LSE Law School

LSE Law School
Parent school	London School of Economics
Established	1919 (1919)
School type	Public law school
Dean	David Kershaw
Location	London, United Kingdom
Website	www.lse.ac.uk/law

Cheng Kin Ku Building, seat of the LSE Law School

LSE Law School is the law school of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). It was founded in 1919 with the appointment of H. C. Gutteridge as Professor of Law. David Kershaw is the current dean of the LSE Law School. The law school is one of LSE's largest and oldest departments, with over 60 academic staff.

LSE Law School is located on Lincoln's Inn Fields in the Cheng Kin Ku Building (abbreviated as CKK, formerly the New Academic Building, NAB), named in honour of LSE donor Vincent Cheng’s father.

History

The teaching of law at the LSE dates back to its foundation in 1895, when commercial and industrial law, were among the nine courses offered at the school. In 1906, it became part of the intercollegiate faculty of law of the University of London, alongside the law schools of University College London and King's College London, which continued into the 1960s for undergraduate courses. H. C. Gutteridge was appointed as the first full-time Professor of Law at the LSE Law School and Sir Ernest Cassel, was appointed subsequently as Professor of Industrial and Commercial law. Cassel led the expansion of the school from one full-time professor, five part-time lecturers and two other part-time teachers in 1924 to a full-time staff of ten, with four professors, two readers and four lecturers, in 1934, forming the largest law department of any University of London college. Among those appointed to the school were Lord Wright, a judge in the House of Lords, A. V. Dicey, Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford, and Dr L. F. L. Oppenheim.

In the 1930s the school was joined by German-Jewish jurists fleeing Nazi persecution, including Otto Kahn-Freund.David Hughes Parry held the professorship of English law from 1930 to 1959, and in 1937 Robert Chorley founded the Modern Law Review at the school. Among the staff of the school, Arnold McNair and Robert Jennings went on to become presidents of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), while Hersch Lauterbach also became an ICJ judge.

Notable Alumni of the LSE Law School

The LSE Law School has a history of producing and influencing various heads of state and government. At least one Prime Minister or President of the countries of Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Mauritius, Sierra Leone, Saint Lucia, Ghana, Peru, Mauritius and Thailand has earned an LLB or LLM from the law school. Former President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, earned a PhD in Law in 1984.[1] Singapore's founding Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, initially enrolled to read law at the school before transferring to Cambridge. Chief Architect of the Indian Constitution, B. R. Ambedkar, was influenced by the law school while reading for a Dsc in economics at the LSE. The school also educated Cherie Blair, Shami Chakrabarti, Eugenia Charles, John Compton, Jean Corston, Linda Dobbs, Audrey Eu, Lord Tony Grabiner, Makhdoom Ali Khan, Mia Mottley, Dorab Patel, P. J. Patterson, Mitchell Symons, Mónica Feria Tinta, J. A. G. Griffith, Ciarán Ahern and Veerasamy Ringadoo.

Academic profile

Teaching

LSE Law School offers undergraduate (LLB, BA Law and Anthropology), taught postgraduate (LLM, MSc Law and Finance, and Executive LLM), and research (PhD) degrees. It also offers a conjoint LLB/JD (Juris Doctor) degree with the Columbia Law School at Columbia University in the United States.

Research

LSE Law School has traditionally maintained close academic ties with the Modern Law Review and the London Review of International Law, both of which were founded at the school. The school hosts its annual Chorley Lecture, named in honour of Robert Chorley, 1st Baron Chorley.

Admissions

The LLB in Laws program is considered to be one of the most selective courses at the LSE, with one out of 17 applicants offered each place, representing an acceptance rate of 5.8%.

Reputation

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranks the LSE Law School #6 in the world for Law and Legal Studies. In the United Kingdom, QS regards the school as being second only to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, placing the school in the third place in the UK effectively.

List of Professors

Current and former professors at LSE Law School include Julia Black, Robert Chorley, 1st Baron Chorley, Hugh Collins, Ross Cranston, Paul Davies, A. V. Dicey, Neil Duxbury, Judith Freedman, Conor Gearty, Laurence Gower, Christopher Greenwood, Rosalyn Higgins, Lady Higgins, Jeremy Horder, Derry Irvine, Emily Jackson, Otto Kahn-Freund, David Kershaw, Nicola Lacey, Niamh Moloney, David Hughes Parry, Thomas Poole, Henry Slesser, Stanley Alexander de Smith, Cedric Thornberry, Sarah Worthington, Bill Wedderburn, Baron Wedderburn of Charlton, Glanville Williams and Michael Zander.