Undergraduate Course: Advanced Legal Methods (online) (LAWS10182)

Course Outline
School	School of Law	College	College of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate)
Course type	Online Distance Learning	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	10	ECTS Credits	5
Summary	This course has a twofold purpose, intended to provide the skills and knowledge necessary to make the most of honours study. Firstly, it will bridge the gap between the Ordinary and Honours methods of teaching and learning in the law school, equipping students to deal with the shift from the lecture/tutorial to the seminar format, and to get the most out of the latter. Secondly, it will provide students with the full range of skills necessary to excel in their 4th year dissertations, a key component of the new LLB programme. The latter goal includes not only skills in dissertation planning and structuring, but also introducing students to an array of methodological approaches that they may wish to make use of in this work. The core aims of the course are thus as follows: - To familiarise the students with the move from lectures to seminars, the reasons behind this, and what is expected of them; - To impart the necessary skills, in terms both of critical analysis and communication, to allow them to get the full benefit of this; - To teach all students how to formulate and present arguments, and how to structure these in a coherent text, to an advanced level; - To ensure that students know the key elements in selecting and refining an appropriate research question, developing a research plan, and focusing study in the manner necessary to succeed in the dissertation; - To ensure that students have an advanced understanding of some of the key methodological approaches that can be used in advanced legal research, their benefits and potential pitfalls.
Course description	The teaching programme will include the following areas - Accounting for the shift to a different form of teaching and learning in Honours study, and instructing students on how to profit fully from Honours teaching; - Reading legal sources ż both primary (e.g. judgments) and secondary (books, journal articles) ż for critical understanding; - Advanced elements of essay structuring - Essential elements of dissertation formulation, planning and execution - Advanced doctrinal research - Socio-legal research (quantitative and qualitative) - Comparative methodologies - Critical methodologies - Uses and misuses of statistics in legal argument

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Semester 1
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 8, Online Activities 10, Feedback/Feedforward Hours 3, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 77 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Summative assessment for this course will be by way of submission of a draft 250 word abstract of an essay (the title of which is generated by students from list of subject areas) and submission of a one-page structure of essay. Formative assessment will be by way of submission of a student-generated essay title from list of subject areas and by submission of a 2500 word essay. The course will be assessed on a pass/fail basis.
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: Knowledge and Sources of Law: By the end of the course, students should: - Have a full understanding of the pedagogical reasons behind the shift from lectures to seminars for the latter stages of the LLB degree; - Understand how to contribute effectively to, and get the most from, the online learning environment. Subject-specific Skills: By the end of the course, students should: - Have advanced knowledge and understanding of the principal research methodologies, their benefits and potential limitations - Understand what types of methodologies are appropriate for different kinds of inquiries, and why this is the case; - Be able to identify and criticise flawed methodological approaches in the work of others General Transferable Intellectual Skills: By the end of the course, students should: - Be able to read, understand and critically evaluate primary and secondary legal sources to an advanced level; - Be able to analyse and synthesise complex arguments; - Be able to structure and present a complex set of their own arguments as a single coherent text; - Be able, acting independently, to formulate a plausible essay question, set out a research plan, identify an appropriate methodology, set out a detailed outline and ultimately write the essay; - Understand, through the use of formative and peer feedback mechanisms, the different elements of an excellent research essay or dissertation, and be able to interrogate their own work, and those of others, in the light of these; - To reflect in detail on their own learning, to make use of feedback from both teachers and peers to improve their own performance, and to provide feedback to peers on aspects of theirs; - Be able to respond creatively and originally to the different texts that they will encounter in the course of the degree Key Personal Skills: - Be able to communicate effectively, both in written and oral form, complex ideas and positions, in online discussions; - Understand how to manage the change to the more independent and self-disciplined form of work required at honours level study; - Understand some of the key uses and abuses of statistical evidence in legal research and argument. Subject-specific Legal and Ethical Values: - Understand the different ethical issues to which legal research can give rise, and how to address or minimise these when they do arise; - Understand what formal ethical requirements may be in place when pursuing particular methodological approaches, and why this is so.