Land Economy

Teaching in the Department is a mix of lectures, seminars, project work, field trips and supervisions. In a typical week, you can expect 10-15 hours of lectures and two or three supervisions.

Assessment is by written examinations and through coursework and projects, as well as a dissertation in Year 3 (Part II).

Part IA provides the framework for later specialisation. You acquire a thorough grounding in the core disciplines of law and economics and are introduced to the multidisciplinary nature of the degree through four compulsory papers:

• Economics
• The Public Sector: Institutional and Legal Frameworks
• Quantitative and Legal Methods for Land Economists
• Land Economy, Development and Sustainability

During your first year you develop a sound numerical base, computer literacy, and skills in oral presentation and report preparation.

In Part IB, you can continue studying a broad range of law, environment and economics or choose to specialise more closely in one of the three disciplines.

You take five papers, including at least one paper from a choice of two on law, and select your other four papers from a choice of six. Current options include:

• Environmental Economics and Law
• Fundamentals of Finance and Investment
• The Built Environment
• Land and Urban Economics
• The Law of Real Property: Principles, Policy, and Economic Implications

Part II continues the work of the second year, with further opportunity for breadth or depth.

You’re required to take four papers chosen from a wide range of options which currently includes:

• Law and Economics
• Landlord and Tenant Law
• Planning Policy and Practice
• Land, Food and Ecosystem Services
• Land Policy and Development Economics
• Advanced Techniques in Finance and Investment for Real Estate

You also write a 10,000 word dissertation on any aspect of the Department’s work of your choosing.

Dissertation topics have covered all the research interests of Departmental staff (including many with an international focus) and this is the opportunity to specialise in a topic that particularly interests you.

The choice is very broad and in the past students have written on, for example:

• land reform in Zimbabwe and Slovakia
• international regulations on marine pollution
• conservation in rural Cambridgeshire
• electronic transfers of land
• legal regulation of property disputes between couples
• housing policies and brown-field sites
• a legal examination of the Palestinian right of self-determination
• analysis of crofters’ rights in Scotland
• valuation of anchor tenants in retail developments

For further information about studying Land Economy at the University of Cambridge see the Department of Land Economy website.