Entrance Qualifications

The normal requirement for admission is either at least a good second class honours degree in law or a good LLM degree awarded by a UK university or an overseas qualification of equivalent standard, or equivalent experience.

Applicants whose first language or language of previous university study is not English are required to provide evidence of proficiency in the English language. For further information on the Institutes language requirements in PDF format, please click the following link: English Language Competency.

In addition, applicants must be supported by at least two satisfactory academic references, which normally should be from teaching member(s) of the most recent academic department(s) in which the applicant has studied. In cases where the most recent academic study was more than five years ago, one non-academic reference may be sent in addition to one academic reference. This should normally be from the applicant's most recent employer.

Period of Study

The minimum period of study for the degree of MPhil is two academic years of full-time study, or the equivalent in part-time study; and the minimum period of study for the PhD is three academic years of full-time study, or the equivalent in part-time study.  Students entering upon a course of study at any time other than the beginning of a session will have a minimum length of study of  two calendar years for the MPhil and three calendar years for the PhD.

Examination

This normally consists of a thesis and an oral examination. For the MPhil degree, the length of thesis should not normally exceed 60,000 words, and for the PhD degree 100,000 words. Both lengths are inclusive of footnotes and appendices but exclusive of bibliography and references.