Lectureship in Law and History, Queen Mary, London

Queen Mary, London, is advertising an entry-level post in both the history and law departments. The aim is to assist in the development of a new degree in law with history, with the usual duties of teaching and research. This is important as such opportunities are rare; but it is welcome as indicating that law schools are not retreating to some supposed imaginary “core”.

The creation of this new degree is most interesting, however. Some of the Scottish universities, such as Edinburgh, have long had the options of LLB with joint honours in law and history. The new Queen Mary degree will be somewhat different I imagine, and it will be interesting to see what develops. In a legal history Blog, it is worth noting that   in England, when legal education was reformed in the Victorian period, she universities degrees initially offered degrees in law and history. The two disciplines have indeed a natural affinity going back at least to the Renaissance: see, e.g., P. J. du Plessis and J. W. Cairns, Reassessing Legal Humanism and its Claims (forthcoming). The story is, of course, a complex and contested one.

On the job at QM, University of London, see:

https://webapps2.is.qmul.ac.uk/jobs/job.action?jobRef=QMUL7328