What does the SQE1 Legal System section actually test?

Legal system of England and Wales, constitutional and administrative law, and EU law. The SRA assessment specification breaks Legal System into 6 topics, each examined through single-best-answer (SBA) questions in the FLK1 paper.

Is Legal System part of FLK1 or FLK2?

Legal System sits in FLK1. From January 2027 the FLK1 paper is 170 single-best-answer questions (180 until July 2026), sat as two sessions of 85 questions, 2 hours 33 minutes each, on the same day.

How many topics are in Legal System?

6. Our notes, flashcards, and question bank are mapped one-to-one against the SRA's LS specification so nothing is missed.

How long should I spend on Legal System?

Most candidates allocate roughly 18–30 hours across notes, flashcards, and timed practice. The exact split depends on your background — re-sitters can usually focus on weak topics rather than re-reading.

What is the best way to revise Legal System?

Active recall beats re-reading. Read the notes once, then practise SBA questions in mixed order, then revisit weak topics. Our weak-area tracker surfaces the topics where your accuracy is below 70%.

Are these Legal System SQE notes free?

The notes preview on this page and the sample topics are free, and the first chapter of the Legal System study guide downloads free as a PDF and EPUB. The complete notes for all 6 topics come with lifetime access to the platform, and the whole subject is also available as a £9.99 study guide.

Are the Legal System notes updated for the January 2027 specification?

Yes. The SRA's updated SQE1 specification applies from the January 2027 sitting, and the notes, questions and flashcards were revised against it in July 2026. Updates are included at no extra cost.

What is the difference between these notes and the Legal System study guide?

Same content, two formats. The platform gives you the notes alongside the LS question bank, flashcards and mock exams with progress tracking. The study guide is the Legal System notes as a book, PDF and EPUB with a paperback edition, with worked questions and flashcards in every chapter, for £9.99.

Can I practise Legal System questions without paying?

Yes. The free readiness quiz includes a sample from every subject, and free accounts can access sample questions across all subjects. The full LS question bank is unlocked with a one-time lifetime purchase and is covered by the 14-day money-back guarantee.

LSFLK1 · 6 topics

Legal System SQE notes.

Legal system of England and Wales, constitutional and administrative law, and EU law. Below: a preview of the notes, all 6 topics, sample questions with worked explanations, and the first chapter of the Legal System study guide to download free, all mapped to the SRA’s FLK1 specification.

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Free sample chapter

The first chapter of the Legal System study guide, with five worked questions, as a PDF and EPUB. The full guide is £9.99 on its own, and every subject is included with lifetime access.

From the notes

Topic 01: Courts and the Judiciary

How the Legal System notes read. Every one of the 6 topics is written the same way: the rule, the trap the examiners set, and a worked question.

Before you can advise a client on anything, you need to understand where disputes actually get resolved. The court structure in England and Wales isn't just academic — it determines which judge hears the case, what procedures apply, and where you can appeal if things go wrong.

King's Bench Division (KBD) — the largest division. Handles contract, tort, personal injury, and judicial review. Also includes specialist courts like the Commercial Court and the Technology and Construction Court. (It was the Queen's Bench Division until September 2022, renamed on the accession of King Charles III.)
Chancery Division — deals with property, trusts, wills, company law, insolvency, and intellectual property. Think of it as the 'money and property' division.
Family Division — handles complex family matters including divorce, children's welfare, and medical treatment disputes involving minors.

Why This Matters for SQE: The SQE loves testing whether you know which court hears which type of case. Get the court hierarchy clear in your head early — it underpins everything from procedure to appeals to precedent.

Full notes for all 6 topics are included with lifetime access, or as the Legal System study guide (£9.99).

All 6 topics in Legal System

SRA-aligned

01
Courts and the Judiciary
Court hierarchy, jurisdiction, judicial roles, and legal personnel
Free
02
Doctrine of Precedent
Stare decisis, ratio decidendi, binding and persuasive authority, and how precedent operates in the court hierarchy
03
Primary Legislation
Parliamentary sovereignty, the legislative process, delegated legislation, EU retained law, and the Human Rights Act 1998
04
Statutory Interpretation
Rules and approaches to interpreting statutes, aids to interpretation, and presumptions
05
Judicial Review
The supervisory jurisdiction of the High Court: which decisions can be challenged, standing, time limits, procedure, the four grounds of review, and remedies
06
Constitutional Foundations
The Crown and central government, constitutional conventions, the royal prerogative and its control by the courts, parliamentary privilege, and public order law

Try before you buy

4 sample LS questions

Real SBA questions from the Legal System bank, with the full explanation. The paid bank covers all 6 topics and difficulty levels.

A woman paid a builder £9,000 to refit her bathroom. He stripped out the old fittings, took the money and never came back. A second builder has quoted £8,500 to finish the work properly, and she also wants the £150 of pay she lost while waiting at home for the first builder to arrive. Nobody has been injured. The dispute is about what the two of them agreed and what was actually done, and a trial is expected to take half a day. The woman has been told that anything to do with building work is treated as a complex case, and she is afraid of having to pay the builder's legal costs if she loses.

Is the woman's claim likely to be allocated to the small claims track?

Yes, because the claim is worth less than £10,000 and no injury is claimed. Correct
Yes, because the claim is worth less than £25,000 and the claimant is an individual.
No, because the sum claimed exceeds the £5,000 limit for contract claims.
No, because a dispute about building work is allocated to the multi-track as complex.
No, because a claim of this size is allocated to the fast track.

Why: The correct answer is A. The small claims track is the normal track for a claim worth no more than £10,000, provided it is not a claim for personal injury, where the limit is lower. The woman claims £8,650 in all, no injury is alleged, the issues are the ordinary ones of what was agreed and what was done, and the trial will be short — so the claim belongs on the small claims track, where costs recovery is limited and the risk she is worried about is small. B is incorrect because £25,000 marks the top of the fast track, not the small claims limit, and it makes no difference whether the claimant is an individual or a business. C is incorrect because there is no £5,000 limit for contract claims; £5,000 is the limit for a personal injury claim arising from a road traffic accident. D is incorrect because a claim can be allocated to a higher track if it is genuinely complex, but the subject matter of building work does not by itself make it so. E is incorrect because the fast track begins where the small claims track ends, at £10,000.

A woman has been dismissed from a job she had held for four years, for misconduct she says she was never told about. She was given no meeting before the decision was taken, and she was not paid the four weeks' notice her contract required. She wants the dismissal declared unfair and she wants compensation. She has no savings, cannot afford to instruct a solicitor for a hearing, and a neighbour has told her that she will have to pay her former employer's legal bill if she loses.

Is an employment tribunal the more appropriate forum for the woman's claims?

Yes, because it specialises in such claims and rarely orders a losing party to pay costs. Correct
Yes, because a party who loses a claim in a tribunal can never be ordered to pay costs.
No, because a claim of this kind has to be brought in the County Court.
No, because she could not present a claim to a tribunal without being represented.
No, because a tribunal can order her employer to take her back but cannot award compensation.

Why: The correct answer is A. Employment tribunals are specialist bodies: an employment judge, sitting alone or with lay members drawn from employer and employee backgrounds, hears claims of this kind. They are quicker and less formal than the courts, parties commonly appear without representation, and a costs order against a losing party is exceptional rather than the norm — so the neighbour's warning is misplaced. Unfair dismissal is a statutory claim under the Employment Rights Act 1996 which is brought in the tribunal, and the tribunal can also deal with her claim for the notice pay owed under her contract, because that claim arises on the termination of her employment. B is incorrect because a costs order can be made, for example where a party has acted vexatiously or unreasonably or has brought a claim with no reasonable prospect of success, so the protection is not absolute. C is incorrect because a complaint of unfair dismissal is presented to an employment tribunal; the County Court hears contractual claims such as wrongful dismissal, but it cannot decide whether a dismissal was unfair. D is incorrect because there is no requirement to be represented before a tribunal, and the informality that allows a claimant to present her own case is one of its advantages. E is incorrect because reinstatement and re-engagement are available but rare; compensation, made up of a basic award and a compensatory award, is the usual remedy.

A man's house purchase was handled from start to finish by a chartered legal executive. He has since discovered that she knew for three weeks that the seller had withdrawn and said nothing, leaving him to give notice on his rented flat and pay for a removal van. He has complained to her firm, which replied that she had done nothing wrong, and he now wants her conduct investigated by whoever is responsible for disciplining her. A neighbour tells him that anyone doing conveyancing answers to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

To which body should the man direct his complaint about her conduct?

The Solicitors Regulation Authority, because it regulates everyone who carries out conveyancing work.
The Law Society, because it is the professional body to which all lawyers belong.
The Bar Standards Board, because it regulates lawyers who have not qualified as solicitors.
The Legal Services Board, because it handles complaints about the conduct of individual lawyers.
CILEx Regulation, because it is the regulator of chartered legal executives. Correct

Why: The correct answer is E. Each branch of the profession has its own regulator: the Solicitors Regulation Authority regulates solicitors, the Bar Standards Board regulates barristers, and CILEx Regulation regulates chartered legal executives. A complaint about the conduct of a chartered legal executive therefore goes to CILEx Regulation, whatever kind of work she happened to be doing. (Had the complaint been about the standard of service rather than her professional conduct, it would go first to the firm and then to the Legal Ombudsman.) A is incorrect because the Solicitors Regulation Authority regulates solicitors and the firms it authorises; the type of work being done does not decide who the regulator is. B is incorrect because the Law Society is the professional body that represents solicitors rather than a regulator, and it does not represent legal executives at all. C is incorrect because the Bar Standards Board regulates barristers only. D is incorrect because the Legal Services Board is the oversight regulator: it supervises the approved regulators and does not investigate complaints about individual lawyers.

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