Law with Politics

Core Modules

Year 1

You will take the following modules in Law:

• Public Law (Constitutional, Administrative and Human Rights Law)

  Constitutions establish and control the powers of the state and regulate the relationship between the state and its citizens. This module examines the UK’s uncodified constitution, primarily considering the main characteristics of the British system of government, including the division of powers between the legislature, executive, and judiciary and between Westminster and the devolved regions; key constitutional concepts and their associated challenges, including Parliamentary sovereignty, conventions, the rule of law, and human rights protection before and after the Human Rights Act 1998; and how administrative law, particularly judicial review, controls the actions of the government and public authorities.

• The Law of Contract

  Contracts form the legal basis of commercial transactions. This module examines the legalities regarding the formation of contracts, the capacity to contract and the performance of legal obligations as well as remedies for breach of contract. In particular, you will examine the following areas: introduction to contract; invitation to treat; offer and acceptance; consideration; Promissory Estoppel; intentions to create legal relations; implied terms; express terms; exemption clauses; unfair contract terms; mistakes; types of misrepresentation; misrepresentation and remedies; duress; undue influence; frustration and force majeure; breach of contract and remedies; and third-party rights.

• English Legal System

  This module serves as an intensive introduction to the fundamentals of the legal system and legal study. It explores elements of the historical, philosophical and social context of the English Legal Systems, including issues of law, morality and justice. Additionally, various sources of law, including at national and international level, and through treaties, statute and case law will also be studied.

• Professional and Legal Skills

  This module focuses on employability by involving students in practical skills sessions such as mooting, client interviewing, and negotiation. It is designed to develop core professional competencies that are required by the legal and non-legal professions.

• Introduction to Politics and Government

  This module will introduce you to the academic study of politics and to the ‘real world’ of contemporary politics. As a foundational course, it will give you all the essential tools to understand the nature of politics and analyse the way different political systems work. You will be introduced to key concepts such as politics, power, rights, ideologies, democracy and representation, and will learn about the different actors, institutions and processes that make up politics today.

Year 2

• Land Law

  This module examines the various types of interests which can exist in land, including the rights and duties under these interests, how they can be protected against third parties acquiring other interests in the land, and how they can be transferred. In particular, you will examine fundamental concepts; contracts relating to land; adverse possession; leases and licences; mortgages; co-ownership and the family home; freehold covenants; easements; and protection of interests in land (both registered and unregistered).

• Law of Tort

  This module provides you with an introduction to the law of tort, focusing on general principles of tort liability in the law governing reputation and misuse of private information, negligence, intentional interference with the person and the law of nuisance. Specifically, you will develop an understanding in the following areas: the function and purpose of the law of tort; an introduction to the law of negligence and its importance in the law of tort; an examination of the duty of care and its breach including how is it manifests in specific torts such as employers liability, vicarious liability, occupiers liability, economic loss and psychiatric injury; an examination of the remaining aspects of negligence such as causation and remoteness; general defences; defamation and misuse of private information; trespass to the person including harassment; and finally, interference with property rights and enjoyment in the form of nuisance and the rule in Rylands v Fletcher.

• Criminal Law

  In this module you will develop an understanding of the general nature of criminal law and learn how to apply the general principles of criminal liability, including the liability of accomplices. You will look at the elements of an offence and the various requirements for actus reus and mens rea, considering how they apply to various offences against the person or property. You will examine selected principal offences against the person, including fatal and non-fatal offences involving physical violence such as assaults and those involving sexual violence. You will also asses selected principal property offences, including theft, burglary, robbery and deception, and the inchoate offences and the liability of accomplices.

Year 3

• European Union Law

  This module examines the role of the European Union (EU) in the free movement of peoples, goods, services and capital. You will explore the legal enforcement of treaties on which the Union is based, with a consideration of both national and international systems. You will examine these treaties and the various EU institutions created under them (and incorporated into domestic law), examining their legal and policy-making powers. In particular, you will look at the laws and functions of the EU Institutions including the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Council and the Court of Justice of the EU, and explore how free movement works across national borders and how the law of the EU is enforced.

• Equity and the Law of Trusts

  In this module you will examine equity and its relationship with the common law. You will explore the concept of a trust and the laws associated with governing the creation and administration of trusts. You will explore the development of equity historically and explain how purpose trusts operate. You will look at how charitable trusts are created and consider the duties of trustees. You will consider the nature and scope of fiduciary obligations and consider when those obligations might be breached and the consequences of such. You will also consider particular types of trusts, including secret trusts, resulting and constructive trusts.

Optional Modules

Below is a taster of some of the exciting optional modules that students on the course could choose from during this academic year. Please be aware these do change over time, and optional modules may be withdrawn or new ones added.

Year 1

• All modules are core

Year 2

• Understanding the European Union: Politics and Theory

  In this module you will analyse the contemporary politics of the European Union and its institutions, amid the challenges of the triple crisis of economics, migration and Brexit. You will learn about the political history of European integration after 1949 and the contemporary theory of European integration. The first term will begin with an introduction to the European Union as a political system followed by an overview of the European Union's historical development. The second term will focus on contestation of the European Union and the theories that underpin this, in order to explain how the EU developed and the challenges that it faces. Topics will include Euroscepticism, party politics, public opinion, Brexit and EU-UK relations, and European Parliament elections. The theory sessions comprise of federalism, neo-functionalism, liberal intergovernmentalism and the new institutionalisms.

• Democracy in Britain

  Democracy in Britain explores the theory and practice of modern British politics. It’s designed primarily to familiarise students with the ways in which British democracy has evolved, how it operates today and some of the challenges that confront it. You’ll gain knowledge of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the political system and you’ll learn about how and why the system operates in the way it does, the quality of contemporary democratic governance and key features of political behaviour in Britain. The first half of the module will focus on the character, development and institutions of Britain’s ‘traditional’ democratic system. The second half will focus on dynamic elements of British democracy, including political parties and party competition, political and especially voting behaviour, and attitudes towards democracy.

• Contemporary Political Theory

  This module concerns the theories underlying discussion of political problems and issues today. Examining a range of key ideas and the thinkers who have developed them, the module will consider what lies at the roots of contemporary debates about laws, policies, protest, and resistance, and it will it enable you to make sense of these debates. Topics covered will likely include liberty, equality, human rights, punishment, democracy, gender, race, multiculturalism and cultural hegemony, civil disobedience, resistance and political violence – as well as other issues in domestic and international justice. Throughout, the module aims to show how abstract theories have practical relevance, and conversely how questions about what states, citizens and other actors ought to do are illuminated by thinking about them theoretically. In general, it offers a broad survey of political theorising today.

• Modern Political Thought

  This module introduces students to major political thinkers from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, including the works of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Mill, Marx, Nietzsche, and Douglass. The module will introduce you to the themes, argumentative strategies, and critical interpretations of these thinkers, and critically assess these interpretations against the texts themselves. It also aims to show how study of these thinkers illuminates contemporary discussion of freedom, pluralism, sovereignty, and legitimacy, even where no reference is made to them.

• Introduction to Political Communication

  The purpose of this module is to provide a broad overview of how citizens, politicians and the media interact across Western democracies during both electoral and governing periods. The first part of the module will focus on the production and consumption of political news, while the second part will address campaigns and their effects as well as focusing on contemporary debates in political communication, including ethical issues. While the module will cover key aspects of political communication in the United Kingdom, the focus will be mostly comparative across countries. Seminars are centred on practical activities that allow students to apply the knowledge presented in the module to contemporary real-world examples of political communication in action. Examples include analysis of political speeches, advertisements, candidate debates, campaign strategies, and news coverage of political issues.

• Politics Outside the West

  This module is a key bridge between the first year modules in comparative politics and international relations and the third year modules in the politics of Africa, China, Latin America, the Middle East, and South Asia. It is designed to equip you with a critical understanding of the most important features of the history of international development which build the foundations of our modern world: the transition from empires to states, colonialism, de-colonisation, and the subsequent post-colonial political issues facing the Global South. This means you don’t necessarily learn about politics “outside the West”, as if it’s a phenomenon separate from the West, but, instead, develop ideas of politics and international relations from the vantage point of the Global South, including its prominent political thinkers.

Year 3

• Law Dissertation
• Company Law
• Medical Law
• Advocacy and Court Practice
• Law of Evidence
• International and Comparative Human Rights Law
• Public International Law
• Family Law
• Jurisprudence
• Intellectual Property Law

• European Union Public Policy

  In this module you will develop an understanding of regulation in the European Union, including delivery of policy and administration. You will look at how the world's largest market operates, with a focus on EU public policy, including de-regulation, re-regulation, budgets and spending. You will examine the concept of the single market, the Euro and its crisis, justice, home affairs and counter-terrorism, the EU budget, agriculture, regional development, and social and environmental policies.

• Radical Political Theory I: Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche

  This module aims to introduce students to key questions and arguments concerning the relationship between identity, power, meaning and knowledge, through close examination of texts from GWF Hegel, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche. It should lead students to appreciate critiques of modern Western societies and their values, which not only underpin recent “postmodernist” or “post-structuralist” thought but also form crucial theoretical elements in debates about gender, multiculturalism, nationalism, post-colonialism, new social movements, etc., across the social sciences. It aims to develop in students the ability to critically reflect about the nature and scope of politics and ethics through engagement with texts that have sought to provide insights and new ways of thinking about these realms.

• Young People's Politics

  The module opens with an introduction and asks What is Young People’s Politics? It then branches out to consider youth, citizenship and democracy, exploring the theoretical and empirical issues that define citizenship in contemporary democracies, focusing on issue that particularly effect young people (especially those raised in the Youth Citizenship Commission). The focus is extended to youth participation in politics, primarily Electoral Politics (e.g. voting, party membership). We will question how and why youth participation in electoral politics has altered. Why did it decline so rapidly after 1997? We will then explore youth participation in politics further by looking at new forms of participation, asking: how has youth participation in non-electoral forms of politics changed in recent decades? What is distinctive about youth participation in politics (e.g. Pattie et al. 2004). Do these changes strengthen or weaken democracy? This leads us to a focus on new values and lifestyles (e.g. increasing prominence of post-materialist concerns versus consumerism). We will question how have changing values and lifestyles impacted upon political participation amongst young people? To what extent are these changes distinctive?

  We will then move on to examine a new state and consider how the relationship between the state and the citizen (and young people, in particular) has changed in recent years (e.g. developments in the welfare state and public services – in particular, youth-focuses services - and in notions of rights and responsibilities e.g. welfare-to-work)? We will ask how has this impacted upon young people’s engagement in politics and society? We then move on to a new democracy, considering how political responsibility has changed/been undermined in recent years (in particular, the transfer of political power to the EU, the international level and NGOs and the changing nature of news media). We will explore what opportunities young people have (or have lost) for engaging in this democracy. The course develops a focus on reform, the Supply-Side (focusing on issues raised by Power Inquiry and Youth Citizenship Commission) and evaluates measures that have been proposed and/or implemented to make electoral politics more attractive to young people. We then propose further measures to improve the situation. The focus on reform continues with the Demand-Side (focusing on education/citizenship education, and the recent International Civic and Citizenship Education Study study). We will evaluate measures that have been proposed and/or implemented to reengage young people in civil society and/or electoral politics. We will again propose further measures to improve the situation. Our final focus will be on young people's politics beyond the UK, looking at how the disengagement of young people in politics has developed (e.g. the US Civic and Political Health of the Nation Report). We will consider how this has been addressed in other countries, proposing lessons that may be drawn by the UK.

• Leadership, Power and the British Prime Ministership
  The course’s primary purpose is to provide students with an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the British prime ministership. It will help students to evaluate the problems of leadership in an advanced industrial democracy and to critically evaluate the performance of those holding executive office. The course will cover both the institutional characteristics and development of the office of prime minister, the organisation and structure of the political executive and the prime ministership’s relationship with other key actors, such as ministers, parliament and the media. The course will also engage with claims about the ‘personalisation’ and ‘presidentialisation’ of British politics. At the same time, the course is designed to introduce students to a more focused range of literature and to develop students’ own awareness of the political-science research process. To this end, it will encourage students to confront issues of conceptualisation and measurement through class activities, as well as highlighting the problems and pitfalls of taking models and frameworks of analysis from other systems and applying them to the British prime ministership.
• Visual Politics

  There is an urgent need for critical examination of the role of visual media in politics. Many argue that ‘the power of images’ has policymakers, journalists and citizens spellbound. For others, thanks to media technologies it has never been easier for ordinary people to create, disseminate, play with and contest political images. This course examines the role of visual materials and practices in politics and international relations. Students will become familiar with research traditions in the discipline of Politics and IR that engage with visual media, how they conceptualise and conduct research, and the limitations of those traditions. The first half of the course covers core problems and theories and the second half covers methods and case studies. The course is comparative, examining how visual media have operated in different historical eras of politics and across policy issue areas. Assessment by way of traditional essay and online visual story (via Storify) will enable students to demonstrate their understanding of the course content.

  The course is structured as follows and opens with an introduction to visual political communication and moves on to explore producing Images; consuming Images; images, identity and power; and political icons. The course then examines quantitative and qualitative visual methods; environmental politics; welfare politics; nuclear politics; and global crises.

• American Political Development
• The Politics of Russia and Eastern Europe

  This course introduces students to key developments and topics in the politics of post-communist Russia and Eastern Europe. Part I of the course focuses on how communist legacies and modes of post-communist transition shaped the region’s different political systems. Students will engage with current academic debates on Europeanisation processes in Central and Eastern Europe and the specific post-communist trajectory of Russian domestic politics. Part II explores key topics in contemporary post-communist politics, such as for example: transitions to capitalism, inequality and corruption; elections and the peculiarities of post-communist party systems; nationalism, the politics of memory, and minorities; communist and post-communist gender politics; political participation and grassroots politics; and the latest scholarly debates on the perceived democratic backsliding of the region. The course foresees a strong component of student participation, with student-led case-study presentations, comparison-oriented class discussions on the weekly theme, and two substantial pieces of assessed coursework. By the end of this course students will have a nuanced understanding of post-communist politics in the region and will be able to compare both within the region and with countries outside the region.

• The Politics of International Development

  Despite growing total economic affluence, the world continues to be characterised by persistent poverty and inequality. To briefly illustrate this reality, close to one billion people globally still lack daily access to sufficient food, more than three billion people live on less than 2.5 USD a day, and more than 22,000 children die each day due to poverty (World Development Indicators, 2015). In theory, ‘development’ should resolve these problems – but what is development and how can it be achieved? This course explores key development challenges faced across developing countries and is divided into three sections. The first critically examines some of the major concepts, paradigms, and theories, which have attempted to define what development is, how and why it occurs (or does not), and to whose benefit. The second focuses on some of the key development challenges faced by developing countries: economic (poverty, inequality, unemployment), political (democracy, human rights, role of elites), social (religion, race/ethnicity/caste, urbanization), and natural (climate change, pollution, resource extraction, extermination of species). The final section explores possible remedies to these issues through international cooperation (trade, aid, finance, South-South cooperation), national policies (welfare schemes, laws and regulations), and micro and informal solutions.

• Issues in Democratic Theory

  The course examines the theoretical understandings of democracy and the conceptual issues and controversies arising from them. Modern political thought is characterised by an uneasy relationship with democracy. Whilst the values of freedom and equality are widely related to – and often thought to entail – democratic government, political theorists have identified various problems that democracy poses to those values. The course will examine these issues, with topics including: forms of democracy; the relationship between democracy, freedom and equality; the role of participation and deliberation; multiculturalism and group rights; and global democracy.

• Political Theories of Freedom

  This module critically examines different theoretical understandings of freedom, together with their strengths and limitations. It falls into two parts. Part 1 examines liberal understandings of freedom, and part 2 looks at contrasting non-liberal and republican accounts. It does so by considering the contributions of important recent and contemporary political theorists. From the liberal tradition these include Berlin, Hayek, Hirschmann and Gray. From the non-liberal tradition, writers will include Taylor, Honneth, Pettit and Skinner. Animating the discussion of these figures is the apparently simple but ultimately complex question of whether political freedom is a matter of the ability to act unimpeded by others, or whether it requires forms of social activity.

• Comparative Political Leadership

  Party leaders, and their public image, are increasingly considered important for a party’s electoral success, for the smooth running of government and for regime legitimacy. Perhaps the most important variable for successful politicians is their ability to effectively communicate and connect with their audiences. This module will show you the techniques most frequently used by politicians, communicators and speechwriters to effectively deliver their messages in different contexts and settings. You will analyse how these techniques have been used by the greatest leaders in the world to justify their regimes. By the end of the module you will be able to evaluate leadership styles during and after elections and design communication strategies that will deliver political messages effectively.

   

• Global Environmental Politics

  This module examines both the domestic and international politics of the environment. The first part of the module consists of defining the environmental problems faced globally, highlighting similarities and differences to other issues. This part also identifies the key actors, interests, and institutions that are necessary to understand the politics of climate change. The second part of the module focuses on three varieties of theories of environmental politics: collective action problems, distributional politics, and ideational conflict. The third part then examines a variety of topics in environmental politics, building upon the analytical approaches outlined in the first two parts of the course. The chosen topics allow for both understanding how politics shapes environmental outcomes, for example through international agreements, as well as how climate change and the environment affects political outcomes, for example by fostering political conflict.

   

   

• Parliamentary Studies

  This final-year half module offers students the opportunity to obtain an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the British parliament and its place in British democracy. It will help students to evaluate the work and role of Parliament and parliamentarians, appreciate ongoing debates about contemporary legislative practice, and engage critically with previous academic scholarship in this area. It will also help students to develop their own awareness and experience of conducting research.
  The course covers Parliament’s development and place in the British political system, its internal organisation and operation, and the work and behaviour of individual Members of Parliament. It is co-taught with officials from Parliament, who will provide students with practical and vocational teaching about the work, processes and business of Parliament based on their own experiences.
  The course will be delivered through 9 weekly three-hour sessions, each of which will be organised around a lecture and a variety of complementary seminar activities, including discussions, debates and practical exercises. Most of the third hour each week will be set aside to supporting students with the assessment. The tenth week will involve a visit to Parliament: this is partly to see parliamentarians in action, and partly to enable students to collect additional material for their research report.

• Latin American Politics

  This module is designed to introduce advanced undergraduates to the major themes of contemporary Latin American politics and, consequently, democracy and political development. Although the module does not assume that you already have knowledge of the region, you are expected to be familiar with basic concepts of comparative political analysis. While the module stresses the political aspects of the developmental process, its objective is to show the linkages between economic, social, cultural, and political variables - both at national and international levels.

   

   

• Freedom of Expression: Concepts and Controversies

  Issues of free speech are amongst the most contentious in current political debate. The module aims to give you an in depth understanding of the nature, value and limits of freedom of speech, from the perspective of normative political theory. It is not a course in the law of free speech, nor about the free speech situation in any particular country. Though the module touches on both the latter, the aim is to enable you to understand the values, norms and principles at issue in contexts where free speech is promoted, regulated, limited or denied- especially contexts where that choice is contentious. You will be encouraged to look beyond the headlines to explore the rich and varied academic scholarship on free speech, and to offer critical analyses of that scholarship. By the end of the module, you should be able to interrogate your own and others’ intuitive reactions in controversial cases of e.g. hate speech, and to develop a reasoned, nuanced approach to these issues.

   

• Social Diversity and Political Representation

  This module examines the contemporary literature on social diversity and political representation. It introduces students to theories of representation, debates over women’s and other group’s interests. It applies these frameworks to consider why social diversity in our parliaments might matter and what difference – symbolic, substantive and affective – sex, gender, ethnicity, disability and other demographic characteristics make to elected political institutions, the policy process, political outcomes, and healthy democracies. Discrete topics include theories of representation and the link between the general public, political actors and the media; descriptive representation in national legislatures and executives with a focus on gender, ethnicity and disability; strategies for increasing descriptive representation; the media’s representation of political (gender, ethnic and disabled) minorities. The module will introduce key theoretical research on political representation; introduce current empirical research regarding participation and representation in electoral politics; and examine extant empirical and theoretical literature on representation across its various dimensions: descriptive, substantive and symbolic, and to introduce newer research on other forms of representation.

• Politics of South Asia

  The politics of South Asia – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh - are central to understanding some of the themes at the core of modern politics: poverty and development, security and warfare, migration and transnationalism, decolonisation and postcolonialism, the international economy and globalisation. This module deals with the social and political development of these countries since independence from British rule in 1947. We will analyse issues including caste politics, the role of religious violence and the place of women in politics and society. Sources will come from a range of disciplines – politics and IR, history, sociology, anthropology, novels and films. We will study regional cooperation and conflict including the troubled relationship between India and Pakistan over Kashmir and their nuclear status. By the end of the module you will have a specialised understanding of the major social, economic and political developments in the region.