Vaughan, Steven; (2025) The Regulation of Legal Education in England. In: Emma, Jones and Fiona, Cownie and Anthony, Bradney, (eds.) Concise Encyclopedia of Legal Education. Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, UK. (In press).

Text Vaughan_REVISED The (Lack of) Regulation Of Legal Education in England EJ Comments[23].pdf Access restricted to UCL open access staff Download (136kB)

Abstract

There is not much by way of direct, specific regulation of the law degree in England. This is in contrast to the historical position, which was much more heavy-handed. Presently, the Bar Standards Board (‘the BSB’) sets (very light touch) rules for the academic stage of those wishing to become a barrister. Before 2021, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (‘the SRA'), jointly with the BSB, also specified requirements (subjects to be studied and in what volume) for ‘qualifying law degrees’. The recent introduction by the SRA of the Solicitor Qualifying Examination (‘the SQE’), its new central assessment for qualification as a solicitor, means the SRA is no longer interested, in regulatory terms, in the law degree. That being said, the SQE is having, for some law schools, a soft regulatory effect on what they think they need to teach and how.

Download activity - last month

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as CSVJSONXML

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as XMLJSONCSV

Archive Staff Only

View Item