MPhil/PhD Research Degree
The Birkbeck School of Law has an excellent reputation. Its body of research students has grown dramatically over the last few years, and competition for places is high. Our research community now comprises people from around the globe, researching in diverse legal areas and with different methodologies. We encourage and assist researchers to publish articles. Many of our graduates have become professional academics after, and even during, their studies here.
Supervision
- PhD/MPhil students benefit from the supervision of internationally renowned experts, secondary supervisors, classes in legal theory and research and presentation skills, seminars and extensive library facilities.
- Moreover, we offer financial assistance for conference attendance where appropriate, a comprehensive programme of independent monitoring of each student's yearly progress, and postgraduate student representation on the School board.
Opportunities to share your research
- Our present body of researchers constitutes a vibrant community that organises, with the support of the School, a series of workshops, reading groups and a work-in-progress group, as well as frequent social events.
Areas of research
- We encourage applications for research in the areas listed below, but it is important to stress that we can only offer supervision in areas where members of the School are actively working:
- access to justice
- child law
- company law
- constitutional theory and national identity
- criminal justice
- criminology
- environmental law
- European law
- feminist legal theory
- gender, sexuality and law
- human rights
- insurance law
- intellectual property
- international economic law
- international refugee law
- language and law
- law and bioethics
- law and development
- law and film
- law and literature
- law and multinational corporations
- law and political economy
- legal aesthetics
- legal history
- legal theory
- media law
- medical law and ethics
- post-colonial theory
- public law
- race and law
- socio-legal studies
Research resources
- The School of Law is an internationally recognised centre for critical and interdisciplinary legal research. It provides an exciting and innovative environment for a wide range of research with a strong theoretical and policy focus. The School publishes Law and Critique: The International Journal of Critical Legal Thought.
- Study resources include an induction programme for all postgraduate students, which offers classes on methodology, and regular research seminars, workshops and conferences.
- Birkbeck Library has an extensive collection of books, journals and electronic resources in law and related disciplines such as economics, politics and sociology. For example, it provides access to over 17,000 electronic journals, most of which are available 24 hours a day via the Internet. Students can also take advantage of the rich research collections nearby, including those of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Senate House Library, the British Library of Political and Economic Science (LSE Library) and the British Library.
Expression of Interest in the MPhil/PhD for 2011/12 Entry
- We can only offer supervision in areas where members of the School are actively working; therefore we ask that you send us a curriculum vitae and complete an Expression of Interest Form.
- When we receive this form from you it is sent to your proposed to supervisor for review. Once this has been reviewed we will contact you to let you know if we are able to provide supervision in your proposed research area and then ask you to complete a full application form for the programme.
