In postings concerning top US law schools diverse professors are recurringly referred to as prominent in their field of legal research. As regards my impression concerning UK law schools this is not as often the case. Aren't UK scholars, say at Oxbridge or elsewhere, as outstanding as their American colleagues? Or is there just not a comparable personality cult in the UK?

Who are the most eminent scholars, regardless of their specific field of specialization, at Oxford?

uk scholars are great - but uk unis don't have the whole system of 'academic stars' and publicised aggressive hiring practices!
at oxford for jurisprudence - finnis and endicott
dont know about other fields..

here here.
It almost seems as if in the U.S. Universities/Law Schools have to market themselves a lot more aggressively than in the UK. This leads me to the impression that the threshold of 'academic stardom' or 'prominence' is quite a bit lower than the sites and brochures make out. I'm not trying to belittle any american scholars (many of whom I hold in the highest regard), I simply think its quite a big cultural difference, even within the common law legal family.
Of scholars in Oxford, Professor Vaughan Lowe in Public International Law comes to mind (my own area of interest), who is regarded as one of the most prominent experts on the law of Jurisdiction, as well as a frequent advocate before the ICJ. Obviously his predecessor Professor Brownlie is quite a highly regarded name in PIL as well.
Also, the whole Jurisprudence section (and particularly considering their connection to the UCL 'jurisprudes') is very impressive.

This is a great thread. Pkotiaho, who would you say has the highest profile at Oxford among the legal historians? They have a lot of depth in this area, but I don't know who among the scholars is prominent.

Dear cognos,

I'm sorry to say that when it comes to what many might regard as legal history 'proper' I'm slightly out of my depth.

Also my personal understanding of the differentiation between legal history as opposed to legal theory/philosophy or jurisprudence (apart from that which many adherents call "analytical" jurisprudence) is that it might have something more to do with the academic job market than actually a different sub-field altogether.

However, that aside, having had a quick glance at the legal history subfield at Oxford (www.law.ox.ac.uk) I can't say that I am any the wiser. Sorry I can't be of more help.

best,

paavo

Legal:
Andrew Ashworth surely???!?


The only area in the UK I would say that academics have become 'stars' is in History, where academics are used most frequently to present series of documentaries on TV, hence gaining public exposure. Most people in the UK have consequently now heard of Richard Holmes, David Starkey, Simon Sharma, Niall Ferguson etc. A number of these have now actually gone to U.S. universities I believe..........