Initial observations on London LL.M.

This post is in response to a few e mails asking that I keep the forum posted on my University of London experience.

Well, folks, I am truly on my way.

I've about completed the reading for the FIRST chapter of the FIRST of four study guides (juvenile justice) and I have already done almost as much reading as I did for some of my BA classes. The amount of reading is simply staggering and I am not doing much more than the "essential" work.

The intellectual experience is radically different than law school, too. There is no "plug and chug" memorization; I have to read the academic work and try to understand the theoretical positions taken by the authors.

The material is asking questions that NEVER surfaced before in my career.

My J.D. program did not prepare me for this sort of analysis. I am not at all sure that any academic experience WOULD have prepared me. My B.A. philosophy classes help a little.

WARNING! This program will cause idealogues no end of fits whether they be liberal or conservative!

My emotional emphasis is shifting as well. I registered because I wanted to earn the master's degree. Gradually, however, the degree is becoming less important than the work itself; I am being sucked into the academic debate. This, no doubt, is good for the soul. It also suggests that I chose my subjects wisely.

We'll see; it's going to be a LONG journey.

Amazon UK has been wonderful.

 

Thank you for the update and good luck!

 

How many chapters are in each study guide?

 

I think it's more like how many books are in each study guide.

 

THANKS NOS!

Please keep us posted on your experiences and progress!

 

LLM - Lon

Nosborne, it sounds like you are involved in a true education program.

Idealogues on the left and the right need to have their assumptions challenged.

Best of luck - keep us updated.

 

some answers

Each study guide is different; the juvenile justice guide has less than a dozen chapters while the sentenceing guide has something like twenty.

Oh, yes, it's a challenge to my long held assumptions...this morning I tackled the initial readings on the history and purposes of mandatory schooling...not at ALL what I had thought!

 

Well, in the words of an old Carpathian proverb, when you fall in the soup pot, slurp deeply or drown.

Sounds like an exciting program. Having studied in a field and a text that (only) impinged on matters of history and philosophy of law, I'd look at secondary material in those fields and get impressed and terrified at the same time--and have occasional fits of longing to be able to master even a little bit of it.

While I have no quarrel with those who want to work as hard as necessary for a legit degree and no more (as opposed to slidebys and futures-traders in accreditation), I quite literally got choked up reading about what you are doing. It reminded me of some of the hardest and best courses in my own past--although you are on a higher intellectual plane, for damn sure.

Best of luck to you.

 

Having experience first hand the level of work required in the intermediate courses of the University of London LL.B. program. I have no doubt that the LL.M. is massively challenging.

Good luck and I will be looking forward to future updates.