SOAS University of London

School of Law

Senior Status LLB (2022 entry)

Select year of entry: 2022 2021

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  • Teaching and Learning
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Overview

Overview and entry requirements

In addition to fulfilling the requirements of a QLD, the SOAS Senior Status LLB also provides students with an overview of legal systems in Africa and Asia creating a truly global, and consequently unique, Senior Status LLB. The Senior Status LLB is a condensed degree, allowing students to complete a 3 year undergraduate programme in 2 years. This is an intensive course of study, suitable for high performing graduates. The Senior Status LLB consists of undergraduate modules taught alongside the traditional 3 year LLB students.

SOAS is unique as the only higher education institution in the UK specialising in the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The School also has the largest concentration of specialist faculty concerned with the study of these areas at any university in the world. SOAS is consistently ranked among the top higher education institutions in the UK and the world and it also offers a friendly, vibrant environment for students in a diverse and close-knit community.

While providing our students with a solid grounding in key legal principles and methodologies, we seek to do more than that. The SOAS Law Degree aims to produce highly skilled, civic minded and critically engaged graduates, who can contribute to their communities and societies in myriad ways. In the first year our 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. During this first year students will also be introduced to elements of legal principle and practice from other countries.

See School of Law 

Why study Law at SOAS

  • UK Top 20 and World Top 200 for Law (QS World University Rankings 2021)
  • Our research publications have been rated first in the UK - and our School of Law rated sixth in the UK - in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • you will be able to flexibly structure your programme using our Open Options modules to take advantage of the expertise of our other departments, including the opportunity to learn a regional language

Year 2 entry

However, in the second year 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. In an increasingly globalised and interconnected world, the SOAS law degree truly responds to the needs of a new generation of law students.

The degree 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. The degree structure provides students with a qualifying law degree for the purposes of both the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board and exempts students from academic stage of legal training.

Please visit our International Students pages for details of our individual country requirements.

Explore

Programme Code: M102

Venue: Russell Square: College Buildings

Start of programme: September

Mode of Attendance: Full-time

Entry requirements

  • Senior Status LLB will be restricted to non-law graduates holding an undergraduate degree from a recognised institution. The standard requirements are UK upper second class honours degree or a US degree with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.3. We also welcome applications from other countries whose degrees are equivalent to this level.

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Fees 2022/23

Fees for 2022/23 entrants per academic year

UK fees:
£9,250
Overseas fees:
£20,350


Please note that fees go up each year. Further details see 'Fees and funding' (tab on this page) or the Registry's undergraduate tuition fees page.

Convenors

Structure

Structure

Year 1
Compulsory Modules
Module Code Credits Term
Introduction to Law and Legal Processes 155200070 0 Term 1
Criminal Law 155200068 30 Full Year
Contract Law 155200071 30 Full Year
Property I 155200074 30 Full Year
Public Law 155200076 30 Full Year
Legal Systems of Asia and Africa I 155800101 15
Final Year
Compulsory Modules
Module Code Credits Term
Introduction to EU Law 155200069 15 Term 2
Legal Systems of Asia and Africa II 155800102 15
Law of Tort 155200072 30 Full Year
Property II 155200075 15 Term 1

AND

Choose modules from the List of Final Year Guided Option Modules below OR modules at another University of London (UoL) institution if not taught at SOAS to the value of 30 credits

AND

Choose modules from the List of Final Year Guided Option Modules below OR Language or Non-Language open option modules to the value of 30 credits

  • Language Open Option Modules

  • Non-Language Open Option Modules

List of Final Year Guided Option Modules
Module Code Credits Term
Foundations of Human Rights Law 155200082 15 Term 2
International Environmental Law 155200089 15 Term 1
Environmental Law in Action: Comparative and Domestic Perspectives 155200088 15 Term 2
Islamic Law 155200037 30 Full Year
Public International Law 155200083 15 Term 1
Law and Justice in Contemporary China 155200096 15 Term 1
Family Law 155200006 30 Full Year
Law and Society in South Asia 155200032 30 Full Year
Law and Society in Africa 155200033 30 Full Year
Independent Study Project on a Selected Legal topic 155200041 30 Full Year
Company Law 155200053 30 Full Year
Advanced Comparative Administrative Law 155200061 30 Full Year
Commercial Law in a Global Context 155200062 30 Full Year
Law, Multiculturalism and Rights 155200064 30 Full Year
Law of Commercial Arbitration 155200066 15 Term 1
Alternative Dispute Resolution 155200067 15 Term 1
Asylum and Immigration Law 155200077 30 Full Year
Law, Terror and State Power 155200091 15 Term 2
Criminal Justice, Race and Rights 155800098 15 Term 2
Law and the Atlantic Slave Trade, Slavery, and Post-Slavery 155200097 15 Term 2
Legal Systems of Asia and Africa II 155800102 15
Copyright Law 155200084 15 Term 1
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.

Programme Specification

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 and Learning

Teaching & Learning

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.

Knowledge

  • Students are required to attend all classes, study extensively on their own and together with other students, and prepare themselves to participate in an informed way in discussions. Students are also required to undertake assessed coursework and, in the ILLP module, to participate in assessed mooting (oral legal argument).
  • The usual format of classes is 2 hours of lectures per week, plus 1 hour of tutorial per week

Intellectual (thinking) skills

Critical thinking is fostered in all module units offered in the Programme, in that all units introduce information and ideas that need to be assessed critically and analysed in context. Students are encouraged not simply to summarise evidence and arguments but also develop their own assessments as to the relative value of different strategies / arguments / evidence.

Subject-based practical skills

Through tutorials and coursework, particularly in instruction concerning the answering of problem questions and the compulsory mooting component of the Introduction to Law and Legal Processes (ILLP) course unit. The production of word-processed text and its presentation is not taught as such, but coursework is required to be produced in word-processed form; some subject based practical skills are specifically taught in the ILLP module unit.

Transferable skills

  • Through preparation for seminars, essays, course work, and examinations.
  • Through individual and /or joint seminar presentations and class participation.
  • Through preparation for seminars, through discussion in seminars, through correction of formative assessment by tutors and through preparation of answers to exam questions.
  • Through the formation of study groups.

Assessment

These skills are assessed as part of the normal assessment of coursework and unseen examination.

Fees and funding

Employment

Employment


SOAS Law graduates leave SOAS as civic minded and critically engaged individuals who can effectively contribute to their communities and societies. With a thorough understanding of the legal dimensions underlying many of our global challenges today, our Law students are valued by employers due to their analytical skills, specialist knowledge, and global perspective.

Recent School of Law graduates have been hired by:

  • PwC LLP
  • BLM Law
  • BloombergNEF
  • British Medical Association
  • Clifford Chance
  • DAC Beachcroft LLP
  • Department for Work and Pensions
  • EY
  • HM Treasury
  • Latham & Watkins
  • Legal Cheek
  • Simpson Millar Solicitors
  • The Economist
  • Travers Smith
  • Vodafone
  • World Cancer Research Fund

Visit our Careers’ section for more information.

A Student's Perspective

Studying at SOAS helped me develop a strong work ethic, augment my analytical and communication skills, understand law from a multicultural perspective and love so many diverse cultures and religions of the world.

Raja Mohammad Sultan Mahmood

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