Undergraduate Course: Law in Context (LAWS08124)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 10 |
| Home subject area | Law |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course has three basic, integrated objectives:
To embed students¿ conceptualisation of the law and legal institutions within a broader understanding of the social, political, economic and ethical context in which they operate, imparting a sense of the way in which law at once draws upon yet stands apart from these related fields;
To further hone and develop the skills in critical thinking introduced during the Scottish Legal System course, providing students with both the capacity and the confidence to approach complex texts and claims from a critical/analytical perspective. This will include, inter alia, classes on different critical methods, and focus on the use of figures, graphs and statistics in the construction of persuasive arguments;
To function as a bridge between the Scottish Legal System course and the Jurisprudence (ordinary) course; providing some essential theoretical background and context to the technical issues and debates raised in the former, whilst introducing students to a wide range of the themes that they will go on to study in much greater depth in the latter during the first semester of their second year.
These objectives are integrated in the sense that they will infuse the course as a whole, rather than each being the focus of individual units. Each unit of lectures will, therefore contribute to the achievement of all objectives, developing themes raised in Scottish Legal System (such as statutory interpretation, judicial reasoning, portrayal of facts, etc.) by describing the theories underpinning debate in each area, and the ways in which these are informed by different moral, political and economic perspectives. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
Having completed this course, students should be able to demonstrate a basic grasp of:
Theories of semantic meaning in general, and legal meaning in particular;
The key elements of the indeterminacy debate in legal theory;
The role of political, economic and ethical considerations in legal interpretation;
The importance of rhetorical analysis and narrative construction of facts in developing legal argumentation;
Different critical approaches to law, including those drawn from the field of identity politics;
The new issues and debates that are arise in the new, globalised context of law;
The ethics of legal practice, research and reasoning in the contemporary setting. |
Assessment Information
Critical evaluation exercise (30%): students will be asked to write a 1500-word paper in which they engage critically and in detail with the argument of a single text.
Disaggregated group exercise (30%): each tutorial group will be asked to form a ¿law firm¿ and given a hypothetical scenario, and will be expected to research, draft and analyse a legal submission acting as legal counsel to one of the parties in the case, culminating in a moot against another tutorial group during the final tutorial. Each group will be disaggregated, with smaller groups of students assigned to each task and assessed on that basis, although they will also be encouraged to work in an integrated and collaborative manner in order to increase ¿team¿ chances overall.
Take-home examination (40%): students will be given a range of questions relevant to the course, and will have 3 days to write a 2000-word answer to one of these. |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Having completed this course, students should be able to demonstrate a basic ability to:
Recognise, analyse and rank arguments and evidence in terms of relevance and importance by:
¿ managing volume of legal sources and select key material to construct written or oral answers to a problem.
¿ identifying the legal problem from information provided.
¿ addressing problems by reference to relevant material.
¿ bringing together and integrating information and materials from a variety of different sources.
¿ acknowledging ranking of sources and relative impact in context.
¿ application of the law and problem-solving in a legal context.
¿ presenting arguments for and against propositions.
Be aware that arguments require to be supported by evidence, in order to meet legal requirements of proof by showing awareness of the need for evidence to support arguments
Apply knowledge and analysis:
¿ in a legal context
¿ creatively to complex situations in order to provide arguable solutions to concrete problems by presenting a range of viable options from a set of facts and law.
Think critically and make critical judgments on the relative and absolute merits of particular arguments and solutions
Act independently in planning and undertaking tasks in areas of law which he or she has already studied
Reflect on their own learning, and seek and make use of feedback. |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
2 lectures a week, 6 tutorials |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Euan Macdonald
Tel: (0131 6)50 9832
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Heather Haig
Tel: (0131 6)50 2053
Email: |
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