Program Overview

We teach the law that matters. We are ‘freer, more daring and more experimental’ than a traditional law school, so your legal education is relevant and responsive to the needs of a changing society. Our approach is global in outlook, based on justice, and engaged with real-world problems.

LLB Law with Literature will give you a thorough training in the complementary disciplines of law and literature, by developing critical, reflective, creative and analytical skills. In addition to emphasising aspects common to both subjects, you explore the differences between them, and the approaches taken within law and literature disciplines. You will also develop a critical awareness of the nature of law within its social context and its relationship with literature.

You will cover key topics from both Law and Literature, with the opportunity to choose from a wide range of optional modules too:

• United States, Caribbean and Transatlantic literature
• Poetry, contemporary, experimental, avant-garde and political writing
• Copyright and trademark law
• International environmental law
• The use of evidence
• Human rights

Placement year

When you arrive at Essex, you can decide whether you would like to combine your course with a placement year. You will be responsible for finding your placement, but with support and guidance provided by both your department and our Employability and Careers Centre. Placement years give you valuable work experience and a chance to develop your legal and professional skills. You can tailor your placement to your interests and could work for a law firm, a company’s in-house legal department, the public sector, a charity or NGO, or elsewhere.

If you complete a placement year you'll only pay 20% of your usual tuition fee to Essex for that year.