The General Law programme at Aberdeen is one of the best programmes in terms of scope and areas of interest you can choose to study at advanced level. If your first degree was in a specific area of law there is nothing preventing you from choosing another area of law completely or a complementary area. You could study environmental law areas such as oil and gas law, energy and environmental law, low carbon energy transition with further environmental regulation. If you are more interested in criminal law you could look at Criminology, the politics of human rights, humanitarian law. If you are more interested in business you might choose international law, intellectual property law, world trade organisation or for business with a creative aspect you might think about specialist in cultural property issues or law for business and arts and museums law. There are many possible mixes of these general areas of law you might want to explore. Employment possibilities are huge from this range of areas of law and include all notable areas to practise law and careers within the legal profession to welfare sectors such as employment, business, HR and finance.
Law careers
You may become a Barrister if you wish to represent people at High Court and Magistrates court to put legal argument forward for decision. You could start off as a legal executive to later qualify as a solicitor with further training or after a number of years experience you may wish to become a judge. If you want some work experience you could become a court usher. Other careers include a Paralegal. This role undertakes much of a lawyers role in drafting documents, meetings and contracts. If you decide your law degree is useful for other areas you may look at Civil Service careers, become a politician, work in the police, city, or teach.
This programme is ideal if you want to be a generalist to an advanced level rather than a specialist in a specific area of law. You develop your analysis and research skills and you have the option of wide ranging courses to choose from which stretches your intellectual thinking capabilities in a top 10 School of Law (Complete University Guide 2018)
Courses listed for the programme
Semester 1
Compulsory
Optional (4 courses 2 in Semester 1 and 2)
Semester 2
Optional
Semester 3
Find out more detail by visiting the programme web page
View all funding options on our funding database via the programme page and the latest postgraduate opportunities
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This conversion course will allow you to go on to the next stage of training to qualify as a solicitor or barrister if you are a non-law graduate. As with the LLM Qualifying Law Degree, this course covers the key foundation subjects needed to complete the academic stage of your training for either profession, as required by the major professional bodies in law.
You will have the opportunity to be partnered with a mentor, a Leeds-based legal professional, who will be able to advise on your career aspirations and provide practical support to help you deepen your understanding of legal practices. You will benefit from tailored career development sessions focusing on interview skills, CV writing and networking.
You could opt to study on campus and learn through a mix of online activities, directed study and small group workshops, or you could choose the distance learning option with your course delivered entirely online.
Changes to legal education and training
Legal education and training is currently under detailed review by professional regulators in the legal sector. The review will examine the routes currently open and the qualifications required to become a solicitor or barrister, and includes a reflection on changes to and removal of existing routes, as well as the possibility of establishing new ones.
Currently, students can complete a qualifying law degree, the Graduate Diploma Law (GDL) and then the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) to become a barrister, this route will remain unchanged until summer 2017 at the earliest. The route of a qualifying law degree or GDL, and then the Legal Practice Course to qualify as a solicitor will remain in place until summer 2019.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the Bar Standards Board (BSB) will announce their findings as soon as possible and their decisions will then affect the available routes to qualification as a solicitor or barrister.
For more information visit the SRA and BSB websites:
Our course is delivered by staff with significant professional expertise. You will engage in activities designed to optimise your employment prospects and enhance professionalism. All students on the course have a professional mentor - a legal practitioner in the local area who can provide practical support and advice during the period of study and provide work-based learning and career opportunities. Local law firms engage with us by teaching, leading career development sessions, acting as mentors and judging and providing prizes for a number of legal competitions.
Caroline Acton of Berwins Solicitors in Harrogate completed both the PG Dip Law and the Legal Practice Course at Leeds Law School. She says, "Throughout the course I developed vital professional skills such as interviewing and advising within legal areas."
On successful completion of this course, you will be able to proceed to the next stage of your legal training. To qualify as a solicitor, you could choose to study the Legal Practice Course (LPC) with us. If you intend to become a barrister, you could apply to take the Bar Professional Training Course.
Entertainment is a large part of life globally in many forms such as music, film, media, sports and the arts. It is a combination of society, popular culture and commerce, and the interaction of these with law produces an exciting contemporary commercial subject with eclectic outcomes. It is an area deeply affected by technological progress as well as business adaptation. This course combines academic analysis and commercial practice elements of entertainment law in an international perspective. The diverse nature of entertainment law will enable you to follow a number of relevant specialisms, all of which are underpinned by issues of contract and intellectual property.
This course will suit graduates from a law background, or those from a non-law background who have significant relevant experience. There have been many successful international graduates on the course from all over the world. It will give you the opportunity to explore new ideas, thoughts and academic experiences within a supportive environment.
The course aims to develop your understanding of how key fields within the entertainment industries operate, to assess the impact of the law upon them, and give you the practical skills necessary to succeed in a career in entertainment and media law.
The following modules are indicative of what you will study on this course.
Core modules
Option modules
As an entertainment law graduate you will be able to develop a career in a whole range of professions within the entertainment industry. Perhaps the most popular of these are roles in sports, music, and media and communications law. The subject gives a modern edge to traditional law subjects and is well respected by employers.
If you’re not a law graduate, or you have a law degree from outside England and Wales, this masters qualification will give you a qualifying law degree.
You’ll acquire a more in-depth knowledge of the law over a much wider range of legal subjects than is offered in the Graduate Diploma in Law. This extra depth and understanding will give you a head start in your career as a solicitor or barrister.
We’re a forward-thinking, innovative law school. Our research helps shape global policy. We do what we do to empower people, to protect people and improve people’s lives.
The 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) ranks us joint tenth in the UK, with Oxford and Warwick. Ninety per cent of our research was judged world-leading or internationally excellent.
We offer a wide range of law and criminology courses. Our leading criminology courses are delivered by internationally-renowned academics within our Centre for Criminological Research; one of the four original criminological centres of excellence in the UK.
Uniquely among English Russell Group law schools, we also offer the opportunity for you to complete both the academic and vocational stages of qualifying as a solicitor in our Centre for Professional Legal Education.
Our graduates include CEOs, lawyers, partners in big corporate firms, judges and barristers. Others are solicitors, academics, politicians and policy makers or work in criminal justice or at the Home Office.
Many of our graduates become legal practitioners. But you can use your postgraduate training in different ways, including business, policy development, teaching or research. Our staff can support you in whichever path you choose, having a wealth and variety of experience across all these areas.
Your course will give you the opportunity to meet and engage with professional organisations. And our excellent careers service will support you from the outset, helping you to identify your strengths and plan your next move. At the School of Law we also have an in-house careers adviser, offering specialised advice to Legal Practice Course, Graduate Diploma in Law and other postgraduate students who wish to pursue a career in the legal profession.
Many of our academics are internationally respected for their research. Their groundbreaking work informs what we teach.
Our research groups cover a lot of ground, including criminology, commercial law and law in its international context. You’ll benefit from their expertise and that of their professional contacts. Your course will equip you with an in-depth knowledge of your chosen area of law or criminology. Our Legal Practice Course is highly regarded. It will provide you with all the skills and knowledge you need to enter the legal profession in England or Wales.
We have our own courtroom, a dedicated postgraduate computer room and quiet study space. Wi-Fi is available throughout the building so you can easily access the library’s online collections. Our students can also access our e-resources from anywhere in the world.
Choices include:
You’ll attend compulsory seminars plus optional lectures. You’ll be assessed on your essays, examinations and a dissertation.
A pathway to professional legal practice and many other career goals
• The Masters in Law is a full-time 2-year graduate-entry programme designed for graduates in a discipline other than Law.
• The MLaw delivers a Qualifying Law Degree for entry to vocational training in England & Wales and Northern Ireland.
• The degree offers the highest quality of teaching, delivered through intensive small-group weekly seminars.
• The MLaw is designed for UK non-law graduates, and for law and non-law graduates from other countries who wish to acquire a thorough grounding in Law.
• The specially devised curriculum builds on the fact that students have already benefited from a university level education by enabling them to acquire a qualifying law degree in 2 years, rather than the three years it would normally take to obtain an LLB.
The Masters in Law is an accelerated, two year, full-time postgraduate degree in law.
The Masters in Law (MLaw) is designed for graduates in a discipline other than Law who wish to obtain a Law degree for professional practice or in aid of other career goals.
The degree offers the highest quality of teaching, delivered by weekly intensive 2 hour seminars.
Particular emphasis is placed on seminar teaching, dedicated to the needs and aspirations of Masters students.
The programme is delivered through a series of taught modules and culminates in the submission of a dissertation on an original topic.
Legal Methods and Skills
European Constitutional Law
Constitutional Law in Context
European Internal Market Law
Rights and Accountability
Criminal Law
Contract Law
Torts
Equity
Land Law
Evidence
Contemporary Issues in Property Law
Dissertation
This conversion course provides a route into the legal profession and will help you stand out from the crowd in this highly competitive field. Combining all the core modules required by the relevant professional bodies in law, this course will prepare non-law graduates for the next step towards becoming a solicitor or a barrister.
You will study foundation elements of legal theory, and your independent research project will give you the opportunity to focus on an area of law that interests you. Taught by experienced tutors, including qualified solicitors and barristers with significant professional expertise in all areas of law, the breadth of knowledge and skills in Leeds Law School will ensure you receive specialist support on a wide variety of topics, from medical negligence to anti-terrorism law.
Teaching will be delivered in small face-to-face classes combined with online lectures that can be accessed at a time and place to fit with your busy schedule.
Changes to legal education and training
Legal education and training is currently under detailed review by professional regulators in the legal sector. The review will examine the routes currently open and the qualifications required to become a solicitor or barrister, and includes a reflection on changes to and removal of existing routes, as well as the possibility of establishing new ones.
Currently, students can complete a qualifying law degree, the Graduate Diploma Law (GDL) and then the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) to become a barrister, this route will remain unchanged until summer 2017 at the earliest. The route of a qualifying law degree or GDL, and then the Legal Practice Course to qualify as a solicitor will remain in place until summer 2019.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the Bar Standards Board (BSB) will announce their findings as soon as possible and their decisions will then affect the available routes to qualification as a solicitor or barrister.
For more information visit the SRA and BSB websites.
You will be taught by lecturers who have worked in some of the top UK firms, including DLA Piper, Eversheds, Walker Morris and Herbert Smith Freehills. As well as excellent academic teaching, our staff will provide you with professional and practical support to help you progress your career.
Law qualifying courses have been taught by our Leeds Law School since 1979 and many of our alumni now act as mentors to our students, helping them to get ahead by offering careers advice, work experience and even job opportunities.
A specialist study room, accessible only by students on our postgraduate courses, is fitted with computer terminals and legal texts. We also have a courtroom where you can put theory into practice in simulated trials.
Leeds is one of the largest legal centres outside London and offers a wealth of job and placement opportunities. You'll benefit from our close links with firms in the city and from the contacts and possible career opportunities provided by your professional mentor.
You could progress to the next stage of legal training by undertaking our Legal Practice Course to train as a solicitor, or the Bar Professional Training Course to become a barrister. Your course will also open up roles that require a deep-rooted and broad knowledge of the law, such as a paralegal. You could also apply your expertise to roles in marketing, local government, mental health or social work.
Also known as the Common Professional Exam, this is a one-year conversion course for non-law graduates or those who have a law degree from another country.
You can fast-track your way to the next stage of legal training to become either a barrister or solicitor in England or Wales.
We’re a forward-thinking, innovative law school. Our research helps shape global policy. We do what we do to empower people, to protect people and improve people’s lives.
The 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) ranks us joint tenth in the UK, with Oxford and Warwick. Ninety per cent of our research was judged world-leading or internationally excellent.
We offer a wide range of law and criminology courses. Our leading criminology courses are delivered by internationally-renowned academics within our Centre for Criminological Research; one of the four original criminological centres of excellence in the UK.
Uniquely among English Russell Group law schools, we also offer the opportunity for you to complete both the academic and vocational stages of qualifying as a solicitor in our Centre for Professional Legal Education.
Our graduates include CEOs, lawyers, partners in big corporate firms, judges and barristers. Others are solicitors, academics, politicians and policy makers or work in criminal justice or at the Home Office.
Many of our graduates become legal practitioners. But you can use your postgraduate training in different ways, including business, policy development, teaching or research. Our staff can support you in whichever path you choose, having a wealth and variety of experience across all these areas.
Your course will give you the opportunity to meet and engage with professional organisations. And our excellent careers service will support you from the outset, helping you to identify your strengths and plan your next move. At the School of Law we also have an in-house careers adviser, offering specialised advice to Legal Practice Course, Graduate Diploma in Law and other postgraduate students who wish to pursue a career in the legal profession.
Many of our academics are internationally respected for their research. Their groundbreaking work informs what we teach.
Our research groups cover a lot of ground, including criminology, commercial law and law in its international context. You’ll benefit from their expertise and that of their professional contacts. Your course will equip you with an in-depth knowledge of your chosen area of law or criminology. Our Legal Practice Course is highly regarded. It will provide you with all the skills and knowledge you need to enter the legal profession in England or Wales.
We have our own courtroom, a dedicated postgraduate computer room and quiet study space. Wi-Fi is available throughout the building so you can easily access the library’s online collections. Our students can also access our e-resources from anywhere in the world.
You’ll attend seminars and be assessed by examination.
