Ask a Student: Recommended Reading
Many future Law Students have questions about the student experience.
What is it like to study at Cambridge? How is Law taught as an academic subject? What are Cambridge colleges like? Our Cambridge Law students help answer questions like these, and the example below, through the Ask a Student email, askastudent@law.cam.ac.uk.
What books would you recommend reading, either before applying to Cambridge or to prepare for studying Law at university?
No prior knowledge of the law will be expected whatsoever once you come to Cambridge, but there are a few books which I would recommend reading to give you an early insight in to what it will be like to study here. Please note I am not affiliated in any way to the authors of these books, so my only interest is that you read books that I found helpful!
‘Letters to a Law Student’ by Nicholas McBride is a useful book for the entire transitory period; thinking about studying law, the application process itself, what to do before coming to university, and what to do whilst studying university. McBride is a fellow here in Cambridge, so his opinions are given very much with Cambridge in mind.
‘What About Law?’ is written by a few of Cambridge’s top teaching staff and gives an insight, using an example of a case, into a variety of different subjects you would study during a law degree, in the hope of helping the reader decide whether law is for them.
Finally, ‘Learning the Law’, originally by Glanville Williams, undoubtedly one of the great legal scholars of the 20th century, is a far more precise book in my opinion, which should only be read should you decide to study law and be accepted to study law at any university. It is a bit more technical, and focuses on the art of studying law as a degree itself, rather than getting into that position in the first place.
In short, read the first two if you are still unsure about law, and the third just before you begin your law degree.
Do you have your own questions about the student experience at Cambridge? Email askastudent@law.cam.ac.uk with your questions, and receive answers from a current Cambridge Law student.
As always, questions about the Law course are best directed to outreach@law.cam.ac.uk, while specific questions about admissions are best directed to the Cambridge college that you are interested in applying to.
The information in this article is considered correct at the time of publication.
