Law and History

Law and history are disciplines that illuminate each other in compelling ways. Law is shaped by history: every legal doctrine, constitutional settlement, and right we take for granted today has a past, and understanding that past changes how we read the law in the present. History, in turn, benefits from legal sources and methods: statutes, court records, legal treatises, and constitutional documents are among the richest archives available to the historian.

Bringing the two subjects together develops an unusually sophisticated analytical sensibility.

This four-year full-time programme at the University of Edinburgh allows you to study Scots law alongside history across a range of periods and geographies. You will cover the core subjects required for legal study, while also engaging with the methods and materials of historical research, working with archives, debating interpretations, and writing the kind of sustained analytical prose that both disciplines demand. The programme includes a year abroad, which gives you the opportunity to study at a partner institution in another country and to bring a comparative perspective to both your legal and historical learning.

With a typical tariff of 168 points, this is a selective programme that expects high academic ability and the commitment to work seriously across two demanding disciplines.

Edinburgh's strength in both law and history, and its location in a city with deep legal and historical significance, provides an excellent environment for this combination. You will engage with Scottish legal history, the history of empire, constitutional development, and much else that connects directly to the legal and political world of today.

Graduates from law and history programmes move into careers in legal practice, the civil service, policy analysis, academia, journalism, heritage work, international organisations, and a wide range of roles where critical thinking and communication are valued. Those who continue to professional legal training bring a historical perspective that is particularly useful in constitutional law, human rights, and legal theory. Postgraduate study in legal history, history, or comparative law is another well-trodden path.