I was just wondering if any of you have completed, or are currently on, any of the LLM courses at Birkbeck. What are your opinions on the courses, teaching and resources etc.

I know lots of you may have opinions about Birkbeck in comparison with other Uni's etc., but I am interested in further academic study and a more critical approach to the law and human rights...so opinions from those with direct experience of any of the Borkbeck courses would be great.

Many thanks.

I am considering applying there as well. Do you know if they require letters of recommendation for the application?

I have heard that they are a kind of 'political correctness' academy with a strong identity politics agenda. Do you know if this is true?

I finished the accelerated LLB (now LLM QLD) at Birkbeck last year.

I don't know if 'political correctness' is the right phrase, but the gist of this criticism (if it is a criticism) is spot on. Birkbeck thinks of itself as a 'sociolegal' law school and most of the academics there align themselves closely with so-called 'critical legal studies' and related movements. Most of the teaching is motivated by a rather crass political agenda, and is of a poor standard. The thinking of most of the lecturers is lacking in analytical rigour, and some of the lectures are simply embarrassing. There are also a handful of lecturers and seminar leaders (postgraduate students) whose teaching is all but incomprehensible because their English is so bad.

I have seen Birkbeck adverts with the line "Great minds don't think alike". This is very much not the motto of the law school. As a graduate student you would be out of place there if you don't feel at home with a very specific (in my opinion intellectually bankrupt) way of thinking - postmodernism, critical legal studies etc. Basically any discipline that insecurely prefaces itself with 'critical' in order to assure itself of its trailblazing anti-establishment credentials will fit the bill nicely.

I am considering applying there as well. Do you know if they require letters of recommendation for the application?

I have heard that they are a kind of 'political correctness' academy with a strong identity politics agenda. Do you know if this is true?

Thanks for the replies. The usual theory is that the 'Critical Legal Studies' approach to law had more or less run itself into the ground by the end of the 1990s, so I guess Birkbeck is living in a time-warp. If you doubt every intellectual construct as a disguise for some illegitimate substantive interest, then eventually you dissolve your capacity to claim that your own substantive interest is superior, since you've destroyed all standards of validity.

Thanks for the replies. The usual theory is that the 'Critical Legal Studies' approach to law had more or less run itself into the ground by the end of the 1990s, so I guess Birkbeck is living in a time-warp. If you doubt every intellectual construct as a disguise for some illegitimate substantive interest, then eventually you dissolve your capacity to claim that your own substantive interest is superior, since you've destroyed all standards of validity.