Postgraduate Prospectus

The School of Law strives to promote research excellence among all its scholars. It recognizes that high-quality legal research may take many different forms. A wide variety of legal research methods are employed in the numerous research projects ongoing in the School. The School takes the view that postgraduate research students and academics are all engaged in the same scholarly endeavours and can learn a great deal from each other. Postgraduate research students are invited to play a full role in all the research activities of the School. While legal research is often an individual activity, many collaborative research activities, including co-authorship of publications, collaborations with visiting scholars, seminars, reading and discussion groups and distinguished visitors' seminars, take place in the School. Postgraduate research students are welcome to participate in all such activities.

The School of Law offers supervision for research degrees in most subject areas of law, and also for interdisciplinary projects which have a legal aspect. We currently have around 30 registered research students, who come from all over the world. The School has ESRC recognition for its research degrees in the areas of socio-legal and criminology. Research candidates may study either for the Degree of Master of Philosophy (MPhil) or for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). Those candidates wishing to study for a PhD are normally admitted first to the MPhil programme, and may then transfer to the PhD later if progress warrants this. In line with the majority of law schools within the United Kingdom, the normal length of an MPhil thesis is about 60,000 words, and the normal length of a doctoral thesis about 100,000 words.

Research interests of members of the School of Law fall within the following subject areas: Administrative Law; Administrative Liability; Admiralty; Banking Law; Biorisks; Carriage of Goods by Sea; Civil Liberties; Commercial Law; Company Law; Conflict of Laws; Constitutional Law; Consumer Law; Contract Law; Corporate Insolvency; Criminal Law; Criminal Justice; Criminology and Penology; Critical Theory; Drug Control Law; E-Commerce Law; Employment Law; English Common Law; English Legal System; Environmental Law; Estoppel; Equity; Evidence; EC Trade Law; EU Law: Environmental Law; EU Law: General; EU Law: Sex and Race Equality; Feminist Legal Theory; Government Liability; Healthcare Law; Human Rights Law; International Property; International Criminal Law; International Economic Law; International Environmental Law; International Humanitarian Law; International Law Theory; International Trade Law; Land Law; Landlord and Tenant; Law of International Organisations; Legal History; Legal Theory; Local Government Law; Marine Insurance Law; Maritime Law; Mental Health Law; Partnership; Property; Private International Law; Public International Law; Public Procurement Law; Queer History; Restitution; Refugee Law; Sentencing; Socio-Legal Studies; Taxation; Tort; Transnational Criminal Law; Treaty Law; Trusts; Use of Force; Welfare Law and World Trade Organisation.