Which one is the best option, in terms of prestige and quality, for a PhD in maritime law among University of Southampton, Queen Mary University and University College London? Thanks in advance for your contributions.

Southampton is typically perceived as a better choice for maritime law than most other schools in the UK.

However, that's not to say that QMUL or UCL would not be good choices. For a PhD, I'd imagine that the faculty you work under, the work you want to do, and the actual thought leadership of each school would play a very important role.

Thanks a lot Chicken for your counsel above. I actually have bias for Southampton even though it is listed as 2nd best globally after Swansea. Reason being that most of the maritime law texts in use then in the first law firm I worked, some years ago, were written by professors at Southampton. However, the fact that when you google the best maritime law universities in the UK as against globally, QMUL and UCL are listed as 1st and 2nd respectively before Swansea and Southampton introduces some confusion. This is compounded by the fact that Prof Yvonne Baatz who was the Director of the Institute of Maritime Law at Southampton from 2003 to 2006 now teaches at QMUL and that Dr Melis Ozdel who directs the maritime law specialization at UCL did both her LL.M and PhD in maritime law at Southampton. What it means is that one could understudy these two. And as you know, both QMUL and UCL have better general reputation globally. Would this new revelation make any difference in your opinion above? Thanks once more as I look forward to hearing your further valued contributions.

[Edited by The Jurist on Aug 16, 2019]

Well Southampton and Swansea would both be good options - in maritime law they are really both a notch above, regardless of the global / general rankings.

Alright. Thanks for your responses.