsory standard subjects within the Final Honours School syllabus. It also covers material in the “foundations of legal knowledge” and so must be taken by those seeking a professional qualification in England and Wales.

New in 2026/27 

Constitutional and administrative law in the United Kingdom have fundamentally changed over the last several decades and continue to be fast-moving areas. This course is designed for students who want to deepen their knowledge beyond what is learned in the compulsory courses in Constitutional Law and Administrative Law. 

The course is organised into 12 classes across three broad themes: 

• The United Kingdom and the wider world
• Lawmaking and parliamentary government
• The administrative state 

Within these themes, possible seminar topics include empire and allegiance, dualism and international law, statutory interpretation, parliamentary dynamics and government formation, the principle of legality, delegated legislation, judicial deference, policies and “soft law” as forms of regulation, remedies and nullities, and the challenges of digital administration. 

By the end of this course, students should be able to: 

• Explain and evaluate the historical development of key features of the modern UK constitution,
• Address key controversies in relation to the law and morality of citizenship, the relationship between international law and domestic law, and in relation to the administrative state,
• Understand the relationship between government, types of lawmaking, and interpretation, and
• Engage in sophisticated argument within select questions on the law of judicial review in relation to applied topics such as citizenship-stripping, taxation, and delegated lawmaking.

Advanced Criminal Law provides students with an opportunity to return to and learn more about the criminal law that they studied for Moderations. The idea behind this course is that by examining some of the areas where criminal law touches other forms of regulation, or has to draw a fine line between unwanted and socially useful behaviour, we will understand better what it is that criminal law is and does, and thus get a better understanding of the core of the subject by considering its limits. It will therefore draw on the general knowledge of criminal law that students have from Mods, but it will go deeper into some of the general principles and philosophical or other concepts which underlie the subject. 

We will consider, in particular, the following areas: 

• Tort and crime
• The regulation of sexual activity
• Terrorism and intelligence
• Violence Against Women
• Discrimination and hate crime

This course will introduce students to key procedural rules and principles in civil litigation (and alternative dispute resolution) and teach them how to critically evaluate the rules and the leading cases seeking to apply them. 

The course is divided into 4 topics, although the time dedicated to each varies substantially:

1. The right to fair trial: the rights to which people are entitled in court, and to get to court, and exceptions and limits on those rights.
2. Litigation procedures and the overriding objective of the Civil Procedure Rules: how the courts balance accuracy, timeliness and cost in resolving disputes.
3. Alternative dispute resolution: principles of mediation and arbitration, and the benefits and costs of private dispute resolution.
4. Theories of procedural justice: the nature of procedural justice, its relationship to substantive law, and the role of the legal system in the rule of law.

This course aims to familiarise those intending to go into commercial practice with the analytical framework of English commercial law.

 The core of the course involves a rigorous examination of personal property and contract law in the context of commercial transactions. The course looks at basic concepts such as ownership, title, possession, the sale of goods, assignment and agency. We also look at real security in personal property, including priorities (between secured interests) and the characterisation of, and justification for, real security. 

A feature of the whole course is that students learn how a desired legal result can be achieved, or a legal hazard avoided, by selecting an appropriate contract structure. 

Though students will be expected to analyse statutory materials as well as case law, a distinguishing feature of the course is its concentration on fundamental concepts and their application in a commercial setting. The course thus offers an intellectual challenge and provides a good foundation for those contemplating practice in the field of commercial law.

The company is one of the most important institutions in our society. There are over two million registered companies which, of course, vary radically in size and commercial significance ranging from the "one person" company to the large public companies. By virtually any measurement the company is the dominant vehicle through which business is conducted. There are a number of reasons for this, but principally it is because it is a very flexible commercial institution and it is made conveniently and cheaply available. 

The purpose of the course is to introduce students to the basic conceptual apparatus of company law and to analyse some of the policy issues raised in regulating this pervasive commercial form. It is important to note that the course is of relevance not only to those who wish to pursue a career as commercial or company lawyers, but also to those who have no such aspirations, as a knowledge of the company and how it works is relevant to many aspects of legal practice. The course involves an analysis of not only cases but also statute law and, although the Companies Act 2006 is among the largest statutes on the statute book, the course is not overly dominated by the study of statutory materials. 

By the end of this course, students should have developed an understanding of the laws relating to the creation and regulation of companies.

Comparative law is the study of multiple legal systems. It is an approach to the law that is both challenging and powerful. By paying attention to legal systems other than our own, we can achieve many things. Some of the benefits of adopting a comparative method include:

1. Helping the lawyer to detach from what she has learnt a legal system is or must be; by understanding other systems, she can understand other ways of seeing what law is, which in turn can help her to understand differently her own legal system.
2. Offering an antidote to isolation, to parochialism and to the belief that nothing could be worth knowing in other legal systems.
3. Helping lawyers see law as not merely as a set of rules, but as made up of institutions, actors, cultures, language, and history.
4. Helping us to see that law need not be viewed only as the creation of the nation-state.

The objects of comparative study are almost infinitely variable: private law, public law, procedure, legal institutions, and so on. This course is designed to be a basic introduction to comparative private law in Europe. Our primary objects of study are English, French and German law2, and the basic private law subjects of contract, tort (or civil liability) and property law. It is important to note, however, that through colonialism and other factors, the law of these three jurisdictions has influenced many legal systems around the world in different ways.

This course challenges students to engage with the formal rules of these three systems, as they are found within their different legal cultures and as they are deployed within different modes of legal reasoning.

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Give a comparative account of major features of English, French and German contract law, tort law, and property law;
• Identify differences in concepts, outcomes and legal reasoning in the legal systems studied;
• Assess the significance of differences and similarities between the legal systems studied, and provide explanations for them;
• Explain how comparative law scholarship reflects a range of goals and a range of methodologies;
• Articulate and apply the ideas of leading commentators on comparative law whose work has been studied; and
• Take a critical (evaluative) perspective on the legal rules and legal scholarship studied in the course.

As a society we strive to protect competition between businesses as a means of enhancing consumer welfare. We do so, since the rivalry between businesses and traders delivers lower prices, greater choice, increased innovation, and better quality of goods and services. Sometimes, society has to work hard to maintain the benefits that come with competition. While the competitive dynamics benefit consumers, it makes the life of producers, sellers and service providers rather difficult. If they fail to remain competitive, they may find themselves pushed out of the market. And so, at times, these firms may look for ways to dampen the competitive process by engaging in anticompetitive activities such as price-fixing, market sharing or abuse of dominance.

Our competition laws are designed to address these risks, remedy possible market failures, and safeguard consumer welfare. Competition agencies and courts are tasked with enforcing the law. As they do so, they face the challenge of correctly identifying the conduct that amounts to an anti-competitive activity and curtailing it to ensure dynamic and competitive markets.

The course will explore these competitive dynamics and the policy considerations that shape the level and scope of competition law enforcement. It will further focus on the European competition provisions and their practical application to anticompetitive agreements, abuse of dominance and merger control.

The lecture series is devoted to examining relevant statutory and case law frameworks, and the discussion of basic economic concepts. The tutorial series provides practical experience in the application of competition law through problem solving.

Ideas matter. They matter for political, cultural, expressive and economic reasons. Ideas also manifest in a range of ways: as inventions which have the potential to improve lives, like vaccines; as creative works which enrich our culture; and as brands in modern consumer society. Intellectual property (IP) law regulates the extent to which such valuable intangibles are recognised and protected. In turn, the importance of IP for economic growth is well established, with the UN World Intellectual Property Organisation noting that innovation is a major driving force of long-term economic growth and sustainable development (WIPO 'Direction of innovation in developing countries and its driving forces' (2022)).

In this course we introduce two of the principal IP regimes which protect aspects of this intangible value. Copyright protects creative authorial works and modes of distributing them (such as books, music and films). Trade Marks protect signs that indicate the commercial origin of goods and services (such as the Starbucks logo). Yet when it comes to delineating property entitlements in intangibles, the subject matter is notoriously slippery. While the literal text of a book is relatively easy to identify, should we protect its plot? Or fictional characters? At what level of abstraction? As for why we protect creativity, should the book be protected if it was written by AI rather than a human author, and should existing authors have to give consent before their works are ingested as part of AI training? How about the positive associations of luxury or reliability which consumers associate with their favourite brands? Can we reconcile brand-driven consumerism with environmental concerns over waste and energy consumption? In this course, we critically engage with:

• the basis for protecting valuable intangibles (justifications);
• the appropriate form of protection (registered or without formalities);
• the scope of protection granted; and
• the outer limits of protection (defences)

The course should appeal to those interested in the arts and entertainment industries, brand management, the consumer society, and private law and human rights more broadly. It will be taught through seminars and tutorials spread over Michaelmas and Hilary Terms, focusing not only on doctrinal analysis but also engaging critically with current issues and enduring controversies.

What is crime and how do societies respond to it? How do race, gender and class shape criminal justice processes? How is criminal justice changing in a globalizing and warming world? These are the questions of our Criminology & Criminal Justice option. The course begins by setting out the four thematic blocks that structure the seminars. In the first part, we learn to navigate criminology as a multidisciplinary field of study exploring legal, sociological and anthropological approaches to crime, punishment and justice. In the second part, we delve more deeply into newer forms of criminological knowledge production, including feminist, intersectional, queer, material, southern, decolonial and indigenous criminologies, which have often been neglected in mainstream criminology. Equipped with these rich theoretical perspectives, we then examine different criminal justice processes, institutions and actors such as the police and policing, courts and sentencing, prisons and imprisonment, victims and victimization in the third part. In the final part, we situate the study of criminology in a global context discussing cross-border developments like immigration detention, international criminal justice, ecocide and calls for a green criminology.

The course is taught collaboratively by members of the Faculty of Law, who are also members of the Centre for Criminology, bringing together their rich expertise. There will be one tutorial for each thematic block to help students make the connections between different themes. Students will learn to analyse crime, punishment and justice in an interdisciplinary, global and intersectional context and develop a critical understanding of the global inequality of criminological knowledge production. They will also learn to apply different theoretical frameworks including critical race, black feminist, political economy and decolonial theories to study key criminal justice processes and institutions such as policing, criminalization and imprisonment.
 

In place of one of the standard FHS Options, you can apply to write a dissertation. A dissertation proposal of no more than 500 words must be submitted by in the Trinity Term before the course begins. Before submitting a proposal, students should approach a potential supervisor with a view to obtaining an in-principle agreement to act. For detailed information on how to select the dissertation as one of your FHS Options, please refer to the FAQ at the end of this document.

As students are prohibited from re-using dissertation content in answering questions on other exam papers, students who take the dissertation option will need to avoid certain questions in other FHS examinations. However, dissertation supervisors will help to guide the research question into areas beyond the confines of normal tutorial reading lists and thus avoid the likelihood of such overlaps.

Enrolment onto the Dissertation Option depends upon the submission of a suitable dissertation proposal,4 as well as the availability of a supervisor and examiners. There is no pre-condition for acceptance.

The Dissertation Option will involve three components:

1. Research seminars for the entire cohort with the course convenors, which will explore how to develop a research question and structure a longer piece of academic writing.
2. Supervision involving meetings and exchanges with allocated Faculty members.
3. Independent research by the student.

Students’ independent research will be the dominant element of the dissertation experience, but the other components are also integral to the course.

Employment law is the body of law that governs the relationship between working people and their employers. At any given time, around three-quarters of adults in the UK are in work, so labour law affects a huge number of people for a significant period of their lives.

The course covers the rights and responsibilities of working people and employers at all stages during the relationship, including hiring and firing, and everything that happens in between. We consider topics such as the role of equality law in the workplace in tackling discrimination, entitlement to the National Minimum Wage, and the regulation of working hours. We also look at the changing nature of modern workplaces and the impact of the ‘gig economy’ on the way in which we traditionally think about employment relationships. Around 23% of employees are trade union members, and many more have a trade union presence in their workplace, so we consider how trade unions interact with their members and how they represent people at work, and at the role played by strike action. 

Labour law manages to be both a highly useful subject and an intellectually stimulating one. There are plenty of opportunities to use your knowledge in practice as a solicitor or barrister, or just to be aware of your own rights at work. But the subject also throws up big questions about dignity, rights, justice and fairness, as well as about how to build a thriving economy. Political parties on the right or left generally have quite different ideas about what labour law should look like, so the subject should be of considerable interest to anyone who is concerned with the interaction between law, politics and society.

The course takes a thematic approach: you are not expected to acquire a detailed knowledge of the whole of this relatively large and complex field, but to be able to pick out the central themes, and integrate them into the wider social and theoretical context. We anticipate that this year’s exam will require you to answer four questions from a choice of ten.

The subject is taught by means of a programme of seminars in Michaelmas and Hilary Terms, and by tutorials which are co-ordinated with them. We cover four topics in Michaelmas and three in Hilary, and there is an introductory session at the start of Michaelmas. For each of the seven topics, we will provide a two-hour seminar introducing the material, with ample opportunity for you to ask questions and take part in discussion. There will be a total of four tutorials for the course, allowing you to focus on issues of particular interest to you and to explore the way in which different parts of the course fit together. We may offer an additional session in Hilary Term covering a ‘hot topic’ of current interest or dealing with recent developments, in order to help with your revision.

Learning outcomes: an understanding of the central themes of labour law, including individual and collective topics, and the associated social and political context.

This option is not running in 2026/27.

Environmental law is the law of environmental problems. Climate change, planning, air quality, water quality, waste, and nature conservation all give rise to a range of different legal issues that require significant legal expertise to deal with. This course fosters that expertise by providing an advanced introduction to UK environmental law.

This course takes into consideration the socio-political and physical context in which environmental law operates and it explores the innovative, complex and ever-expanding case law and legislation on the subject. Environmental law builds on the core public law subjects as well as other areas such as criminal law and tort law. The teaching method for this course is via a series of inclusive seminars and tutorials. Seminars are also supplemented with guest speakers from the legal profession and the environmental policy realm.

By the end of this course, students will have gained knowledge of the substantive legal aspects of environmental law in the UK; understanding of the complexity of environmental problems and how that complexity affects the application of the law; and knowledge of how environmental law relates to core legal areas, particularly administrative law and EU law where relevant.

This course focuses on the legal regulation of individuals’ intimate personal and family lives. Studying Family Law often involves taking a legal concept or underpinning idea with which most have some familiarity from daily life, such as marriage, divorce, parenthood, or children’s rights, and then exploring exactly how the law regulates that subject and why. Key issues are examined within their historical, social, economic, and theoretical context. For instance, what is the purpose of the consanguinity restrictions on marriage and should those have been extended to civil partnership? What does it mean to say a child is a rights-holder? If we cannot offer a coherent account, is there no such thing as ‘children’s rights’? Why do so many people believe the ‘common law marriage myth’? Should the courts and Parliament care that these people think that legal benefits and obligations exist when they do not?

Family Law is inter-disciplinary in terms of the range of materials students are expected to read and the nature of the arguments and debates with which students are expected to engage. This includes working with social science research, government publications, and non-government public and social policy materials. Our focus is on the substantive law, though an awareness of the family justice system in practice adds an important additional perspective to key debates.

Family Law involves an examination of statutory law, which is more extensive than in many other subjects. Property law and trusts law are relevant to discussing the legal position of relationships outside of marriage and civil partnership, and students may find the background from having studied these as part of their core courses useful. Underlying conceptual covered in Contract Law are also relevant to private ordering and adult intimate relationships more generally. Discussion of contentious issues in parenthood, including children born as a result of fertility treatment, is discussed from a different perspective as part of the Medical Law and Ethics course. The child’s capacity to make medical treatment decisions also features as part of both courses; in Family Law, it is one aspect of a larger discussion of children’s rights and children’s involvement in decision-making affecting them in various contexts. Examination of the legal approach to child protection includes limited discussion of public authority liability in negligence, as explored in Tort Law.

As the title suggests, the course is defined by a specific critical perspective on the law – a feminist one. It cuts across standard legal areas and methodologies to cover topics from private and public law; it looks at both domestic and international law; and introduces students to legal, as well as socio-legal, perspectives on the subject.

Often, rather than starting from the law and its logic, the intellectual journey is problem-driven, discussing the various ways the law responds to real life, irrespective of formal, potentially limiting, legal categories. The course brings together ten experts on various aspects of the regulation of women’s status and gender relations in law as seminar-leaders. The following topics are discussed:

• Introduction to Feminist Legal Thought
• Gender and Reproduction
• Equal Pay
• Women, Gender, and Constitutionalism
• Violence Against Women
• Migration
• Urbanism
• Intellectual Property

There is no prerequisite for this course.

This course studies the history of the judicial system and sources of English law, and of the principal features of the branches of law that are today known as tort, contract, land law, and trusts. The course is taught using a selection of primary sources (in translation where necessary) and of academic literature. The timespan covered varies with each topic but is roughly between the thirteenth and the nineteenth century. This period, of course, contains a large number of separable issues, and the assessment is designed so that individuals can follow to some extent their own preferences, both amongst and within the major heads of study.

The treatment of the subject is primarily legal, though the political, social and economic constituents in the story are referred to whenever this assists our perception of specifically legal ideas. The teaching presumes a familiarity with the notions of property, tort and contract. The legal history does not serve as an introduction to the modern law; if anything, the converse is the case. It is in this sense an advanced course; the feedback to the modern law is conceptual or theoretical, though a study of the history may occasionally illuminate a modern problem. There is, however, absolutely no need to have studied any other kind of English history, nor is familiarity with foreign languages necessary since the course is designed around translated materials.

By the end of this course, students should have:

• An understanding of the origins of English law and the judicial system
• A more specialised knowledge of developments in English law during the period between the thirteenth and nineteenth century, including an understanding of relevant social, political and economic contexts.

The objective of the course is to provide a thorough grounding in the law of human rights which applies in the United Kingdom. The primary aim is to introduce students to the substance of these applicable rights and to their interpretation and enforcement. This will include an analysis of general principles as well as broad themes arising from the interpretation and limits of several specific rights (such as fair trial, protection of private life, and non-discrimination). The course will also follow developments in the reform of human rights law in the United Kingdom, and its content will reflect changes in a fast moving field of law.   The course will incorporate domestic UK law, as well as the relevant law of the European Convention on Human Rights and other international human rights norms which apply directly to UK human rights law.

Teaching will take place over Michaelmas and Hilary Terms, and will consist of a combination of lectures, seminars, classes and tutorials.

Learning outcomes: by the end of the course, students will: have a sound understanding of the significance of human rights and civil liberties, and their theoretical dimensions; be familiar with and able to apply the relevant provisions to practical problems concerning a range of the rights and liberties; have a knowledge and understanding of the human rights system as a whole; and have an understanding of the institutional procedural requirements for bringing human rights claims.

This option is not running in 2026/27.

This course takes as its subject matter a sale of goods by a seller in one country to a buyer in another, and examines the contractual relations between various parties that may be involved in the making and performance of such a sale. Accordingly, it is concerned first with the relations between buyer and seller, emphasising the special features of the sale which are due to its international character. Secondly, it is concerned with the carriage of goods from the seller to the buyer, once again emphasising the special rules which govern international carriage. So as to keep the course within reasonable bounds, it deals only with carriage by sea; it does not cover the special rules governing international carriage by air, road and rail. Thirdly, the course deals with an aspect of banking law. Payment in international sales is often made, not directly by buyer to seller, but through the mechanism of a banker’s commercial credit; the law relating to such credits forms the third part of the course.

Looked at from another angle, the course is concerned with the special problems that arise in overseas sales because the parties are often comparative strangers to one another, and because there is often a long interval of time between the despatch of goods and their receipt. During that time, the parties are exposed to certain financial and physical risks. The financial risk to which each party is exposed is that of the other’s insolvency: to protect himself against this risk the seller will want to be paid as early as possible while the buyer will want to pay as late as possible. One major topic for discussion is the way in which the law and commercial practice seek to reconcile these conflicting desires. So far as the physical risks are concerned, there is the possibility that the goods may be lost or damaged or delayed in transit. Sometimes that risk has to be borne by one of the parties to the contract of sale; sometimes it has to be borne (at least in part) by the carrier; and exactly how it is to be borne has obvious repercussions on the decisions to be made by each party with regard to insurance.

Although its name might suggest something different, the course is about a branch of English domestic law. Our concern is with the English rules governing international transactions (though these rules are often applied to contracts which have no physical connection with this country). It follows that the materials and methods of this course are almost entirely those of the traditional law course, i.e. that it consists largely of a study of decided cases and legislation, though the latter is to a considerable extent influenced by international conventions. Internationally accepted customs and practices figure prominently in the banking section of the course; but the course contains nothing that anyone with the standard equipment of a common lawyer cannot handle.

The course has three principal attractions. Firstly, it raises not only complex and fascinating analytical issues but also fundamental issues of legal policy. Secondly, a study of International Trade will help candidates very considerably with their understanding of the law of contract, particularly in the areas of privity, breach, frustration and remedies. Thirdly, the course forms a useful background to one of the most intellectually satisfying types of legal practice.

Lecturing and other guidance is important in this subject because there are no suitable student books for students to study it for themselves at the right level. The books available are either too simple, or are large practitioners’ works in the use of which students need guidance.

Lectures in Michaelmas Term usually cover carriage by sea and on letters of credit. There are handouts for each set of lectures. In the Hilary Term (second of the year) there is normally a weekly class where the three contracts are treated together and their interaction studied. For this there are separate lists of cases and questions. Tutorials (which include practice in analysing problems) are also available in that term, and that is the term in which the bulk of the student’s own personal work on the subject (other than attending lectures) should be done.

This option is not running in 2026/27.

Asian comparative law is built on new developments of comparative law in the twenty-first century. Asia is a significant region of the world with 51 jurisdictions and 60% of global population. The rise of Asia, particularly major world powers such as China and India, has generated great demands for understanding of laws in the region. It is also important to study the laws of Asia where legal experiences are rich, law reforms and legal developments are dynamic.

This course introduces students to major features of seven common themes of comparative law in Asia, including:

• religious law
• colonial law
• authoritarian law
• legal diffusion
• law and development
• regional law
• international law

This course illustrates the themes by experience in four jurisdictions, namely: China, Japan, India, and Singapore. By first focusing on jurisdictions in Asia, this course will expand the jurisdictions covered by comparative law studies beyond the familiar jurisdictions of the Global North. Second, the course goes far beyond the conventional focus on private law, and traditional categories of comparative law in general, to examine under-examined factors that are salient to, and shape, the legal dynamics in Asia. These are religions, colonialism, authoritarianism, economic development, globalization, regionalization, and internationalization. Third, beyond doctrinal and formalist analysis of judicial decisions and legislation, this course adopts an inter-disciplinary and global approach by situating the comparative analysis of laws within the pluralist social context of the Asian jurisdictions, and the dynamics of globalization.

The aim of this option is to examine a selection of contemporary issues at the law and technology interface, focusing on the nature of the issues and the law’s construction of and response to them, and on the relationship between law and technology more generally. The readings are chosen with a view to situating contemporary legal developments concerning digital and bio technologies in their wider legal, theoretical and policy context, and to equipping students with a range of perspectives from which to critique them.

By the end of this course, students should be able to critically unpack and assess contemporary debates concerning law and technology, and contribute to conversations around a diverse range of issues of relevance, including the role of law in supporting technological advance and access to its benefits, resolving tensions between individual and public interests, identifying and addressing new types of harm, reconciling the needs of sovereign and global communities, accommodating changing conceptions of health, identity, and family, and managing radical uncertainty. The option should appeal to students who are interested in the philosophy of law and technology, fundamental rights, property/intellectual property, privacy/data protection, liability for online harms, and reproductive rights.

Media Law is a fast developing and increasingly high-profile area of law. It is an area that allows scholars to look at advanced issues relating to freedom of expression and the right to communicate, and the way these rights intersect with competing interests. This course covers a number of key themes in Media Law and will begin by looking at the justifications for and meanings of media freedom. This introduction will provide a theoretical background against which the later topics will be evaluated. The topics in the course can be grouped into three broad categories:

1. Liability for media content – for example, when can the press publish facts about a person’s private life? Do public figures have weaker rights to reputation? Will media coverage prejudice a jury trial?
2. Legal assistance and control of newsgathering – can the police seize journalists’ notebooks? When do journalists have a right not to disclose the identity of confidential sources?
3. Media regulation – what system of regulation should govern the press? Why do we have different regulatory systems for television and newspapers (and where should the internet fit in this scheme of things)? How much media should any person or company be allowed to control?

In different weeks, this course will build on areas already studied in Tort Law, Criminal Law and Constitutional and Administrative Law, and will analyse these various issues in the light of the political and social functions (and responsibilities) of the media. In doing this, aspects of media theory and policy may be drawn on in the readings and discussion.

This course covers selected legal, ethical, and medical issues arising in medical practice and research. It focuses on issues of consent, autonomy and best interests of the patient and other interested parties, and how these create intersections with other areas of law, such as tort, criminal and personal property law. Four core areas of medical law are covered:

• Intentional torts and clinical negligence
• Reproductive medicine and rights
• Organ donation and transplantation
• End of life issues

Lectures cover both the legal and ethical issues arising in those areas of medicine and assume knowledge of the relevant law already covered in the Law Moderations Criminal Law course, and the FHS Tort Law course. Students will be encouraged to take a critical approach and consider where the law may require reform, drawing on the legal and ethical literature to support their views. The course also includes lectures on reasoning in ethics, which will cover various methodologies in ethics for determining about how to act, to give students a grounding in how conclusions about ethical issues are reached (and critiqued), and on a range of issues in medical ethics not covered elsewhere in the course.

The lectures are intended to be interactive, and students should expect to be called upon to participate in discussion and debate. Lectures will cover the syllabus, and a number of guest lecturers will also speak on topics of interest in medical ethics. These guests will include barristers, medical practitioners, religious leaders and members of the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.

The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to the fundamental questions of moral philosophy and some central issues in political philosophy. The course is divided into two parts: Part A covering the nature of moral philosophy, and Part B dealing with the topics in political philosophy.

Part A takes a philosophical perspective on fundamental questions about the nature of morality. It asks whether moral values are (or can be) ‘objective’, or whether they are simply ‘subjective’ or ‘relative’, and what reason(s) we have (if any) to be moral. Part A also examines three of the most prominent approaches to the nature of morality - consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics. Finally, it raises questions about our relationship to morality: Do we really have the freedom to choose whether or not to act in the morally right way? Does morality always provide us with a permissible course of action?

Part B examines some central topics in political philosophy, namely, democracy, liberty, equality and justice.

The objective of this course is to provide students with an overview of the law of personal property, focusing in particular on underlying concepts and subjecting those concepts to a detailed, critical examination. The course aims to broaden students’ knowledge by introducing them to fundamental ideas which the FHS compulsory subjects do not cover: such as the role of the tort of conversion in protecting interests in property; and the means by which gifts of interests in property can be made.

The course further aims to deepen students’ understanding of important concepts which feature in the core subjects of Land Law and Trusts: students will be re-introduced to and, more importantly, invited to re-examine concepts such as the nature of ownership and the need for security of transactions.

By the end of this course, students should develop a critical understanding of the principal concepts of personal property and how they operate within the context of areas of law covered elsewhere in the syllabus.

Please note that this option cannot be taken in conjunction with Commercial Law.

Today issues of Public International Law (PIL) are at the forefront of public debates to a greater degree than ever before. International law provides the technical and intellectual underpinnings to large areas of international conflict and co-operation, including:

1. the legality of the use of force by States;
2. the settlement of international disputes before international courts and tribunals;
3. environmental protection (e.g. addressing the current climate emergency);
4. the scope of human rights protection;
5. the protection of refugees and other vulnerable groups;
6. the attempt through international law and institutions to promote global trade; and
7. the resolution of jurisdictional conflicts arising from the regulation by States especially of actors and activities beyond their borders.

PIL not only impacts and shapes decisions by States but also penetrates today into the national legal order – often through national court decisions – to affect individuals and corporations to an important extent. These developments have led to the growth of lawyers and law firms who specialise in the practice of PIL. This is in addition to the demand for lawyers in governments, inter-governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations. For those who do not intend to follow a career in international law, the course provides a broad sweep of issues which illuminate not merely questions of international law but the problems and processes of the world of diplomacy. It also allows them to understand how international legal obligations are reflected in domestic law and decisions as to regulation of almost all areas of life, from family to commercial to public law.

This course covers the major areas of general international law, incorporates a variety of perspectives (e.g. feminism and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL)), and is not over-specialised. The lectures and tutorials cover the nature and sources of international law, the law of treaties, international legal personality, jurisdiction and immunities, State responsibility, the use of force, and procedures for peaceful settlement of disputes. The consideration of these subject areas takes place within their broader policy context and with regard to recent developments.

NB The Jessup Moot PIL Option may only be taken by candidates already selected for the Law Faculty’s team participating in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot competition.

This course covers the principal obligations arising from wrongdoing in classical and Justinianic Roman law. A central feature of this course is close attention to primary sources, particularly the commentaries on each delict in Justinian’s Digest. Some attention is paid to the nature of delict through comparisons (i) between species of wrongdoing; and (ii) between delict and obligations quasi ex delicto. Where appropriate, comparisons with later developments are made. 

Knowledge of Latin is not necessary; sensitivity to the philological aspects of the original texts, when relevant, is. The set texts are provided in a translation adapted to its use in this course. Prior engagement with Roman law is no requirement. In the past, students have indeed welcomed this course as a first immersion into Roman/Civilian legal thought. 

On this course, students should develop an understanding of the concepts of the Roman law of private wrongs and of the ideas and methods of classical jurists, and a capacity to reflect on their influence on English common law. The first half of the course (MT) engages with the nature and place of delict, furtum (theft), iniuria (insult/contempt), noxa and pauperies (liability for the conduct of those in power and of animals) and quasi-delict. The second half of the course (HT) is devoted to close study of damnum iniuria (loss and unlawful damage to property).

Succession law examines what happens to an individual’s rights and liabilities at the time of their death. The subject builds upon Core private law topics, especially Trusts, Land Law and Contract, but focuses on the effect of death on private law rights. The topic’s practical importance has grown in recent years: more complex family structures, the growth of cognitive disorders (such as dementia) in an elderly population, and increasing property values, have each made inheritance disputes more prevalent. Although succession law links most obviously to other private law topics (especially Trusts), it also intersects with issues in family law. Where marriages end as a result of a death, succession law deals with issues regarding the maintenance and support of the surviving spouse and children of the deceased person. The topics we will examine on the course include:

1. Who should inherit on death? – we consider whether the legal system ought to allow complete freedom of testation, or whether some controls on the testator are justifiable.
2. Testamentary dispositions and wills – we examine the nature of gifts by will, their substantive requirements, and claims that can arise when they are defective
3. The notion of an “estate” – we will look at what happens when your legal personality passes to your executor on death.
4. The fiscal consequences of owning wealth – how inheritance tax can effect an inheritance and attempts by testators to avoid the tax.

By the end of this course, students should develop:

• An understanding of what a testamentary disposition is and the modes by which it can be made.
• An understanding of alternative modes of passing wealth on death.
• Knowledge of the concept of an “estate”, and how legal personality devolves upon death.
• Awareness of the fiscal consequences of owning wealth at the time of death and how this affects behaviour.

Taxation pervades every area of life, including property, family, employment and business affairs. Tax law is well suited to interdisciplinary study, intersecting as it does with economics and politics. It also offers rich opportunities for the study of many areas of law, given that tax factors have frequently influenced development of legal concepts and principles. In turn, tax laws are shaped by concepts of property, commercial, corporate and employment law and approaches to drafting and interpretating legislation. This course introduces students to selected issues in the law of taxation, which illuminate fundamental concepts and link to other parts of the undergraduate law course. The focus is on tax law, but the technical issues are examined by focusing on themes and principles and by placing the law within its political and economic context, in order to understand the requirements of a tax system and the difficulties in designing, legislating for and administering such a system. 

Students taking this course will use a variety of sources, ranging from statute and case law to accessible literature from other disciplines, such as economics and political theory, of which no prior knowledge is required. All the material is non-mathematical and no computation is for this course. The approach taken and topics chosen ensure that the course is of interest to a wide range of students. Those entering the legal profession will find that knowledge of taxation is of value whether or not they intend to specialise in taxation. In this field, there are many opportunities, both in the City and in private client work, or as background to practice in other areas. The course will provide a valuable intellectual framework for the tax element in the professional legal training courses. Students interested in careers outside the legal profession will also find that the tax course provides a thorough grounding in a topic of central importance to business, politics and government. 

The course examines the objectives and functions of a "good" tax system and how these affect what society chooses to tax. The focus of the course is on direct taxes - income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax in relation to individuals and businesses and the application of these taxes to private trusts. The issue of tax avoidance is of central concern in most tax systems. The course examines the way in which our tax system has lent itself to ingenious tax avoidance (or tax planning?) schemes and the attempts of the judges and the legislature to combat these activities.