 The Stair Building | |
| Type | Law school |
|---|---|
| Established | December 1713; 311 years ago (1713-12) (Regius Chair of Law) |
| Head | Professor Claire McDiarmid |
Academic staff | 148[1] |
Administrative staff | 31[1] |
| Students | 1,613[2] |
| Undergraduates | 939[2] |
| Postgraduates | 674[2] |
| Location | , 55°52′18.30″N4°17′26.20″W / 55.8717500°N 4.2906111°W /55.8717500; -4.2906111 |
| Colours | |
| Affiliations | University of Glasgow |
| Website | gla |
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TheSchool of Law at theUniversity of Glasgow providesundergraduate andpostgraduate courses in Law, and awards thedegrees ofBachelor of Laws (Legum Baccalaureus, LLB),Master of Laws (Iuris Vtriusque Magistrum, LLM), LLM by Research,Master of Research (MRes) and Doctor of Philosophy (Philosophiæ Doctor, PhD), the degree ofDoctor of Laws being awarded generally only as an honorary degree.
There are forty-nine full-time academic staff[3] and over one thousand students.[4] As of 2024[update] the Head of the School of Law is Professor Claire McDiarmid.[5]
The 2019Complete University Guide league rankings placed Glasgow at 2nd in the UK. The 2023 rankings fromThe Guardian placed Glasgow at 6th in the UK.[6] The 2024The Times league rankings placed Glasgow at 7th in the UK.[7]
At the University's foundation in 1451, there were four original faculties: Arts, Divinity, Law and Medicine. BothCanon andCivil Law were taught,[8] however by the sixteenth Century, instruction in both of these had fallen out of practice. It was during this time thatJames Dalrymple of Stair came to Glasgow to study for anMA (1633–1637) and then became a regent (1641–1647) teaching philosophy.[9] He went on to becomeLord President of theCourt of Session in 1671, and published hisInstitutions of the Law of Scotland in 1681, the first systematic exposition of Scots Law. The Stair Building, where the School of Law is housed, is named in his honour.
In 1713, Queen Anne endowed theRegius Chair of Law at the University. The first occupant of the Chair (from 1714) was William Forbes, and subsequent notable Professors have includedJohn Millar,William Gloag,David Walker andJoe Thomson. This revived the teaching of Law at Glasgow, and subsequent Chairs included theChair of Conveyancing,[10] established in 1861 by theFaculty of Procurators; theDouglas Chair of Civil Law[11] in 1948; the Chair in Jurisprudence[12] (1952); in Public Law[13] (1965); and the John Millar Chair of Law[14] in 1985, named for the previously mentioned Regius Professor of Law.
In 1984, the Faculty of Law became the Faculty of Law and Financial Studies, and in 1992, the individual legal departments were grouped together into the School. In 2005, the Faculty merged with the Faculty of Social Sciences, becoming the Faculty of Law, Business and Social Sciences.[15] On 1 August 2010 the Faculty of Law, Business and Social Science was combined with the Adam Smith Business School, the School of Social and Political Studies, the School of Education and the School of Interdisciplinary Studies into a new College of Social Sciences.
| National rankings | |
|---|---|
| Complete (2026)[16] | 7 |
| Guardian (2026)[17] | 6 |
| Times / Sunday Times (2026)[18] | 3 |
| Global rankings | |
| ARWU (2025)[19] | 201-300 |
| QS (2026)[20] | 56 |
| THE (2026)[21] | 63 |
The School of Law is housed in the Stair Building (named for Viscount Stair), a row of internally connected terraced houses on The Square opposite the University Chapel. The School is associated with traditional Scots law teaching and with internationally recognised research across a wide range of subjects including Corporate Law and Financial Regulation, Intellectual Property Law, and Law and Security.
CREATe is the AHRC research centre for Regulation of the Creative Economy. Until 2024, CREATe was known as the RCUK research centre for copyright and new business models in the creative economy. TheUniversity of Glasgow, led a consortium of 7 Universities which also comprises theUniversity of East Anglia, theUniversity of Edinburgh,Goldsmiths (University of London),University of Nottingham,University of St Andrews and theUniversity of Strathclyde. CREATe was supported by £5m of funding over four years (2012–2016) from theArts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC),Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and theEconomic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Since 2024, the centre is supported by an AHRC infrastructure award. Its work takes places across seven themes: Automation, decentralisation and platforms, Access to knowledge, Dealing with creators, Political economy of regulation, The law of innovation, Legal history and cultural memory, and Technology and humanism.
The following Chairs of the University have provinces within the School of Law:
Students in the School of Law elect class representatives from each of their classes to represent them at meetings of committees within the School of Law. The School comes within the College of Social Science constituency on theStudents' Representative Council.[22]
TheGlasgow University Law Society organises social activities for students at the School of Law, including the annual Law Ball, held every February. The event is of a comparable size to theGUSA Ball, and because of the number of students attending it is necessary to hold the event in city centre hotels as there is no hall in the University large enough to accommodate it. The Society co-ordinate various different events, focusing around being either social, academic or charity, headed by their respective Convenor. Membership is open to all students of the School of Law, and the Society is affiliated to theSRC.
The Society publishes the Glasgow University Law Review, an annual publication containing legal articles written by members of the Society.
The School of Law has a student-run Mooting Society,[23] which runs an internal competition, The Dean's Cup, as well as organising the Alexander Stone National Legal Debate. All Scottish universities offering the LLB are entitled to enter this, although the competition is generally betweenDundee,Edinburgh, Glasgow andStrathclyde universities. The final is held in February or March each year in the Alexander Stone Court Room on the ground floor of the Stair Building.University of Strathclyde currently holds the trophy.
The Sheriff's Cup, organised byGlasgow Sheriff Court, is an inter-varsity event held between Glasgow and Strathclyde and judged by aSenator of the College of Justice. The moot is held annually and takes place in one of the larger court rooms at Glasgow Sheriff Court. The team of Craig MacLeod and Christopher Rae led Glasgow to victory in 2016, with the moot judged by Lord Matthews.
Alumni of the School of Law include, the first woman appointed to the Scottish Bench, five current judges of the Court of Session (including the present Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Gill), two Law Lords, six Lord presidents, twelve Lord Advocates, aJustice of theSupreme Court of the United Kingdom and a Lord Chancellor, as well the first First Minister of Scotland, the current First Minister, and a Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada.
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