No, I’m not coming off my blogging hiatus, but as I promised Catallaxy readers here, I’m filling you all in on ‘the huge commitment’ I have starting in September this year. Admittedly I did say October originally, but the details hadn’t been finalised at that point.
I also have an ulterior motive. After my farewell post went up, a raft of speculation flew around the MSM (some of it is summarised in this useful post over at LP) that the ‘huge commitment’ was a columnist’s gig at the Australian. Crikey’s effort is quoted over at LP. It turned out that The Age’s Lawrence Money had hopped in before Crikey, however, and made some snippy comments about bloggers to boot. No-one spoke to me before hitting the ground running with speculation.
This led to an afternoon of absolute madness at work. Trying to fend off media enquiries while organising a jury view in the midst of a murder trial was, ahem, entertaining. Things got rather comedic at one stage. Neither His Honour nor I could track down a copy of the Age and I finished up playing a lengthy game of telephone tennis with the Australian. When we finally synchronized, the offending article was nowhere to be found on the Age website (I’m sure it was there, but I had a bad dose of fumble fingers by that point), which meant the Australian’s Chris Merritt had to read it to me over the phone before I could comment.
The Australian ran two correcting pieces the next day. Chris Merritt’s was careful and accurate, while Amanda Meade decided to take some swipes at ‘inaccuracies in the blogosphere’, despite the fact that the story had started in the MSM. The Editor-in-Chief of the Australian, Chris Mitchell, even got dragged in for a quote. All the articles are now behind paid subscription firewalls, and aren’t particularly inspiring, so save your pennies.
However, what I couldn’t tell them – and can now tell you – is that I’ll be reading for the Bachelor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford in September. Since this is about as far as possible from a columnist’s gig as it’s possible to get, I thought I’d better let people know (especially as there are some folks out there who are still convinced I’ll be working for Rupert, regardless of Chris Merritt’s efforts).
Despite the name, Oxford’s BCL is not a qualification in European Civil Law (Roman Law, the Code Napoleon etc). It’s a common law qualification. This summary from Oxford’s Law School gives you an idea of what the course involves:
Among legal practitioners and legal academics alike, Oxford’s Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) degree is the most highly esteemed masters-level qualification in the common law world. The BCL standard is higher than that required in a first law degree, such as a BA, LLB, or JD. This is reflected in more demanding classes, harder work, and tougher examination standards. Courses are not introductory and those who choose subjects in which they have no background at all should expect to invest heavily in independent preparation. The programme is emphatically a full-time residential commitment, running from mid-September to mid-July. It cannot be studied part-time, or by credit accumulation over more than one year, or by distance learning.
Only those with outstanding first law degrees from common law jurisdictions are admitted. Students are expected to analyse complex material critically and to consider it from different perspectives. Attention to legal puzzles is often combined with discussion of underlying policy problems, and you are expected to make your own contribution to the debate. In the seminars you are likely to find students from a range of jurisdictions and backgrounds. Many are attended by MJur as well as BCL students, and some by research students too. This diversity among contributors also helps to stimulate variety and depth in discussions.
If a BCL graduate gets good results, they are permitted to proceed to the research-based MPhil, which involves preparation of a thesis. You have to tell Oxford in advance that you plan to go onto the MPhil (as I have done), but they won’t let you move into the second year as of right. You have to do well first.
Of course I’m rather chuffed with this, as I’ll be able to pursue the scholarly interests I’ve flagged in various posts for Catallaxy – Hayekian evolutionary jurisprudence, media accountability and drug law reform – at a very high level, and with access to the best teachers and the best resources on the planet.
46 Comments
That is very, very well done.
Why waste time on a MPhil when you could go direct to a PhD? Is there some specific career path you’re following via the MPhil? (You know, Lady of the Rolls or something?
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Thanks Sinc. From my understanding, the BCL/MPhil is so rigorous that a PhD is considered surplus to requirements pretty much everywhere (but especially in the US). Oxford does offer a DPhil, but it seems to be a summation to a career, rather than something one does when starting out.
How’s the book coming? Heaps more pressure on you with a month less time.
Well, I produced 5000 words while I was on circuit, so the blogging hiatus is certainly having the desired effect on that score. I’m only around now because I’m a bit fragile after last night’s celebratory drinks
I would normally recommend drinking lots of water at times like this, but due to irresponsible government policy that option isn’t really available.
I second that, very well done indeed. It sounds very interesting and exciting. I think Dworkin teaches philosophy of law at Oxford, who are the other notables likely to be teaching?
John Finnis is also at Oxford, and I think Raz as well. Pretty serious thinkers.
Congratulations, SL. I’m excited for you, hearing this news. As Richie would say, marvellous stuff!
So the BCL/MPhil combo would take about, what, two years?
Congrats! Also, I’ve got a much better chance of running into you some time in Oxford than anywhere in Australia. Good luck!
Thanks CL. Yes, 2 years is right. There are no guarantees about funding for a second year, though. I have to do very well in the BCL first.
Having read the links, the MPhil can count towards the first year of a DPhil which then takes another 2 years.
Once I’ve filled in the telephone book worth of forms (currently waiting for me in Rocky; they arrived while I was on circuit) I’ll fill you in on my whereabouts etc Brock so we can arrange to meet up!
SL, Finnis would be excellent even though I’m not a fan of the natural law tradition. I think I fall somewhere between them and the positivists.
My ideal supervisor would be Professor Suri Ratnapala, DB, but he’s at UQ and Chicago (they share him). However, I think it’s really important to engage with people who disagree (civilly) on fundamental issues, as it forces someone like me to think issues through with clarity and precision.
The fact that Oxford has Finnis and Raz (a great natural lawyer and a great positivist) is vital for a Hayekian like me. I’ll have to form my arguments in light of powerful intellectual opposition. That can only be a good thing.
whoever thought law could be civil.
Are you self-tort?
Regarding Homer and puns, unless estoppel it, I’m outta here.
Noooooo… not more puns!
Couldn’t agree more, SL. If you get a chance, read Oakeshott’s essay The Rule of Law in On History and Other Essays and let me know what you think. With any luck, I’m might be visiting Oxford late this year or early next year, so it could be a conversation in the company of a cool ale.
Congratulations SL! That’s awesome news. I think you’ll have a fantastic time.
I also got into the BCL program a few years back, but didn’t manage to get the funding to take it up, alas. I look forward to hearing about your experiences!
In an aside, I must say that I chuckled to think all those journos were so off the mark with their gossip and asides. There was a very snarky unpleasant tone to that piece in the Age.
Brilliant, sl. Have a ball. All the best and don’t forget us.
Congratulations sl, great news!
Did someone mention Dworkin, what a portentious bore.
Enjoy the dreaming spires!
http://images.google.com.au/images?hl=en&q=Dreaming%20spires%2BOxford&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi
Thanks all. I’m actually planning to pop a few pics up of said ‘dreaming spires’ (suitably mucked about with in photoshop of course). I’m not Heath when it comes to the actual photography, but I am good at doing stuff after the photographs have been taken!
SL—my congrats too. It’s a beautiful place in a beautiful location, & a v v nice style to it. Having some, at one remove, connection there, I’d love to hear your views after a few months or year. Over past 5-6 years I’ve been dropping by there pretty close to twice a year, starting with a 4 month stint, so if the visits (not stints) keep up, maybe we can have a bitter at the Turl, or Eagle & Child, or Lamb & Flag, or 3 Goats Heads, or Turf, Bear… lord, there’s a plethora of places worth drinking in there (I’d add a few more, but that’d give the wrong impression).
They do go in for eccentric pub names, don’t they! The funny thing is that I lived in the UK for several years, but never went to Oxford – not even as a tourist. By way of contrast, I had a friend who went to Cambridge, and visited it quite a few times. So when I turn up later this year, I really will look la tourista to the max, complete with mud map and Lonely Planet guide etc. Apparently it is easy to get lost, too.
Guests will be nice – you can join Brock!
Although some of my recollections of that evening are now vague (drinking does that) I think you let slip during the ALS bash in Sydney that this was in the pipeline. As such it is not such a surprise. However congratuations in making it happen and best of luck in your quest to become a common law genius.
I’ve been to Oxford as a tourist. Those memories seem to be a bit vague also.
It’s been planned for a while, Terje, and I told Jason about it privately when I took my blogging break. I didn’t want to make definite announcements until everything had been officially bolted down with the university, though, which meant having to say ‘no comment’ lots when being asked what I really was planning come September!
Congratulations!
Wonderful news! Well done!
Thanks all – now to get down to some serious form-filling-in!
SkepticLawyer:
First was at a desk in a Consulate in Krako’w or Istanbul; second was ….. nah, you don’t want to know about second and third wild guesses now ….. :-O
Damn! You spoiled my three spectacularly wild guesses about your future.
Congratulations!!
Concerned about your funding and work-pressure/load there. Hope you’ll be well prepared. Somehow I think a MPhil at Oxford might be a bit more exacting than a MPhil at, say, Griffith or a similar university here.
Regardless of what you will actually be STUDYING at Oxford, you probably cannot help but ACQUIRE a reasonable understanding of European Civil Law from the people you’ll be mixing with informally there.
Have fun ….. you lucky devil.
Legal Eagle [on 20]:
Damned bad luck about not getting funding to do your BCL.
Kodjo:
Good to see you around again.
Thanks Graham. Apparently you can do subjects that focus on the Civil Law, and even a Roman law (delict) subject – in Latin!
Not sure what happened with LE’s funding, although they used to have different selection criteria – or so I’m told. It’d be pretty costly to study as an overseas student I should think.
SkepticLawyer:
Hope you get a chance to talk, well before you go, with some of those who survived study at Oxford. Hope too, that you will have several days, at least, to settle in before you get into the starting blocks.
Now you stay on the straight-and-narrow while you are in those foreign parts and don’t take to tortery tion and other mischiefication just because those Romans do it. – whether in Latin or in the King’s English.
Hardy har Graham, v. funny. BTW this got snitched today over at the Australian – no credit to Catallaxy though. Funny how the MSM expects bloggers to bow down at their newsgathering gifts, but if we break a story, they, ahem, snitch it freely!
Now that I am all caught up. . .
Congratulations – sounds like a great opportunity and certainly one that should be seized and quite a step beyond QUT’s ‘ATSI Cross Cultural Relations’ course eh?
Hopefully you’ll still drop a comment or two around the blogsphere and keep us all up to date with the form of the rowing teams.
This’ll teach me to ignore the blogs and concentrate on work alone!
Cheers Grendel. I have promised some Dreaming Spires pics, although it’s likely I’ll run them past Heath first to make sure only good ones go up on Catallaxy. I really am looking at a lot of work (and being a student again – a scholarship, no matter how generous, doesn’t detract from that fact. I’ve gotten rather used to earning real money over the past few years).
You may be wasting your time and efforts, SL.
I just got an email from a “Mr Ed” that may be of interest to you:
And heir apparent to Marcus Einfeld!
Oxford, schmoxbridge.
I still can’t believe he did that. I notice Oxford has a special office to handle queries from prospective employers wanting to know if an applicant really is an Oxford graduate.
CL could be right if your only purpose was to get the relevant papers. If hoewever you are going for learning, I do not think there is a better place on earth than Oxford and Cambridge.
” I notice Oxford has a special office to handle queries from prospective employers wanting to know if an applicant really is an Oxford graduate. ”
You can’t believe how many people used ginger up their resume with false information about going to Ivy league schools.
Big firms just hire firms who specialise in checking out resumes as a matter of course. Once they were in their data bank as liars they could never get out.
Some people are just amazingly silly.
JC, some companies are also silly. I know that firms that were set up exclusively to supply Russian immigrants with employment history. In the US companies are very reluctant to hire people without prior US experience. These Russian firms employ one girl who answers calls from various employers and confirms that the candidate did indeed worked for them as a, say, a senior computer achitect.
If you have to rely on verifying employment history, that means that your interview process is broken, at least if you are hiring technical IT people.
We’ve hired some really excellent people from the former USSR.
I like the names of some of their universities, e.g. ‘The Mogilev Machine-building Institute’ — sounds serious!
Crikey, Boris – that stuff makes Einfeld look like a rank amateur. The lengths people will go to!
“If you have to rely on verifying employment history, that means that your interview process is broken, at least if you are hiring technical IT people.”
I do not agree. They do have interview process in place. But they either check empoyment history for initial screening (before shortlisting for interviews) or as additional back up info. It’s not to assess qualifications, but more as a kind of back up character reference.
“We’ve hired some really excellent people from the former USSR.”
Yes these people were probably good as well. Still employers want a track record, and to be sure that the candidate is not only qualified buit also compatible with US working practices. It is only so much you can get from interviews.
SL did you read my email a while back?
Holy crap Boris. Just checked the link. I’m amazed – looks like there’s a BCL paper in there afterall!