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
  Develop a range of general and subject specific study skills designed to provide a sound foundation for legal study.
• Legal Systems
  Enhance your knowledge of the central characteristics of the English legal system.
• Contract Law
  Understand the general principles of contract law.
• Law of Torts
  Acquire subject-specific knowledge and the skills required for effective ‘common law method’ and research.
• 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.
• Persuasive Skills
  Build your confidence in persuasive presentation and courtroom skills.

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
  Understand emerging digital trends in legal practice alongside undertaking a simulated legal case in a virtual law firm.
• Criminal Law
  Develop a critical and analytical understanding of the principles and policies of the criminal law.
• Land Law
  Develop a practical knowledge and understanding of the foundation concepts relating to estates and interests in land, and the fundamental principles relating to the acquisition and creation of rights in land.
• Equity and Trusts
  Develop an understanding of the dynamics of the law of equity and trusts, alongside awareness of the administration and value of the trust in modern society and the place for equity in the modern legal system.
• EU Law
  Develop a comprehensive understanding of the constitutional foundations of the European Union legal order and the roles of the institutions of the EU.
• Law of Criminal Evidence (optional)
  Learn to understand the principles and policies of Criminal Evidence and analyse a series of important and controversial issues in the modern law.
• 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)
  An introduction to the laws governing marriage, divorce, cohabitation and children, both in the public and private law arenas.

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
  Conduct a sustained, in depth, and independent research project to produce a dissertation upon a topic of your choice.
• Business and Employment Law
  A module focused on analysing the legal rules applicable to companies and their employees.
• Law in Action
  An introduction to working in teams to research real legal issues for local community-based groups or other third parties.
• 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.
• Human and Nature Rights (optional)
  An introduction to the concept of legal rights protection 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.
• Law Placement (optional)
  Acquire first-hand experience of work in a legal environment.
• Law of Criminal Evidence (optional)
  Examine the fundamental principles of the Law of Criminal Evidence and analyse in depth a series of important and controversial issues in the modern law.
• 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.