Law

The Bachelor of Laws (LLB) programme is an exacting intellectual discipline and offers a thorough grounding in the principles of basic areas of the law. The degree can be studied to Ordinary level, requiring three years of full-time study, or to Honours level in four years of full-time study.

Initially you will study:

• Constitutional law and introduction to legal study
• Obligations (contract, delict and unjustified enrichment)
• Family law.

In the following year, you will study:

• Jurisprudence
• Law and government

There is a range of optional courses to choose from, covering topics such as

• Roman law of property and obligations
• International private law
• Labour law
• Forensic medicine
• Public international law.

If you intend to enter the Scottish Legal Profession you must take the following courses during your degree:

• Business organisations
• Criminal law and evidence
• Commercial law
• European Union law
• Property law
• Legal profession and legal ethics.

Admission to Honours takes place at the end of the second year. If you progress to Honours (years 3 and 4) you can choose from a wide range of individual courses available each year and you will have the opportunity to specialise in a chosen area of law.

There are many opportunities for you to study law with languages. A language may be studied for three years of the Honours degree (the Law with Legal Studies programme) or throughout the four years of the degree (the Law with Languages programme). Language study is an integrated part of these degrees, during the first two years of which language skills will be carefully developed. This will prepare you to make the most of the opportunity to increase your fluency in a foreign environment while advancing your knowledge of law. Both programmes require you to spend your third year studying Law in a partner university abroad, where teaching and learning take place in French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish.

We have an extremely successful and popular study abroad programme. Currently 60% of our Honours students take the opportunity to spend all or part of the third year studying law in another country or participate in a summer school or other academic activity abroad. These options are available through our Law with Languages or Legal Studies programmes or at English-speaking institutions in Europe, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, China and Singapore. Students may also take part in summer schools or the comparative law project. In all cases study abroad is integrated into the degree and does not involve an additional year of study.