Law

The College normally has some thirty or more undergraduates in residence reading law. In addition, the College has a strong contingent of graduate lawyers, many from abroad. Magdalen has long had a reputation for a large and successful Law school. Many of our graduates – men and women – have gone on to achieve high judicial office, both in the UK and in countries such as Australia and the United States. We are one of the few Colleges with three law teachers (not shared with other Colleges). The result is that we are able to teach most subjects taken by our students and many tutorials are on a one-to-one basis.

The Atkin Society, the College's law society, of which all law students are members, holds moots (mock appeal cases argued on points of law) every term. All students are encouraged to moot, and a London law firm sponsors prizes and refreshments. The Society's annual dinner is coupled with a moot. We invite eminent judges to preside.

The College Library's holding of law books is separately housed in the Denning Law Library, located in spacious and specially designed rooms in the modern Grove Buildings. The library holdings are good (some 4,000 volumes) and in recent years there has been a significant upgrading exercise. For several years, we have operated a scheme whereby all Magdalen law students are provided with a major textbook for each of their courses. This represents a major saving in cost for graduates and undergraduates alike.

The tutors in Law are (with their main areas of interest):

Dr Katharine Grevling (evidence, trusts)
Roger Smith (property, common law, company law)
Roderick Bagshaw (public law, tort, evidence)

Entry procedures

Oxford candidates are required to register for and to take the LNAT (the National Admissions Test for Law - http://www.lnat.ac.uk/) between 1 September and 20 October 2012. The Oxford Law Faculty runs a scheme to ensure that candidates are not disadvantaged by applying to a College with large numbers of candidates. Although Magdalen has received large numbers of law applications in recent years, their success rate in getting Oxford places has been at least as good as the University average. Significant numbers of those we have been unable to interview have been reallocated to other colleges for interview and accepted by other colleges.

All of our entrance procedures are intended to assess candidates’ aptitude for studying law. No knowledge of law is required: in particular, no prior preparation is necessary. The assessment criteria that we use are published on the Oxford University Law Faculty's website (http://denning.law.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate/criteria.shtml). We may call candidates for interview earlier than is indicated on the University timetable.

Interviews for law courses at Magdalen will include questions on an extract from a legal case, which interviewees will be given an hour before interview. Again, we do not expect any familiarity with legal principles.

There are no preferred A-level subjects. The College welcomes applications regardless of which subjects are being studied at A-level. In particular, those studying science subjects are under no disadvantage. Applications for deferred entry will be considered using the ordinary assessment criteria referred to above.

The College welcomes applications from those wishing to take "Law with Law Studies in Europe".

Potential candidates wishing to visit the College or ask questions of tutors should aim to visit on an Open Day.

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