SQE1 Legal Authorities

In the majority of circumstances, you are not required to know or be able to use specific legal authorities. This includes statutory provisions, case law, or procedural rules. However, you will need to be aware of legal principles deriving from common law and statute.

There may be occasions where the Assessment Specification does identify a specific legal authority (such as Rylands v Fletcher in Tort Law). In these cases, you will be required to know the name of that case, the principles established by that case, and how to apply those principles to the facts of an MCQ. These circumstances are clearly highlighted in the Assessment Specification.

Understanding the historical development of legal principles may be beneficial for context, but there is no requirement to prepare for questions relating to the development of the law (eg in Criminal Law, candidates need not be aware of the development from objective to subjective recklessness). SQE1 will test your knowledge of the law at the date of the assessment.

Students preparing for SQE1 do not need to focus on critical evaluation of the law, or proposed reforms to the law.

The Revise SQE Table of Legal Authorities in each book identifies the legal authorities you are required to know for the purpose of the SQE1 Functioning Legal Knowledge assessments

Click here to view or download the full list of legal Authorities required for SQE1 along with their corresponding chapters in the Revise SQE books.