Law BA Honours

Course content

What will you study on the BA Law?

In your first year you will explore legal research skills and take part in a moot. In Year 2 you will take three compulsory modules that explore civil and criminal liability, equality and the European single market. You can also choose from optional modules in: Consumers and the Law, Human Rights, and Jurisprudence. In Year 3 you will tailor your studies towards your career interests and select from a range of options to gain specialist knowledge in areas such as employment law or immigration.

What will you gain?

You will become confident in analysing and managing large quantities of complex information from both printed and electronic sources, and learn to construct clear and well-reasoned legal arguments.

Modules

This module aims to enable you to develop an understanding of the English legal system and how it works in order to provide a foundation for the further study of law. You will examine the nature and function of legal institutions and the role of the legal profession within the English legal system and explore the provision of legal services and methods of alternative dispute resolution. You will become familiar with, and be able to use, legal skills and knowledge in respect of issues and problems involving the English legal system.

This module aims to broaden and expand your understanding of the common law system, legal reasoning, case analysis, the judicial hierarchy, handling precedents and statutory interpretation. After studying this module, you will comprehend the basic principles and debates underpinning the position of the courts in the UK constitution, appreciate how to read a case, and be able to pick out its material facts and ratio, as well as distinguish this from obiter dicta and develop an understanding of the different rules and approaches that courts use to interpret statutes. The module will also provide you with a grounding in legal ethics so as to instil a basic understanding of a lawyer's duties toward their clients and the court.

This module aims to provide you with a sound knowledge and understanding of the law of contract, focusing on the main principles, cases and statutory provisions relevant to contract law. This will act as a firm foundation for subsequent law modules as well as for postgraduate and professional study after the programme. The module also aims to develop your competence in the analysis and solution of legal problems, develop your legal research skills and recognise the relationship between the law of contract and other areas of English and European law. This is a core module and is a requirement of the professional bodies.

This module aims to examine general principles relating to the UK Constitution and the organisation and powers of the State. You will gain an awareness of the law and practice relating to the control of the Administration of the UK State and will consider the law relating to Human Rights and aspects of Civil Liberties in the UK. This is a core module and is a requirement of the professional bodies.

This module will explore issues relating to criminal liability including the purpose, structure and organisation of the criminal justice system and theories of punishment. It will focus on the knowledge and understanding of negligence and its relationship with other areas of law. You will be encouraged to explore the relevant philosophical, ethical and social context within which both these areas of law operate.

This module will explore general issues relating to equality and discrimination, branching out into specific individual areas of inequalities. You will focus on these issues from a legal, ethical, social, political and economic perspective. You will gain the ideal preparation for Year 3 modules such as Employment Law.

This module aims to provide you with a firm grounding in the EU legal framework within which business operates, and to improve your research and presentation skills. It also aims to enhance your awareness of the ethical dimension of the EU Single Market in which persons are not only regarded as factors of production, but as EU citizens with family ties and a cultural background.

This module aims to examine the general principles underlying the legal protection given to consumers under both the civil and the criminal law and the many ways those principles are applied. You will also gain knowledge of areas of central importance in consumer protection and will be encouraged to explore the relevant social and business context within which the law operates. A key purpose of the module is training in writing, presentation and research.

This module aims to explore human rights in an international, historical and comparative perspective. You will be introduced to the rationale for this body of law and to major themes in international human rights jurisprudence. Special attention will be paid to the European Convention of Human Rights and its impact in the United Kingdom, in particular issues arising from the incorporation of the European regime through the Human Rights Act. In addition, the seminars and lectures will address specific human rights to provide you with in depth analysis of the application of human rights to factual scenarios. The course is designed to maximise your career potential, providing an insight into the extent to which universally protected values, articulated as legal claims impact domestic jurisdictions. The course also seeks to critically evaluate those values, their universal validity, and their implementation at regional level with the view of broadening your knowledge of law and to become sensitive to other values and normative regimes.

This module aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to a range of legal theorists and jurisprudential schools of thought ranging from the work of the ancient Greeks through to postmodernism. You will be provided with an overview of the central thinking of various philosophers and will examine both the historical and cultural context within which these theories were developed and their relevance to the legal issues of our own time. Throughout the module, you will consider law’s relationship to questions of power, violence, ethics and justice.

This module aims to provide you with a sound knowledge and understanding of the law governing companies and other business organisations in the United Kingdom. Comparisons are drawn between the laws underpinning the various business organisations/relationships and their different purposes are evaluated. A framework of basic principles of company law is provided, with some detail of how these principles are worked out in practice. The module will further aim to perfect legal reasoning and logic, legal synthesis, analysis and problem solving skills; to enhance research skills and the use of primary source material and to enable you to bring this together with previously learned legal principles.

This module aims to give you the knowledge and understanding on the principles of public international law. You will be extend your ability to evaluate and analyse legal issues in the international context, often dealing with topical concerns. This might include debates over the legality of the use of armed force, the protection of the environment, or the extent of individual responsibility for war crimes.

This module aims to provide you with the knowledge and understanding of the principles of Child and Family Law in order to enable you to extend your ability to evaluate and analyse the development of both the legal and policy framework regulating child and adult relationships. The module will explore the tensions arising from the use of state intervention in the sphere of the family with regard to issues of privacy, autonomy and welfare. Having taken this module, you will have not only an appreciation of key areas of law and procedure affecting children and adults but also be sensitive to the complexities of the wider social issues raised.

This module will provide the knowledge and understanding of employment law and aims to deepens your appreciation of how legal principles encountered in other law modules can be applied to these areas. A critical appreciation of employment law will be encouraged and you will be enabled to place the subject in the context of both your working and non-working lives. Upon successful completion of this module, you will have an understanding of the role of law in regulating the employment relationship and stopping discrimination.

This module aims to provide an understanding of the legal structures and the regulation of immigration control, nationality law and asylum in the UK. The module will place legal controls in their historical, social and political context and will require you to demonstrate in-depth understanding of the inter-relationship of the various legal mechanisms.

This module aims to provide an understanding of the legal structures and the regulation of immigration control, nationality law and asylum in the UK. The module will place legal controls in their historical, social and political context and will require you to demonstrate in-depth understanding of the inter-relationship of the various legal mechanisms.

This module aims to engage you in an active investigation of the practical rules and abstract principles underlying the operation of the Law of Evidence in criminal and civil trials. The module will enable you to subject the law of criminal and civil evidence to critical examination and will thus contribute to the shaping of your own value system. It builds on your knowledge of the substantive law by placing it in the context of trial practice. A key purpose of the module is training in advanced level writing, argument, analysis and legal research.

This module aims to provide undergraduate law students with the skills necessary to undertake research into a specialised area of legal study selected by you, building on the skills of legal research introduced in the first two years of the programme.

You can find more information about this course in the programme specification. Optional modules are usually available at levels 5 and 6, although optional modules are not offered on every course. Where optional modules are available, you will be asked to make your choice during the previous academic year. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, or there are staffing changes which affect the teaching, it may not be offered. If an optional module will not run, we will advise you after the module selection period when numbers are confirmed, or at the earliest time that the programme team make the decision not to run the module, and help you choose an alternative module.