Faculty of Law, Cambridge
Encyclopedia
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
is one of the faculties at the Sidgwick Site
Sidgwick Site
The Sidgwick Site is one of the largest sites within the University of Cambridge, England.- Overview and history :The Sidgwick Site is located on the western edge of Cambridge city centre, north of Sidgwick Avenue and south of West Road, and is home to several of the university's arts and...
. The building opened in 1996 and was designed by Norman Foster
Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank
Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, OM is a British architect whose company maintains an international design practice, Foster + Partners....
, who also designed the terminal building at Stansted Airport and 30 St Mary Axe
30 St Mary Axe
30 St Mary Axe, the Swiss Re Building , is a skyscraper in London's main financial district, the City of London, completed in December 2003 and opened at the end of May 2004...
(the 'Gherkin' in London). The building suffered serious acoustic problems (primarily due to a lack of consideration of acoustics in Foster's design), with its form amplifying any noise from the lower levels and causing significant disturbance at higher levels, not least in the library. This was fixed in 1999 with the installation of a glazed acoustic screen, separating quiet areas from noisy ones.
The Faculty building contains the University's Squire Law Library, together with offices, lecture and seminar rooms and common room facilities. The Faculty has 24 professors, nine readers, and over 70 other University, Faculty and College Teaching Officers. The student body comprises about 700 undergraduate and 225 graduate students.
The Squire Law Library, which consumes the majority of the first, second and third floors of the building, is a dependent library of Cambridge University Library
Cambridge University Library
The Cambridge University Library is the centrally-administered library of Cambridge University in England. It comprises five separate libraries:* the University Library main building * the Medical Library...
. It contains one of the largest legal collections in the UK (approx. 180,000 volumes). The collection is very strong across UK law, the law of other major common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
countries (the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
), and the law of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. There are, additionally, smaller collections for the law of many other countries. The library provides its users with access to many major legal databases.
Most individual colleges also have a smaller law library
Law library
A law library is a library designed to assist law students, attorneys, judges, and their law clerks and anyone else who finds it necessary to correctly determine the state of the law....
of their own.
Faculty Officers
The Officers of the Faculty of Law for 2009-10 are:- Chair of the Faculty Board: Professor David Ibbetson, Corpus Christi CollegeCorpus Christi College, CambridgeCorpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is notable as the only college founded by Cambridge townspeople: it was established in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary...
- Deputy Chair of the Faculty Board: Professor Christine Gray, St John's CollegeSt John's College, CambridgeSt John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....
- Academic Secretary of the Faculty: Mr J Rowbottom, King's CollegeKing's College, CambridgeKing's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
- Secretary of the Faculty Board of Law: Ms Laura Smethurst, Faculty of Law
- Chair of the Degree Committee: Mr Richard Fentiman, Queen's College
- Secretary of the Degree Committee: Dr A du Bois-Pedain, Magdalene CollegeMagdalene College, CambridgeMagdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...
- Director of the LL.M. Course: Mr Richard Nolan, St John's CollegeSt John's College, CambridgeSt John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....
- Deputy Director of the LL.M. Course: Dr Jens M Scherpe, Gonville & Caius College
- Deputy Director of the LL.M. Course: Ms Jo Miles, Trinity CollegeTrinity College, CambridgeTrinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
- Examinations Secretary: Dr Lorand Bartels, Trinity HallTrinity Hall, CambridgeTrinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
- Access Officer: Mrs Nicola Padfield, Fitzwilliam CollegeFitzwilliam College, CambridgeFitzwilliam College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge in England.The college traces its origins back to 1869 and the foundation of the Non-Collegiate Students Board, a venture intended to offer students from less financially privileged backgrounds a chance to study...
Research Centres
The Faculty has a number of associated Research Centres:- The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL)
- The Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS)
- The Centre for Corporate and Commercial Law (3CL)
- The Centre for Public Law (CPL)
- The Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law (CIPIL)
- The ESRC Centre for Business Research (CBR)
- The Centre for Tax Law (CTL)
- The Cambridge Forum for Legal and Political Philosophy (CFLPP)
- The Cambridge Socio-Legal Group