The Study of Law at Jesus
This information should be read in conjunction with the Faculty of Law prospectus, which may be accessed at www.law.cam.ac.uk.
Jesus College generally admits about twelve students a year to study law. Our students come from a wide variety of schools and backgrounds.
The majority of undergraduates who read law do so for the three years of their residence. It is also possible to switch to law after reading another subject for one or two years. Examinations are taken at the end of each year: Part IA of the Law Tripos after the first year, Part IB after the second, and Part II after the third.
Students who read law for three years take Civil Law I, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Law of Tort in their first year. A wide range of options is available in the second and third years of study – details may be found on the Faculty of Law website. Jesus College encourages undergraduates, under the guidance of the Director of Studies, to take full advantage of the range of courses offered.
As for all subjects, the University Faculty arranges lectures. The College nevertheless provides excellent and vital facilities for those reading law. The College-based supervision system is central to the process of legal study at Cambridge. Supervisions give undergraduates the opportunity to test their knowledge and to discuss areas of difficulty or uncertainty. Collaboration with colleagues in other Colleges ensures that Jesus students are taught by the appropriate expert in each subject. However, since the College has a relatively large number of Law Fellows, supervisions in many subjects can be provided in-house. The Director of Studies assists undergraduates with work-related or other problems and meets with students individually on a regular basis in order to discuss progress.
Study abroad
It is possible to combine the study of law at Cambridge with study abroad, under the Erasmus exchange scheme. This scheme, organised by the University, allows law students to spend their third year at the University of Poitiers in France, Utrecht in the Netherlands, Regensburg in Germany, or Madrid in Spain. The students then return to Cambridge for a fourth year of study. Applications for this option are made and considered once an undergraduate has completed his or her first year of study. Jesus College is very happy to support this scheme, which provides undergraduates with the opportunity to learn about another legal system and to experience life as a student overseas.
The Jesus College Law Library
The College is fortunate to have a very well stocked Law Library, which includes in its collection most of the law reports, statutes and leading law journals that an undergraduate is likely to need during his or her course of study in Cambridge. Our ongoing acquisitions policy ensures that students continue to have access to the latest relevant publications. The College Law Library provides an invaluable resource for students that supplements the University’s facilities and provides twenty-four hour access to essential materials. Additionally, and unlike many law libraries, the Jesus Law Library allows students to borrow certain texts and other books, both during term and under a vacation borrowing scheme.
Computing facilities for Jesus College law students
The College is able, through its excellent computing facilities, to provide law students with access to online legal resources. Students benefit from free access to electronic databases of legal materials, including Lexis, Westlaw and Justis, and to CD Rom courseware. Full training in the use of such facilities is provided in the Law Faculty and since 2001 comprises a required element for a qualifying law degree for anyone intending to practise law in England and Wales. Training in basic computer skills, if needed, is also available.
The Jesus College Law Society
All law students automatically become life members of the thriving and student-run Jesus College Law Society. The Law Society organises a variety of activities and events, including discussions, guest talks, mooting competitions and social events. These extra-curricular activities broaden students’ appreciation of law and legal practice, and encourage a strong sense of community among the College lawyers. Law Society events also provide an opportunity for undergraduates to meet the graduate law students of the College, many of whom are from other countries, and to forge friendships that endure well beyond the years spent in Cambridge. The officers of the Law Society are elected annually by the current law students.
Links with practitioners
Jesus College has a policy of encouraging links with practising lawyers in order to give students the opportunity to meet with leading solicitors, barristers and members of the judiciary and to discuss different career options and fields of work. Presentations and talks by outside experts are organised on a regular basis, and leading practitioners are invited to College to judge the final of the Jesus College annual mooting competition. In recent years practitioners have come to College to run student workshops and ‘law games’ sessions, giving students an opportunity to interact with barristers and solicitors and to develop skills that will prove useful in later life. Additionally, most students spend some weeks during the long vacation in placements in solicitors’ firms or mini pupillages in barristers’ chambers. The Law Fellows are happy to advise on such matters.
The Glanville Williams Society
All those who study law at Jesus automatically become members of the Glanville Williams Society once they graduate. Membership includes not only those who studied law at Jesus, but also Jesus graduates in other subjects who subsequently train as lawyers. The society was formed to encourage and facilitate continued links with the College, with its current law students, and between old Jesuan lawyers. An annual gathering, the Glanville Williams Reception, is held, to which current as well as past students are invited.
Careers
Most students who graduate in law from Jesus College choose to pursue a career as either a solicitor or a barrister. All the Law Fellows maintain strong links with practitioners and are happy to provide guidance and advice to students on the options available to them once they graduate. But not all law students choose to go into practice: law graduates of the College have entered a variety of other careers, such as management, the diplomatic service, finance and the media.
Further enquiries
The Law Fellows are always happy to answer any enquiries about the Law Tripos and associated matters and welcome invitations to visit schools. Enquiries should be addressed to Dr Oldham, Director of Studies in Law, Jesus College, Cambridge CB5 8BL.