3 students and supervisor at table

Why study Law at Christ's?

Student at desk in the Law Library
  Law Library

At Christ's College you have the chance to study law in a rigorous, collaborative way. One of our strengths is that our staff offer expertise in many of the qualifying compulsory papers. We have a diverse student body from around the world and an extensive network of distinguished alumni.

Since Christ’s beginnings our students have thrived in the law, starting with Thomas Gent, appointed a judge in 1584. One graduate, Lord Alexander Irvine of Lairg (Honorary Fellow, 1996), achieved historical and constitutional significance as the last Lord Chancellor to sit as a judge in the House of Lords.

Other notable alumni include Sir Martin Moore-Bick (Honorary Fellow, 2009), a serving judge in the Court of Appeal and barrister Nicholas Fuller, imprisoned for challenging Church courts’ punishment of people with different religious views. Some have written key legal works, including Henry Finch (Nomotechnia), Lord Patrick Devlin (on the boundary between law and morals) and Basil Montagu, one-time friend of Wordsworth.

The College is usually home to a friendly community of 20-25 law students who make frequent use of our well-stocked law library. The active student-run law society has strong links to the legal profession and invites solicitors, barristers and others to give talks throughout the year. It organises all kinds of events including a party for new undergraduates, informal and formal dinners, plus a summer garden party.

After graduating many of Christ's lawyers go on to work in the legal profession as solicitors and barristers, as well as in areas such as accountancy and academia.
 

Course content and structure

The Law course (or ‘tripos’) is normally a 3-year degree, although there is an opportunity for current students to apply for an additional year between the first two years and the final year in order to study abroad under the Erasmus+ scheme.

Please visit the University website for full details of the undergraduate Law course content and structure.
 

Teaching

The Faculty of Law, internationally renowned Squire Law Library and Institute of Criminology are just 15 minutes’ walk from the College.

You have lectures at the central Faculty of Law and are also taught in College in weekly one-to-one or small-group 'supervisions’. These tutorial sessions give you the advantage of personally-tailored guidance and tuition. Christ’s Director of Studies for Law Dr Eleni Katsampouka organises your supervisions and can advise on your choice of subjects.

Other fellows in Law:

Mooting at Christ's

All our law students are welcome to take part in moots. (In fact, first-years can’t miss the College moot in Michaelmas Term.) At these simulated court cases, you make submissions about how the law should apply to a set of facts, acting as barristers in front of a ‘judge’ – usually a Director of Studies, or a former Christ’s student who is now a real judge.

Moots raise questions of law rather than fact, so there’s no need to cross-examine any witnesses. You learn to hone skills such as public speaking, legal research and thinking on your feet. Not to brag, but Christ's undergraduates have had a pretty successful record in recent years!

 

Student Q&A film
  Watch the Christ's student Q&A film

What do our students think?

Read about the experiences of Page, Emily, and Emma studying Law at Christ’s.

To hear from other students at Christ's, please watch the Christ's student Q&A film, and visit our Student Profiles page.
 

How to apply

Visit How to Apply for full details and a timeline of the application process. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and school types, all over the world. If you're applying from outside the UK, please read our international students section.


Subjects: what do you need?

Law students will generally have studied an essay-based subject as one of their post-16 subjects but there is no ‘ideal’ combination of subjects and we are happy for students not doing an essay subject to apply. Successful applicants take all sorts of subjects from Mathematics and sciences, to arts and social sciences or various combinations. All of these teach skills that can be useful to the undergraduate lawyer.

LNAT (pre-registration required)

Applicants to the University of Cambridge for Law must sit the LNAT Admissions Assessment (pre-registration required). This will take place in your school, college or local testing centre. The same assessment is used regardless of which College you have applied to. The LNAT examines your academic abilities, knowledge-base and potential, and forms part of our holistic admissions process: there is no set score that we are looking for. When applying, it is important to be aware of the registration and assessment dates, however these are not yet confirmed so please bear with us.

  • LNAT registration date and details for applicants to Cambridge: to be confirmed
  • LNAT assessment date and details for applicants to Cambridge: to be confirmed

Information about the LNAT including example papers will be available on the University Admissions website from March each year, anf there is also an LNAT website if you would like to have an initial look.

Interviews

If we invite you for interviews, these usually take place in early December. Those invited for Cambridge interviews are normally interviewed for 35-50 minutes in total. At Christ’s, we usually split the time into two interviews with academics in Law. Just before one of these, we give you a piece of legal text to prepare for discussion in the upcoming interview.

We don’t expect you to do any special preparation or have particular knowledge of the law. Our aim is to explore your aptitude and potential for legal reasoning and study at Cambridge, rather than assess what you already know.

Read the information and watch the short films on Cambridge admissions interviews for an idea of what to expect when you come. We also hold interviews in various locations overseas for international students.

Offers

At Christ's we don’t have fixed quotas for places, so the number of students we admit in any year depends on the strengths of the applicants. In Law we aim to admit 6 to 8 students each year.

We assess the terms of each offer individually but our typical minimum conditional offer is:

  • A*AA at A-level
  • 42 points overall in the International Baccalaureate with 7,7,6 in relevant Higher Level subjects

If you’re taking another qualification, we expect you to be working at or close to the top of the mark range i.e.

  • Option Internationale du Baccalauréat: at least 17/20 overall, with 17 or 18 in relevant subjects
  • European Baccalaureate: at least 85% overall, with 9/10 in relevant subjects

Read about offer levels in other exam systems and international entrance requirements.

If you will have already finished school when you apply, please see the page for post-qualification applications.
 

Helpful resources

Think Cambridge Law (blog) A really helpful set of posts from the Faculty of Law at Cambridge
Cambridge University Exploring Law course on FutureLearn A six-week University of Cambridge course for 16-18 year olds.
Websites for exploring your subject in Law (part I) Suggestions from the Law Faculty
Websites for exploring your subject in Law (part II) Suggestions from the Law Faculty
LNAT website See how to prepare and sample essays and practice test.
Reading suggestions Book recommendations from Cambridge Law students
Gresham College Law lectures

Free online lectures including, for example, lecture series on the Practice of Law, The Politics of the Courtroom and Death, the State and Human Rights, as well as the Gray's Inn Readings.
Public Law for everyone Blog exploring public law ideas, by Cambridge Law Professor Mark Elliott
Legal problems (film)

Law Open Day resource

Cambridge University Law Society Speakers
Faculty of Law public lectures
Law in Focus

 Short talks and online lectures
The Modern Judiciary: Who they are, what they do and why it matters Future Learn course  introducing you to the role of judges in the legal system of England and Wales
Supreme Court website Including information about the court and online films, You may also want to consider visiting a local court.
Cambridge Sixth Form Law Conference For Year 12 students interested in studying Law at degree level
Information about Work Experience for Law Information and advice
Supercurriculars in a pandemic Lots of good suggestions here
HE+ Law Website for secondary school students who would like to explore Law.
CamGuides Introducing the academic and information skills that you will need during your studies, as well as how and where you would be working

 

Come to an Open Day or Online Event

Lecture theatre
  You can explore Christ's and the Law department in
  Cambridge University Virtual Tour

Online events: Our open days and events page advertises regular online opportunities as well as events you can attend in Cambridge. If you can, attend a College Open Day or attend some of our regular webinars.

Further subject-specific opportunities you might wish to consider include the Sixth Form Law Conference, Subject Masterclasses organised by Cambridge Admissions Office, and the Law Faculty Open Day. If you are a UK student from a background where there is little tradition of entry to Higher Education, you can apply to attend a Sutton Trust Summer School in Law or to shadow a current Law undergraduate via the Cambridge SU Shadowing Scheme (do be aware that there's a high proporton of applicants to places for both of these last two opportunities so please don't be discouraged if you don't get a place).
 

2 students walking through Second CourtNeed more information?

For more detail of what the course involves, read about Undergraduate Law admissions on the University website and take a look at the BA Law degree site.

And if you have any other questions, please send them to us at admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk. We look forward to hearing from you.

 

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