What is better (in terms of quality of program or prestige) for pursuing a career in law teaching, an Oxford BCL or an LLM from Columbia? I was interested in either coporate law or public international law.

Dear Kane,
I would go to Columbia.
Best regards,

I think a lot of that depends upon your background (where did you obtain previous degrees?) and where you want to teach (what do your employers want to see?).

For corporate law, although there are international corporate classes, Columbia provides a decidedly U.S. view - SEC, Delaware law, case law. The public international law courses are much more cosmopolitan.

Thanks for everyone's responses so far. I have a law degree from Canada, so going to Oxford or Columbia would be a similarly exotic experience for me. I must say that I am leaning towards Columbia -- I have heard that John Coffee is a preeminent professor in corporate law, and have not heard of any Oxford professors that ring a bell in the field. I also understand that the BCL, as a purely taught course with little chance for writing papers, is of little use to wanna-be professors.

Is this true?

Kane: Yeah, I think if academia is your interest, your best bet is one of Oxford's post graduate research degrees.

The MSt in Legal Studies is a one year master in law, but is completely thesis based; you have to defend a major thesis for the degree. Additionally, it can double as the first year of the DPHIL, which is also pretty handy for aspiring academics. The downside is that as a graduate law research degree, it pretty competitive for admission. Oxford accepts only 40 research graduate students in law in any given year (these include MSt and DPHIL), while taking in 150 BCL, by comparison.