In an increasingly interconnected world, law is no longer the preserve of single jurisdictions as legal issues are no respecters of national borders. A SOAS Law degree addresses this need by providing our students with an educational experience that equips you with a distinctive set of skills far beyond what is offered by most traditional Law Schools.
The SOAS Law Combined Honours Degree is a 3 or 4-year full time degree, which aims to produce highly skilled, civic minded and critically engaged graduates, who can effectively contribute to their communities and societies through the knowledge and skills gained on this course.
The nature of the Combined Honours degree enables you to develop a specialist niche for yourself by studying a second subject.
The BA Law Combined Honours Degree is aimed primarily at those not wishing to become practicing lawyers, but provides students with a wide range of analytical and transferable skills and is suitable for any profession in which a non-specialised degree is required. Although it is possible to switch to the LLB at the end of Year 2 or 3 provided the student has taken and passed all the requisite courses necessary to qualify for an LLB.
What subjects can you combine it with?
Other disciplines - Development Studies, Economics, Geography, History of Art/ Archaeology, Linguistics, Politics, Study of Religions, Social Anthropology.
Languages – African Studies, Arabic, Burmese, Chinese, Georgian, Hebrew, Indonesian, Persian, Swahili, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese
Why SOAS?
- SOAS is unique as the only higher education institution in the UK specialising in the study of Asian, Middle East and North African (MENA) and Sub-Saharan African regions
- we are specialists in the delivery of more than forty African and Asian languages. Your command of a language will set you apart from graduates of other universities
- this programme will immerse you in the legal traditions and practices of a number of global regions, which will give you a critical understanding of the role of law in the world today
- we specialise in key topics including international and transnational law, human rights, transnational commercial law, environmental law, comparative law and socio-legal method
- allows you to develop a specialist niche alongside your Law degree by utilising the global expertise of one of our other departments
Apply now via UCAS or visit our upcoming Open Day.
Find out more about how to apply.
Find out more on our Law department page.
Venue: Paul Webley Wing (Senate House)
Start of programme: September
Mode of Attendance: Full-time
Entry requirements
- Applicants with standard qualifications (such as A levels, International Baccalaureate or other High School qualifications considered equivalent to A levels) are not required to take the Law National Aptitude Test (LNAT), but the School of Law will consider making lower offers (eg AAA, AAB, ABB or 37, 36, 35 in International Baccalaureate) to candidates who do so and perform promisingly in that Test.
SOAS accepts students from a wide variety of backgrounds, as well as mature applicants and those with non-standard qualifications. Among these applicants those with Access to Law qualifications and SOAS Intermediate Certificate Course students are preferred.
- Interview Policy: We also encourage applicants with non-standard qualifications (including Access to Higher Education Diploma and Foundation Courses) all of whom are required to take the LNAT. We also encourage students taking the SOAS Foundation Courses at IFCELS to apply. Students offering level 3 BTEC qualifications either on their own or in combination will be required to take the LNAT.
- A Levels:
- A*AA - AAB
- IB:
- 37 (6/6/6)
View alternative entry requirements
BTEC: DDD
Access to HE: Minimum of 30 Level 3 Credits at Distinction (with LNAT)
Scottish Highers: AAAAA
Scottish Advanced Highers: AAA
Irish LC: 360 points from 5 Higher level subjects at grade C1 or above
Advanced Placement: 4 5 5 (Two semesters - UCAS Group A) plus US HSGD with GPA 3.0
Euro Bacc: 85%
French Bacc: 15/20
German Abitur: 1.5
Italy DES: 85/100
Austria Mat: 1.5
Polish Mat: Overall 80% including 3 extended level subjects
- duration:
- 3 or 4 years
Please see the Unistats data for the various combinations of this programme under the Combinations tab.
May be combined with:
- African Studies, TM51 BA/ASL
- Arabic+, MT16 BA/LWA
- Chinese+, MT11 BA/LWCH
- Economics, LM11 BA/LWEC
- Hebrew+, MQ14 BA/LWHE
- History, MV11 BA/LWH
- History of Art/Archaeology, VM31 BA/HAAL
- Korean+, MTDL BA/LWKO
- Persian+, MTD6 BA/PLW ( + Compulsory Year Abroad which is split between 2 countries)
- Politics, VM31 BA/HAAL
- Social Anthropology, LM61 BA/SALW
- South Asian Studies++ (3 Year), TMH1 BA/SASLW
- South Asian Studies++ (4 Year), TM3C BA/SASLYA
- South East Asian Studies, TMJC BA/LWSEA
- Study of Religions, MV16 BA/SRLW
- Turkish+, MTC6 BA/TULW
Key Information Set data
Click on a combined programme to load KIS data
Students take 120 credits per year composed of core and optional modules, which allows for students to design their own intellectual journey while maintaining a strong grasp of the fundamentals.
Students may take a maximum of 60 Law related credits and a minimum of 30 Law related credits a year on this programme.
In Year 1 students are introduced to the core elements and principles of the English legal system, and provided with the key analytical skills necessary for undertaking a demanding law degree program.
In second, third and fourth years’ our students will be even more fully immersed in the distinctively SOAS program. Our students can choose from a wide array of optional courses that draw on the unique research expertise of our staff. The emphasis we place on choice, and research-led teaching, will allow our students to pursue a number of distinct specialisms as their degree progresses, but whichever path they choose to focus on the courses they study will all be imbued with that distinctive SOAS dimension, that stresses critical engagement and understanding of the role of law in the world at large.
Year 1 - All students take
Compulsory Module
AND
Students take 60 credits in second subject
Year 1 - If taking three compulsory modules in second subject
Compulsory Module
Year 2 - For students doing a non-qualifying Law degree
Compulsory Module
AND
Students take 60 credits in a second subject
Year 2 - For students doing a qualifying Law degree
Compulsory Module
AND
Choose modules from the List of Year 2 Guided Option modules below up to 30 credits
AND
Students take 60 credits in a second subject
Year 3 - For students doing a qualifying Law degree
Second Subject
Students take 120 credits in second subject OR choose modules from the List of Modules below to the value of 120 credits
List of Year 2 Optional Modules
List of Year 3 Optional Modules (subject to availability)
UoL Options
Up to one 30-credit level 5 or level 6 LLB module in Law taught at another University of London Law School - King’s College, LSE, QMUL, UCL and Birkbeck - subject to approval and provided that a similar module is not taught at SOAS.
Important notice
The information on the programme page reflects the intended programme structure against the given academic session. If you are a current student you can find structure information on the previous year link at the top of the page or through your Department. Please read the important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules.
Teaching & Learning
Modules are taught through a combination of lectures and tutorials, usually two hours lecture and one hour tutorial a week. Sometimes, one follows the other in a three-hour bloc. Sometimes, the tutorial is at a different time or on a different day than the lecture.
Tutorials are sessions in which students are expected to present reports and take a lead in discussions.
Depending on the size of the class, some intermediate and final year level modules are less strictly divided between a formal lecture and a tutorial discussion, and instead, the topic is briefly introduced by the lecturer, followed by a seminar discussion.
Contact Hours
All full-time undergraduate programmes consist of 120 credits per year, in modules of 30 or 15 credits. They are taught over 10 or 20 weeks. The programme structure shows which modules are compulsory and which optional.
As a rough guide, 1 credit equals approximately 10 hours of work. Most of this will be independent study (see Approaches to teaching and learning at SOAS). It will also include class time, which may include lectures, seminars and other classes. Some subjects, such as learning a language, have more class time than others. In the Department of Law, many undergraduate modules have a weekly two hour lecture or seminar. Some modules may also had an additional hour of smaller group classes weekly or fortnightly.
More information is on the page for each module.
The Independent Study Project (ISP)
This can be taken by final-year students only. Like the Special Subject dissertation, its aim is to provide an opportunity for students to conduct original historical research on their own initiative, to engage in in-depth analysis of particular subjects and to use a range of primary historical sources. It involves no formal classes and is assessed by a single 10,000-word dissertation (including notes but excluding bibliography).
Learning Resources
SOAS Library is one of the world's most important academic libraries for the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, attracting scholars from all over the world. The Library houses over 1.2 million volumes, together with significant archival holdings, special collections and a growing network of electronic resources.
The degree structure provides students with a combined law degree aimed primarily at those not wishing to become practicing lawyers. It provides students with a wide range of analytical and transferable skills suitable for any profession in which a non-specialised degree is required.
Skills gained include:
- specialist knowledge of comparative law, human rights, environmental law and international law
- choosing to study a combined degree programme will increase the breadth of your knowledge, and will develop additional skills
- the ability to think laterally and employ critical reasoning
- analytical skills
- problem-solving skills
- the ability to formulate sound arguments
- ability to interpret and explain complex information clearly
- communication and presentation skills
SOAS Law graduates have gone on to pursue careers directly related to law, or used their skills and expertise to get take up professional and management careers in both the private and public sectors. The Law degree programmes have also enabled graduates to continue in the field of research either at SOAS or other institutions
Find out more about Law Graduate Destinations
Graduates have gone on to work for a range of organisations including:
- Allen & Overy
- Clifford Chance
- Baker McKenzie
- United Nations
- Linklaters
- Lloyds Banking Group
- Gibson Young Solicitors
- Liberty UK
- Slaughter and May
- CMS Cameron McKenna
Types of roles that graduates have gone on to do include:
- Trainee Solicitor
- Barrister
- Finance Manager
- Legal Researcher
- Paralegal
- Financial Analyst
- Procurement Manager
- Tax Consultant
- Business Developer
- Recruitment Consultant
A Student's Perspective
The SOAS School of Law has not only provided me with a solid understanding of the English Legal System but has also given me the opportunity to delve into jurisdictions in Asia and Africa.
Victoria Poon