Editors’ Introduction

It brings us great pleasure to introduce the inaugural edition of the Oxford Undergraduate Law & Policy Review. The Review replaces the Verdict blog as the Oxford Law Society’s platform for academic legal writing, and we are delighted to publish so many strong submissions to mark the Review’s very first edition.

The impetus for a fresh undergraduate law journal at Oxford formed in Trinity Term 2025. Freed from the Law Moderations – humbled but not daunted – we set out in search of a platform where we might explore legal ideas that had germinated in our minds over the past two terms, but could not be properly ventilated within the confines of the syllabus. We quickly learnt, however, that the landscape for undergraduate legal writing had fractured into two poles. On the one hand were blogs that were largely casual, or geared towards ‘bite-sized’ analysis. On the other hand were journals with inscrutable standards that even an intrepid law student might find discouraging. We thus decided to plant our flag somewhere between the two. The result was a journal for law students that would be credible and rigorous, but also accessible to the gutsy undergraduate willing to take a punt on a promising idea.

The quality of the submissions that we received far exceeded our expectations. Some articles probed gaps in the law’s reasoning and evaluated whether the law could be placed on a more principled footing. Philip Kimber, for instance, lucidly analyses the element of unreasonable risk-taking in criminal recklessness. He brilliantly proposes that we might subsume the defence of consent into a richer conception of reasonableness. Emily Yu meticulously compares self-defence under English and Chinese criminal law, and outlines a fascinating middle ground.

Other contributions were more oriented to policy issues. To this end, Zara Cherry brings the Review into the territory of labour law and protections for professional athletes. Her analysis is careful, creative, and sensitive. She charts a viable path forward to more effectively protect professional athletes. Justin Wu and Giulia Cancellaro examine intellectual property issues. Justin asks whether reverse settlement payments to ward off challenges to patent validity might be anti-competitive, and offers a rigorous analysis of the US Supreme Court’s decision in Actavis. Giulia considers how an effective balance might be struck between the protection of intellectual property rights and public health objectives in the context of the TRIPS Agreement. It makes for a fascinating read.

Collectively, this set of articles reflects the essential ambition of the Review: to enliven doctrinal legal analysis with policy questions, as the boundaries between the two grow increasingly porous.

This inaugural edition concludes with a feature article on military law by Mark Hull. Mark was a professor of international criminal law and military law at the US Army Command and General Staff College and is now studying for DPhil in History at St Antony’s College. Mark focuses on recent events in the US and considers the erosion of legal norms in military combat.

Finally, we would like to express our appreciation to those without whom the Review would not have been possible. In particular, we are profoundly grateful to Lord Justice Dingemans, Senior President of Tribunals, who so generously agreed to review the student articles and contributed a very thoughtful foreword for this inaugural edition. Second, Geng Heqin, the outgoing editor of the Verdict blog who worked closely with us to transform Verdict. Third, Agastya Rao, the Hilary Term 2026 President of the Oxford Law Society, who has been unstinting in his support for the Review.

Next, 3 Hare Court, who very generously sponsored the 3 Hare Court Oxford Undergraduate Law & Policy Review Prize for the best submission. Lastly, we would like to thank all the authors, whose dedication and willingness to collaborate with us made the Oxford Undergraduate Law & Policy Review a reality. Thank you very much.

Founding Editors and Editors-in-Chief