Senior Status LLB drafted draft

Program Overview

---

The SOAS Senior Status LLB 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.

The SOAS Law Degree produces 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.

Why study Law at SOAS?

We are ranked in the UK top 20 (QS World University Rankings 2023)

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

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.

Program Outline

Important notice

The information on the website reflects the intended programme structure against the given academic session. The modules are indicative options of the content students can expect and are/have been previously taught as part of these programmes. However, this information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability is subject to change.

Year 1

Students must take the below compulsory modules.

Module	Credits
Introduction to Law and Legal Processes	0
Criminal Law	30
Contract Law	30
Public Law	30
Property I	30
Legal Systems of Asia and Africa I	15

---

Final Year

Students must take the below compulsory modules

---

And

Choose modules from the list of

final year guided option modules

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

OR language
on-language open option modules to the value of 30 credits

Module	Credits
Introduction to EU Law	15
Legal Systems of Asia and Africa II	15
Law of Tort	30
Property II	15

---

Final Year guided option modules

Module	Credits
Foundations of Human Rights Law	15
International Environmental Law	15
Environmental Law in Action: Comparative and Domestic Perspectives	15
Islamic Law	30
Public International Law	15
Law and Justice in Contemporary China	15
Family Law	30
Law and Society in South Asia	30
Law and Society in Africa	30
Law and Society in Africa	15
Independent Study Project on a Selected Legal topic	30
Company Law	30
Advanced Comparative Administrative Law	30
Commercial Law in a Global Context	30
Law, Multiculturalism and Rights	30
Law of Commercial Arbitration	15
Alternative Dispute Resolution	15
Asylum and Immigration Law	30
Law, Terror and State Power	15
Criminal Justice, Race and Rights	15
Law and the Atlantic Slave Trade, Slavery, and Post-Slavery	15
Legal Systems of Asia and Africa II	15
Copyright Law	15
Intellectual Property Law	30

---

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.

---

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. 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.

---

Learning outcome

---

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.

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 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

Find out about our

Careers Service

.