The Cambridge University Law Society (also known as "CULS" or "LawSoc") is the educational and representative body of undergraduate law students at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. Founded in 1901, and with an estimated 2,000 active members, it is the largest

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

student-led

law society A law society is an association of lawyers with a regulatory role that includes the right to supervise the training, qualifications, and conduct of lawyers. Where there is a distinction between barristers and solicitors, solicitors are regulated ...

and among the largest student-run law societies in the world. It founded the

Cambridge Law Journal ''The Cambridge Law Journal'' is a peer-reviewed academic law journal, and the principal academic publication of the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge. It is published by Cambridge University Press, and is the longest established university ...

as a student publication in 1921, today the longest-running university law journal in the

and the principal publication of the

Faculty of Law, Cambridge The Faculty of Law, Cambridge is the law school of the University of Cambridge. The study of law at the University of Cambridge began in the thirteenth century. The faculty sits the oldest law professorship in the English-speaking world, the ...

. It is known for its ''Speakers'' events featuring prominent lawyers, politicians and legal celebrities. It also publishes the ''Cambridge Law Review'' and organises the annual University of Cambridge Law

Ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but can sometimes be ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used f ...

, one of the University's most prominent events outside

May Week May Week is the name used in the University of Cambridge to refer to a period at the end of the academic year. Originally May Week took place in the week during May before year-end exams began. Nowadays, May Week takes place in June after exam ...

. It is one of the wealthiest societies at the

History

CULS was established in January 1901 by the

as an educational body of law students. It had a small membership in its earlier years, and was dormant during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1920, it was given increased attention by then

Downing Professor of the Laws of England The Downing Professorship of the Laws of England is one of the senior professorships in law at the University of Cambridge. The chair was founded in 1800 as a bequest of Sir George Downing, the founder of Downing College, Cambridge. The profe ...

Harold Hazeltine, who delivered its inaugural address. Through the connections of the Faculty, CULS hosted prominent legal figures in the 1920s, including

Joseph Henry Beale Joseph Henry Beale (October 12, 1861 – January 20, 1943) was an American law professor at Harvard Law School and served as the first dean of University of Chicago Law School. He was notable for his advancement of legal formalism, as well ...

Roscoe Pound Nathan Roscoe Pound (October 27, 1870 – June 30, 1964) was an American legal scholar and educator. He served as Dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law from 1903 to 1911 and Dean of Harvard Law School from 1916 to 1936. He was a membe ...

Travers Humphreys Sir Richard Somers Travers Christmas Humphreys (4 August 1867 – 20 February 1956) was a noted British barrister and judge who, during a sixty-year legal career, was involved in the cases of Oscar Wilde and the murderers Hawley Harvey Crippen, ...

, and

William Buckland William Buckland Doctor of Divinity, DD, Royal Society, FRS (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian who became Dean of Westminster. He was also a geologist and paleontology, palaeontologist. Buckland wrote the first full ...

. These addresses were academic in nature, and were frequently reproduced in the

. CULS also increased its engagement with other

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

societies, including through debates. By 1977, CULS was the third-largest society by memberships in the

Structure and organisation

Membership

Membership is open to all members of the

. Elected positions are restricted to members of the Society who are

undergraduates Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...

at the

. The Society is led by an executive committee, which appoints non-executive committees and sub-committees. The President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary are elected officers of the Society, and there are 9 mandatory appointments to the non-Executive Committee.

Law Ball

The Cambridge University Law Society organises the annual Law Ball, one of the University's most prominent balls outside

. The location of the ball is traditionally kept secret until the guests arrive. Guests are given a meeting point and subsequently transported to the venue. These balls are partially sponsored by law firms, and tend to be elaborately themed. Past headliners have included

Tinchy Stryder Kwasi Esono Danquah III ( ; born 14 September 1986), known by the stage name Tinchy Stryder, is a Ghanaian British, Ghanaian-British rapper, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and investor. Stryder has released three solo (music), solo studio al ...

The Hoosiers ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

, and S Club 3.

''Per Incuriam'' Magazine

The Society's official termly magazine, ''Per Incuriam'', features content by students as well as notable academics and professionals. Notable past contributors include

John Laws Richard John Sinclair Laws CBE (born 8 August 1935) is a Papua New Guinean-born Australian radio announcer. For 50 years, until 2007, he was the host of an Australian morning radio program combining music with interviews, opinion, live adverti ...

Simon Deakin Simon Deakin (born 26 March 1961) is Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, Cambridge, and a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He is regarded as the leading expert in the field of employment law and labour law and is the programme director in ...

, and David Feldman.

Cambridge Law Journal

In 1921, the Cambridge University Law Society founded the

as a student publication. As it gained recognition for quality, its management was taken over by the

Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge The Faculty of Law, Cambridge is the law school of the University of Cambridge. The study of law at the University of Cambridge began in the thirteenth century. The faculty sits the oldest law professorship in the English-speaking world, the ...

. Today, the

is the longest-running university law journal in the

and the principal publication of the

. It is edited by Professor John Bell. In 2003, The Cambridge Law Review was founded as a successor student-run academic journal.

Honorary Presidents

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Cyril Salmon, Baron Salmon Cyril Barnet Salmon, Baron Salmon PC (28 December 1903 – 7 November 1991) was a British judge. Early life and career Cyril Barnet Salmon was the son of Montagu Salmon (1878-1943), tobacco merchant, and Marian Nina Trevor, née Abrahams, h ...

, , 1975 , , 1991 , - , {{SortKey, Oliver,

Peter Oliver, Baron Oliver of Aylmerton Peter Raymond Oliver, Baron Oliver of Aylmerton, PC (7 March 1921 – 17 October 2007) was a British judge and barrister. Oliver was born in Cambridge, where his father, David Thomas Oliver, was a professor of law and fellow of Trinity Hall ...

, , 1991 , , 2007 , - , {{SortKey, Mustill,

Michael Mustill, Baron Mustill Michael John Mustill, Baron Mustill, PC, FBA (10 May 1931 – 24 April 2015) was an English barrister and judge. He was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1992 to 1997. Life and career The son of Clement William and Marion Mustill, he was e ...

, , 2007 , , 2015 , - , {{SortKey, Hale,

Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond Brenda Marjorie Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, (born 31 January 1945) is a British judge who served as President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom from 2017 until her retirement in 2020, and serves as a member of the House of Lords ...

, , 2015 , , Present

Notable visitors, lecturers and speakers

– former

Dean of Harvard Law School The dean of Harvard Law School is the head of Harvard Law School. The current dean is John F. Manning, the 13th person to hold the post, who succeeded Martha Minow in 2017. List of deans of Harvard Law School Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School ...

– former

Royall Royall may refer to: ;Surname * Isaac Royall, Jr. (1719–1781), American landowner, gave land for Harvard Law School * Anne Royall (1769–1854), travel writer and newspaper editor * William B. Royall (1825–1895), US Army general * J. Powell ...

Professor of Law at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

and inaugural

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

Chicago Law School (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Alfred Denning Alfred Thompson "Tom" Denning, Baron Denning (23 January 1899 – 5 March 1999) was an English lawyer and judge. He was called to the bar of England and Wales in 1923 and became a King's Counsel in 1938. Denning became a judge in 1944 when ...

– former

Lord of Appeal in Ordinary Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were judges appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the British House of Lords, as a committee of the House, effectively to exercise the judicial functions of the House of ...

and

Master of the Rolls The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the President of the Court of Appeal (England and Wales)#Civil Division, Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales a ...

{{cite journal , last1=Wilson , first1=Hilary , title=The University Law Society , journal=The Cambridge Law Journal , date=1973 , volume=32 , issue=1 , pages=175–176 , doi=10.1017/S0008197300090486 , jstor=4505665 , s2cid=146391410 {{cite journal , last1=Hill , first1=T. P. J. , title=Cambridge University Law Society 1985-86 , journal=The Cambridge Law Journal , date=1986 , volume=45 , issue=3 , pages=542–544 , doi=10.1017/S0008197300118690 , jstor=4506955 , s2cid=146268227 * Cyril Salmon – former

{{cite journal , last1=Jackson , first1=A. P. , title=Cambridge University Law Society 1979-80 , journal=The Cambridge Law Journal , date=1980 , volume=39 , issue=2 , pages=407–408 , doi=10.1017/S0008197300096264 , jstor=4506309 , s2cid=144491002 * Brenda Hale –

President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom The President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is equivalent to the now-defunct position of Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, also known as the Senior Law Lord, who was the highest ranking among the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary (the ju ...

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from El ...

Elizabeth Butler-Sloss Ann Elizabeth Oldfield Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss, GBE, PC (''née'' Havers; born 10 August 1933), is a retired English judge. She was the first female Lord Justice of Appeal and was the highest-ranking female judge in the United King ...

, GBE – first female

Lord Justice of Appeal A Lord Justice of Appeal or Lady Justice of Appeal is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the court that hears appeals from the High Court of Justice, the Crown Court and other courts and tribunals. A Lord (or Lady) Justice ...

Igor Judge Igor Judge, Baron Judge, (born 19 May 1941) is an English former judge who served as the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the head of the judiciary, from 2008 to 2013. He was previously President of the Queen's Bench Division, at the ...

– former

Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

Robert Megarry Sir Robert Edgar Megarry, PC, FBA (1 June 1910 – 11 October 2006) was an eminent British lawyer and judge. Originally a solicitor, he requalified as a barrister and also pursued a parallel career as a legal academic. He later became a High ...

– former

Vice-Chancellor of the Supreme Court The Chancellor of the High Court is the head of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. This judge and the other two heads of divisions (Family and Queens Bench) sit by virtue of their offices often, as and when ...

Enoch Powell John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

– former British

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental health. Coun ...

, politician, classical scholar, philologist, and poet * Robert Alexander, QC – British barrister, banker and

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

politician *

– British

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

Martin Nourse Sir Martin Charles Nourse (3 April 1932 – 28 November 2017) was a Lord Justice of Appeal of England and Wales, who served as Vice-President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales from 2003 until his retirement from the ...

– former

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

* George Baker –

President of the Family Division The President of the Family Division is the head of the Family Division of the High Court of Justice in England and Wales and Head of Family Justice. The Family Division was created in 1971 when Admiralty and contentious probate cases were remove ...

of the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cou ...

* Anthony Clarke – former

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

of the

United Kingdom Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (initialism: UKSC or the acronym: SCOTUK) is the final court of appeal in the United Kingdom for all civil cases, and for criminal cases originating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As the United ...

Conor Gearty Conor A. Gearty (born November 1957) is the Professor of Human Rights Law at LSE Department of Law. From 2002 to 2009, he was Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the London School of Economics. His academic research focuses p ...

– Professor of Human Rights at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

Robert Winston Robert Maurice Lipson Winston, Baron Winston, (born 15 July 1940) is a British professor, medical doctor, scientist, television presenter and Labour Party politician. Early life Robert Winston was born in London to Laurence Winston and Rut ...

– British professor, medical doctor, scientist, television presenter and Labour Party politician * John Alderson,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

– former Chief Constable for Devon and Cornwall and expert on police and penal affairs. * William Hughes – Labour Party politician *

Raymond Blackburn Albert Raymond Blackburn (11 March 1915 – 3 November 1991) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for the Birmingham King's Norton and Birmingham Northfield constituencies. Early life Blackburn was born on ...

– Labour Party politician * Hilel Neuer – Executive Director of

UN Watch UN Watch is a Geneva-based non-governmental organization whose stated mission is "to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter". It is an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic a ...

* Hugh Tomlinson KC - British barrister and founding member of

Matrix Chambers Matrix Chambers is a barristers' chambers in Gray's Inn London, Brussels, and Geneva. Founded in April 2000 by 22 barristers from 7 different chambers, it now has over 90 independent and specialist lawyers who work throughout the UK and interna ...

References

{{reflist Clubs and societies of the University of Cambridge Legal education in the United Kingdom 1901 establishments in England