THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2015/2016

University Homepage
DRPS Homepage
DRPS Search
DRPS Contact
DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Law : Law

Postgraduate Course: Risk Society & Regulatory Frameworks (LAWS11288)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Law CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course is a detailed exploration of risk and its regulation across a broad range of human activities, focusing on regulatory instruments and institutions ¿ legal and non-legal, domestic, regional and international ¿ which govern and shape individual and organisational conduct. It examines how regulatory instruments and institutions are shaped and/or respond to natural events and new and emerging human activities, many of them which rely on or prompt new modes of action, new technologies, new relationships, and, importantly, new risks. Specifically, it explores regulatory frameworks in different contexts, including the environment, biotechnologies, information and communication technologies, policing, and commerce, and how they interact with other frameworks.
Course description This is still being developed, but it is expected that the course will largely reflect the following:

The course will adopt the following format:

Weeks 1-5
The first half if the course will introduce students to the idea of a 'risk society' (complexity and contingency of modern society; the rise of risk discourse; the political and regulatory use of risk; role of technologies in all of this), an 'interdisciplinary' social and regulatory environment (challenges associated with interdisciplinary and collaborative activities; role of public in articulating risk and setting risk tolerances; how engagement shifts conceptions of risk and feeds governance structures), and 'regulation' and 'governance' (theory of regulation; rising practice of risk management; how this is embedded in regulation, ie, a key regulatory objective, precautionary principle).

Weeks 6-10
The remainder of the course will consist of Case Studies across a broad range of fields, with each case study addressing as many of the following questions as possible:

1. What are the perceived risks that are being governed?
2. What are the relevant regulatory onstitutions (international, regional (EU), domestic)?
3. What are the regulatory responses/rules and how they have been shaped?
4. Whose ideas of risks are shaping actions on the ground?
5. What is the efficacy of the prevailing/dominant regulatory regime?
6. What other related human activities and regulatory frameworks are implicated in this field (to what extent does it notice or interact with other fields)?

Case studies will include:

(1) Regulation, Risk & Climate Change;
(2) Regulation, Risk & the Environment & Biodiversity;
(3) Regulation, Risk & ICTs;
(4) Regulation, Risk & Policing;
(5) Regulation, Risk & Competition.

Each session will revisit the idea of regulation, getting students to examine how it is deployed in the different settings and what we might conclude from that about risk and about regulation itself as a legal undertaking within a broader governance pallet.

It is expected that each week will have between 3 and 5 readings.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Students MUST have passed:
Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2015/16, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  25
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 176 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) class participation (20%)
mid-term assessed assignment or poster (20%)
research essay (5000 words max, including footnotes) (60%)
Feedback Not entered
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course students should be able to:

¿ articulate the idea of 'risk' in the regulatory context and appreciate that risk is not a purely local or subject/field-specific matter;
¿ appreciate the range of competing interests and values which shape risk articulations and thereby feed regulatory efforts;
¿ appreciate how regulatory frameworks which address risk respond to and shape our conceptions of and tolerances for risk; and
¿ formulate well-reasoned and coherent arguments relating to risk and, where appropriate, suggest reforms to regulatory responses to risk.
Reading List
None
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
Keywordsrisk, regulation, governance, case-studies
Contacts
Course organiserMr Shawn Harmon
Tel: (0131 6)51 4267
Email:
Course secretaryMiss Amanda Mackenzie
Tel: (0131 6)50 6325
Email:
Navigation
Help & Information
Home
Introduction
Glossary
Search DPTs and Courses
Regulations
Regulations
Degree Programmes
Introduction
Browse DPTs
Courses
Introduction
Humanities and Social Science
Science and Engineering
Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Other Information
Combined Course Timetable
Prospectuses
Important Information
 
© Copyright 2015 The University of Edinburgh - 21 October 2015 12:20 pm