Bristol Law School

Bristol Law School
Established 1969
Type Public
Dean James Holland
Admin. staff 98
Students 2,000
1700 FT
300 PT
Location Bristol, Gloucestershire, UK
Campus urban
Website bls.uwe.ac.uk

Bristol Law School (BLS), formerly known as the Faculty of Law, is a school at the University of the West of England. It is a member of the Faculty of Business and Law.

Established in 1969 Bristol Law School has since grown into one of the largest law school in England and Wales with nearly two thousand students enrolled (seventeen hundred full time students). The School provides both academic and professional legal studies. Outside Oxford, the School has the best law library in the south of England. It also has a number of mock court rooms.

Contents

Departments

The school is divided into two departments:

Department of Law

The Department of Law provides a range of undergraduate, postgraduate masters and doctoral level:

The Department has a strong tradition of student mooting and debating. The Department's internal competition, sponsored by Lyons Davidson, takes place each academic year from October. The intervarsity West of England Mooting Competition, is sponsored by St John's Chambers, Bristol. BLS students won the Princess Alexandra Cup (an inter-varsity debating competition at Lancaster University) in December 2006.

Bristol Institute of Legal Practice

The Bristol Institute of Legal Practice (“BILP”) provides professional legal education and training for students and legal professionals. BILP has approaching 1,000 students on its full time, part time, short course and CPD programmes and is recognised as one of the leading providers of professional legal education in the UK. It has over 50 professionally qualified tutors teaching mainly in their areas of practice expertise.

A wide range of courses are on offer, including:

In addition, BILP provides consultancy and a range of tailor-made in-house courses for a number of firms in Bristol, the City of London and elsewhere in the UK.

Research

Legal scholarship and research forms an important part of Bristol Law School's activity. Many staff in the School are engaged in research of national and international significance. Much of the research activity in Bristol Law School is carried out under the auspices of the Centre for Legal Research - BLS CLR. Staff undertake research in all of the main legal research traditions, and are well represented in both the doctrinal research tradition and socio-legal research. They undertake research for a variety of organisations, and recent and current projects have been funded by the Legal Services Commission, the Home Office, the Alcohol Education Researhc Council, and a number of police forces. Recent and current research contracts include research for the Legal Aid Board (now the Legal Services Commission) on contracting of criminal defence services, for the Legal Services Commission on the public defender service, for the Alcohol Education Research Council on changes to liquor licensing procedure, for Orange UK and for the Home Office on the social effects of car crime. Within the Centre for Legal Research are a number of specialised units:

CLARS

Bristol Law School is a partner in a pro bono law clinic, the Community Legal Advice and Representation Service (CLARS). CLARS is a unique collaboration between the law students of Bristol Law School, the Department of Law at the University of Bristol, Bristol Citizens Advice Bureau and practising barristers on the Western Circuit.

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