Law with Politics
Law and politics have been in dialogue for as long as organised society has existed. Law provides the formal rules and institutional structures through which political decisions are enacted and rights are protected; politics is the process through which those rules are made, contested, and changed. At Royal Holloway, University of London, the LLB Law with Politics draws on departments with excellent reputations for both research and engagement with policy-makers, legal practitioners, government, and public bodies.
The degree runs over three years of full-time study and includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and work placement opportunities, giving you extensive professional and international experience alongside your academic development.
The law component covers the foundational areas of English law, including contract, tort, criminal law, constitutional and administrative law, and equity and trusts, alongside optional areas that allow you to develop expertise in commercial, human rights, or international law. The politics component introduces you to political institutions, political theory, comparative government, and international relations, as well as the analytical and empirical methods that political science uses to study power and governance. Together, the two subjects develop an unusually clear-eyed understanding of how legal and political systems interact: how courts make political decisions, how legislation emerges from political processes, how rights are both protected and constrained by institutional design, and how law operates in international and supranational contexts.
Graduates of law with politics programmes are well placed for careers in soliciting and the Bar, public law and human rights practice, politics and the civil service, public policy, journalism, think tanks, international organisations, and the legal departments of multinational companies and NGOs. The sandwich year and work placement are particularly valuable for developing the professional connections and demonstrated competence that competitive careers in law and public life require. Some graduates go on to the Legal Practice Course or Bar Training Course, while others pursue postgraduate study in law, politics, or international relations.
The combination of legal precision and political understanding the programme develops is a strong foundation for careers where law and public life intersect.