<p>Is it possible to study for a short amount of time (1 year) the history of the common law anywhere (like at Oxford) with only a BA on your shoulders?</p>
<p>Look for an MA program. They are generally only a year long in the UK. An MPhil is usually 2 years. MA is coursework and short thesis, MPhil is long thesis. Anyway, you want to look for a program that offers those types of course within their MA program. I can’t speak to the availability. Otherwise, if you’re interested in doing two years, you could do an MPhil on the history of common law - since you don’t have to take courses, you have more topic flexibility. You just need a faculty member that studies common law or similar to supervise.</p>
<p>Here in the US, MA programs are two years for history or poli sci (apart from a few poli sci that wouldn’t be applicable).</p>
<p>A little digging gave me this:
[LL.M/M.A</a>. in History of Law & Society - Postgraduate Study at Lancaster University Law School](<a href=“http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/law/prospective/postgrad/llmhist.htm]LL.M/M.A”>http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/law/prospective/postgrad/llmhist.htm)
[MA</a> by Research at the School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London](<a href=“http://www.law.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/maresearch/]MA”>http://www.law.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/maresearch/)
[School</a> of History, Classics and Archaeology: Dr Caroline Humfress](<a href=“http://www.bbk.ac.uk/hca/staff/carolinehumfress]School”>Staff in the School of Historical Studies — Birkbeck, University of London)
[School</a> of History](<a href=“http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/staff/johnhudson.html]School”>http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/staff/johnhudson.html)</p>
<p>There’s a couple possible programs here, plus a couple professors who seem to study this. You can investigate their programs further, and/or you can contact them for other ideas. Good luck!</p>
<p>I thought an MPhil was only 1 year? And how would I look further into the possibility of studying such a speicific topic?</p>
<p>The length of an MPhil is largely dependent on the program. Some have it as one year, some two.</p>
<p>In order to find out where to take an MPhil for the history of common law, you need to find professors who study that or something similar. Look at faculty pages at universities. Utilize Google. Look at journal articles or books that deal with this, and look up the authors.</p>
<p>This is the part where you have to do your research!</p>