So far I have implied that I am actually a current Law student and since this blog was started during the summer it could be assumed that I was in my 2nd or maybe 3rd year. However, I am actually just this week starting my first week of proper study in my 1st year.
A week yesterday I arrived on campus to begin studying the law at an undisclosed university in the UK. Last week was Fresher’s Week which involved a lot of drinking, parties and meeting new people. But amongst all that fun we also had some introductory lectures. These included receiving the module outline booklets for the 5 modules that I shall be studying this year:
- A Critical Introduction to Law
- Constitutional and Administrative Law
- Criminal Law
- Legal Process
- Obligations I
One of the lectures in Fresher’s Week included writing a 45 minute essay titled “What is law?“. This was strange because I was intending to write a post here with that exact title, but ended up deciding not to. I enjoy writing on topics like this and after a little bit of preparation the night before, I had some good ideas that I was able to put into a structured essay for the lecture.
And today I shall be attending my first lecture that is not just an introduction to the subject/course/university as a whole. In fact this week I am not on full timetable but instead will have several lectures to introduce various key skills required to study the subject:
- Going to Court
- Introduction to Statutory Interpretation
- Introduction to Reading Legal Cases
Although Fresher’s Week was good, I have been really looking forward to actually starting the subject – I got quite excited last week when the modules were introduced. I can’t wait to actually start!
I have all my books that I need for the first year on my shelf:
- Gary Slapper & David Kelly, The English Legal System (8th ed), Cavendish, 2006
- Herring, J., Criminal Law: Text, Cases and Materials (2nd ed), Oxford University Press, 2006
- Ashworth, A., Principals of Criminal Law (5th ed), Oxford University Press, 2006
- Ewan McKendrick, Contract Law: Text, Cases and Materials (2nd ed), Oxford
- Mindy Chen-Wishart, Contract Law, Oxford University Press, 2005
- Blackstone’s Statutes on Contract, Tort and Restitution 2006/7
These are very heavy and very thick, but do look quite interesting. So I am also looking forward to being able to use them properly to do legal research, especially since the total cost from Amazon.co.uk was £170!
So far university has been very relaxed, although expensive. Accomodation for the first year is £4036.36 self catered. Added to that £3000.00 for the year for the topup fees and you’re looking at about £7000.00 just to go and have somewhere to stay. My timetable has yet to be finalised with my full quota of lectures and seminars but I will now be able to pick up the rate of posting since I will actually have some content to comment on. I’m hoping to post again this evening after the first lecture.
I also have a strange urge to do some of my own research into my topic of particular interest – intellectual property and technology law – since these are not covered as separate modules in the first year, or even at all in the case of technology law. But what do I look into? What can I research?
