Tel: (0524) 592474 (direct)
Fax: (0524) 848137
E-mail: d.sugarman@lancaster.ac.uk
29TH JANUARY 1995
Dear Colleague,
RE: LLM LAW IN HISTORY
Please find attached some information on Lancaster University's Master of
Laws (LLM) Law in History. This taught Masters programme, the first of its
kind, provides the opportunity to acquire a broad introduction to and
advanced training in the history of law, legalinstitutions and society. A
law degree is not a prerequisite, and several studentships are available.
You may well know of students interested in law, culture and society. If
so, I hope that you will draw the LLM Law in History to their attention.
Thank you very much for your assistance.
Yours sincerely,
Professor David Sugarman
Director, Law in History Programme
LLM
LAW
IN
HISTORY
Lancaster University is offering a new taught Masters programme, the
first of its kind, on LAW IN HISTORY.
The programme provides the opportunity to acquire a broad introduction to
and advanced training in the history of law, legal institutions and
society. It examines the economic, political and cultural significance of
law in society, and the importance of legal ideas, ideologies and
institutions within and beyond the legal community. Particular attention
is afforded the role of law and lawyers in the construction and policing
of gender.
The course is prefaced by a thorough grounding in the theories and methods
of writing "law and society" histories. This is followed by a series of
modules offering the opportunity to investigate topics such as: crime,
punishment and policing; labour and the law; the history of women, gender
and the legal order; legal institutions, lawyers and alternatives to legal
regulation; capitalism and commercial law; the history of Continental
European law and its influence on the common law; and law and the
formation of the modern state.
Students are encouraged to utilise the extensive collections of primary
and secondary sources available at Lancaster, notably, The Law Society's
Legal History Collection and the Legal History Archive, as well as the
public record offices of Lancashire, Manchester and Cumbria. The
Department can offer supervision over wide areas of English, American and
Continental legal history.
A strong visiting speakers programme is enhanced by an annual Iredell
Memorial Lecture in History and Law. Previous Iredell Lecturers have
included Lawrence Stone, J.G.A. Pocock and Quentin Skinner. Forthcoming
Iredell Lectures will be delivered by Natalie Zemon Davis (1995) and
Douglas Hay (1996).
Applications are welcomed from those holding a good second class degree,
or equivalent qualifications. A LAW DEGREE IS NOT A PREREQUISITE.
Several studentships are available.
The following modules comprise the degree:
* UNDERTAKING HISTORICAL WORK ON LAW AND SOCIETY: This compulsory module
provides a thorough grounding in the theories and methods of writing
histories of law and society. Specialist training is provided to aid the
reading and analysis of legal and related archival sources and materials.
The classical tradition of legal history writing is critically examined
and assessed, as are newer approaches to the writing and reading of law in
history: notably, the new histories of the social, culture, politics,
gender, ethnicity and the visual, critical legal histories and
post-modernism.
* CRIME, PUNISHMENT AND POLICING: The history of crime, policing and
punishment has been crucial to the development of the new social history
of law. This course thus examines the social history of modern criminal
justice. Through a series of case studies, the course assesses the
relationships of criminal justice to the new property and employment
relations, to the new rationalities of social governance and public order,
and its use in the regulation of trade union activities.
*HISTORY OF WOMEN, GENDER AND THE LEGAL ORDER: This module provides an
introduction to the role of law in constructing and policing women, men,
the family and sexuality in Britain in the early modern and modern
periods. The module aims to critically examine the relationship between
law, gender relations and power. The focus of study will be the variety
of responses to gendered legal constraints, both within and without the
formal legal order, and how these constraints and responses change over
time.
* LAW AND THE FORMATION OF THE MODERN DEMOCRATIC STATE: This module
investigates law, the organization of the state and the changing form and
character of state power. Specific topics include: the unwritten
constitution, the Rule of Law and the construction of modern
constitutional law; the rise of absolute private property and the shift
from property to contract; the role of law in the construction of systems
of thought, personhood and identity; the rise of "expertise" and the
debate surrounding individualism versus collectivism.
* LEGAL ORGANISATION AND INSTITUTIONS: This module provides a critical
examination of the history of the legal profession, the judiciary, legal
education, legal science, and the codification movement. The blurred
boundaries between lawyers, business and politics receives special
attention. The module also considers the system of courts, their relation
to alternative forms of dispute processing, and the development of
legislation as a source of law.
* THE LEGAL REGULATION OF COMMERCIAL LIFE (CONTRACTS, DEBT, COMPANIES AND
ACCIDENT COMPENSATION): This module examines the development of the
multiple relations between law, economy and society. The specific topics
for consideration include: the rise of freedom of contract; the role and
function of company law in the emergence of industrial society; the
political economy of commercial law; law, debt and poverty; and accident
compensation and industrial injuries.
FUNDING POSSIBILITIES:
The programme is recognised for the purposes of British Academy
studentships. In addition, the University, its Colleges and the Law
Department have a number of awards and studentships for which prospective
applicants might wish to apply, if eligible. For further information on
studentships and awards, please contact:
The Postgraduate Secretary,
Law Department,
Lancaster University,
Lancaster LA1 4YN
Phone: (0524) 592476/592465; Fax: (0524) 848137
FEES: ?2350 (home/EC full-time); ?1175 (home/EC part-time); ?5720
(overseas, full-time)
DURATION AND ASSESSMENT:
The full-time degree is one year in duration, the part-time degree normally
taking two years to complete. The programme is assessed by way of
extended essays and a dissertation.
LANCASTER UNIVERSITY, THE DEPARTMENT OF LAW AND THE
CITY OF LANCASTER
Lancaster University is a major centre for graduate study. It has an
excellent record in research and scholarship, having been ranked as one of
Britain's top ten universities in the recent national University research
evaluation exercise. The University has 7875 full-time students of whom
over 1300 are graduate students: in addition there are nearly 900 part-time
graduate students. There is a rich programme of university and faculty
seminars to which distinguished outside speakers and university staff
contribute. A new Graduate College provides attractive accommodation
for many graduate students. Excellent library and computing facilities are
available.
The University is a cosmopolitan place. On campus each year we welcome
students of over eighty nationalities. The University's park land campus
of 250 acres is in a beautiful setting, near the historic city of
Lancaster, with its legendary medieval castle, judges' lodgings and
ancient court rooms. Around us is some of the finest country-side in
England, in the Lake District and the Pennines, but the University is
easily accessible from major cities and is itself a substantial community.
Costs here are lower than in most major cities.
The Department of Law has an international reputation, particularly in the
fields of legal history, inter-disciplinary legal studies (including
sociology of law, gender and the law, law and culture, legal semiotics and
law and state theory), European legal studies and business law. Every year
the Department welcomes about 25 students visiting from other countries,
and this number is likely to increase in the future. Institutional links
have been forged with major law faculties in France, Germany, the
Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Sweden,
Japan, the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Lancaster is particularly rich in its support for historical work. The
Department of Law has a large number of faculty working on the history of
law in areas such as crime, women, gender, the legal profession, custom,
evidence, company law, legal education, the visual dimensions of law, law
and imperialism, American legal history and Continental law. Close links
have been forged with other university departments, notably, the Centre
for Social History, the Department of History, and the Centre for Women's
Studies. There are university staff with historical interests in law and
society, especially those working in historical sociology, religious
studies, culture and communications, state theory, business, social and
women's history, women's studies and the history of science.
Valuable links have also been established with the local legal community to
facilitate the use of solicitors' papers and with local record offices. In
addition, The Law Society has transferred its Legal History Collection to
Lancaster, and a ?500,000 bequest for law and history is used to support
studentships and an annual Iredell Memorial Lecture in History and Law.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR AND DEPUTY-DIRECTOR
The Law in History Programme is Directed by Professor David Sugarman.
He studied at the Universities of Hull and Cambridge, and received his
doctorate in legal history from Harvard Law School He is also a Fellow of
the Royal Historical Society. He has published widely on legal history,
legal education, sociology of law and company law including, Legality,
Ideology and the State (1983), Law, Economy and Society: Essay in the
History of English Law, 1750-1914 (1984, co-editor with G. R. Rubin),
Regulating Corporate Groups in Europe (1990, co-edited with Gunther
Teubner), and Law and Social Change in England, 1780-1914 (1993).
Professor Sugarman has been a Visiting Professor at law schools in
Canada, Japan, Spain and the United States. He has also held Visiting
Fellowships at the Davis Center for Historical Studies, Princeton
University, the Centre for Legal Studies, Wisconsin University, the
Department of Political Science, Amherst College, and the Institute of
Advanced Legal Studies, London University.
The Deputy-Director of the Programme is Andrea Loux. Ms. Loux
graduated from Boston University in History and African Studies before
taking her JD at Cornell Law School. She is a specialist in the areas of
custom and commons disputes, women and the law, and property and
property relations. Her recent publication, "The Persistence of the
Ancient Regime: Custom, Utility and the Common Law in the Nineteenth
Century", (Cornell Law Review, November 1993), is a critical assessment of
E.P. Thompson's treatment of custom and the law.
FURTHER INFORMATION AND APPLICATION FORMS
Application forms and further information on the Law in History
Programme and postgraduate degrees (M.Phil and Ph.D.) in law in history
can be obtained from:
Professor David Sugarman,
Director,
Law in History Programme,
Law Department,
Lancaster University,
Lancaster LA1 4YN,
England.
Phone: (0524) 592474/592463/592476.
Fax: (0524) 848137.
E-Mail: d.sugarman@lancaster.ac.uk