Special Regulations

1. [2] 1. Admission criteria [3] BCL The Law Board will normally admit to the BCL only candidates whose previous legal training is primarily in the common law. [4] M.Jur. The Law Board will normally admit to the M.Jur. only candidates whose previous legal training is not primarily in the common law.
2. [5] 2. Residence [6] Candidates for the BCL and M.Jur. must keep three terms statutory residence.
3. [7] 3. Courses and subjects [8] The subjects of the examination are listed in Schedule A below. The details of the courses are set out in the Law Faculty Student Handbook. [9] Candidates for the BCL and M.Jur. must offer four papers. A dissertation counts as one paper. [10] Not all subjects will necessarily be taught or examined in any one year. Depending on the availability of teaching resources, the Law Faculty may limit the number of candidates that may offer a subject. Details of those subjects which are available will be published in the Law Faculty Student Handbook for the year of the examination, subject to any amendment posted in the Law Faculty Office by Monday of week minus 1 of the Michaelmas Term before the examination is held. [11] In addition to the subjects in Schedule A, candidates may offer any other subject that may be approved from time to time by regulation published in the Gazette by the end of the Monday of week minus 1 of the Michaelmas Term before the examination is held. [12] No candidate for the BCL or M.Jur. may:
   2. [13] (a) offer a subject with the same title and/or the same syllabus as one which he or she has previously offered in the Final Honour School of Jurisprudence or Diploma in Legal Studies;
   3. [14] (b) offer two subjects having the same syllabus.
4. [15] BCL Subject to compliance with the regulations above, candidates for the BCL may offer:
   1. [16] (a) any subject in List I which is offered in the year in question;
   2. [17] (b) a dissertation under the provisions in Schedule B below.
   [18] M.Jur. Subject to compliance with the regulations above, candidates for the M.Jur. may offer:
   1. [19] (a) any subject in List I which is offered in the year in question;
   2. [20] (b) any subject in List II which is offered in the year in question;
   3. [21] (c) a dissertation under the provisions in Schedule B below.
5. [22] 4. Examinations [23] Candidates offering Jurisprudence and Political Theory will be examined under the provisions of Schedule C. [24] The examiners may award a distinction for excellence in the examination. [25] Candidates who fail or withdraw from the examination may with the permission of the faculty board and subject to such conditions as it imposes offer themselves for re-examination. Candidates offering themselves for re-examination must retake all of the papers, except that:
   1. [26] (a) if all of the written papers are passed and the dissertation failed then only the dissertation need be resubmitted;
   2. [27] (b) if the dissertation is passed and one or more of the written papers failed then only the written papers need be re-taken;
   [28] provided that nothing in this clause shall prejudice the powers of the Education Committee and Proctors to permit partial resits in exceptional circumstances. [29] If a candidate, having failed or withdrawn from an examination, successfully applies to sit the examination at a later date, and one or more of the subjects studied by that candidate are not available when the candidate comes to be examined, papers shall nevertheless be set for that candidate in those subjects. These papers may not be taken by other candidates.
6. [30] 5. Statutes and Other Source Material [31] Details of the statutes and other source material which will be available to candidates in the examination room for certain papers will be given in a notice circulated to candidates by the examiners.
7. [32] 6. Notice of options [33] The date for notification of the options to be offered by candidates is the fourth week of the Michaelmas Full Term preceding the examination with the exception of the dissertation option [see Schedule B].
8. [34] 7. Change of option choice [35] Save in exceptional circumstances, no student may change their choice of option later than Friday of the first week of Hilary Term.
9. [36] 8. Examiners [37] The examiners appointed to examine subjects in List II shall be those appointed to examine the same subjects in the Honour School of Jurisprudence and shall examine those papers in the examination for the Honour School of Jurisprudence.

1. [39] 1. Admissions [40] Candidates may signify their intention to take the M.Phil. in Law when they apply for the BCL or M.Jur. or M.Sc Law and Finance or after they have been admitted. In either case a formal application must then be made in the Hilary Term preceding the Michaelmas Term in which they wish to study for the M.Phil. The appropriate form, obtainable from the The Faculty of Law Graduate Studies Office, must be returned to the Law Faculty's Student Administration Officer on the same date as that office specifies for the receipt of applications for the M.St. in Legal Research. Admission of those whose thesis topics are approved by the Law Faculty's Graduate Studies Committee and for whom that Committee certifies the availability of supervision will always be conditional on a specified level of performance in the BCL or M.Jur. or M.Sc Law and Finance.
2. [41] 2. Residence [42] Candidates for the M.Phil. in Law must keep 6 terms statutory residence, which may include periods spent in residence while studying for the BCL or M.Jur. or M.Sc Law and Finance.
3. [43] 3. Courses and examination [44] Candidates for the M.Phil. in Law shall satisfactorily complete Part 1 and Part 2. Part 1 and Part 2 shall be taken in that order and shall normally be taken in successive years. A candidate wishing to take Part 2 but not to proceed directly from Part 1 to Part 2 in successive years must seek permission from the Graduate Studies Committee for Law. Part 1 shall consist of the BCL or M.Jur. or M.Sc Law and Finance as the case may be. [45] In Part 2, candidates for the M.Phil. in Law shall follow a course of instruction in Legal Research Method, satisfy the examiners that they have completed to the required standard such tests or exercises in Legal Research Method as may be prescribed as part of such a course of instruction, and be examined by thesis which must not exceed 30,000 words and should not normally be less than 25,000 words, and by oral examination, under the provisions of cll. 1 to 9 of the regulations for the M.St. in Legal Research, provided that:
   1. [46] (a) references to the Degree of Master of Studies shall be deemed to refer to Part 2 of the M.Phil. in Law;
   2. [47] (b) in cl. 5, the date of application for examination shall be during the Trinity Term after the candidate began Part 2 of the M.Phil. in Law. A candidate who wishes to apply for examination at a later date must seek the approval of the Graduate Studies Committee for Law by the end of Week Four of the same Trinity Full Term. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Committee extend the M.Phil. deadline. Unless the deadline has been extended, a thesis submitted after the required date will normally be eligible only to be examined for an M.St.
   [48] The thesis may cover the same area of Law as a dissertation offered in the BCL or M.Jur. or M.Sc Law and Finance, but the text of the dissertation must not be incorporated into the thesis.

[49] SCHEDULE A

[50] List I

[51] Advanced Property and Trusts;

[52] Commercial Remedies;

[53] Comparative and European Corporate Law;

[54] Comparative and Global Environmental Law;

[55] Comparative Equality Law;

[56] Comparative Human Rights;

[57] Comparative Public Law;

[58] Competition Law;

[59] Conflict of Laws;

[60] Constitutional Principles of the EU;

[61] Constitutional Theory;

[62] Corporate and Business Taxation;

[63] Corporate Finance Law;

[64] Corporate Insolvency Law;

[65] Criminal Justice and Human Rights;

[66] Dissertation;

[67] European Business Regulation (the law of the EU's internal market);

[68] European Intellectual Property Rights;

[69] European Private Law: Contract;

[70] European Union as Actor in International Law;

[71] Evidence;

[72] International and European Employment Law;

[73] International Law and Armed Conflict;

[74] International Dispute Settlement;

[75] International Economic Law;

[76] International Law of the Sea;

[77] Jurisprudence and Political Theory;

[78] Law and Society in Medieval England;

[79] Law in Society;

[80] Medical Law and Ethics;

[81] Personal Taxation;

[82] Philosophical Foundations of the Common Law;

[83] Principles of Civil Procedure;

[84] Principles of Financial Regulation;

[85] Punishment, Security and the State;

[86] Regulation;

[87] Restitution of Unjust Enrichment;

[88] Roman Law (Delict);

[89] The Roman and Civilian Law of Contracts;

[90] Transnational Commercial Law.

[91] List II

[92] Commercial Law;

[93] Company Law;

[94] Comparative Law: Contract;

[95] Contract;

[96] European Union Law (may not be taken in conjunction with Constitutional Principles of the EU from list I);

[97] European Human Rights Law;

[98] Family;

[99] Land;

[100] Public International Law;

[101] Tort;

[102] Trusts (may not be taken in conjunction with Advanced Property and Trusts from list I);

[103] Copyright, Patent and Allied Rights (may not be taken in conjunction with European Intellectual Property Law from List I, or with Copyright, Trade Marks and Allied Rights);

[104] Copyright, Trade Marks and Allied Rights (may not be taken in conjunction with European Intellectual Property Law from List I, or with Copyright, Patent and Allied Rights).

[105] SCHEDULE B

[106] Dissertations

[107] Candidates for the BCL and M.Jur. may offer a dissertation, which must be written in English and must not exceed 12,500 words and should not normally be less than 10,000 words (including notes, but excluding tables of cases or other legal sources) on a subject to be proposed by the candidate in consultation with the supervisor, and approved by the Graduate Studies Committee in Law. The dissertation shall be wholly or substantially the result of work undertaken whilst registered for the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law or Magister Juris. In deciding whether to give approval, the committee shall take into account the suitability of the subject matter and availability of appropriate supervision. Candidates should submit the proposed title of the dissertation and a synopsis of its scope in not more than 500 words not later than Monday of Week Minus One of Michaelmas Full Term to the board's Director of Graduate Studies (Taught Courses) who shall, when the topic and supervisor have been confirmed by or on behalf of the board's Committee for Graduate Studies, communicate that information to the Chairman of the Examiners for the BCL and M.Jur.

[108] Supervisors or others are permitted to give bibliographical help and to discuss drafts. Every candidate offering a dissertation is entitled to six sessions of supervision, each of approximately one hour, not counting meetings to settle the shape of the dissertation before it was approved.

[109] The examiners must judge the extent to which the dissertation affords evidence of significant analytical ability on the part of the candidate. The required format for this dissertation is the common format prescribed for all law theses, which is printed in the Faculty of Law's Graduate Student's Handbook.

[110] Submission

[111] No later than noon on Friday of the fifth week of Trinity Full Term two copies of your dissertation must be delivered to the Examination Schools, High Street, Oxford OX1 4BG. The package must be clearly marked ‘Dissertation for BCL/M.Jur.’. In order to ensure anonymity, the dissertation must bear your examination number. Neither your name nor the name of your college must appear. You must include with the thesis (i) a signed statement that, except where otherwise indicated, the thesis is entirely your own work, and (ii) a second statement indicating which part or parts of the dissertation have formed or will form part of a submission in accordance with the requirements of another course at this or another university. To ensure anonymity these statements must be placed in a sealed envelope. The examiners shall exclude from consideration any part of your dissertation which is not your own work or which has been or will be submitted to satisfy the requirements of another course, and the examiners shall have power to require you to produce for their inspection the work so submitted or to be submitted.

[112] SCHEDULE C

[113] Candidates offering Jurisprudence and Political Theory will be examined in that subject by the submission of three essays. [Until 1 October 2013: Topics for essays will be prescribed by the examiners and published on the notice board of the Examination Schools, High Street, Oxford OX1 4BG, on the morning of the Friday of the eighth week of the Hilary Term preceding the examination.] [From 1 October 2013: Essay questions will be published by the Board of Examiners on the morning of the Friday of the eighth week of the Hilary Term preceding the examination. Candidates will be contacted with details of how to collect or access the questions.] The examiners shall offer a choice of six topics from which candidates shall be required to select three. The total length of the three essays submitted shall be not less than 5,000 words, nor more than 8,000. The essays shall be wholly or substantially the result of work undertaken whilst registered for the degree of Batchelor of Civil Law or Magister Juris. Two copies of each essay submitted must be delivered to the Chairman of the BCL/M.Jur. Examiners, Examination Schools, High Street, Oxford OX1 4BG, by noon on the Friday preceding the beginning of the Trinity Full Term in which the examination is to be taken. The essays must bear the candidate's examination number, but not his or her name or the name of his or her college. [Until 1 October 2013: Every candidate shall sign a certificate to the effect that the essays are his or her own work, and that no help was received, even bibliographical, with their preparation, and the candidate's tutor or tutors in Jurisprudence and Political Theory, or if not available, a Law tutor in the candidate's own college shall countersign the certificate confirming that, to the best of his or her knowledge and belief, these statements are true. Candidates shall further state the total number of words used in their essays. This certificate shall be presented together with the essays. To ensure anonymity the certificate must be placed in a sealed envelope.] [From 1 October 2013: Every candidate shall sign a Declaration of Authorship to the effect that the essays are his or her own work. Candidates shall further state the total number of words used in their essays. This Declaration of Authorship shall be presented together with the essays. To ensure anonymity the Declaration of Authorship must be placed in a sealed envelope.]