Law and Language
Law and language is a combination that addresses a real gap in the legal profession and the broader world of international commerce and governance. Legal knowledge becomes significantly more powerful when you can apply it across linguistic and cultural boundaries, and the increasingly global nature of legal practice, from cross-border transactions and international arbitration to human rights work and diplomatic negotiations, means that lawyers with genuine language skills are sought across many of the most demanding and interesting areas of the profession.
At Birkbeck College, this part-time LLB combines full legal training, covering the foundational areas of English law needed for professional legal practice, with the development of serious proficiency in a modern language, available in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, or Chinese. You will study towards a qualifying law degree while simultaneously developing your linguistic competence, preparing you for careers that cross the boundary between legal and linguistic expertise. The part-time structure means the degree is designed to fit alongside work and other commitments, making it accessible to a wider range of students.
The combination of legal and linguistic skills opens distinctive opportunities in international law firms, multinational corporations, international organisations, the diplomatic service, and comparative law.
Graduates from law and language programmes are well placed for a wide range of careers. Legal practice in international firms, in-house legal roles in multinational companies, the diplomatic service and foreign office, international organisations including the European institutions and the UN, and roles in trade, compliance, and international arbitration are all natural destinations. The combination of a qualifying law degree and genuine language competence is genuinely rare and distinctively valued.
Postgraduate study in law, including LLM programmes in international or comparative law, is a further option.