Preliminary reading list
There is no compulsory preliminary reading for any of our courses. We want you to enjoy the rest of your summer before you join us, however we have compiled the below list if you'd like to 'warm up' for your course. This list is for students on any of our LLB courses (excluding BA Criminology).
If you get the chance, consider one or two items from the following list of ideas. There is no expectation for students to purchase any materials, where possible we make materials available electronically.
Read an introduction to law text
If you can get hold of one or more of the following, they will give a very good insight to the discipline of law.
- Nicholas McBride, Letters to a Law Student: A Guide to Studying Law at University (4th edition, Pearson, 2017)
- Allan Hutchinson, Is Eating People Wrong? Great Legal Cases and How They Shaped the World (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
- The Secret Barrister, The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken (MacMillan, 2018)
- Tom Bingham (former President of the UK Supreme Court), The Rule of Law (Penguin, 2011)
- Jonathan Herring, Great Debates in Criminal Law (MacMillan, 2009)
Read a case
To get a feel for legal study, try one of the following famous law cases (both of which you’ll look at during your law degree):
- Miller, R (on the application of) v The Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41
- Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] UKHL 100
Read the papers
Regular reading of a broadsheet newspaper and its legal pages is a good idea.
Try X (Twitter)
The legal world is very active on X; good accounts to follow include:
- @AlmostLawyers (three of our students who've started a blog)
- On criminal law - @barristersecret
- Criminal Bar Association - @TheCriminalBar
- Criminal barristers - @phatsilk_qc, @joanna_hardy, @jaimerh354
- Legal tech - Sheffield Legal Hackers - @S1LegalHackers and Legal Geek @wearelegalgeek and the Data Justice Lab - @DataJusticeLab. And, of course, Richard Susskind - @richardsusskind
- General legal round up - @letterofthelaw and @joshuarosenberg
- The Student Lawyer - @TSL_Tweets and Lawyer 2B - @lawyer2Bmag
- @legalcheek and @rollonfridayweb for legal gossip
Read a legal novel
- Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
- Charles Dickens, Bleak House
Watch a legal movie
- To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
- A Few Good Men (1992)
- 12 Angry Men (1957)
- The Verdict (1982)
- Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
- Erin Brockovich (2000)
- Philadelphia (1993)
- Anatomy of a Murder (1959)