Overview
On our four-year LLB Law with Literature (including foundation year), we work with you to help to develop your subject-specific knowledge and to improve your academic skills. You receive a thorough grounding in these areas during your foundation year (known as Year Zero) to prepare you for a further three years of undergraduate study at Essex.
You are an Essex student from day one, a member of our global community based at the most internationally diverse campus university in the UK.
LLB Law with Literature will give you a thorough training in the complementary disciplines of law and literature, by developing critical, reflective, creative and analytical skills. In addition to emphasising aspects common to both subjects, you explore the differences between them, and the approaches taken within law and literature disciplines. You will also develop a critical awareness of the nature of law within its social context and its relationship with literature.
You will cover key topics from both Law and Literature, with the opportunity to choose from a wide range of optional modules too:
- United States, Caribbean and Transatlantic literature
- Poetry, contemporary, experimental, avant-garde and political writing
- Copyright and trademark law
- International environmental law
- The use of evidence
- Human rights
The School of Law specialises in commercial law, public law, and human rights law. We are ranked 51st in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021, which is 13th in the UK, and we are top 20 in the UK for research excellence (REF 2014, mainstream universities, THE 2014).
Our Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies is one of the foundational departments with a strong interdisciplinary identity, combining themes which cross subject borders. We are particularly interested in a ‘de-colonized’ curriculum and have modules which focus on Black authors and representation.
Our expert staff
The School of Law and Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies both have an internationally diverse community of staff and students, giving you a breadth of cross-cultural perspectives and insights into law, justice and literature around the world. This community, combined with opportunities to study abroad during your time with us, ensures you graduate with a genuine worldview and a network of international contacts.
Specialist facilities
By studying within our Essex Pathways Department for your foundation year, you will have access to all of the facilities that the University of Essex has to offer, as well as those provided by our Academy to support you:
- We provide computer labs for internet research; classrooms with access to PowerPoint facilities for student presentations; AV facilities for teaching and access to web-based learning materials
- Our new Student Services Hub will support you and provide information for all your needs as a student
- Our social space is stocked with magazines and newspapers, and provides an informal setting to meet with your lecturers, tutors and friends
Facilities from the School of Law include:
- Volunteer at the Essex Law Clinic where you can use your knowledge and skills to serve the community and help those most in need of legal services
- Work on key human rights projects at our Human Rights Clinic
- Participate in mooting competitions to develop your skills
- Test your mediation and negotiation skills in our Client Interviewing Competition
- Join our Model United Nations society, which can improve your skills of argumentation, oral presentation and research
- Network at our student-run Law Society, Human Rights Society, and Bar Society
- Peer mentors guide you through your first year
- Take advantage of networking opportunities throughout the year with visiting law firms
Facilities from the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies include:
- Meet fellow readers at the student-run Literature Society or at the department’s Myth Reading Group
- Hear writers talk about their craft and learn from leading literature specialists at the Essex Book Festival
- Write for our student media platform Rebel
- View classic films at weekly film screenings in our dedicated 120-seat film theatre
- Learn from leading writers and literature specialists at weekly research seminars
- Our Research Laboratory allows you to collaborate with professionals, improvising and experimenting with new work which is being tried and tested
Your future
At Essex we don’t just prepare you to become an outstanding legal or literature professional. We stimulate your desire to pursue justice and equip you with the skills and knowledge to become an agent for change, whatever career path you choose.
From the start of the degree, we challenge you to think deeply, broadly, and strategically about careers. Over the first two years, alongside law and literature topics, you will take a career management module designed to help you identify personal strengths and goals, understand what employers are looking for and enhance your employability profile. We also hold an annual law fair, attended by law firms and vocational qualification providers.
Our graduates pursue careers in law and in a wide range of other sectors including business, commerce, accountancy, insurance, banking, central and local government, academia, teaching, social work and the police force.
Our mantra is: be realistically ambitious. This involves understanding yourself and the rapidly changing and increasingly competitive graduate jobs market. Throughout your time at Essex, advisors in our Student Development Team, working closely with colleagues in our School, are available to help you formulate your career plan.
Why we’re great
- We equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed at Essex and beyond.
- Our lecturers work with the UN, the UK government, and with EU and foreign governments.
- You gain work experience advising real clients through opportunities such as the Essex Law Clinic.
Structure
Course structure
We offer a flexible course structure with a mixture of core/compulsory modules, and optional modules chosen from lists.
Our research-led teaching is continually evolving to address the latest challenges and breakthroughs in the field. The course content is therefore reviewed on an annual basis to ensure our courses remain up-to-date so modules listed are subject to change.
Teaching and learning disclaimer
Following the impact of the pandemic, we made changes to our teaching and assessment to ensure our current students could continue with their studies uninterrupted and safely. These changes included courses being taught through blended delivery, normally including some face-to-face teaching, online provision, or a combination of both across the year.
The teaching and assessment methods listed show what is currently planned for 2021 entry; changes may be necessary if, by the beginning of this course, we need to adapt the way we’re delivering them due to the external environment, and to allow you to continue to receive the best education possible safely and seamlessly.
