5 Unconventional Reasons to Study Law at Warwick

If someone were to ask me why I chose to study Law at the University of Warwick, they may expect answers along the lines of the university’s excellent academic reputation, the well-recognised “law in context approach”, or the huge focus on opportunities and networking. Yes, these are all great reasons to study at Warwick Law School. But what about beyond that? I have finally completed my first month as a law student at Warwick and these are my top 5 ‘unconventional’ reasons to study law at Warwick, the ones you may not necessarily apply for, but the ones that’ll definitely convince you to stay!

1. Everyone loves Suits… and How To Get Away With Murder, and Legally Blonde, and Law & Order.. in our first week at Warwick we actually had a lecture on “What Can Suits Teach Us?”. You will struggle to find a law student at Warwick that doesn’t love at least ONE of these law dramas. Therefore, one perfectly good reason to go to Warwick Law School is that you will always have someone to talk to about the latest episode of your favourite legal show… and to encourage you to procrastinate your tort law reading with yet another episode…

2. Bragging (and Complaining) Rights – if you think you’re joining Warwick Law School to learn about your rights and responsibilities as a law-abiding member of society, you’re right. However, the rights you will exercise more frequently are your rights to brag and complain about your degree… often simultaneously. We maintain the right to complain endlessly about the amount of reading we have to do, but we will also tell you that law is objectively the top degree.

3. Cafe Social – while it may seem ridiculous to say a uni campus café is a reason to study law at Warwick, I would like to address the fact that this café has saved my life on multiple occasions. When you have an hour to kill before your next seminar? Sit in the café with a drink, a snack, and whatever Netflix show is calling you (provided, of course, you have prepared for said upcoming seminar!) Want to wait out the rain before walking all the way back to your flat? The social sciences café welcomes you, just bear in mind that this is England and it’s possible that the rain may never stop. Want great drinks, sandwiches and cakes? Sorted, plus 10% off with your Eating@Warwick card. There is literally no problem that Cafe Social cannot fix. 

4. It’s Statistically Impossible Not To Make Friends – if you have sat in a Warwick law lecture in the past month, you’ll have noticed two things. One, incessant coughing as freshers flu marks its territory all over the Ramphal building, and two, the sheer number of students in the lecture halls. There are literally hundreds of us. Now while I know we all took law because we can’t do maths, I’m gonna take a wild guess and boldly state that it’s pretty much statistically impossible that you’ll hate everyone who takes law and therefore you’ll be able to find at least one friend… now you just have to convince them to go to 9am lectures with you so you don’t have to sit alone!

5. Bananas – no, I’m not just running out of unconventional reasons to study law at Warwick… So far, our Tort Law lectures have consisted of bananas being thrown around and cases about snails in bottles. Our Criminal Law lectures have us feeling like characters from How To Get Away With Murder, citing ‘actus reus’ and ‘mens rea’ in every sentence just because we know what it means. Our Property Law lectures have been… well, Property Law, which is actually way more interesting than it sounds (in my opinion). Finally, our MELS seminars have us reading cases, watching movies, and generally just having debates. So, whilst the entire unconventional reason here is not ‘bananas’, my fifth and final reason is that Warwick truly does take a content-heavy subject like Law and somehow manages to make it fun.  I, for one, appreciate the interactivity of the degree; how bored would we be if we were just learning a long list of laws and cases? 

If you weren’t already convinced that Law at Warwick is a good choice for you, I hope this helped! If you’re already here, I hope you agree with me… I’m sure we all have some unconventional reasons of our own!