Course information
Entry requirements
UCAS code
M210
Entry requirements
A-level: ABB
BTEC: DDD
IB: 33 points overall with Three HL subjects at 655
Length
3 years full-time
Department
Law
Politics and International Relations
Course overview
Law is ‘part of a larger system of public decision-making. The rest is politics: the politics of ministers and legislators, of political parties, of media and pressure groups, and of the wider electorate’ (Jonathan Sumption, Trials of the State: Law and the Decline of Politics, 2019). In this innovative LLB, you learn the Law as part of domestic and international politics.
Why study LLB Law with Politics & Human Rights
- We’re one of the highest-rated courses in the country. We're number 1 in the UK for student satisfaction (Complete University Guide Law League Table 2024). In the NSS (National Student Survey) 2022, our Law Department was ranked number 1 in the UK for its intellectually stimulating curriculum and programme, and we were rated the best Law department in London for quality of teaching.
- This Qualifying Law Degree (QLD) will allow you to obtain your LLB while also immersing yourself in the study of Politics.
- You'll focus on modern threats to democracy and human rights, and the interactions between Law and Politics required to effectively counter these threats at the local, national, and global levels.
- This programme is recognised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and Bar Standards Board (BSB). It has been specifically designed to give you a solid foundation to tackle the new Solicitors’ Qualifying Examinations (SQE), and the equivalent training and qualification process for becoming a barrister.
- Goldsmiths is based in New Cross, which means you'll have access to everything that legal and political London has to offer. Examples of trips include the House of Commons, the House of Lords, Parliamentary Select Committees, the UK Supreme Court, the Law Society, and the Inns of Court.
Pioneering teaching
- Our outstanding team of visiting professors includes eminent legal practitioners, such as the former Attorney General, Dominic Grieve KC, Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, a distinguished barrister who has led on war crime prosecutions, and HH Judge Alison Levitt KC, who was Principal Legal Adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions and is now a Circuit Judge sitting at Snaresbrook Crown Court.
- You'll also be given access to the Department of Politics’ lively events programme, which will allow you to encounter (and challenge) the latest political arguments, theories, and ideas.
- You'll learn from renowned international scholars, attend high-impact research events, and have the opportunity to connect with world-leading Law Schools (our annual lectures in 2019 and 2020 were delivered by Stanford Law and Berkeley Law academics respectively). You'll be taught by Judges, barristers, solicitors, Parliamentary legal counsels, MPs, MEPs, and human rights experts.
Study across disciplines
- You'll gain an interdisciplinary understanding of how the UK political system shapes Law.
- You'll explore the fascinating and complex interactions between law and politics. You'll also gain an insight into how Law determines the parameters of the political system, defines the distribution of power between branches of government, and allows us to hold our elected representatives accountable, particularly through constitutional and human rights law.
- You'll choose modules from the Department of Law and the Department of Politics and International Relations to give you a holistic understanding of legal and political systems by exposing you to fundamental political concepts on the one hand, and the legislative structures they operate within on the other.
- Instead of studying Law in isolation, you'll study it in its cultural, economic, and socio-political contexts.
- You'll complement your knowledge of core Law subjects with key concepts in political theory and ideologies, UK and comparative governance, and world politics.
Clinics, placements and summer internships
In Goldsmiths’ Law and Policy Clinics, students confront challenging societal issues through supervised legal research and public engagement activity. Areas of research and public engagement activity covered by the Clinics include immigration, the law of financial wrongdoing, police interrogation, and counter-terrorism law.
We also offer our students access to the University of London’s Refugee Law Clinic (awarded Best Contribution by a Law School in the LawWorks and Attorney General Student Pro Bono Awards 2023).
Students can choose a Placement module as an option and are given access to summer internships with internationally leading faculty as well as social welfare placements in law centres and legal advice clinics across London.
Harvard Law School course
We’re the first Law department in the UK to offer free access to Harvard Law School’s pioneering Zero-L course.
Taught by 18 leading Harvard Law faculty members, it has hours of video lectures, vocabulary, and periodic comprehension checks that you can take at your own pace. The course provides you with an introduction to the legal profession, stages of litigation and citizenship rights as well as offering instruction and practise in basic skills, including how to read a case.
Materials developed by Goldsmiths Law academics to support the delivery of Zero-L direct you to key areas of interest in the programme and give you support to understand how Zero-L strengthens your understanding of English law and helps you to develop legal skills.
Orwell Foundation partnership
Goldsmiths Law - Orwell Foundation Award
Student life and student support
You'll belong to a close-knit community, and will be supported by a network which includes academic personal tutors, career advisers, disability officers and other student support staff. We work in small groups in lectures and research seminars, and immerse in legal London as a group on a regular basis. The legal, institutional and cultural experiences you will gain in the LLB will stay with you forever.
Find out more about student life and studying in London, explore 'a day in the life' in the Law department, and visit the Department of Law Instagram page for a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to study Law at Goldsmiths.
Study abroad, international court visit and our Athens Summer School
We take our students on an annual international court visit. Read our blog to learn more about our visit to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on February 2023, where students attended a Grand Chamber hearing and participated in a workshop with the UK Judge at the Court, Tim Eicke KC.
We organise an annual summer school in Athens, in collaboration with leading Universities there. The week-long intensive programme provides a range of courses (in e.g. refugee law and migration studies, EU law, criminal law, law and technology), connects our students with high-profile institutions and authorities there, such as the British Ambassador and British Council in Greece, as well as giving them unprecedented access to cultural visits and experiences. Read more about our summer schools in Athens in June 2022 and June 2023.
In recent years, our students have also attended summer schools at the University of Geneva and Amsterdam Law school.
Students are supported through substantial Department of Law scholarships to participate in our summer school and international court visit. Funding is reviewed on a yearly basis. To find out more about funding and other global opportunities at Goldsmiths, visit our Study Abroad pages.
Contact the department
If you have specific questions about the degree, contact the Department of Law.