Bachelor of Civil Law (abbreviated ‘BCL’ or ‘B.C.L.’) is the name of various degrees in law conferred by English-language universities. Historically, it originated as a postgraduate degree in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, but many universities now offer the BCL as an undergraduate degree. Reference to civil law was not originally in contradistinction to common law, but to canon law, although it is true that common law was not taught in the civil law faculties in either university until at least the second half of the 18th century. However, some universities in English-speaking countries use the degree in the former sense.
Famous quotes containing the words bachelor of, bachelor, civil and/or law:
“Shall I never see a bachelor of threescore again?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“A Bachelor of Arts is one who makes love to a lot of women, and yet has the art to remain a bachelor.”
—Helen Rowland (1875–1950)
“The cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one, or even one hundred defeats.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Lawyers are necessary in a community. Some of you ... take a different view; but as I am a member of that legal profession, or was at one time, and have only lost standing in it to become a politician, I still retain the pride of the profession. And I still insist that it is the law and the lawyer that make popular government under a written constitution and written statutes possible.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)