MSc Law, Anthropology and Society

About the MSc programme

This programme is jointly run by the Department of Anthropology| and Department of Law|, and is administered in the Department of Anthropology. It offers the following benefits:

• Situated in the only institution devoted solely to the social sciences in the UK, the Anthropology and the Law Departments are distinguished by the research of their faculty and by their exceptionally international student recruitment.
• The programme offers an excellent and intensive introduction to the aspects of anthropological and social theory essential to the analysis of law in society.
• This interdisciplinary programme forms part of LSE's innovative graduate teaching and research in legal and social science theory.
• The programme provides an ideal preparation for practical or research work on law in the context of social relations.

The programme is intended for graduates with a good first degree in law or for graduates in anthropology and related disciplines who seek to study selected aspects of law and legal theory. Scheduled teaching normally includes three hours of lectures and three hours of seminars per week (depending on options selected), supplemented by regular academic tutorials.

The programme offers a foundation in those elements of anthropological and socio-legal theory essential to an understanding of law in society, and provides training in appropriate research methods. The programme achieves this through: a core course combining lectures, classes and an innovative research seminar; the supervised crafting of an individual programme of two further courses in law or anthropology (or exceptionally another social science) selected according to the academic background and research interest of the student; and supervision of a dissertation.

Compulsory courses

• Law in Society: a joint course in Anthropology and Law
• Dissertation

Options

(* half unit)

Choose courses to the value of two full units from:

• The Anthropology of Religion
• Anthropology: Theory and Ethnography
• The Anthropology of Kinship, Sex and Gender
• The Anthropology of Industrialisation and Industrial Life*
• Anthropology of Human Rights* 
• Anthropology of Politics* 
• Anthropology of Economy (1): Production and Exchange*
• Anthropology of Economy (2): Development, Transformation and Globalisation*
• Children and Youth in Contemporary Ethnography*
• Ethnography of a Selected Region*  
• Jurisprudence and Legal Theory
• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Regulating New Medical Technologies  
• Law and Social Theory
• Modern Legal History
• Innovation, Technology and Patent Law 
• Current Issues in Intellectual and Cultural Property Law 
• Trademark Law
• Cultural Property and Heritage Law
• The Anthropology of Schooling*

Another course from law, anthropology or a related discipline may be taken instead of the above subject to the approval of your supervisor and the course teacher(s). Among law courses which students have taken in recent years are: Policing and Police Powers; International Law and the Protection of Refugees; Human Rights in the Developing World; Globalisation, Regulation and Governance; International Law: Theory and Practice; Employment Law; Constitutional Theory; and The Theory, History and Practice of Human Rights.

Please note that only a limited selection of the optional courses will be available each year. 

If you have a first degree in law you must take at least one of the two option courses in anthropology along with the core course Law in Society; if you have a first degree in social science you must take at least one of the two courses in law. You will be closely advised by your supervisor so as to form a well designed programme in line with your previous studies and research interests.