Law

This is a qualifying law degree - your first step towards becoming a solicitor or barrister in England and Wales. You’ll gain all the skills you need to progress to the next stages.

Why study LLB Law at Goldsmiths

• 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 National Student Survey 2022, our Department of Law was ranked number 1 in the UK for its intellectually stimulating curriculum and programme, and we were rated the best department in London for quality of teaching in law.

• We have a rich heritage of social awareness and engagement. You'll be part of an environment that champions human rights, social justice and the international rule of law.

• You’ll not only get a qualifying law degree, but the course has also been developed in anticipation of the new Solicitors Qualifying Examinations (SQE). Training for these is integrated throughout the degree, with the option to take an SQE module in your final year.

• As a Goldsmiths student, you will also benefit from discounted access to SQE Prep with leading external provider BARBRI.

• Future lawyers need a diverse range of skills. As well as grounding you in the fundamentals, you’ll also learn about subjects from big data to social media.

• This degree is active, so you won't just be sitting and reading. You'll learn problem-solving, debating and advocating through a range of activities.

• We're ahead of the curve, offering subjects like AI and disruptive technologies.

• You'll benefit from our excellence in the fields of creative arts, humanities and social sciences, with optional modules in subjects like art, media, human rights and technology.

• You'll visit the Supreme Court, Old Bailey, and leading commercial law sets. You’ll also attend Parliamentary committees and debates as well as relevant theatre productions, exhibitions and film screenings to enrich your studies.

• You’ll work closely with eminent legal thinkers, internationally leading barristers and politicians. Our Visiting Professors are some of the greatest legal minds of our generation.

• You’ll benefit from a variety of guest speakers who are experts in their fields. From practising legal professionals to solicitors from ‘Magic Circle’ law firms, and members of the Crown Prosecution Service to representatives from NGOs and the technologies sector.

• In Goldsmiths’ Law and Policy Clinics, you'll get to 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.

• You 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.

• We’re the first law department in the UK to offer students free access to Harvard Law School’s pioneering Zero-L course.

You'll take compulsory modules in your first year of the LLB, and then you'll have the opportunity to focus on your interests in the second and third years by choosing from a range of law option modules.

A unique feature of the degree is that you'll also be able to study across a wide range of specialisms, drawing on globally leading expertise in the departments of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Art, and Media, Communications and Cultural Studies.

Year 1 (credit level 4)
In your first year, you'll study the following compulsory modules:
21st Century Legal Skills
Contract Law
Criminal Law: Theory and Practice
Public Law and the Human Rights Act
English Legal System in a Global Context

Year 2 (credit level 5)
You'll study the following compulsory modules:
EU Law and the UK
Law of Tort
Land Law
Trusts
International Law and Politics

Option modules
You'll then select 2 option modules to the value of 30 credits. You can choose from the following:

Department of Law modules
Immigration Law
Intellectual Property Law
The Goldsmiths Project
The Goldsmiths Elective

We run an 'Immigration Law and Policy Clinic' that you can take for credit if you select The Goldsmiths Project module.

Modules in other departments and Connected Curriculum modules
To broaden your studies you can choose to select modules from other departments such as Sociology and Politics. Exact lists of these modules will be available at the beginning of each academic year.

You can also select modules from the Connected Curriculum, if you're keen to extend your studies beyond law.

Intercollegiate module programme
You could also choose to take advantage of our and study one module from a participating University of London Law School. This can further enrich your academic experience.

Year 3 (credit level 6)
In your third year, you'll take 6-8 modules (90-120 credits) from the following modules:
Dissertation
AI, Disruptive Technologies and the Law
Human Rights Law and Clinic
Work Placement
Commercial Law and International Trade Agreements
Art Law
Company Law
SQE2: Practical Legal Skills in Context
Criminal Evidence (with Advanced Mooting and Advocacy)

And, depending on the number of credits you select from the Department of Law modules, you can take 1 or 2 modules from the below interdisciplinary modules:
Confronting climate crisis
Media Law and Ethics
Anthropology of Rights
Crimes of the Powerful
Psychology and Law

You could also choose to take advantage of our intercollegiate module programme and study one module from a participating University of London Law School.

Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.

You’ll be assessed by a variety of methods, depending on your module choices. These include coursework, examinations, reports, case notes, statutory interpretation, critiques of articles, and research projects such as the dissertation.

As well as these traditional assessment methods, you'll also have the option in your second and third years to take modules that are wholly assessed in more innovative ways, such as:

a portfolio of mooting contributions
client interviewing, persuasive argumentation, written advice and legal drafting
voluntary and prepared contributions in the classroom
taking part in a human rights clinic and other experiential learning activities

Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.

• Bar Standards Board
• Solicitors Regulation Authority