Law Personal Statement

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

Unafraid to question the legal implications of current affairs, my desire to study law as an educational discipline began with debating the decision to repeal the 18th Amendment of the United States in a high school history lesson. From this seemingly trivial event, I developed a more inquisitive attitude – especially towards Radio 4’s ‘In Our Time’ podcasts, my favourite topics being Just War and Melvyn Bragg’s philosophical examination of ‘Truth’. I feel that this expansion of my interests from legal philosophy to more practical issues as well as the development of my public speaking skills has prepared me as a confident contributor to a study and career in law.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

To further enrich these private studies, my sixth form choice of Religious Studies supported my interest in the possible legalisation of the genetic enhancement of humans and how different ethical theories, notably Thomist Natural Law and Aristotelian Virtue Ethics, would approach the issue. As a result, I decided my Extended Project would also take the same theme. I believe this ability to apply varying schools of thought to legal issues would equip me well in a challenging law degree. Fortunately, I found that even seemingly mundane issues such as rent and overpriced energy suppliers were interesting in the way customers interact with businesses and other individuals in contractual agreements – a topic I also felt interested in during a Law Summer School at Corpus Christi College, University at Cambridge. While also discovering that I was well suited to the ‘supervision’ or ‘tutorial’ style of learning, I also felt that contractual law, particularly in the Thorton vs. Shoe Lane Parking case, would be an area I would thrive in.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

To help me decide whether a career in law would be right for me, I took the opportunity to shadow (and continue to shadow) advisors at my local Citizens’ Advice Bureau. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of my experience with the Bureau is the prospect of discussing relevant issues, such as the closure of a local hospital promoting ‘Scam Awareness Month’ within college. I also intend on helping the Bureau to set up their own Twitter and Instagram accounts, an opportunity which I believe will help my personal studies of legal philosophy by observing the way in which people respond and react to legal issues and also the legal implications of promoting a charity on social media – an area in which I have took time to study on The Law Society website. Another area I took interest in during the Summer School was the Miller vs Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union case in which I argued it should be the UK Government, rather than parliament, which should trigger Article 50 of the European Union Treaty. Coming to this decision meant studying and discussing a range of sources from European Union documentation. While I found some of the legal terminology challenging, I found this combination of private and group study a promising environment in which I would thrive as a law student. In order to enrich my interest in European Union Law, I have embarked on an Introductory Level course of ‘Europe and the Law’.