What's the best place in the UK to study legal history at the postgraduate level?

What's the best place in the UK to study legal history at the postgraduate level?

If you are interested in English legal history, Cambridge has a good reputation in that area.

Thanks for your insight. I just checked the faculty list and JH Baker is still at Cambridge. He wrote a great intro to the subject---it was my first text in English legal history. Not sure who else actively lectures there. Too bad FW Maitland still isn't alive---his work was so lively.

Thanks for your insight. I just checked the faculty list and JH Baker is still at Cambridge. He wrote a great intro to the subject---it was my first text in English legal history. Not sure who else actively lectures there. Too bad FW Maitland still isn't alive---his work was so lively.

Thank you, sjd73. I will look into QMUL. I hadn't thought of that---and frankly it's good to have options other than the ultracompetitve Oxbridge.

If anyone has studied under any of the aforementioned individuals or knows their reputations for teaching, please share.

Interalia is correct that there is a Legal History LLM at Edinburgh. It is actually a combined Legal History/Theory programme and is mainly a research degree but with supervising staff including Neil Walker and Hector Macqueen, though there are also taught course requirements. Neil is arguably one of the most well-known theorists around and is fantastic to work with. He has a great deal of time for students as does Paul de Plessis, the director of the programme. Hector is also consistently a favourite among students. I have worked with each of them in various capacities and have seen them in action at a wide variety of conferences and am always impressed.
Hope this gives you a bit of insight at least on the staff.
Best of luck.

Thank you for the behind the scenes info. The LLM at Edinburgh is particularly appealing because I also have an interest in jurisprudence.

As I scan the CVs of some of the faculty, it seems as though Edinburgh has a healthy interest in the jurisprudential foundations of the EU. An interesting subject, no doubt. I've long thought the whole EU project suffered from a deep democratic deficit....

And there you have a prime research topic!

The European slant is not surprising at Edi as it is home to the oldest dedicated European law research centre...the Europa Institute.

There is a fine reason to recommend Legal History module at Cambridge, given its tradition in history learning, and both John Baker and Neil Jones currently lecture the module - one is rather authoritative; the other, exceptionally scholarly elegant. As to jurisprudence, Oxford BCL is generally considered as the best place to do it.

Thank you libertine and EDIpostgrad.

EDI>>>I would have a research topic, but I suggest the democratic deficit problem has been beaten to death at this point. But the problem remains. It seems as though the only way the EU ever expands is *without* the will of the people. Or if a referendum fails, the EU masters simply force the vote again. But I should not digress into politics. Please don't hold my scepticism of the EU against me. I sound like a Tory. HA.

libertine>>>I would be extraordinarily fortunate to gain admission to either of those unis. John Baker is one of my personal favorites. Maitland was a better writer, I think, but Baker is one of the great scholars. It would be an honor to learn from him before he retires.

Is Raz still *active* at Oxford? I'm not sure who's going great guns there now.

Right, as Milsom once said, Maitland has told us all that we need to know. So if you like, you'd still sort of smell his spirit around Maitland History Room in the Squire Library. I have no idea whether Raz is still 'active', but with good reasons, I believe John Gardner certainly is. And, given your special interests in both history and jurisprudence, I think you may well stand a good chance for Oxbridge - and if you do, don't let it go.

Thank you, libertine. I intend to apply this fall, but am realistic about the prospects of admission. If I am honest with myself, I would give my left arm to study English legal history at Cambridge from JH Baker; I hope in my application this fall I am somehow able to convey in words my sincere desire to study there. If given the chance I believe I could excel. (Although I assume every applicant for admission feels that way!)