Doctor of Civil Law is a degree offered by some universities, such as the University of Oxford, instead of the more common Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degrees.
At Oxford, the degree of Doctor of Civil Law by Diploma is customarily conferred on foreign Heads of State, as well as on the Chancellor of the University. (The British Sovereign is unable to receive university degrees, since these would, theoretically, place her under the jurisdiction of the Chancellor of the university. Prior to her accession, the present Queen did accept several honorary degrees, including an Oxford DCL in 1948).
The degree is a higher doctorate usually awarded on the basis of exceptionally insightful and distinctive publications that contain significant and original contributions to the study of law or politics in general. The degree of Doctor of Canon Law was replaced by the DCL after the Reformation.
The DCL is senior to all degrees save the Doctor of Divinity which was traditionally the highest degree bestowed by the Universities.
In some other universities, the DCL is an honorary degree.
The following other higher institutions also grant DCL:
- University of Durham, United Kingdom
- University of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
- University of Kent, Kent, United Kingdom
- McGill University Faculty of Law, Montreal, Quebec Canada
- Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
- Pontifical Lateran University, Rome
- Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
- Yale University School of Law
Famous quotes containing the words doctor of, doctor, civil and/or law:
“You are not a doctor of dentistry! You are a doctor of segregation!”
—Annie Elizabeth Delany (b. 1891)
“The doctor punched my vein
The captain called me Cain
Upon my belly sat the sow of fear”
—Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)
“Over thy wounds now do I prophesy
...
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men,
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The law before us, my lords, seems to be the effect of that practice of which it is intended likewise to be the cause, and to be dictated by the liquor of which it so effectually promotes the use; for surely it never before was conceived by any man entrusted with the administration of public affairs, to raise taxes by the destruction of the people.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)