The speaker of the House of Commons is a local celeb
With the academic year in full swing, one aspiring lawyer shares eight things you’ll only understand if you study law at the University of Essex.
1. Everyone knows about the crazy library lift
You’ll have to take the lift to the fourth floor to get to the law library. You’ll see some amazing views once you get to the top.
2. You’ll learn to just wear black clothing in Dr Richard Cornes’ lectures
The converse-wearing public law academic asks questions based on what colour clothes you are wearing; by the end of the year you learn to only wear black clothes!
3. Amazon prime is your best friend
The campus book shop never has the law books you need!
4. You read textbooks written by lecturers, so you can’t get away with skim reading
Andrew le Sueur (pictured) wrote the public law book, for example.
5. Lecturers love Star Wars-themed powerpoints
Each of the grounds of judicial review was given a different lego Star Wars character.
6. Sometimes legal concepts get lost in translation…
Essex has a strong international student community, many hailing from France. Sometimes there are some confused faces in lecture halls, like when a group of students confused the word ‘balaclava’ with ‘baklava’, and were picturing robbers with pastries on their heads.
7. Corporate law is seen as the devil
Essex is a university that has a reputation for being liberal and a leader in human rights law (until recently our chancellor was Shami Chakrabarti, after all).
8. The speaker of the Commons is a local celebrity
John Bercow went to our university, so he’s mentioned all the time.
Ella Richardson is a law student at the University of Essex.
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