UCL Faculty of Laws

UCL Faculty of Laws
Established	1826
Dean	Dame Hazel Genn DBE QC FBA
Admin. staff	150
Students	1,096
Location	London, United Kingdom
Website	UCL Faculty of Laws

The UCL Faculty of Laws is a law school based in London, United Kingdom and one of the 10 constituent faculties of University College London (UCL). It is one of the world’s premier law schools, renowned for the quality of its teaching and its cutting-edge legal research. The Faculty was established in 1826 and was the first law school in England to admit students regardless of their religion, and the first to admit women on equal terms with men.

The Faculty has a student body comprising over 450 undergraduates, 350 taught graduates and around 40 research (MPhil/PhD) students and offers a variety of undergraduate and graduate degrees. It publishes a number of journals, including Current Legal Problems, Current Legal Issues, and the UCL Jurisprudence Review.

Notable alumni of the Faculty include Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (leader of the Indian independence movement and "Father of the Nation"), Chaim Herzog (President of Israel 1983–1993), Sir Ellis Clarke (President of Trinidad and Tobago 1976-1986), Lord Woolf (Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales 2000-2005), Lord Goldsmith QC (Attorney General for England and Wales 2001-2007) and Terry Davis (Secretary General of the Council of Europe 2004–2009).

History

The Faculty was established in 1826 and is one of the oldest law schools in England. It was the first law school in England to offer a systematic university education to men and women, irrespective of religious beliefs and social backgrounds. The Faculty’s first professor was the noted legal philosopher, John Austin (Professor of Jurisprudence). Andrew Amos, a successful barrister, became the first Professor of English Law (and later Professor of Medical Jurisprudence).

Hazel Genn was appointed as dean of the Faculty in September 2008.

In November 2010 the Faculty launched the UCL Judicial Institute, the first specialist academic centre for research and teaching about the judiciary to be established in the UK.

Building

The Faculty is based at Bentham House, Endsleigh Gardens, a few minutes’ walk from the main UCL campus. The facilities at Bentham House include teaching rooms, lecture halls, a courtroom for moots, a student lounge, a coffee bar and two computer cluster rooms.

Academics

Research

The main portico of University College London

The Faculty was placed joint first in the UK for the proportion of its research activity in the top two star categories (75% 4*/3*) in the latest Research Assessment Exercise. It is home to a number of associated research centres and institutes:

• Centre for Commercial Law
• Centre for Criminal Law
• Centre for Empirical Legal Studies
• Centre for Ethics & Law
• Centre for International Courts & Tribunals
• Centre for Law & Economics
• Centre for Law and the Environment
• Centre for Law and Governance in Europe
• Institute of Brand and Innovation Law
• Institute of Global Law
• Institute for Human Rights
• Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics
• Judicial Institute

Teaching

Undergraduate

The Faculty receives an average of around 2,500 applications for approximately 140 undergraduate places each year. The minimum entry requirements are three A grades at A-level and a high LNAT score. All candidates to whom an offer is contemplated being made who are identified as requiring particular consideration are interviewed. There are no places available through the UCAS clearing process.

Graduate

The Faculty admits approximately 350 students to its graduate LLM course each year. The one-year (full-time) and two-year (part-time) LLM are extremely competitive with students applying from over 100 countries.

The minimum entry requirements for the MPhil and PhD are a bachelor's degree with a first or high upper second honours together with an LLM with an average grade of 65% (ideally with evidence of first class ability).

Publications

The Faculty publishes a number of journals, including Current Legal Problems, Current Legal Issues, and the UCL Jurisprudence Review.

Public lectures

The Faculty hosts a number of free public lectures each week (including the Current Legal Problems series) on a wide range of legal topics. These lectures are delivered by eminent academics from major universities around the world, senior members of the judiciary and leading legal practitioners.

Rankings

The Faculty is regarded by many to be "the best law faculty in the UK". In 2009 the Independent University Guide ranked the quality of teaching at the Faculty joint first in the UK alongside the University of Oxford. During a recent peer-review assessment conducted by The Sunday Times, the Faculty recorded perfect scores for teaching and research quality, confirming its reputation as one of UCL’s most outstanding departments.

In 2009, the Faculty enjoyed a 100% graduate employment rate, compared to 99.7% at the University of Oxford, 98% at the University of Cambridge and 97% at the London School of Economics. Many graduates go on to pursue legal careers at 'Magic Circle' law firms and leading barristers’ chambers.

UCL Law Society

The majority of students become members of the UCL Law Society upon matriculation. The Law Society is led by the President and 15 other officers who are (apart from the First Year Representative) elected in March towards the end of the academic year. The Law Society organises a wide range of events for members including competitions in mooting, debating, negotiation and client interviewing. There is also a strong focus on career development with regular events with leading barristers’ chambers and law firms.

Academic staff

Ronald Dworkin

The Faculty has 55 full-time academic staff, including 29 professors, many visiting professors and distinguished judicial and other visiting academic staff. The current list of professors include:

• Eric Barendt - Professor of Media Law
• Robert Chambers - Professor of Property Law
• Professor Ian Dennis - Professor of English Law
• Alison Diduck - Professor of Law
• Ronald Dworkin - Bentham Professor of Jurisprudence
• Joerg Fedtke - Professor of Comparative Law
• Ian Fletcher - Professor of International Commercial Law
• Michael Freeman - Professor of English Law
• Dame Hazel Genn DBE QC - Professor of Empirical Legal Studies
• Stephen Guest - Professor of Legal Philosophy
• Jeffrey Jowell QC - Research Professor of Public Law
• Valentine Korah - Emeritus Professor of Competition Law
• Sir Hugh Laddie QC - late Professor of Intellectual Property Law
• Maria Lee - Professor of Law
• Andrew Lewis - Professor of Comparative Legal History
• John Lowry - Professor of Law
• Richard Macrory CBE - Professor of Environmental Law
• Riz Mokal - Professor of Law and Legal Theory
• Hiroshi Oda - Professor of Japanese Law
• Dawn Oliver - Professor of Constitutional Law
• James Penner - Professor of Property Law
• Pascoe Pleasence - Professor of Empirical Legal Studies
• Philip Rawlings - Professor of Law
• Rick Rawlings - Professor of Public Law
• Catherine Redgwell - Professor of International Law
• Philippe Sands QC - Professor of Law
• Philip Schofield - Professor of History of Legal and Political Thought
• Joanne Scott - Professor of European Law
• Robert Stevens - Professor of Commercial Law
• Robert Sullivan - Professor of Law
• Tim Swanson - Professor of Law and Economics
• William Twining - Emeritus Quain Professor of Jurisprudence
• Lord Woolf - former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales

Visiting Professors

• Daniel Alexander QC
• Anthony Aust
• Antonio Bavasso - Antitrust Group, Allen & Overy
• Tom Burke
• Richard Calnan - Partner, Norton Rose
• Winston Chu
• Michael Crystall QC
• Frederique Dahan
• Eileen Denza
• Alejandro Escobar - Partner, Latham & Watkins
• David S. Evans - Vice Chairman, LECG Europe
• Håkan Friman
• Cyril Glasser - Consultant Sheridans
• Vera Gowlland-Debbas
• Ron Harmer
• Judge Frederic Jenny
• John Kallaugher - Head of Competition Law, Latham & Watkins
• Antonio Parra
• Graham Penn - Partner, Sidley Austin
• Ned Swan
• Robert Volterra - Partner, Latham & Watkins
• Edward Walker-Arnott - former Senior Partner, now consultant, Herbert Smith
• Elizabeth Wilmshurst

Notable alumni

Sir Alfred Wills

Judiciary

• A.S. Anand — Chief Justice of India (1998-2001)
• Dame Margaret Booth — High Court Judge
• Herbert Cozens-Hardy, 1st Baron Cozens-Hardy — Master of the Rolls (1907-1918)
• Samuel Azu Crabbe — Chief Justice of Ghana (1973-1977)
• Sudhi Ranjan Das — Chief Justice of India (1955-1959)
• Taslim Elias — Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria (1972-1975); Judge of the International Court of Justice (1976-1991); President of the International Court of Justice (1982-1985)
• Lord Goldsmith QC — Attorney General for England and Wales (2001-2007)
• Hassan Bubacar Jallow — current Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (2003–present);former Attorney-General, Minister of Justice and Judge of the Supreme Court of Gambia
• Sir George Jessel — first Jewish Solicitor General for England and Wales (1871-1873); first Jewish regular member of the Privy Council; first Jewish judge in UK; Master of the Rolls (1873-1883)
• Dame Bernice Lake QC - first Eastern Caribbean woman to be appointed Queen's Counsel
• Simon Li — former Vice-President of Court of Appeals (Hong Kong) and first ethnic Chinese High Court Judge (Hong Kong)
• Sir Gavin Lightman QC — High Court Judge (Chancery Division), England
• Sir John Salmond KC — legal scholar; Judge of the High Court of New Zealand
• Baroness Scotland PC QC — Attorney General for England and Wales (2007–present); first black woman to be appointed Queen's Counsel
• Sir Thomas Scrutton — Lord Justice of Appeal (1916–34)
• Thirugnana Sampanthar Sinnathuray — Judge of the High Court of Singapore
• Chao Hick Tin — Vice-President of the Court of Appeal of Singapore; Attorney-General of Singapore (2006-2008)
• Sir Alfred Wills (1828-1912) — High Court Judge); presided over the trial of Oscar Wilde
• Lord Woolf — Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales (2000-2005)
• Sir Ti-Liang Yang GBM — Chief Justice of Hong Kong (1988-1996)

Other

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

• Ghazi Abdul Rahman Algosaibi — Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Bahrain (1984 to 1992); Saudi Arabian Ambassador to United Kingdom and Ireland (1992-2002)
• Justice Gabriel Bach — Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel
• Sir John Baker QC FBA — legal historian; Downing Professor of the Laws of England, University of Cambridge
• Peter Birks QC FBA — Regius Professor of Civil Law, University of Oxford
• Andrew Cayley - International Co-Prosecutor, Khmer Rouge Tribunal, (Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia)
• Sir Ellis Clarke — Governor-General of Trinidad and Tobago (1973-1976); President of Trinidad and Tobago (1976-1986)
• Terry Davis — Secretary General of the Council of Europe
• Lord Dear — Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary (1990-1997)
• Baroness Flather — first Asian woman to receive a peerage
• Daniel Fung SC — Solicitor-General of Hong Kong
• Mahatma Gandhi — Indian Nationalist and Spiritual Leader
• Edwin Glasgow CBE QC — Counsel in the Bloody Sunday Inquiry
• Lord Hart — former Special Adviser to the Lord Chancellor (1998-2007)
• Chaim Herzog — President of Israel (1983-1993)
• Joshua Jeyaretnam — Singapore politician and former leader of the Workers' Party of Singapore
• Lord Jones — British politician and businessman; Minister of State for Trade
• Julie Maxton - Registrar of the University of Oxford (first woman in 550 years)
• Leonard Sainer — Solicitor and retailer
• L. J. K. Setright - Motoring author and journalist
• Rabindranath Tagore (did not graduate) — Bengali poet; Nobel Prize in Literature (1913); first Asian Nobel Laureate
• Carol Thatcher - Journalist, author and media personality
• Tan Boon Teik — former Attorney-General of Singapore (1969-1992)
• Lord Young — Secretary of State for Employment (1985-1987); Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1987-1989)
• Wu Ting Fang (1842 - 1923) — the first ethnic Chinese person to be called to the Bar in England

See also

• Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
• List of University College London people in the Law

External links

• UCL Faculty of Laws
• University College London