LLB (Hons) - Law (Integrated Foundation Year)

Year one

The integrated foundation year provides the opportunity for you to settle into university life and the gain confidence and skills you need to succeed in Law through participating in a supportive academic, personal and professional development programme.

The foundation year modules will serve to provide you with an excellent grounding in a range of law and social science subject areas including sociology, criminology, law, psychology, policing, and investigation that complements the three years of legal education which will follow; they also provide students with knowledge that goes beyond the classroom environment.

• Essential University Skills 1
  Develop the academic and professional skills required for effective learning and successful progression through your chosen course.
• Contemporary Issues and the Media
  Explore a range of contemporary issues through the lens of the media that relates to your subject area.
• Introduction to Policing, Criminology and Law
  Gain a basic understanding of the English and Welsh Legal and Criminal Justice system, and Criminology as a discipline.
• Essential University Skills 2
  Further develop the skills acquired in Essential University Skills 1.
• Families, Communities & the Criminal Justice System
  Gain an understanding into the psychological and societal risk factors and pre-cursors to criminality.
• Professional Practice in the Community
  Develop your awareness of community groups and activities to help your understanding of society.

Year two

Level 4 will support the application of a systematic approach to the acquisition of knowledge, underpinning concepts and principles, and deploy a range of subject specific, cognitive, and transferable skills. Modules will encourage the evaluation of different approaches to solving well-defined problems and the communication of solutions.

You will develop the ability to identify and discuss the relationship between personal and workplace experience and findings from books and journals and other data drawn from the field of study.

• Legal Skills
  Start your journey into the world of law by learning and developing the fundamental skills which will help you become a successful legal professional. You will learn how to conduct legal research, using our on-campus and specialist online resources, how to interpret the law that you find and to then apply it to legal problems, identifying solutions and likely outcomes. You will begin your progression into reflective legal practice, too, by learning how document your reflective learning while embracing ethical and practical considerations.
• Legal Systems
  This module will take students through the framework of English legal system and its many intricacies. By studying this module you will be able to critically assess a case's progression through both the civil and criminal courts. You will take a methodical approach to understanding the roles within the system and how these roles interact with the aforementioned cases.
• Contract Law
  Understand the general principles of contract law.
• Law of Torts
  Learn about how the law regulates relationships and behaviours without the criminal law, including the various legal duties owed under negligence (and its related torts) and the law regarding neighbour disputes and personal autonomy. You will take a practitioner-based approach to your studies, using online resources, specialist databases and real-life case studies to conduct practical legal research, case analyses, quantum valuations and on-going risk assessment of potential claims.
• Constitutional Law
  Develop an understanding of the legal structures of the UK government, the State and the relationship between the citizen, the State and the law.Constitutional law is where law and politics meet. We will consider where power sits within the UK together with the sometimes challenging relationships between current and past governments, Parliament and the courts.
• Persuasive Skills
  A practical module that tests your abilities of public speaking. You are guided through the process from start to finish; from the initial researching of the law to being able to confidently present legal arguments.
  
  We look at different legal disciplines and apply the techniques and skills of persuasion and public speaking to a whole host of different scenarios.
  
  A unique module where students are given the soft legal skills to apply the law they are learning, building student confidence and character throughout the module.

Year three

At Level 5, you will explore key concepts and theories within and outside the context in which they were first studied. Continuing on from Level 4, you will demonstrate an understanding and apply theory in practice, taking on responsibility for determining and achieving personal outcomes. Throughout the year, you will reflect on your personal development and workplace experience in conjunction with recent scholarship and current statutory regulations.

• Lawyering and Dispute Resolution in a Digital Age
  In recognition of emerging trends and challenges of online delivery of legal services and A.I. The module aims to develop students’ attitudes to helping clients and society select and employ the most effective and just methods of dispute resolution. Practical experience is supported by theoretical underpinnings of the positive uses of technology, the risks to the profession and the ethical challenges posed by the use of technology in practice offering contemporary skills and understanding in lawyering in a digital age with a practical setting to undertake a lawyering project.
• Criminal Law
  The criminal law is an ever evolving and technical area of the law. This module considers the criminal law in both its technical nature and how the principles which provide for offences and defences have evolved to the current day.
• Land Law
  This module is intended to develop a practical knowledge of the fundamental principles relating to the acquisition and creation of rights in land, including opportunities to look at or consider those foundational concepts within context, i.e., a property transaction, identifying some legal issues which may be presented before them in a work-based scenario; issues arising in client-based work; and identifying the main stages in a typical sale/purchase of a freehold estate with registered title.
• Equity and Trusts
  This module considers Equity as a remedial form of justice and its importance to the trust. It considers the evolution of Equity and its place in the English legal system to provide remedies aimed to achieve justice, where the common law cannot. At heart of this lies the concept of the trust and its administration.
• EU Law
  EU Law is a subject rooted in the history and politics of Europe reaching back through the twentieth century. The EU can make laws and exercise powers that affect all individuals and organisations within its Member States. Whilst the UK left the EU in 2020 in the wake of the 2016 referendum, its membership comprises the majority of European countries. This course in EU Law will aim to provide you with a depth and breadth of understanding of the constitutional aspects of the EU, its various institutions and how they work together to make and enforce the law.
• Law of Criminal Evidence (optional)
  This module considers the rules of evidence in criminal trials, in terms of the tests used to determine what is relevant and what is admissible. It also considers miscarriages of justice and issues such as eyewitness testimony, which led to the creation of the Criminal Division of Court of Appeal.
• Human and Nature Rights (optional)
  An introduction to the concept of human rights prospection and the way in which human rights and the rights of nature are protected in the UK, under the European Convention of Human Rights and in other nations.
• Family Law (optional)
  Family law can be a very challenging area of legal practice, often involving individuals facing considerable personal, financial and emotional upheavals. Learn about the systems of law which govern marriage, divorce, cohabitation and children, both in the public and private law arenas. In this optional module you will study and assess how the law operates to regulate the relationships between couples, children and the state.

Year four

At Level 6, your studies will aim to build upon the personal development undertaken in previous years. You will critically review, consolidate and extend a systematic and coherent body of knowledge, evaluating concepts and evidence from a range of resources. Modules will aim to encourage the communication of solutions, arguments and ideas clearly and in a variety of forms, especially when exercising judgement in a range of situations, to improve workplace practices.

• Law Dissertation
  During the Law Dissertation module, you will be able to put your research and writing skills to great use in conducting sustained, in depth, and independent research in a legal topic of your choice. You will be able to extend your intellectual skills of argument, synthesis and critical analysis. You will be engaged with planning, researching, and writing your main dissertation piece over the whole of your final year. Usefully, the module also helps you continue to develop your self-management and independent study skills and competence as autonomous learners.
• Business and Employment Law
  This module dives into the dynamic world of business and employment law, spotlighting key issues like the ever-relevant registered company limited by shares. It unpacks corporate governance, stakeholder roles, and the evolving landscape of corporate manslaughter laws alongside reform proposals. With a focus on corporate social responsibility, the module explores its regulation in other jurisdictions and potential adaptations for England & Wales. On the employment front, it sheds light on the core principles governing workplace relationships, essential contract formalities, and practical approaches to resolving disputes, offering a holistic view of these interconnected legal spheres.
• Law in Action
  Do you want to use your developing legal skills to give back to the local community? In this module you will work in groups to do this by researching an area of law relevant to a local charity or similar organisation in order to support its work.
• Medical Law and Ethics (optional)
  Gain a firm grounding in the principles of medical law and ethics, and its practical application in the practice of modern healthcare through your study of this optional module. Medical law is a fascinating subject which has necessarily developed rapidly in recent history in response to advances in medical science as well as changes in the social, cultural and political arenas. You will explore key issues including clinical negligence litigation, assisted dying, abortion, patient consent and medical confidentiality, and understand how these areas have been informed by developing ethical principles.
• Human and Nature Rights (optional)
  In this module we will use national and international perspectives to consider how human rights protection works in practice and whether rights protection can be extended beyond humans, to other animals, or to nature.
• Law Placement (optional)
  This optional module allows you to gain work experience with a legal service provider of your choice. Reflection on your experience forms the basis of your assessment.
• Law of Criminal Evidence (optional)
  This module considers the rules of evidence in criminal trials, in terms of the tests used to determine what is relevant and what is admissible. It also considers miscarriages of justice and issues such as eyewitness testimony, which led to the creation of the Criminal Division of Court of Appeal.
• Family Law (optional)
  An introduction to the laws governing marriage, divorce, cohabitation and children, both in the public and private law arenas.
• Sustainable Development and the Law (optional)
  This module aims to offer students an overview of developments in the law relevant to sustainable development through an in-depth examination of domestic, European and international law.