LLB (Hons) — 2024 entry Law

This module will require students to engage and refine key skills developed in the first year of their degree and to apply those skills at a more advanced level. The key skills include legal research (including using digital research tools), case reading, critical thinking and analysis, precision in the use of language, effective and accurate communication, and time management. This course aims to develop a knowledge of the principles of environmental law together with a critical awareness of societal context, legal policy, enforcement and jurisprudential issues which shape this area of law. It will enable students to grasp the key characteristics of environmental law in action. They will be able to handle complex problems of pollution of the environment involving corporate and private interests. The contextual relationship between national environmental law, international law and European Union law will be understood.  They will also have an understanding of the issues for the protection of the environment in developing countries

This module builds upon students’ knowledge gained in year 1 of Criminal Law modules 1 and 2 (LAW1029 and 1030) to explore how the UK sentencing framework follows the principles of sentencing. This module is interdisciplinary in nature, tracing the private and public conceptualisations of sentencing and penal policy (the latter covering prisons and community corrections) through changing legal, political, economic, and social cultures. The magistrates’ court visit will aid and consolidate students’ understanding of the theory and enable the development of practical and employability skills, such as networking with persons in the legal industry and securing a training contract.

Law 2099 examines the development of the law governing armed conflict and several of the most important legal issues surrounding the use of military force today. Through interactive seminars and workshop discussions, we will address the fundamental questions of what justifies using military force, why peacetime rules may not apply in war, and what limits should apply to how military force is used. The module examines the development and application of the law of armed conflict through the UN Charter, Geneva Conventions, jurisprudence of international tribunals, and practice of states. Among the central questions we will consider are: When should international human rights law govern the use of military force? What particular legal issues arise in non-international armed conflicts? What law should govern counterterrorism operations? Law 2099 builds directly off of many Level 4 topics, including those addressed in Public Law 1, Criminal Law, and Tort Law, and also prepares students for further study in international law, human rights law, and law and technology.

Societies, just like individuals, routinely face hard decisions about what they value and hope to achieve. What form of government should they have? How much say should people have in particular government decisions? For that matter, how much say should the government have in particular personal or family decisions? What balance should we strike between competing values such as freedom, equality, prosperity, and safety? Should we punish people who break the law, and if so, how? How should our society behave towards other societies? And what is the role of law in all this?  Any serious attempt to answer questions like these requires engagement with key concepts in social and political philosophy – concepts like authority, democracy, liberty, rights, justice, and equality. In this module, students will carefully study and critically evaluate academic articles that focus on these concepts and the role that they play in controversial social and political debates. Students will also examine legal sources, such as statutes, treaties, and case judgments, that touch on these debates, and will critically evaluate these legal sources in light of the insights they have gleaned from their study of related scholarship. 

Introduction to International Law will provide students with an introductory overview of the international law as a discipline in its historical context and in light of topical, contemporary case studies. The first half of the module will entail a historical narrative of the development of international law, particularly the role of international organisations and the individual in it, in the modern era. The second half of the module will present the interconnectivity of various sub-fields of international law within the prism of engaging and topical case studies in current affairs.  This will be extremely useful for those students who wish to choose other International Law-related modules in Level 6 (Public International Law I, Public International Law II, International Criminal Law, International Human Rights Law) in their studies and for those who wish to undertake an international legal career as a profession.

LAW2084 provides a critical introduction to law and economics.  It explores the distinctive approach of this academic movement and considers normative issues raised by its foundations.  It is one of the Level 5 and Level 6 modules in the Philosophy, Politics, and Law Pathway, introducing a distinctive, systematic basis for deeper critical reflections and discussions about what the law ought to be. It introduces an influential type of analysis relevant to the justification and interpretation of laws and policies. It also hones skills in developing, expressing, and evaluating arguments and digesting complex abstract subjects.    

This module is intended to introduce students to the protection of human rights in Europe, with the focus placed on rights protection under European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Students should develop a strong, critical understanding of the basic doctrinal concepts, develop the ability to critically analyse relevant case law originating from many jurisdictions covered by the ECHR, and engage with scholarly debates relating to the development of rights protection. The module focuses on selected topics and case studies, considering provocative moral, legal and political questions involved. The module also engages with contemporary debates on the legitimacy of the ECHR and its case law, and on the future of the ECHR.

This module is intended to introduce students to legal and policy developments on climate change, with an emphasis on international and regional levels. Students will gain an understanding of the fundamentals of international environmental law, and policy initiatives tackling climate change. Students should develop a strong, critical understanding of the basic doctrinal concepts, develop the ability to critically analyse relevant case law and engage with scholarly debates relating to the development of environmental protection. The module focuses on selected topics and case-studies. It engages with contemporary debates on issues including climate justice, the protection of rights in environmental law, and state action in addressing climate change.

This module is interdisciplinary in nature, tracing the private and public conceptualisations of domestic abuse through changing political, economic, and legal cultures. Domestic abuse has until recently been a largely neglected area of criminal justice research and policy. Yet the last few decades have witnessed significant changes in the attention that politicians and criminal justice officials give toward modifying existing legal structures and crafting new policies designed to address the unique nature of domestic abuse offending and victimisation. The module covers victimisation and perpetration, laws and policies, and criminal justice responses regarding domestic violence. Domestic abuse in the United Kingdom is a focus, yet comparative contexts across the globe and within various cultures are considered as well.

This module examines a number of key aspects of individual and collective employment law. Students build upon the knowledge gained in levels 4 and 5 when considering the legal developments in the common law of contract,  It is designed to provide students with an opportunity for the advanced study of the law governing the employment relationship and labour relations; to understand the legal regulation of working life and assist students to place the key issues of employment law that have shaped the development of law in this area, in their political, economic and social context.  It introduces students to the legal distinction between categories of workers and the significance this has on their individuals’ rights and obligations under the statutory framework. It develops students’ understanding of collective labour law including discussion on the political tensions between governments and unions and the political dimension in the development of laws regulating industrial conflict. The module covers the legal consequences of terminating the contract of employment and will critically assess the law of wrongful, unfair and fair dismissal. Students will also consider the relationship between the employer and employee and the balance of power between these two groups. The module will examine collective labour law, in-particular collective bargaining and industrial conflict. Students will develop their legal writing skills, building on levels 4 and 5 to achieve a deeper level of critical thinking and independent learning.  

Jurisprudence is the theory or philosophy of law: the study of philosophical questions about the nature of law, its relation to morality, what determines its validity and normativity, and theories about its social significance and how it operates. Jurisprudence 1 is a survey of key jurisprudential theories and debates. It seeks to fit within the rest of the LLB syllabus by providing a reasoned and principled basis for discussions regarding the content and purpose of the law. It provides background information useful in arguments over the justification or interpretation of laws and policies. It hones skills in developing, expressing, and evaluating arguments as well as in research and digesting complex abstract subjects. Its practical value for practising lawyers cannot be understated as only lawyers with a theoretical understanding will be able to advise clients and reply to opposing arguments when dealing with areas in which the law is unclear or offers conflicting guidance. The lectures will cover the theoretical content of the course, providing an overview of the theories and the debates among them. The tutorials will be aimed at guiding students through the research and development of an argumentative paper on a more focused subject so that students can then accomplish the same on their summative assessment.

This module looks at key issues in medical law and ethics throughout the life course. It begins by linking law with ethics and explaining the tensions between legal, ethical and professional approaches to healthcare-related issues. In the first two weeks, students consider the underpinning topics of medical ethical principles, the nature of medical law, the legal structure of the NHS and the challenges of healthcare allocation decisions. Students then address the issues of consent, capacity and information, with an in depth study of the Mental Capacity Act and its relevance to treatment decisions by competent adults, adults who lack capacity, adults whose capacity fluctuates and patients under the age of 18. These introductory topics underpin consideration of the topics covered in the second half of the semester. Cases and principles introduced in the first half of the module are connected with the topics covered in the second half of the module. The second half of the module looks at public health, the beginnings of life, definitions of ‘life’ and ‘death’ and at end-of-life decisions. Precise topics reflect current events, new case law and emerging areas of legal, ethical or academic debate. For example, students may consider communicable diseases, conception, contraception, abortion, euthanasia, palliative care and assisted dying. At the end of the module, students are given the opportunity to consolidate their learning and research by applying it to real life cases and created scenarios. Students are encouraged to debate and discuss so that they are exposed to a wide variety of perspectives and have the confidence to challenge their presuppositions.

Tax Law introduces students to basic elements of tax law, explores a number of the most important questions in tax policy, and examines a range of topics in UK tax law. The module provides an overview of various kinds of taxation including income, consumption, inheritance and corporate taxation and explains basic features of the UK system of tax law and tax administration. Topics in tax policy include theories of tax fairness, debates over the tax base and progressive taxation, tax competition and international tax planning, and environmental taxes. UK tax law topics include income from employment, income from trading, income from land, capital allowances, capital gains tax, corporation tax, VAT, inheritance tax, and tax avoidance.

The module explores a practical context for the criminal law concepts introduced in Year 1. It also provides a means for students to consider the practical application of the Human Rights Act (and ECHR) introduced in Public Law 1 at Level 4 (in particular the right to a fair trial). Specifically, the module covers the rules of criminal evidence in the jurisdiction of England and Wales. It examines these in the context of a Not Guilty trial in the Crown Court. It begins by considering the general principles (including theoretical rationales) of admissibility and exclusion of evidence and then each week examines these in light of a particular area of regulation using the applicable statutes, case law and academic opinion. It will be of general interest for the majority of law students but will be particularly valuable for those seeking employment as solicitors and barristers as the matters learned here will stand them in good stead for similar modules when preparing for the Solicitors Qualifying Exam and Bar exams.

Commercial restitution is an intellectually stimulating subject which lies at the intersection of the foundational subjects of private law. It is a recent and swiftly developing area of law, with significant practical relevance. Knowledge of the rules that form the basis of this subject is highly recommended for those who want to pursue careers in commercial law. Unjust enrichment as a cause of action has been recognised by the House of Lords in 1991. However, commercial restitution has been an important concept in English commercial law for much longer. In this course, we explore the legal developments and debates in this lively and commercially very important area of law.

Digital technology influences every aspect of daily life, shaping the way that individuals live, work and socialise but it has a less positive aspect as it has also transformed criminal behaviour. This module considers the dark side of technology and, in doing so, it draws on areas of study familiar to the students (criminal law, public law, criminal justice) whilst introducing a new focus of study by exploring the way in which cyberspace facilitates crime. The module encourages critical engagement with the way in which the law operates in an effort to combat cybercrime and brings together theoretical ideas about the function of law with the practical considerations of the impact of criminal behaviour on society. It also engages with the challenges of preventing online crime and policing the internet. This is set in the context of the domestic, European and international law framework whilst also considering non-legal approaches to regulation. The focus of the module is on the way that people misuse technology. It does not require any particular knowledge or understanding of technology itself over and above that of the everyday computer user.

This module introduces students to the key legal and ethical issues associated with privacy and data governance, as well as to the methods of analysis of those issues used both in law and in ethics. The module makes use of the case study method to introduce students to legal and ethical legal questions through discussion of relevant major incidents from recent years. The module helps students develop their thinking on how to translate abstract ethical reasoning into law and business practice.

This module introduces the students to the key ethical and regulatory issues associated with artificial intelligence, as well as to the methods of analysis of those issues used in ethics and in law. The focus of the module is on the current state of the art in the applications of artificial intelligence (in particular: of machine learning), with smaller emphasis on hypothetical future developments. The module makes use of the case study method to introduce students to ethical and regulatory (legal) questions through discussion of relevant major incidents from recent years. The module helps students develop their thinking on how to translate abstract ethical (and regulatory) requirements of fairness, explainability or privacy into engineering and business practice.

The limited liability company is the business structure which forms the foundation for the modern economy. Since its invention in the nineteenth century, it has provided the legal basis for the Industrial Revolution and the modern global capitalist system. It has been copied in every advanced economy in the world. England and Wales adopted a new statutory foundation for its corporate law in the Companies Act 2006, which is accordingly the main focus for this module. The principles, however, have been developed by statute and common law over more than one hundred and seventy years. In accordance with the design and ethos of the LLB, Company Law will be approached through a critical examination of the historical, political and economic background of the current law and through an emphasis on how Company Law operates in context. The aim of this module, therefore, is to enable students to acquire a sound knowledge base of the theoretical and substantive aspects of company law and to develop a practical understanding of the legal aspects of running public and private limited companies.

The module covers the law relating to the relationships that exist between the seller and buyer located in different jurisdictions in the context of international sales of goods and examines the international conventions, principles and rules that affect their relationship.

The module identifies the main types of intellectual property in terms of their subject matter, conditions for protection, duration and scope of protection and will examine their impact on the protection of creative endeavours. Intellectual property law is a specialised area of law, which is set on international law by way of minimum standards (TRIPS Agreement, Paris and Berne Conventions). The UK IP laws have seen not only international regulation but also extensive harmonisation in EU law (particularly trademark law and to a certain extent copyright law). This area of law grants exclusive rights to reward and/or incentivise creation and innovation in exchange for certain societal benefits (different for specific IP rights: the disclosure of inventions; the publication of works and the correction of market inefficiencies in the case of distinctive signs indicating commercial origin). Intellectual property law is a vibrant and rapidly evolving area of law and the knowledge and skills developed throughout this module will provide a good foundation for further exploration of more specific issues either in an academic or professional setting.

Healthcare delivery is one of the most socially and politically sensitive issues in economically advanced societies, and the controversies which arise when it is defective, and in increasing its effectiveness, are important issues for the law. This module addresses issues where law and medical practice interact which do not necessarily involve the same issues of purely ethical controversy and human rights as in the co-requisite module Medical Law & Ethics. The principal area will be clinical negligence liability and litigation, with the connected problems of causation and risk-warning. The other main area for examination will be the development of medical treatments through biomedical research and experimentation.

The law mediates relations between individuals and the state, but it also mediates individuals’ relations with one another. The criminal law, for instance, intervenes in the relation between wrongdoer and victim by in some sense appropriating the victim’s right of retribution. The law of contract facilitates promissory relations by acting as an enforcer of certain voluntarily undertaken obligations. The law of tort establishes relations of mutual accountability by providing individuals with an avenue of recourse against those who have wronged them. In each of these cases, and in many others, the law transforms the meaning and substance of our interpersonal relations, and often embodies an ideal of what our relations with one another ought to be. This module will consider these legal transformations of our interpersonal relations through engagement with a range of literary, philosophical, and legal texts and materials. We will examine doctrinal and theoretical issues that arise in specific areas of law (including, but not necessarily limited to, the traditional private law subjects) by situating these issues in the context of more general and fundamental questions about the character and proper conduct of interpersonal relations. Throughout, the aim will be to better understand what the law’s role in shaping our interpersonal relations is, and to envision what it could and should be.

This module builds on student’s knowledge gained at levels 4 and 5 concerning the rule of law. The module content and assessment strategy provide students with a theoretical understanding of social justice and welfare issues in the UK, while acknowledging that access to justice is central for the rule of law to operate effectively. It assesses the inadequacies of the legal system resulting from cuts to legal aid and local authority funding to the advice sector. The module examines the challenges of making legal services and the justice system more accessible, including an analysis of the wider social and economic issues impacting on sustainable development. Students will evaluate best practice across the legal and justice sectors, the role of lawyers, and ways in which access to justice can be enhanced. Students will explore whether technology is critical to improving access to law, justice and rights, examining the benefits and obstacles to technology in the justice and legal sector. The module enhances employability since it contains a clinical legal education element, Streetlaw; students design interactive presentations to raise awareness among non-lawyers of legal issues. Students develop legal writing skills, from levels 4 and 5 to achieve a deeper level of critical thinking and independent learning.

This module is an introduction to two of the most important normative and moral questions that one can raise in relation to law and legal systems, and some of the most prominent philosophical attempts at answering them: whether and to what extent there is an obligation to obey the law and whether it is justifiable to punish law-breakers. Examples of the kind of topics that we shall be looking at in this module include the nature of legal obligations, authority and the duty to obey, the nature of (legal) punishment and various philosophical theories for the duty to obey and for the justification of punishment. This module seeks to fit within the rest of the LLB syllabus by providing a reasoned and principled basis for deeper critical reflections and discussions about what the law ought to be, what role it should play in our societies and in our everyday lives more generally, and how we should relate ourselves to it. It provides background information useful in arguments over the justification or interpretation of laws and policies. It also hones skills in developing, expressing, and evaluating arguments as well as in research and digesting complex abstract subjects.

This module provides an overview of financial regulation including regulation of banking, capital markets, consumer finance, and payments. Building on prior knowledge of private and public law, it introduces the regulatory frameworks for each of these areas and the policy considerations that animate regulatory policy. The module also examines the impact of financial regulation on emerging FinTech businesses and considers the ways in which new technology challenges traditional models of financial regulation.

This module explores theoretical, practical and policy issues related to how the criminal law operates in corporate contexts, both crimes perpetrated by individuals (sometimes called "white collar crime") and crimes perpetrated by organisations (corporate crimes). The module places roughly equal emphasis on doctrinal and theoretical issues. We will explore doctrinal issues related to specific offences that are central to this area, such as fraud, regulatory crimes and corporate manslaughter, and we will look at practical issues of how corporations seek to promote employee compliance with such laws. At the same time, we will investigate important theoretical and policy questions related to crime in the corporate context. These include how corporate and regulatory criminal law push traditional boundaries of criminalisation and whether some regulatory offences are so strict as to amount to improperly punishing innocent conduct. We will also explore how it might make sense to punish corporations when they are non-living entities incapable of truly experiencing penalties, as well as doctrinal and policy questions about what the best mechanism for the imposition of corporate liability might be (comparing the identification doctrine to respondeat superior and "failure to prevent" offences). Throughout the module, our focus will be not only on learning about a sampling of representative parts of law, but also (and just as importantly) on casting a critical eye on how criminal law works in corporate settings. We will consider questions about what leads actors to engage in criminal misconduct in corporate contexts, with a particular emphasis on the organisational factors that can pressure or incentivise especially mid- or lower-level employees to break the law. We will explore ways in which large amounts of everyday conduct, the wrongness of which may not always be apparent to actors on the ground, gets deemed to be criminal in corporate settings, and we will debate whether and to what extent this makes sense. In these ways and more, we will seek to cast a critical eye on the criminal law in corporate settings and ask whether and when alternatives to criminal liability might be called for in response to certain forms of misconduct by employees or managers. We will focus primarily on issues and debates relevant to English law, though the US will serve as an important comparison throughout

This module is intended to introduce students to legal and policy developments on climate change, with an emphasis on international and regional levels. Students will gain an understanding of the fundamentals of international environmental law, and policy initiatives tackling climate change. Students should develop a strong, critical understanding of the basic doctrinal concepts, develop the ability to critically analyse relevant case law and engage with scholarly debates relating to the development of environmental protection. The module focuses on selected topics and case-studies. It engages with contemporary debates on issues including climate justice, the protection of rights in environmental law, and state action in addressing climate change.

This module explores the major legal and regulatory issues associated with the development and us use of artificial intelligence and other technologies across various sectors, such as financial, healthcare, transportation, and military sectors. Artificial intelligence is considered as a broad discipline with the goal of creating intelligent machines that emulate and then exceed the full range of human cognition. The module will focus on various subsets of AI, such as generative AI, machine learning, unsupervised learning, and their respected legal, regulatory, and ethical challenges based on real case studies and theoretical literature. In addition to AI, the module will explore the legal and regulatory issues associated with the development and use of autonomy, privacy-preserving technologies, blockchain, and quantum computing. Autonomy is defined as the ability of a system to act independently from a human operator. The module will focus on the application of autonomy in various systems, especially in the context of autonomous weapon systems. Further, privacy preserving technologies are newer technologies such as confidential computing, federated learning, synthetic data, or homomorphic encryption that allow to compute on data while preserving fundamental principles of privacy. This module will explore the application of selected privacy-enhancing technologies in various applications, e.g. the use of federated learning in healthcare to collect and commercialise medical data from hospitals or the use of confidential computing for sensitive data sharing across various organisations. Blockchain is a special type of privacy preserving technology based on a decentralized, distributed, and often public, digital ledger which facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets. The module will explore various governance models of blockchain and their legal implications. Finally, quantum technology is a class of technology that works by using the principles of quantum mechanics to gain a functionality or performance which is otherwise unattainable. The module will discuss the role of law and regulation in the current and future development and application of quantum technologies.

LAW3005 provides students the opportunity to engage in sustained independent research and critical writing in defence of a legal thesis, under the supervision of a member of staff.

This module will require students to engage and refine key skills developed throughout the first two years of their degree and to apply those skills at an advanced level. The key skills include legal research (including using digital research tools), case reading, critical thinking and analyses, precision in the use of language, effective and accurate communication, and time management. This module provides the framework for understanding how the law recognizes and regulates intimate personal relationships and mediates relationships of affinity and consanguinity. Family law provides the legal framework for the establishment and dissolution of marriage and civil partnerships, the imposition of legal consequences within marriage, civil partnerships and cohabitation, the financial implications upon the dissolution of those relationships. Family Law also provides the framework for students to understand how the law defines, regulates and mediates the relationship between parent, child, other persons with a relationship nexus to the child and the State. The concept of a child's welfare being paramount informs and constructs the legal framework for the parenting and regulation of parenting of children and forms the core consideration in the resolution of private and public authority disputes over the upbringing of children. The study of this module will enable students to critically assess the purpose of family law and the extent to which laws should regulate and influence adult interpersonal relationships and the parent-child relationship. Students will also gain significant practical insight into how to identify and resolve potential legal problems that may arise during professional family law practice. Real world examples and contemporary trends in family demographics are explored to encourage students to relate practically to the module content and to emphasise the relevance to lived experience.

This module will require students to engage and refine key skills developed in the first year of their degree and to apply those skills at a more advanced level. The key skills include legal research (including using digital research tools), case reading, critical thinking and analysis, precision in the use of language, effective and accurate communication, and time management. This course aims to develop a knowledge of the principles of environmental law together with a critical awareness of societal context, legal policy, enforcement and jurisprudential issues which shape this area of law. It will enable students to grasp the key characteristics of environmental law in action. They will be able to handle complex problems of pollution of the environment involving corporate and private interests. The contextual relationship between national environmental law, international law and European Union law will be understood.  They will also have an understanding of the issues for the protection of the environment in developing countries

This module builds upon students’ knowledge gained in year 1 of Criminal Law modules 1 and 2 (LAW1029 and 1030) to explore how the UK sentencing framework follows the principles of sentencing. This module is interdisciplinary in nature, tracing the private and public conceptualisations of sentencing and penal policy (the latter covering prisons and community corrections) through changing legal, political, economic, and social cultures. The magistrates’ court visit will aid and consolidate students’ understanding of the theory and enable the development of practical and employability skills, such as networking with persons in the legal industry and securing a training contract.

Law 2099 examines the development of the law governing armed conflict and several of the most important legal issues surrounding the use of military force today. Through interactive seminars and workshop discussions, we will address the fundamental questions of what justifies using military force, why peacetime rules may not apply in war, and what limits should apply to how military force is used. The module examines the development and application of the law of armed conflict through the UN Charter, Geneva Conventions, jurisprudence of international tribunals, and practice of states. Among the central questions we will consider are: When should international human rights law govern the use of military force? What particular legal issues arise in non-international armed conflicts? What law should govern counterterrorism operations? Law 2099 builds directly off of many Level 4 topics, including those addressed in Public Law 1, Criminal Law, and Tort Law, and also prepares students for further study in international law, human rights law, and law and technology.

Societies, just like individuals, routinely face hard decisions about what they value and hope to achieve. What form of government should they have? How much say should people have in particular government decisions? For that matter, how much say should the government have in particular personal or family decisions? What balance should we strike between competing values such as freedom, equality, prosperity, and safety? Should we punish people who break the law, and if so, how? How should our society behave towards other societies? And what is the role of law in all this?  Any serious attempt to answer questions like these requires engagement with key concepts in social and political philosophy – concepts like authority, democracy, liberty, rights, justice, and equality. In this module, students will carefully study and critically evaluate academic articles that focus on these concepts and the role that they play in controversial social and political debates. Students will also examine legal sources, such as statutes, treaties, and case judgments, that touch on these debates, and will critically evaluate these legal sources in light of the insights they have gleaned from their study of related scholarship. 

Introduction to International Law will provide students with an introductory overview of the international law as a discipline in its historical context and in light of topical, contemporary case studies. The first half of the module will entail a historical narrative of the development of international law, particularly the role of international organisations and the individual in it, in the modern era. The second half of the module will present the interconnectivity of various sub-fields of international law within the prism of engaging and topical case studies in current affairs.  This will be extremely useful for those students who wish to choose other International Law-related modules in Level 6 (Public International Law I, Public International Law II, International Criminal Law, International Human Rights Law) in their studies and for those who wish to undertake an international legal career as a profession.

LAW2084 provides a critical introduction to law and economics.  It explores the distinctive approach of this academic movement and considers normative issues raised by its foundations.  It is one of the Level 5 and Level 6 modules in the Philosophy, Politics, and Law Pathway, introducing a distinctive, systematic basis for deeper critical reflections and discussions about what the law ought to be. It introduces an influential type of analysis relevant to the justification and interpretation of laws and policies. It also hones skills in developing, expressing, and evaluating arguments and digesting complex abstract subjects.    

This module is intended to introduce students to the protection of human rights in Europe, with the focus placed on rights protection under European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Students should develop a strong, critical understanding of the basic doctrinal concepts, develop the ability to critically analyse relevant case law originating from many jurisdictions covered by the ECHR, and engage with scholarly debates relating to the development of rights protection. The module focuses on selected topics and case studies, considering provocative moral, legal and political questions involved. The module also engages with contemporary debates on the legitimacy of the ECHR and its case law, and on the future of the ECHR.

This module is intended to introduce students to legal and policy developments on climate change, with an emphasis on international and regional levels. Students will gain an understanding of the fundamentals of international environmental law, and policy initiatives tackling climate change. Students should develop a strong, critical understanding of the basic doctrinal concepts, develop the ability to critically analyse relevant case law and engage with scholarly debates relating to the development of environmental protection. The module focuses on selected topics and case-studies. It engages with contemporary debates on issues including climate justice, the protection of rights in environmental law, and state action in addressing climate change.

This module is interdisciplinary in nature, tracing the private and public conceptualisations of domestic abuse through changing political, economic, and legal cultures. Domestic abuse has until recently been a largely neglected area of criminal justice research and policy. Yet the last few decades have witnessed significant changes in the attention that politicians and criminal justice officials give toward modifying existing legal structures and crafting new policies designed to address the unique nature of domestic abuse offending and victimisation. The module covers victimisation and perpetration, laws and policies, and criminal justice responses regarding domestic violence. Domestic abuse in the United Kingdom is a focus, yet comparative contexts across the globe and within various cultures are considered as well.

This module examines a number of key aspects of individual and collective employment law. Students build upon the knowledge gained in levels 4 and 5 when considering the legal developments in the common law of contract,  It is designed to provide students with an opportunity for the advanced study of the law governing the employment relationship and labour relations; to understand the legal regulation of working life and assist students to place the key issues of employment law that have shaped the development of law in this area, in their political, economic and social context.  It introduces students to the legal distinction between categories of workers and the significance this has on their individuals’ rights and obligations under the statutory framework. It develops students’ understanding of collective labour law including discussion on the political tensions between governments and unions and the political dimension in the development of laws regulating industrial conflict. The module covers the legal consequences of terminating the contract of employment and will critically assess the law of wrongful, unfair and fair dismissal. Students will also consider the relationship between the employer and employee and the balance of power between these two groups. The module will examine collective labour law, in-particular collective bargaining and industrial conflict. Students will develop their legal writing skills, building on levels 4 and 5 to achieve a deeper level of critical thinking and independent learning.  

Jurisprudence is the theory or philosophy of law: the study of philosophical questions about the nature of law, its relation to morality, what determines its validity and normativity, and theories about its social significance and how it operates. Jurisprudence 1 is a survey of key jurisprudential theories and debates. It seeks to fit within the rest of the LLB syllabus by providing a reasoned and principled basis for discussions regarding the content and purpose of the law. It provides background information useful in arguments over the justification or interpretation of laws and policies. It hones skills in developing, expressing, and evaluating arguments as well as in research and digesting complex abstract subjects. Its practical value for practising lawyers cannot be understated as only lawyers with a theoretical understanding will be able to advise clients and reply to opposing arguments when dealing with areas in which the law is unclear or offers conflicting guidance. The lectures will cover the theoretical content of the course, providing an overview of the theories and the debates among them. The tutorials will be aimed at guiding students through the research and development of an argumentative paper on a more focused subject so that students can then accomplish the same on their summative assessment.

This module looks at key issues in medical law and ethics throughout the life course. It begins by linking law with ethics and explaining the tensions between legal, ethical and professional approaches to healthcare-related issues. In the first two weeks, students consider the underpinning topics of medical ethical principles, the nature of medical law, the legal structure of the NHS and the challenges of healthcare allocation decisions. Students then address the issues of consent, capacity and information, with an in depth study of the Mental Capacity Act and its relevance to treatment decisions by competent adults, adults who lack capacity, adults whose capacity fluctuates and patients under the age of 18. These introductory topics underpin consideration of the topics covered in the second half of the semester. Cases and principles introduced in the first half of the module are connected with the topics covered in the second half of the module. The second half of the module looks at public health, the beginnings of life, definitions of ‘life’ and ‘death’ and at end-of-life decisions. Precise topics reflect current events, new case law and emerging areas of legal, ethical or academic debate. For example, students may consider communicable diseases, conception, contraception, abortion, euthanasia, palliative care and assisted dying. At the end of the module, students are given the opportunity to consolidate their learning and research by applying it to real life cases and created scenarios. Students are encouraged to debate and discuss so that they are exposed to a wide variety of perspectives and have the confidence to challenge their presuppositions.

Tax Law introduces students to basic elements of tax law, explores a number of the most important questions in tax policy, and examines a range of topics in UK tax law. The module provides an overview of various kinds of taxation including income, consumption, inheritance and corporate taxation and explains basic features of the UK system of tax law and tax administration. Topics in tax policy include theories of tax fairness, debates over the tax base and progressive taxation, tax competition and international tax planning, and environmental taxes. UK tax law topics include income from employment, income from trading, income from land, capital allowances, capital gains tax, corporation tax, VAT, inheritance tax, and tax avoidance.

The module explores a practical context for the criminal law concepts introduced in Year 1. It also provides a means for students to consider the practical application of the Human Rights Act (and ECHR) introduced in Public Law 1 at Level 4 (in particular the right to a fair trial). Specifically, the module covers the rules of criminal evidence in the jurisdiction of England and Wales. It examines these in the context of a Not Guilty trial in the Crown Court. It begins by considering the general principles (including theoretical rationales) of admissibility and exclusion of evidence and then each week examines these in light of a particular area of regulation using the applicable statutes, case law and academic opinion. It will be of general interest for the majority of law students but will be particularly valuable for those seeking employment as solicitors and barristers as the matters learned here will stand them in good stead for similar modules when preparing for the Solicitors Qualifying Exam and Bar exams.

Commercial restitution is an intellectually stimulating subject which lies at the intersection of the foundational subjects of private law. It is a recent and swiftly developing area of law, with significant practical relevance. Knowledge of the rules that form the basis of this subject is highly recommended for those who want to pursue careers in commercial law. Unjust enrichment as a cause of action has been recognised by the House of Lords in 1991. However, commercial restitution has been an important concept in English commercial law for much longer. In this course, we explore the legal developments and debates in this lively and commercially very important area of law.

Digital technology influences every aspect of daily life, shaping the way that individuals live, work and socialise but it has a less positive aspect as it has also transformed criminal behaviour. This module considers the dark side of technology and, in doing so, it draws on areas of study familiar to the students (criminal law, public law, criminal justice) whilst introducing a new focus of study by exploring the way in which cyberspace facilitates crime. The module encourages critical engagement with the way in which the law operates in an effort to combat cybercrime and brings together theoretical ideas about the function of law with the practical considerations of the impact of criminal behaviour on society. It also engages with the challenges of preventing online crime and policing the internet. This is set in the context of the domestic, European and international law framework whilst also considering non-legal approaches to regulation. The focus of the module is on the way that people misuse technology. It does not require any particular knowledge or understanding of technology itself over and above that of the everyday computer user.

This module introduces students to the key legal and ethical issues associated with privacy and data governance, as well as to the methods of analysis of those issues used both in law and in ethics. The module makes use of the case study method to introduce students to legal and ethical legal questions through discussion of relevant major incidents from recent years. The module helps students develop their thinking on how to translate abstract ethical reasoning into law and business practice.

This module introduces the students to the key ethical and regulatory issues associated with artificial intelligence, as well as to the methods of analysis of those issues used in ethics and in law. The focus of the module is on the current state of the art in the applications of artificial intelligence (in particular: of machine learning), with smaller emphasis on hypothetical future developments. The module makes use of the case study method to introduce students to ethical and regulatory (legal) questions through discussion of relevant major incidents from recent years. The module helps students develop their thinking on how to translate abstract ethical (and regulatory) requirements of fairness, explainability or privacy into engineering and business practice.

The limited liability company is the business structure which forms the foundation for the modern economy. Since its invention in the nineteenth century, it has provided the legal basis for the Industrial Revolution and the modern global capitalist system. It has been copied in every advanced economy in the world. England and Wales adopted a new statutory foundation for its corporate law in the Companies Act 2006, which is accordingly the main focus for this module. The principles, however, have been developed by statute and common law over more than one hundred and seventy years. In accordance with the design and ethos of the LLB, Company Law will be approached through a critical examination of the historical, political and economic background of the current law and through an emphasis on how Company Law operates in context. The aim of this module, therefore, is to enable students to acquire a sound knowledge base of the theoretical and substantive aspects of company law and to develop a practical understanding of the legal aspects of running public and private limited companies.

The module covers the law relating to the relationships that exist between the seller and buyer located in different jurisdictions in the context of international sales of goods and examines the international conventions, principles and rules that affect their relationship.

The module identifies the main types of intellectual property in terms of their subject matter, conditions for protection, duration and scope of protection and will examine their impact on the protection of creative endeavours. Intellectual property law is a specialised area of law, which is set on international law by way of minimum standards (TRIPS Agreement, Paris and Berne Conventions). The UK IP laws have seen not only international regulation but also extensive harmonisation in EU law (particularly trademark law and to a certain extent copyright law). This area of law grants exclusive rights to reward and/or incentivise creation and innovation in exchange for certain societal benefits (different for specific IP rights: the disclosure of inventions; the publication of works and the correction of market inefficiencies in the case of distinctive signs indicating commercial origin). Intellectual property law is a vibrant and rapidly evolving area of law and the knowledge and skills developed throughout this module will provide a good foundation for further exploration of more specific issues either in an academic or professional setting.

Healthcare delivery is one of the most socially and politically sensitive issues in economically advanced societies, and the controversies which arise when it is defective, and in increasing its effectiveness, are important issues for the law. This module addresses issues where law and medical practice interact which do not necessarily involve the same issues of purely ethical controversy and human rights as in the co-requisite module Medical Law & Ethics. The principal area will be clinical negligence liability and litigation, with the connected problems of causation and risk-warning. The other main area for examination will be the development of medical treatments through biomedical research and experimentation.

The law mediates relations between individuals and the state, but it also mediates individuals’ relations with one another. The criminal law, for instance, intervenes in the relation between wrongdoer and victim by in some sense appropriating the victim’s right of retribution. The law of contract facilitates promissory relations by acting as an enforcer of certain voluntarily undertaken obligations. The law of tort establishes relations of mutual accountability by providing individuals with an avenue of recourse against those who have wronged them. In each of these cases, and in many others, the law transforms the meaning and substance of our interpersonal relations, and often embodies an ideal of what our relations with one another ought to be. This module will consider these legal transformations of our interpersonal relations through engagement with a range of literary, philosophical, and legal texts and materials. We will examine doctrinal and theoretical issues that arise in specific areas of law (including, but not necessarily limited to, the traditional private law subjects) by situating these issues in the context of more general and fundamental questions about the character and proper conduct of interpersonal relations. Throughout, the aim will be to better understand what the law’s role in shaping our interpersonal relations is, and to envision what it could and should be.

This module builds on student’s knowledge gained at levels 4 and 5 concerning the rule of law. The module content and assessment strategy provide students with a theoretical understanding of social justice and welfare issues in the UK, while acknowledging that access to justice is central for the rule of law to operate effectively. It assesses the inadequacies of the legal system resulting from cuts to legal aid and local authority funding to the advice sector. The module examines the challenges of making legal services and the justice system more accessible, including an analysis of the wider social and economic issues impacting on sustainable development. Students will evaluate best practice across the legal and justice sectors, the role of lawyers, and ways in which access to justice can be enhanced. Students will explore whether technology is critical to improving access to law, justice and rights, examining the benefits and obstacles to technology in the justice and legal sector. The module enhances employability since it contains a clinical legal education element, Streetlaw; students design interactive presentations to raise awareness among non-lawyers of legal issues. Students develop legal writing skills, from levels 4 and 5 to achieve a deeper level of critical thinking and independent learning.

This module is an introduction to two of the most important normative and moral questions that one can raise in relation to law and legal systems, and some of the most prominent philosophical attempts at answering them: whether and to what extent there is an obligation to obey the law and whether it is justifiable to punish law-breakers. Examples of the kind of topics that we shall be looking at in this module include the nature of legal obligations, authority and the duty to obey, the nature of (legal) punishment and various philosophical theories for the duty to obey and for the justification of punishment. This module seeks to fit within the rest of the LLB syllabus by providing a reasoned and principled basis for deeper critical reflections and discussions about what the law ought to be, what role it should play in our societies and in our everyday lives more generally, and how we should relate ourselves to it. It provides background information useful in arguments over the justification or interpretation of laws and policies. It also hones skills in developing, expressing, and evaluating arguments as well as in research and digesting complex abstract subjects.

This module provides an overview of financial regulation including regulation of banking, capital markets, consumer finance, and payments. Building on prior knowledge of private and public law, it introduces the regulatory frameworks for each of these areas and the policy considerations that animate regulatory policy. The module also examines the impact of financial regulation on emerging FinTech businesses and considers the ways in which new technology challenges traditional models of financial regulation.

This module explores theoretical, practical and policy issues related to how the criminal law operates in corporate contexts, both crimes perpetrated by individuals (sometimes called "white collar crime") and crimes perpetrated by organisations (corporate crimes). The module places roughly equal emphasis on doctrinal and theoretical issues. We will explore doctrinal issues related to specific offences that are central to this area, such as fraud, regulatory crimes and corporate manslaughter, and we will look at practical issues of how corporations seek to promote employee compliance with such laws. At the same time, we will investigate important theoretical and policy questions related to crime in the corporate context. These include how corporate and regulatory criminal law push traditional boundaries of criminalisation and whether some regulatory offences are so strict as to amount to improperly punishing innocent conduct. We will also explore how it might make sense to punish corporations when they are non-living entities incapable of truly experiencing penalties, as well as doctrinal and policy questions about what the best mechanism for the imposition of corporate liability might be (comparing the identification doctrine to respondeat superior and "failure to prevent" offences). Throughout the module, our focus will be not only on learning about a sampling of representative parts of law, but also (and just as importantly) on casting a critical eye on how criminal law works in corporate settings. We will consider questions about what leads actors to engage in criminal misconduct in corporate contexts, with a particular emphasis on the organisational factors that can pressure or incentivise especially mid- or lower-level employees to break the law. We will explore ways in which large amounts of everyday conduct, the wrongness of which may not always be apparent to actors on the ground, gets deemed to be criminal in corporate settings, and we will debate whether and to what extent this makes sense. In these ways and more, we will seek to cast a critical eye on the criminal law in corporate settings and ask whether and when alternatives to criminal liability might be called for in response to certain forms of misconduct by employees or managers. We will focus primarily on issues and debates relevant to English law, though the US will serve as an important comparison throughout

This module is intended to introduce students to legal and policy developments on climate change, with an emphasis on international and regional levels. Students will gain an understanding of the fundamentals of international environmental law, and policy initiatives tackling climate change. Students should develop a strong, critical understanding of the basic doctrinal concepts, develop the ability to critically analyse relevant case law and engage with scholarly debates relating to the development of environmental protection. The module focuses on selected topics and case-studies. It engages with contemporary debates on issues including climate justice, the protection of rights in environmental law, and state action in addressing climate change.

This module explores the major legal and regulatory issues associated with the development and us use of artificial intelligence and other technologies across various sectors, such as financial, healthcare, transportation, and military sectors. Artificial intelligence is considered as a broad discipline with the goal of creating intelligent machines that emulate and then exceed the full range of human cognition. The module will focus on various subsets of AI, such as generative AI, machine learning, unsupervised learning, and their respected legal, regulatory, and ethical challenges based on real case studies and theoretical literature. In addition to AI, the module will explore the legal and regulatory issues associated with the development and use of autonomy, privacy-preserving technologies, blockchain, and quantum computing. Autonomy is defined as the ability of a system to act independently from a human operator. The module will focus on the application of autonomy in various systems, especially in the context of autonomous weapon systems. Further, privacy preserving technologies are newer technologies such as confidential computing, federated learning, synthetic data, or homomorphic encryption that allow to compute on data while preserving fundamental principles of privacy. This module will explore the application of selected privacy-enhancing technologies in various applications, e.g. the use of federated learning in healthcare to collect and commercialise medical data from hospitals or the use of confidential computing for sensitive data sharing across various organisations. Blockchain is a special type of privacy preserving technology based on a decentralized, distributed, and often public, digital ledger which facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets. The module will explore various governance models of blockchain and their legal implications. Finally, quantum technology is a class of technology that works by using the principles of quantum mechanics to gain a functionality or performance which is otherwise unattainable. The module will discuss the role of law and regulation in the current and future development and application of quantum technologies.

LAW3005 provides students the opportunity to engage in sustained independent research and critical writing in defence of a legal thesis, under the supervision of a member of staff.

This module will require students to engage and refine key skills developed throughout the first two years of their degree and to apply those skills at an advanced level. The key skills include legal research (including using digital research tools), case reading, critical thinking and analyses, precision in the use of language, effective and accurate communication, and time management. This module provides the framework for understanding how the law recognizes and regulates intimate personal relationships and mediates relationships of affinity and consanguinity. Family law provides the legal framework for the establishment and dissolution of marriage and civil partnerships, the imposition of legal consequences within marriage, civil partnerships and cohabitation, the financial implications upon the dissolution of those relationships. Family Law also provides the framework for students to understand how the law defines, regulates and mediates the relationship between parent, child, other persons with a relationship nexus to the child and the State. The concept of a child's welfare being paramount informs and constructs the legal framework for the parenting and regulation of parenting of children and forms the core consideration in the resolution of private and public authority disputes over the upbringing of children. The study of this module will enable students to critically assess the purpose of family law and the extent to which laws should regulate and influence adult interpersonal relationships and the parent-child relationship. Students will also gain significant practical insight into how to identify and resolve potential legal problems that may arise during professional family law practice. Real world examples and contemporary trends in family demographics are explored to encourage students to relate practically to the module content and to emphasise the relevance to lived experience.