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‘Delicate Oxford flower’ takes down top criminal barrister

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Second year Oxford University law student details flaws in 30 years and counting barrister’s argument and signs off with a kiss

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A feisty law student has called out the top criminal law barrister who suggested that Oxford law students are too “delicate” to study law.

Matthew Scott — a crime specialist at Pump Court Chambers — made his controversial comments over the weekend in response to a newspaper reporting that Oxford law students are given trigger warnings before learning about sensitive legal issues. An anonymous student at the Russell Group university told the Mail on Sunday that, before lectures on sexual offences, students “were warned that the content could be distressing, and were then given the opportunity to leave if [they] needed to.”

Clearly riled by the news, Scott took to social media to label the students as “delicate Oxford flowers” — and one undergrad is not very happy about it.

In a strong worded piece that featured in The Tab yesterday afternoon, Giorgia Litwin claims the use of discretionary trigger warnings is an important step towards understanding and recognising the mental health needs of students, and this should be celebrated. The aspiring lawyer explained that pre-warning students allows:

[P]eople to make a choice for themselves about what they’re comfortable with and where they want to deal with it.

Moreover, suggesting that students should be able to anticipate lecture content — the disgruntled student vented — is “stupid”. She explained:

Yes, sexual offences lectures are going to discuss sexual offences. But as one student pointed out, when you’re going to a lecture on economic loss, you wouldn’t generally anticipate half of it being dedicated to the Hillsborough tragedy.

To round off her scathing attack, Litwin — who is currently in the second year of her studies at St Catherine’s College — claims that she knows “several” highly intelligent law students who would “very much appreciate” trigger warnings in lectures, and that these people are “well-fitted to their choice of degree and future career”. Her article is then signed off with:

Lots of love, a delicate flower x

Shots fired.

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