LLM Module Details
The Law of the International Organisations
This module focuses on the institutional legal aspects of the activities displayed by international organisations and the relationship of these activities to the methods and sources of public international law. The aim of the course is to provide an understanding of the international legal aspects of international institutions and to enable students to familiarize themselves with the core principles of selected areas of United Nations law. It also aims to develop student's analytical skills through identifying and attempting to resolve legal problems relating to the United Nations and its member states.
International Human Rights
The module will take a progressive approach to the international human rights system, primarily studying the United Nations and then moving towards the regional systems and how each system co-exists and works together. More specifically the course aims to consider what rights are and how they are legally protected. The mechanisms for protection are considered both at an international and regional level.
International Trade
The objective of the course is to provide an advanced critical understanding of the legal and business framework of international trade. The course will cover domestic, European and international legal provisions. The course will focus on legal and financial issues relating to the selling of goods. The ethical values, philosophical principles and practical implications relating to the legal controls on international law will be explored.
International Criminal Law
This module is intended to equip students with a thorough appreciation of the complexities of International Criminal Law. We will look at the criminal responsibility of individuals under international law, and the mechanisms provided by international law for the enforcement of these offences and the prosecution of those accused. It will address history, concepts, institutions, procedures, norms and enforcement mechanisms of international criminal law, and examine the chief crimes of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The emphasis is on the substantive and procedural law of the International Criminal Court, but the course will also compare other international or semi-international criminal tribunals and alternatives of international criminal justice.
Law of Armed Conflict
This module is an advanced level course on the principles of public international law which regulate the use of force in international society. We will look at the criminal responsibility of individuals under international law, and the mechanisms provided by international law for the enforcement of these offences and the prosecution of those accused. It will address history, concepts, institutions, procedures, norms and enforcement mechanisms of international criminal law, and examine the chief crimes of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
EC Environmental Law and Policy
This module aims to provide a critical understanding of the European context of environmental law and policy. It considers the impact of environmental law and policy on national systems and its position in an international context. Students will develop their knowledge of the principles of environmental law within the European Union and obtain a critical awareness of legal policy, enforcement and jurisprudential issues, which shape this area of law.
EC External Trade
This course focuses on the most developed aspect of EU external relations law and policy, namely trade and international economics. The objective of the course is to enable students to develop and deepen their knowledge of the substantive law of the European Community by providing a sound introduction to this area of considerable topical importance. In particular, its exploration of the impact of the World Trade Organisation on EC's external trade law and policy will encourage the development of a critical appreciation of the evolutionary nature of EC law and its relationship to international economic law.
EC Employment Law
The course aims to equip the student with the knowledge of the general principles of both individual and collective employment law and their function within the European Community. Its purpose is to provide a clear and critical understanding of the social policy and employment policy objectives viewing them in the wider context of European economic and political integration.
European Public Law
The module encourages the development of a critical perspective of matters relating to the law and the institutional framework of the European Union and European Community administrative law. Students consider the history and structure of the European Union and European Community and they consider the impact on the law of the Member States. The EU is considered in its wider international and European context and students critically examine critically examine the legal and political institutions and the acquis communautaire which governs them.
Theories of Justice
The module encourages the development of a critical perspective of matters relating to legal substance and the concept of justice. The aim of the module is to provide an advanced level course in legal theory, introducing students to contemporary debates about justice, and especially to the extension of those debates to issues of global justice. The module divides into parts focussing on distributive justice, John Rawls's works and the extension of theories to global justice, the application of theories of justice to jurisprudence more generally.
Youth Justice
This module aims to provide students with a critical and advanced understanding of youth justice. Students will acquire a critical understanding of all aspects of youth justice ranging from social constructions of childhood, youth crime prevention and the history of youth justice. The battle between welfare, justice and 'growing out of crime' is considered along with a critical appraisal of the current legislative provisions dealing with young people and their sub-criminal and criminal behaviour.
Administrative Justice
The module focuses on the relationship between law and administration in the United Kingdom , looking in particular at litigation in the administrative sphere as a mechanism for redress and as a means of constraining, regulating and controlling governmental action. It examines Judicial Review by way of its history, purpose and practical and conceptual characteristics and aims to seek a greater understanding of judges' approaches (past, current and future) to decision-making in Administrative Law.
Civil Justice
This module considers civil justice in the context of the hurdles currently facing those who would seek justice but for the financial crisis they face either to bring a case to court or to suffer the consequences if they lose. Having explored the common themes and criticisms of those seeking civil justice the course then considers specific contemporary debates in the law and how they exemplify much that is wrong with the civil justice system. Issues such as homelessness, toxic torts, access to medical treatment and the perils of fighting libel actions pervade the course in an attempt to understand how we may move towards a just society.
Criminal Justice System
The module focuses on key elements of the criminal justice system: policing and the police; the courts and sentencing; prisons; probation and community penalties. It seeks to inform students about: the practical operation of the criminal justice system; the policies which regulate the operation of criminal justice in the Anglo-American jurisdiction; and the conceptualisation of the processes at work in criminal justice.
Law, Society and Social Control
The module focuses on how law and other modes of social control relate to the institutional and interactional orders of modern and late-modern societies. In so doing it examines how individuals and groups seek to influence the behaviours of others and are also subject to regulatory forces that shape their own conduct. Students are encouraged to critically engage with the concept of social control and to reflect upon how it illuminates a number of seen but un-noticed dimensions of social life.
