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The Oxford Magister Juris was introduced in 1991
to serve outstanding law students from non-common-law backgrounds.
It is a counterpart to our historic BCL degree for common lawyers,
and shares some courses with it (those not requiring a common law
background). These BCL-MJur courses are more advanced than those
in a first law degree. This is reflected in more demanding classes,
harder work, and tougher examination standards. Courses
are not introductory and those who choose subjects in which they
have no background at all should expect to invest heavily in independent
preparation.
MJur students are also permitted to take a maximum
of one
common-law course from the Oxford BA (undergraduate) law curriculum. However,
even in these courses, the
MJur standard is higher than for the BA, and the examination answers
of MJur students taking BA courses will be assessed according to
our postgraduate benchmarks to maintain the parity between
the MJur and the BCL.
The MJur programme is emphatically
a full-time residential commitment, running from mid-September to
mid-July. It cannot be studied part-time, or by credit accumulation
over more than one year, or by distance learning.
Only those
with outstanding first law degrees are admitted. Students are expected to analyse complex
material critically and to consider it
from different perspectives. Attention to legal puzzles is often combined with
discussion of underlying policy problems,
and you are expected to make your own contribution to the debate. In the
seminars you are likely to find students from a range of jurisdictions and
backgrounds. Many are attended by BCL as well as MJur students, and some by
research
students too. This diversity among contributors also helps to stimulate
variety and depth in discussions.
MJur students choose their courses
from a selection of 40 or so, some drawn from the BCL and some from
the BA. Each student takes either 3 or 4 courses.
Teaching on the MJur is shared between the faculty and the colleges. A typical
MJur course might have one or two faculty-level events per week (e.g. a seminar
and a lecture). At some point in the year there will also be a course of tutorials
in each course at college level. A tutorial is an hour or so of intensive discussion
between one tutor and typically two or three students. However teaching methods
vary somewhat, as do class sizes. Different courses or different parts of a single
course may take place in different terms. All examinations (except the essay-based
examination for Jurisprudence and Political Theory) take place at the end of
the year, in June and July.
The
MJur courses and the rules about combining
them.
Admission
to the MJur: requirements and procedures, links to forms,
etc.About
the MPhil, a one-year add on research degree
for BCL/MJur students.More
about funding for postgraduate students.General
questions about life as a MJur student?
Check out our FAQs.
Statement
of Provision for BCL & MJur Students (pdf)
The
MJur programme specification, an official document setting out
our programme objectives and learning methods in a standard format.The
most recent MJur examiners' report, which comments on performance
generally and in each course, and helps you to understand what is
expected.Our
postgraduate handbook, which explains in more detail what to
expect as a MJur student.
The
current Law Faculty lecture list, including this year's diet
of lectures and seminars for MJur courses. Tutorials are not shown
on this list because they are scheduled by individual tutors in
consultation with individual students.
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