Undergraduate study

• Outward-looking degrees with interdisciplinary professional and international engagements
• Professional exemption pathways
• Friendly and supportive staff
• Excellence in research and teaching: the quality of our teaching was describes as 'excellent' by external reviewers and we are rated as offering a 'highly distinctive programme' delivered by 'enthusiastic and well-qualified staff' (External Examiner). Work produced by Keele Law graduates is viewed as 'generally above the average for a UK Law School' (External Examiner)
• According to the External Examiner 'Law at Keele is innovative and unique'

Keele Law School is known internationally for our outward-looking and distinctive Law degrees delivered in a supportive and dynamic learning environment. From a foundation in excellence in the core areas of Law, our undergraduate programmes enable students to engage with the Law beyond a narrow academic focus through:

• Interdisciplinary pathways to a qualifying Law degree, and a critical approach to the study of Law that places Law in its broad social, political, cultural and economic contexts within both core and elective modules
• Engagement with community and professional partners through the core and co-curricula, and work with national and regional legal professionals (including our alumni) through formal activities such as mooting, client interviewing and broader networking events and opportunities
• An international and outward-looking focus, through options to study abroad for a  semester, to combine the study of Law with achieving a University Certificate in a modern language, and opportunities to study Law in its international contexts

From core modules such as Land Law, Equity and Crime, to exciting elective modules at Levels 2 and 3, students at Keele Law School learn from internationally recognised legal academics at the forefront of their discipline.

Keele Law School graduates will leave Keele with a distinctive set of attributes and capabilities. As well as a rigorous academic environment in which to learn, students have opportunities to participate in a wide range of co-curricular activities. These opportunities are designed to support the development of students’ professional capabilities, and are facilitated through links with the national and regional legal profession. Keele Law School also hosts a Critical Lawyers’ Group, which provides a forum for debating controversial legal issues, a Student Bar Society and a Student Law Society that organise social functions, law talks, visits to courts, law fairs, etc. The attributes of Keele graduates enable them to succeed in a variety of roles within the legal profession and in a range of other exciting careers.

In 2011, work began on a Moot Court facility within the School of Law. This is a high-specification learning environment, funded through the support of the University and our alumni, in order to assist students in the development of a range of academic and professional skills. We are proud of what this represents in terms of the strength of our alumni’s continuing connection to Keele.

In every way, Keele Law School challenges students to make a difference in their careers.

First year
The Law part of your first year consists of six modules, all of which are compulsory. In the Autumn Semester all students take Legal Skills, which introduces essential skills and background knowledge, and includes sessions on IT skills, including how to use specialist law information retrieval systems such as Lawtel and Westlaw. You will also take the first half of the Tort Law and Public Law modules in the Autumn Semester.

The second parts of Tort Law and Public Law are taken in the Spring Semester alongside Legal Systems, which aims to deepen understanding of institutions, actors and processes of the English Legal System within a social and political context.

At the end of your first year, you have the opportunity to apply to transfer onto a Dual Honours programme (subject to the agreement of the other School) if you decide that you no longer wish to obtain a degree that provides professional exemption from the academic stage of legal training –that is, you decide you no longer wish to follow a career as a solicitor or barrister after graduation. Criminology and Politics students have the additional opportunity of pursuing a qualifying law degree programme with the continued study of those subjects.

Second year

Core modules
Land Law 1 provides an introduction to the Law of ‘real’ property.

Contract 1 concentrates on the formation and philosophical, social and economic basis of contracts.

Crime 1 deals with key elements of crime and the distinction between offences of intention and offences of recklessness.

In the Spring Semester, students take:

Land Law 2: which further develops students’ analysis of the core principles of Land Law.

Contract 2: which analyses the response of the law when contracts go wrong.

Crime 2: which focuses on inchoate offences, offences against the person and property offences.

In addition to the compulsory modules, Single Honours Law students will be able to choose one 15 credit year Law option in each semester, from a range of second year electives potentially including Law in Action (involving work with external organisations), Law, Science and Society, Lawyers in Society and Law and Ethics and Introduction to Public International Law. The second year electives are a key dimension of the School's ambition and commitment to deliver a distinctive Single Honours Law degree that retains breadth and interdisciplinary as its hallmarks, alongside a renewed focus on legal knowledge and skills. These second year modules are explicitly designed to enable students to develop their existing skills through a broader focus on methodological and theoretical approaches.

Law with Politics/Criminology
Students following this pathway take the same compulsory subjects as per Single Honours Law, except the optional 15 credits in each semester must be Law related modules from Politics/Criminology.

Third year 
There are four compulsory modules and a range of optional modules available for Single Honours law students. In the Autumn Semester, students take:

Law of the EU, which introduces key concepts of EU Law and the historical development of the EU.

Equity and Trusts 1, which builds on the foundations laid by Land Law 1 & 2, examining the development and importance of equity and equitable principles.

In the Spring Semester, you take:

Law of the EU 2, which focuses on specific aspects of EU Law, using case studies on education, environment, health, labour and asylum.

Equity and Trusts 2, which further analyses the operation of equitable principles in practice.

You also choose 30 credits in each semester from a range of Level 3 modules including, for example:
Business Leases
Family Law
Healthcare Law
International Human Rights
International Law, Globalisation and Environment
Discrimination Law
Sentencing
Company Law
Child Law 

You may also, if they prefer, replace two final-year modules with a dissertation.

Law with Politics/Criminology
Students following this pathway take the compulsory modules as per Single Honours Law. In each semester, they also take:

• 15 credits Law options
• 15 credits Law related from Politics/Criminology

If students are admitted to a Single Honours Law course you can opt, at the end of your first year, to apply to study Dual Honours Law exclusively in the final two years if they no longer wish to graduate with a ‘qualifying law degree’. Alternatively, if they are admitted to the Dual Honours Law course, they also retain the flexibility to apply to transfer to the Single Honours pathway at the end of your first year and so gain professional exemption (provided that you have fulfilled all other professional requirements). Students opting to study Law with Criminology or Politics have a further pathway that they may potentially choose.

Dual Honours

Students have a wide range of possible subject combinations with which they can study Law at Keele. All Dual Honours students at Keele will follow the same curriculum structure. However, Dual Honours Law students wishing to retain the possibility of applying to transfer to the Single Honours Law Programme at Level 2, will study Legal Skills/Systems and the two Public Law modules at Level 1, before picking up both Level 2 Torts modules, in addition to the Single Honours core modules, in their second year. Level 3 is then the same as for other Single Honours students. This flexibility is a key feature of the Law programmes at Keele, and enables students to choose the right course for them at the right time. Students who continue to study Dual Honours at Levels 2 and 3 can choose any Law module, enabling them to build a truly interdisciplinary programme directly related to their own particular interests and aspirations – for example students studying International Relations may look to combine this with some of our International Law options at Levels 2 and 3.

Dual Honours course can be combined with:

Single Honours and Foundation courses available:

Teaching is by a combination of lectures and tutorials/seminars and you will be assessed by a mixture of examination and written work – some modules may be assessed on-line (following formative quizzes with feedback) or by presentation. There is also the opportunity to research for and write a dissertation.

Most Law modules are taught by two lectures per week and involve at least four face-to-face tutorials or seminars per semester, and are supported by Keele’s virtual learning environment. Assessment methods vary with individual modules; within each year there will be a mixture of examination and coursework.

Programme specifications (new window)

Keele Law graduates have an unusual degree of flexibility in terms of career options. Through our close links with the University’s Careers Service, you will be supported in your career planning at an early stage in your degree. Students are encouraged to make full use of the dedicated legal careers workshops offered throughout the year by the Careers Service, the Law School and the Student Law Society in combination with LPC/BPTC providers, legal professionals and speakers from other professions and industries. There is also a member of academic staff with particular responsibility for careers liaison and advice within the Law School itself.

We provide numerous opportunities embedded into modules and the cocurricula for students to develop key graduate capabilities, helping them to prepare for life after university. Keele Law School provides students with an excellent inter-disciplinary legal education, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to succeed in a broad range of
careers. Law modules are designed to develop the essential skills of analysis, reasoning and clear presentation of facts and legal arguments. Because the law is always changing, students will have to develop a capacity for responding to new challenges, and this produces a flexibility and precision that will assist students when seeking employment.

Keele Law School ensures that students have the best possible preparation for the
competitive legal job marketplace. We work hard to ensure that students have opportunities to build on their academic work and professional skills activities, alongside opportunities to meet with leading members of the profession to learn more about the realities of practice. We have strong links with the national and regional legal profession, and have current members of academic staff with past and on-going experience of practice including two judges. A number of the academic prizes offered to students are sponsored by law firms and firms also assist in the organisation and judging of the client interviewing and mooting competitions. As one of our alumni, Boyd Morwood, made clear to a meeting
of the Middle and Inner Temples, “Keele is a good example of a Law School that is making great strides in engaging with the professions”.

Our high profile graduates include past President of the Law Society, Fiona Woolf CBE, High Court Judge Sir Peter Coulson, QCs and partners at leading law firms including Hogan Lovells, Pinsent Masons and Berrymans Lace Mawer. The relationships with these lawyers and other firms are an important part of the student experience at Keele Law School. Our alumni’s commitment to Keele sets these opportunities apart from more typical student/profession interactions.

Visit our Careers pages (new window)

According to the External Examiner, 'Law at Keele is innovative and unique'.

The School has a reputation for excellence in research and teaching. 50% of work submitted by Law academics was rated as being World Leading (4*) or Internationally Excellent (3*) in the RAE 2008. The dynamic quality of our research is reflected in our teaching, described by and External Examiner as 'a high quality legal education which is informed by the most recent research'.