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Visitors to the Faculty

The Faculty has an established procedure for granting visiting scholar status for academic visitors who hold a post at another institution. If an individual wishes to be a visiting scholar at the Faculty, an academic member of the Faculty must propose that individual and confirm that she or he knows the visitor personally and is familiar with the proposed visitor’s academic work. (In the case of applications for visitor status that are made via Faculty Centres that operates formal visitor schemes, the proposal is made by the Director of the Centre acting in that capacity, and there is no need for the Centre Director to know the visitor personally provided that the Centre’s Management Committee supports the request.) If a member of the Faculty (or a Centre) wishes to support the request, the visitor will be asked to complete an application form. In addition to the application form, the visitor will be asked to submit a CV and a brief description of the work they intend to pursue at Cambridge.

Nominations for Faculty visitor status are then put to the Faculty Board for consideration and a maximum of 12 Faculty visitors are permitted at any given time because of space constraints. The Faculty Board expects that academic members of the Faculty, other than those acting in their capacity as Director of a Centre, will not normally propose more than one academic visitor per academic year. Priority correspondingly is given to nominations made by Faculty Members who are not already sponsoring a visitor in the academic year concerned. If approved by the Faculty Board, visitors are given access to the Squire Law Library, as well as to the computing facilities, and access to the Faculty’s Senior Common Room (SCR) and the hot-desks area outside of it.

The Faculty member who put the nomination to the Faculty Board acts as the visitor’s first point of contact at the Faculty, and must be available to help the visitor familiarise her/himself with the Faculty building. (In the case of visitors who are sponsored by Centres, this responsibility falls to the Director of the relevant Centre or to a member of the Centre nominated by the Director.) Unfortunately, the Faculty cannot provide research support or supervision, or provide assistance in finding accommodation for the visitor.

The Faculty will only be able to accept visitors under the sponsorship of a Faculty member. The Faculty does not accept speculative applications for visitor status.

Cost

A bench fee of £175 per month or part month is charged to visitors.

Full payment must be made in advance of arrival in Cambridge. This can be done online.

Timing

Applications may be submitted at any time and are welcome both during and out of term time. Visitors are normally limited to 2 visits within a 4-year period.

Applications to visit the Faculty are normally limited to a maximum of 6 months for those who require visas. Where visas are not required, applications to visit the Faculty for a period of longer than 6 months will require the sponsoring member of the Faculty to make a specific case. Such long stays will not be permitted if there is limited space in the Faculty.

All enquiries or correspondence relating to Faculty visitors should be sent to visit@law.cam.ac.uk.

Visitors to the Squire Law Library

Academic visitors

Academic visitors can request access just to the Squire Law Library. Under these circumstances no bench fee is payable. Applications should be made in advance to the Squire Law Librarian, Mr David Wills via the Library’s email address: squire@law.cam.ac.uk

Visitors should indicate the dates of their stay.

Academic visitors to the Squire Law Library are also required to apply for a Library Card. Cards are issued by the Reader Registration Office at the main University Library in Cambridge. Details concerning the procedure to apply for a Library Card can be found on the University Library’s webpage.

With regard to these arrangements for academic visitors to the Library, it is not possible to allocate specific desk space in the library and access to the Senior Common Room is not permitted.

PhD visitors

Requests to visit the Squire Law Library can be made by research students working at PhD level. Applications for access to the Library’s resources should be made in writing to the Squire Law Librarian (squire@law.cam.ac.uk). Applications from research students to visit the library should include details of the dates of the proposed visit and should also be supported by a letter from the student’s PhD supervisor at the student’s home university.

Research students at PhD level are also required to apply for a Library Card. Cards are issued by the Reader Registration Office at the main University Library. The Library Card entitles visitors to use the University Library as well as, by arrangement, some other libraries at the University of Cambridge including the Squire Law Library. Details concerning the procedure to apply for a Library Card can be found on the University Library’s webpage.

Visiting PhD students to the Squire Law Library need to be entirely self-sufficient in terms of their research activity and also regarding their financial and accommodation arrangements while in Cambridge. It should also be noted that academic staff at the Faculty of Law are not in a position to provide supervisions to, and are not obliged to meet with, visiting students and researchers who are permitted to use the Squire Law Library.

Other visitors to the Library

Taught Masters students, and undergraduate students at other UK universities, wishing to use the Squire Law Library during vacation periods only are required to contact the Squire Law Librarian for permission to use the Library and then, if permission is granted, to apply for a University Library card following the University Library procedure. It is not usual for sixth form students to be granted permission to use the Squire Law Library.

All other visitors who wish to visit the Squire Law Library may write to the Squire Law Librarian (squire@law.cam.ac.uk) to request access. It should be noted that it may not always be possible to grant permission to use the Library.