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

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.

Important notice

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