The programme is ESRC-recognised. This means it meets the research training requirements of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and that you are eligible to apply for ESRC funding for PhD research. Only a handful of Law Schools in the UK offer ESRC recognised programmes in this field.

's MRes in programme offers research training in generic social-science skills, providing you with a solid basis in social science theory and methodology through modules offered to all social science postgraduates across the University. These are then built on within the socio-legal context through two skills-based modules offered by the Law School. Specialist modules reflect the socio-legal research expertise of staff.Ê

The supervised research dissertation will allow you to bring together the conceptual and practical skills acquired in the taught modules and demonstrate your understanding by applying them to your own research ideas in the socio-legal context. Teaching is mainly seminar and workshop based.

The methods of learning, teaching and assessment vary across modules. The generic social science modules are lecture-based whereas the socio-legal modules are taught in smaller seminar groups for which students prepare in advance. They also include some student-led seminars, presentations and practical exercises.

This rigorous training in socio-legal research skills will provide an excellent basis if you wish to embark on either future doctoral research or a career as a specialist socio-legal researcher. The transferable skills you will develop through this programme are both valuable and in high demand as noted in a report of the Nuffield Inquiry into Empirical Research in Law:

The work of empirical legal researchers since the last third of the 20th century has provided Government, the judiciary, law reform bodies, regulatory bodies, universities, social and economic institutions of all kinds with vital insights into how the law works in the real world. Empirical legal research is valuable in revealing and explaining the practices and procedures of legal dispute resolution systems and the impact of legal phenomena on a range of social institutions on business and on citizens. 1

There is now an increasing demand for research on how law works:

• From government departments, Parliament and its select committees to inform policy-making and evaluate legislative change;

• From business and NGOs for evidence about the operation and impact of regulation;

• From the judiciary, practitioners and legal scholars for evidence that enriches the study and practice of law and the development of doctrine;

• From voluntary sector bodies and others who want to understand how laws may be improved to better meet the needs of ordinary citizens. 2