The MLitt in Legal and Constitutional Studies began to be offered in 2016. Over the next 10 months we will be publishing blog posts by a student from each of the ten classes, starting with Cinnamon Ducasse from the 2016-2017 cohort.
Ten years ago, I had the pleasure of joining the first cohort of MLitt Legal & Constitutional Studies students at St Andrews. I had visited the windswept town once, in summer, and didn’t need much persuading that this would be a scenic enough location for an intense year of studying law from various unusual angles. It was, in fact, the latter which really drew me to the course – the opportunity to approach a practical subject, normally confined within the framework of technical ‘training’, as a key dimension of social reality, past and present. As an undergraduate, I had studied Arts & Humanities, added on modules in all kinds of subjects, and generally followed a thematic interest in law and politics through various departments. The MLitt allowed me to develop this into what I have come to call a ‘research practice’, by giving me both a fundamental education in approaches to law and in legal history, and by supporting me to experiment with my own method. By connecting each of us with the relevant experts, the course allowed us to specialise, but by keeping us in constant exchange with each other, we learned to communicate expertise. No two students shared the same specialism, and that kept it interesting.
I specialised in ancient Roman law. Pursuing this further, I completed a PhD thesis on Roman property law in early Christian contexts, which I am now developing into a monograph. As a postdoctoral fellow in Germany, I now work together with historians, classicists, sociologists, economists and jurists on an interdisciplinary research project examining property arrangements. I have the MLitt to thank for having both something of my own to contribute, and so much to gain through meaningful exchange with my colleagues. Happy Birthday, MLitt Legal & Constitutional Studies.
~ Dr. Cinnamon Ducasse