The LLB (Hons) in Law with European Legal Systems offers an exciting opportunity to combine a law degree with a broader educational and cultural experience through a year studying at another European law faculty. 

This is a four-year programme with a year abroad in the third year. The programme can be tailored to your interests, including the study of French or Spanish. 

If you do not have a foreign language, you can study at one of our partner law faculties across Europe where law modules are taught in English. These modules will allow you to develop your understanding of European and International Law. For this pathway, we currently have links with universities in Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Slovakia and Slovenia. 

If you have previously studied French at A level (or equivalent), you can follow a pathway specialising in French. You will take French language tuition throughout the first and second year in preparation for the third year at one of our partner French law faculties. You can choose to study fully in French or combine law modules offered in English with some in French. 

If you have previously studied Spanish at A Level (or equivalent), you can follow a pathway specialising in Spanish. You will take Spanish language tuition throughout the first and second year in preparation for the third year at one of our partner Spanish law faculties. You can choose to study fully in Spanish or combine law modules offered in English with some in Spanish. 

You will start your degree by establishing the building blocks of legal knowledge. At the same time, you will begin cultivating important skills, such as research, writing and constructing a reasoned argument. The point of legal study is not simply to memorise the law, but to be able to engage with it skillfully. As such, many of the skills you will develop are transferrable and will be valuable to you within or beyond a career in law. 

In your second and fourth years, you will tailor your degree by choosing modules that suit your interests. Our semesterised system means that modules are a semester long, not year long, allowing you to study more broadly. 

You will be free to choose two optional modules in your second year and six in your fourth year (with slightly fewer if you are taking language tuition). You will have a wide choice of options including Criminology, Family Law, Law and Business, Company Law, Competition Law, Crime and Sentencing, Intellectual Property Law, Internet Law, Forced Migration and Refugee Law, and Media Law. 

You will also have many opportunities to build your skills, confidence and professional CV through extra-curricular activities and the Law School’s unique employability programme. You could, for example, complete an internship at a law firm, or you could ‘marshal’, spending a day on the bench with a judge during a trial. You could benefit from the alumni-mentoring scheme, where Law School graduates offer career mentoring to individual students. Our many events with law firms, barrister chambers and alumni create great opportunities for finding out about the options for when you graduate.  You could make a difference in the local community, working for the public good (pro bono). In less than five years, our students have recovered no less than £7 million for welfare benefits claimants wrongly denied payments. We have won the national LawWorks Best Partnership in Pro Bono award no fewer than four times.  

You can also have fun, build your profile and hone valuable skills by joining in Law Society activities. As well as social events, these include beginner and advanced mooting contests where a point of law is debated in a simulated court hearing. Finals are judged by actual judges or barristers. The Law Society also holds negotiation, client interviewing, mediation and legal triathlon competitions, the finals of which are hosted by law firms. In 2016 the UEA Law Society won LawCareers.Net award for ‘Best Pro Bono’ activities and in 2019 the award as the best law society for Commercial Awareness. 

At the end of your four year degree, you will obtain a law degree, have a very good understanding of the European legal system, plus a wide range of transferable skills, making this course an attractive prospect for those intending to enter the legal profession. 

PLACEMENT YEAR AND STUDY ABROAD

You will spend your third year studying abroad at one of our partner law schools in Europe.

Please note that the universities to which UEA is able to send students may vary from year to year. Places may be dependent on certain criteria, such as academic performance. Please visit www.uea.ac.uk/studyabroad for more information. 

AFTER THE COURSE

You will graduate ready to begin your professional training and continue the process of qualifying as a barrister or solicitor. Alternatively, you can use your transferable skills in other careers such as business, banking, accountancy, the civil or diplomatic service, the charitable sector, management and human resources, teaching, journalism or academia. 

Many of our graduates have gone on to build careers as solicitors in leading firms in London and internationally, such as Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Clyde & Co, Herbert Smith Freehills, Baker McKenzie, and Eversheds Sutherland, and at a wide variety of other firms of all sizes and types. Others work as in-house counsel in companies, public authorities and the Government Legal Service. We also have a significant number of alumni who are barristers, including several Queen’s Counsel. 

CAREER DESTINATIONS

Career destinations related to your degree include: 

• Legal Practice (solicitor, barrister, paralegal) 

• Other law related careers (NGOs, international organisations, in-house compliance, legal researchers, police) 

• Public Sector (Civil Service Fast Stream, local government, politics, education) 

• Financial Services (tax, banking, insurance, investment, accountancy) 

• Management and human resources (typically through graduate recruitment schemes) 

• Media / journalism