Law at Oxford University

I totally will because I would always the kind of person I was very good at archery I was very interested in how the world how the world worked in general and in particular the political and social aspects and law is just one subject that captures all of those things I studied classics and I went on to law school later on when I decided to go to law school it was because I had an idea that it would equip me to do something worthwhile the reason why I like you all so much of them because it's so closely related to what people do every day everything everything that we do have law behind it going to the shop and buying milk you know that's a contract right there and people don't realize that the more I see other law schools the more I realize how Oxford is unique unique in this country and unique in the world we get to work with really from them neither lines not just in tutorials where we have world-class professors but also the people who visit because of their connections to Oxford is you might say more theoretical than some law degrees because it's focused on going deep into the core subjects instead of trying to cover a lot of different subjects [Music] the essential subjects that every lawyer needs to study in a law degree are contracts and torts and property law criminal law constitutional law and today in britain european union law we add to that compulsory jurisprudence which is legal philosophy and compulsory roman law which is taken in the first year as a preparation for studying English and European law so you have to do all of that and I'm just about now finishing that and now I get to pick two options to carry through into surgery the options are variable so you will basically be able to decide whether you're on public law person or a private law person over the last over the two years and and then you'll be able to base your options on what you're interested in so for instance I'm taking tax and intellectual property the degree is called a BA in jurisprudence and I've occasionally learning students who think that it's not a preparation for legal practice when in fact it's an outstanding preparation we have a whole module on this jurisprudence which I'm going to do this to and you get to sort of pick what element of law you want to think about in depth the student can apply to do law with French law or law with German law or Spanish law or Italian law and then enlighten in the Netherlands there's a program in European law and the student goes on on this program spends their third year studying German law and German University one of four universities in Germany or French law in France and so on I have on average I think one to two hours of tutorials a week and my life sort of revolved around that so I'll get set a reading list and an essay for a tutorial and then I'll spend my week preparing for that I think silly the most unique thing about studying adults it is the tutorial system the remarkable sort of upside down topsy-turvy teaching system where the student has to explain the subject to the professor instead of the professor explaining it to students and so what you want to expect there's about two to three people in a tutorial groupings by your tutor and y22 have a fantastic poker face cotton doesn't give anything away ever and so you're saying something that you think is right and then he'll just sit there and look if you think yes that's interesting or have you considered this we start off straightaway with three essays over two weeks and that's a lot to just about anyone comes but it'd be a depth that surprisingly quickly I got really stuck and last term on this one element in land law and my landlord shooter written my book and so I was stuck on boy he was trying to save taking a paragraph so I could just email him and he got back to me within five minutes like explaining what men and I doesn't even get that like anywhere else it you can just ask that world leader you have tutorials at other colleges which i think is quite great because it means you get to see a lot of oxygen [Music] I'm looking that I often have one-on-one tutorials and in that way that there's no evading the difficult questions in that topic the workload is heavy because to become a good lawyer to do well in law degree you have to read voraciously you have to read a ton of stuff that you wouldn't read for fun you wouldn't read on the beach of the bedtime meeting that's difficult and I came from sofa a state school where I didn't have much attention and like I didn't know how to learn on this like flexible basis when I came up it was a bit of a shock like how am I to work like this I think finding that out for myself sort of working that through which really helped me develop as a person one of the things that I love about Occident it's what you make of it a lot of people won't get involved with extracurricular activities I was expelled choice but I'm really glad that I did not sing in flying copy debar Society one extra protector Gianna Bolton is doing food court conditions it's when you are given a hypothetical case and you have to argue the points of law before a panel of judges in short order a lawyer needs to find a way to defend their point of view and so the deep and theoretical approach to studying law in Oxford is actually really good vocational training even though that was not good this is something that we're constantly reminded of by our to type that box that is very different it's got its reputation for a reason and you have to work harder maintain that reputation so you will have to be are asked to work during the holidays other things thing kind of have to accept but it's all doable very roughly you could think of it as taking on a full-time job if you work 40 hours a week on your la course that's great so many if you end up here you're like top in your class so you're not used to not knowing things so I think that's what I've developed in a way like really knowing that I can do something wrong and so build it back up again everyone knows about Oxford and I mean it's the best place to do law as well so I thought I'll give it a go when we admit people are not looking for aggressive outgoing people and before reserved scholarly people we really look for students who are going to try one on the subject and those people are very diverse everyone comes into interview without much background knowledge about the law and what they will be looking for is the way you think and the way you approach issues they just gave me a good paper to go over beforehand for half an hour and sort of write notes on it it was I think it was like a bear statue in a bit castle and they went in and she asked me how would I argue a case based on what I had been given and then how would I argue the other side and I never studied law before I think it was just testing whether you could think that way maybe you could thrive in a tutorial environment when online retentive we know that the student is entering in on a difficult course without knowing exactly what it's going to be like so it's quite important that we can see that they are thinking it heads that they've got their head up and that they're going to put some energy and commitment into it I think a lot of people take floor but didn't think it sounds good and I think that definitely shouldn't be the reason that you want to take it like you're going to spend a lot of time it is a lot whichever degrees that you study if you choose to study analysis [Music] [Music] there was a lot of screaming I was I was shrieking at the top of my voice who can believe I got in it doesn't matter how intelligent the student is if they're just gonna hate it or if they don't know what they're getting into or if they would don't really want to work hard and read fast and learn to communicate then they won't enjoy it illogical when I found out my level results like I need are win for sure without that that automatically meant that we had to get our books and do some readings there are more training Burgesses country who were trained at Oxford than any other University and more of the people who go into the solicitors profession in large monitors come to us so it is a really good preparation for the compromise I think one of the strong points about the experience and offices that we had raised those things with prospective employment I would like to become one with I don't know what kind of lawyer don't like me you might say it's a training and defending your point of view and obviously that's useful for politicians it's actually used at the bankers it's useful for school teachers and and parole off the citizens policeman policeman [Music] am i going to other things and like politics not happening I think a lot of people have heard about stereotypes about Oxford as long as they have been in school but I think it's important to know that there are loads of people here who do not adhere to those stereotypes I certainly don't it is always a misperception if if a student thinks that that boxwood has a certain sort of culture that wouldn't welcome them because it is a very open constantly changing very diverse and exciting environment I think one thing that no one should worry about is speaking and sounding like someone who's just walked off a legal drama no one does that in real life and the polish that you need to be a good lawyer comes from from knowing and thinking about the legal issues you encounter in the three years because here [Music]

Channel: University of Oxford

Views: 151,041

Keywords: University of Oxford, Oxford, University

Id: FJ71KuCwhd0

Length: 11min 45sec (705 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 05 2017