Politics and Law

Politics and law form one of the most natural and intellectually rewarding joint degrees available, since the two disciplines are fundamentally concerned with the same territory from different angles. Politics examines how power is organised, exercised and contested, how institutions are designed and why they behave as they do, and how political decisions are made and evaluated. Law examines the rules, rights and obligations through which societies regulate themselves, resolve disputes and attempt to constrain the exercise of power.

Together they equip you to understand how states and legal systems are constituted and how they interact.

At the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), this three-year programme has a distinctive character shaped by SOAS's focus on Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The political and legal frameworks you study are not confined to the European or North American traditions that dominate most UK politics and law programmes; they encompass the political systems and legal traditions of a much wider world, including customary and religious legal systems, post-colonial politics and the legal dimensions of development and international human rights. This comparative and global orientation is one of the most valuable aspects of studying these subjects at SOAS, and it produces graduates with a perspective that is genuinely unusual.

A foundation year is included, providing a supported entry into degree-level study.

Graduates pursue careers in international law, human rights organisations, NGOs working in development and advocacy, international organisations including the UN and its agencies, diplomacy and foreign affairs, journalism with an international focus, policy research and the civil service. The combination of political and legal analysis, enriched by SOAS's specifically global and non-Western focus, is particularly relevant for careers that involve engagement with the developing world, international institutions or the legal dimensions of development and governance. Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in international law, human rights, development studies, international relations or related fields.