BA (Hons) Economics with Law

This module has three distinct but constituent sections. After a week of introduction, its first part, made up of five weeks of lectures, deals with different key thinkers in economics and the schools of economic thought that they gave rise to. The focus of this section is to present important Economists, their core ideas, and discuss why their viewpoints are so different. The student will be introduced to Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx and Alfred Marshall. Through this sequence the student will become aware of different systems of analysis in the field of economics and start her/him thinking of the different frameworks of economic theorising.

The neoclassical school, following the work of Alfred Marshall, will be presented last indicating that the next two sections will be primarily concerned with tools and analytical arguments emanating from this tradition. The next seven weeks will be on microeconomic theory. In contradistinction with the plurality of the first part of the module, this part will focus on deductive reasoning used in mainstream rational choice and perfect competition theory. The module will cover preference theory, demand and supply, income and substitution effects, cost and revenue curves, perfect competition and partial equilibrium theory. This progression will end with a description of general equilibrium and the two welfare theorems. The focus here is the internal consistency of neoclassical microeconomics as exemplified in rational choice theory and competitive markets, and its combination of mathematical methods and deductive logic.

The last seven weeks will be on macroeconomics. In this section the focus will be on the following specific concepts: national accounting, inflation, unemployment and business cycles. The analysis of these concepts will be through the use of contemporary schools of economic thought (New Classical, New Keynesian, Post Keynesian, Austrian and Monetarist) and their analytical frameworks. By viewing these concepts through these different frameworks, the student is introduced into open ended discussions on these topics as different answers are equally valid as long as students can clearly identify the theoretical frameworks that he/she is using. This section’s purpose is also to introduce topics that will be investigated at greater length in the second year of the programme.

This module will explain the principles of English Contract Law, covering everything from the formation of a contract to the remedies available for breach. It will identify key questions and issues underlying the philosophy of Contract Law, drawing on the latest research in the field. 

Case studies will extend to niche and contemporary developments such as smart contracts (for example a computer code capable of monitoring, executing and enforcing an agreement), negotiating complex, highly lucrative, contracts (such as in multi-million television rights deals in sport or ‘on demand’ television) or studying the formation of contractual duties in the context of specialised art market transactions.

Where relevant, you will also be introduced to examples from the Contract Law of foreign jurisdictions, inviting you to reflect on cross-cultural differences and similarities in practice and in relation to wider theoretical principles.

21st-century lawyers need to be equipped with a dynamic mix of critical thinking and practical legal skills, as well as a sound understanding of how new technologies are beginning to impact on professional settings, legal research and legal analysis. 

This module will introduce you to the use of legal databases, academic referencing and other key writing and research conventions in the discipline. It covers:

• concepts of big data and AI (artificial intelligence), and how these can be deployed to construct legal cases
• the development and use of digital communications, social media, electronic videos and blogs appropriate for legal professionals
• writing conventions from across the curriculum, notably creative writing techniques which will allow you to use the English language with care and accuracy
• the art of public speaking and principles of negotiation and mediation
• law firms as businesses and relevant etiquette
• key principles of comparative law
• practical legal skills including client interviewing, advocacy/persuasive oral communication, case analysis and legal drafting 

You will have opportunities to learn from leading personalities in Law and high-impact professionals and the module will draw on Goldsmiths' unique tradition of excellence in the arts and humanities, and the dynamic network of academics and legal experts collaborating with Law at Goldsmiths.

The module is assessed through a written portfolio which may include advocacy exercises or simulated negotiations and mediation; provision of written advice to a fictional client; producing a case comment or bibliographical list; researching and writing blog posts; researching and drafting skeleton argument; preparing legal bundles in the context of mooting exercises.

In this module, you will be introduced to fundamental issues about how economists address the problems they study. We start with an introduction on the method of science in general and economics in particular. We then discuss if economics is objective, that is free of analytical assumptions and value judgement. We then move to analyse two fundamental paradigms in economics. Subsequently, we focus on the problem of rationality: what does it mean to be rational? Is rationality a good description of human behaviour? What are the alternatives? We conclude by discussing the differences between micro, macro, and meso-economics, and by asking if there exist economic principles that hold true across time and space.

This module introduces the mathematical methods used in the analysis of modern economics. This module is suitable for students both with and without an A Level in Mathematics (or equivalent). Students will revise and apply the basic concepts from algebra and differential calculus to relevant economic problems. Furthermore they will learn partial derivatives and second partial derivatives of functions of two or more independent variables, constrained and unconstrained optimization. The students will be taught how to use these tools in economic applications.

This module builds on the first year Introductory Economics module and the Mathematics and Statistics for Economics and Business module to give a more in depth perspective of microeconomic theory and its technical apparatus.

The first six weeks give an overview of the technical and theoretical analysis that forms the core of the neoclassical theory of consumption, production and market interaction. It introduces the following topics: choice under uncertainty, inter-temporal choice, incomplete and asymmetric information, principal-agent problem, basic game theory, dynamic and static oligopoly, price differentiation, markup pricing and market concentration.

In contrast, the rest of the module focuses on aspects of microeconomic behavior that do not conform to rational choice theory as developed in traditional neoclassical economics. Each week will explore a different alternative approach, icluding: Simon’s Bounded Rationality, Sen’s Capability Approach, Behavioural Economics.

The module aims to provide a good understanding of the key areas of macroeconomics, through the analytical tools of different schools of thought.

This module covers the evolution of macroeconomic analysis through a succession of key models, including Keynesian, Monetarist, New Classical, Real Business Cycle, New Keynesian, and Post Keynesian approaches. It studies the analytical details, the underlying economic assumptions, and the historical context in which they emerged. It also provides an introduction to structural theories of business cycles. You study economic growth and economic development, explaining the differences between the two and using historical examples. Classical, Keynesian, and neoclassical theories, as well as structural dynamics are discussed.

The final two weeks are devoted to the political economy of economic policy, from the viewpoint of different schools of thought: controversies on the effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policy, individual rationality applied to policy decisions, economic and political disagreements, models of voting on macro-policy, and recent developments.

This module builds on the first year module, Introductory Economics, by discussing, in depth, key theoretical insights from alternative schools of economic thought. This objective is achieved by focusing on a canon of key texts in the history of the subject, and tracing the evolution of the ideas emanating from, or strongly related to these texts, through time. The five main texts analysed are: Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, David Ricardo’s Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Alfred Marshall’s Principles of Economics, Wicksell’s Interest and Prices and John Maynard Keynes’ The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Each text is used as a starting point for a discussion on the evolution of the following economic concepts: specialisation and gains from trade, distribution theory, theory of the firm, theory of money, and the theory of aggregate macroeconomic relationships. Finally, the module discusses the link between past and contemporary economic thought, contextualising it within a broader perspective that includes points of view such as those of feminist economics and from geographically diverse traditions, and the use of these theoretical structures in analysing contemporary economic problems.

This module introduces the quantitative methods used by economists in their empirical work. You will be technically trained in estimation theory, and introduced to broader questions regarding the use of these tools in applied analysis.

You study the basic properties of the normal distribution, and the difference between the normal and other types of probability distributions. You also learn hypothesis testing and the basic theory for linear regressions and the use of ordinary least squares in empirical analysis. Furthermore, you will learn about problems that may arise with this estimation method.

This is followed by two weeks of methodology on statistics for the social sciences, and a philosophical discussion on the appropriate use and limits of these techniques in analysing social phenomena.

This module will focus on the application of quantitative theory using data sets that you were introduced to in the Quantitative Economics module.

With the guidance of the lecturer and associate lecturers, you will find and collect appropriate data (from Eurostat, OECD, UK and other national governments databases, etc.), form a research question and come up with statistical tests in order to test your hypothesis. You will then write a report that explains your findings and the reason you used this specific estimation tool in relation to your data set. An integral part of this is to consider the limitations of your statistical toolbox in analyzing the specific data set, and more broadly, the limitations of statistical analysis in answering policy or theoretical questions.

An important part of this module is to train you in using computer packages to analyse real data. Students will learn to use computer programs to run regressions, do hypothesis testing, correlation analysis and, more generally, analyze the raw data you have collected.

This module will critically examine contemporary law and policy, determining the scope and application of intellectual property rights (for example, copyright, trademarks and patents). It places emphasis on digital copyright and related issues such as performers’ rights, moral rights and database rights. You’ll be exposed to research and analysis on cutting-edge developments, such as big data and data mining and the impact of artificial intelligence on copyright The module also directs students to search for viable alternatives to European regulation of copyright that could apply after the UK will have withdrawn from the European Union. 

Guest lectures and specialist workshops delivered by Intellectual Property lawyers and representatives of selected industries with a stake in the regulation and enforcement of Intellectual Property legislation will allow students to critically assess Intellectual Property Law in its current socio-political and economic context.

The module adopts a blended learning approach, whereby students are expected to have read specific materials before arriving in the classroom, and an innovative ‘assessment by student participation’ method, where students are given marks for the level of contribution they make to learning in the classroom.

This module’s central purpose is to investigate the methods of historical enquiry useful for an economist and give a survey of the economic and social conditions from the industrial revolution until the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The first week covers historiography with special emphasis on the techniques economists and economic historians use. This week will focus on the various methods economic historians use, from statistical and data analysis, to economic theory applications and narrative histories, analysing the strength and weakness of each approach for different types of enquiry.

The rest of the module provides an overview of key economic and social changes in Europe for the period from the start of the industrial revolution until the fall of the Berlin Wall. You will learn about the economic, social and technological changes that occurred during these 250 years. You will learn about changes in wealth, aggregate income and income distribution, consumer habits, wages, trade and monetary aggregates. You will also learn about institutional changes (Labor and Poor Laws, Welfare State) and social changes (family structure, workers unions, literacy) and the interplay between institutional/social and economic structures. Finally, you will discuss the changing technological conditions of society during this period and its ramifications for the social and economic organisation of society.

This module not only gives you general knowledge of the economic and social evolution of Europe, but also provides context and gives you an understanding of why economic theory developed the way it did.

This module provides an introduction to a complex area of law, which forms part of the foundations of legal knowledge in UK law. It will take areas of certainty, based in statutory law, as its starting point, and will expose you to modern developments underpinned by case law.

Key themes include:

• registration of title
• the transfer of freehold land
• adverse possession
• consecutive and concurrent interests in land
• co-ownership
• leasehold estates
• mortgages
• easements
• protection of interests in land
• registered land and unregistered land

Special workshops led by legal professionals will address aspects of functioning legal knowledge relevant to Land Law, in line with the requirements of the new solicitors qualifying examination (SQE).

This module introduces the idiosyncratic concept of Trusts in English law. You will be exposed to the philosophies that underpin the institution of Trusts, and invited to think critically about the application of Trusts in practice, some of which raise significant ethical concerns, such as their application in the context of tax havens. 

Key themes include the creation and recognition of trusts, the regulation of trusts, trusts and third parties, and equity.

Special workshops led by legal professionals will address aspects of functioning legal knowledge relevant to Equity and Trusts, with a focus on Wills and the Administration of Estates and Trusts, in line with the requirements of the new solicitors qualifying examination (SQE).

The aim of this module is to introduce students to different paradigms in development economics as well as to practical issues in current development policy. This module builds on insights from the modules Economic History, Intermediate Macroeconomics, Applied Quantitative Economics and International Economics. The general sequence of the module is to start from a discussion of the notion of development, its historical origins and different measurements followed by four weeks of lectures on alternative development paradigms and their context, in particular state planning, structuralism and dependency theory, classical and neoclassical development theory, and institutionalist approaches are considered.

The second half of the module focuses on specific policy issues such as poverty, hunger and agriculture; global inequality; international trade; aid, finance and development banks; climate and environment; education; and the role of big and small businesses. Each week a general overview of these policy issues is presented and followed by an in-depth discussion and analysis of major recent reports or data in the field. Lectures are complemented by seminars which teach the students basic techniques of compiling policy briefs and other relevant forms of policy documents widely used by development agencies.

This module introduces students to economic reasoning and basic issues in economic methodology.

The module starts off with a concise introduction to key questions in the philosophy of science, such as explanation, laws, inductive and deductive reasoning, verification and falsification, scientific paradigms, and theories and models. These tools are then used to discuss the epistemological status of economics.

The following two weeks are devoted to what economics studies, and how. Competing definitions are presented, with a special focus on production and exchange paradigms, and the types of reasoning associated with them (economic change and systemic coherence vs. equilibrium and optimal allocation).

The next two weeks focus on levels of analysis (micro, macro, and intermediate) and methodological issues associated with them, such as individualism vs. holism.

The fourth part of the module addresses the dichotomy, which has divided economic analysis since the Methodenstreit, between general principles and historical contingency. It discusses the divide between economic theory and economic history, as well as possible ways ahead.

The last two weeks are devoted to rationality. They cover classical rationality, forms of bounded rationality, the problem of determination and freedom, and possible ways to overcome existing dichotomies and limitations.

This module will help students to develop a career plan and prepare for their employment search. It will cover practical aspects such as writing a CV, a cover letter and application forms and developing an internet presence through websites such as Linkedin. It will give students the tools to prepare for interviews, including case interviews, assessment centres, and psychometric tests. It will cover the development of soft skills such as leadership and networking skills as well as the development of commercial awareness through business case studies. The students will also be introduced to current theories of career development and employability.

Lots of students join Goldsmiths because they want to make a difference in society, to bring about positive change and develop skills and experiences which will allow them to access exciting careers. Goldsmiths’ Social Change module will allow you to do work on group projects with students from other departments to bring about change. You’ll be introduced to the UN’s Sustainable Development goals and core project management theories and practices allow you to work across a number of weeks towards a final Festival of Ideas where you’ll report work back to the academic and local community.

This module extends your knowledge on key microeconomic topics and gives you an interdisciplinary perspective. It focuses on social questions and introduces, in a critical manner, the types of answers economic theory provides. The four core questions investigated are:

• What goods should the government provide, and how should this provision be funded?
• How do we account and care for future generations?
• How do we deal with environmental issues?
• How does the government decide what action to take in a democratic society?

This module gives you an understanding of the international economy that integrates the real and monetary sides, and the economic and the political spheres. Different traditions of economic analysis will be used to shed lights on three main issues: the European Union and the Eurozone, China’s trade policy, and the international monetary system since Bretton Woods.

The first five weeks concentrate on trade. They cover the standard tools (comparative advantage, neoclassical trade theory, and new economic geography) as well as analytical and historical perspectives on international competition. It focuses on different insights concerning economic analysis and policy, as well as the integration with the political dimension.

The last five weeks focus on the international monetary system. By combining the standard tools of international macroeconomics with historical and analytical perspectives, the aim is to understand the evolution of the international monetary system since Bretton Woods, and its effects on national economies. Special attention is given to currency areas, especially the Eurozone, and to the connection between monetary arrangements and real and political aspects.

Commercial Law is continuously evolving, with new legal concepts and frameworks being designed to offer businesses sufficient flexibility in an increasingly competitive globalised environment. This module will introduce you to the key philosophies and practices that underpin this process.

Key themes will include: the law of agency (creation of the agency relationship, the authority of an agent, relations between principal and agent), the law relating to the domestic sale of goods (transfer of title, perishing of goods, delivery and payment, implied terms and statutory rights) and methods of payment, finance, and security.

Significant emphasis will be placed on international trade agreements, particularly in the context of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. First, the module will analytically inquire about the possibilities, challenges and opportunities in relation to trade with the EU after Brexit. It will look at the Customs Union and solutions that may lie outside the latter when pursuing a strong trade agreement with the EU. EFTA, GATT and WTO Law will be examined in that respect.

Analysis will then move on to non-EU trade, investigating how UK businesses could be offered certainty while the UK will be transitioning the dozens of trade agreements that the EU has in place with third countries, and considering the legal and logistical obstacles to agreeing new trade deals. Plans for bilateral agreement with the United States, India, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland will provide the focus of much discussion in this part. From a wider philosophical angle, the above will create scope for critical reflection on the idea of this ‘new age of bilateralism’ as a populist device.

Companies play a critical role in modern society, as the key mechanism for the conduct of business. How companies are regulated and operate has major ramifications for the economy of a country and the wellbeing of its citizens, particularly from the viewpoint of the protection of their fundamental rights as consumers and individual human beings.

This module will provide you with a thorough grounding in the key principles and jurisprudence underpinning UK company law. It will introduce you to European dimensions of company law and generate discussion on regulation post-Brexit, considering that UK company law has been influenced and shaped for over 40 years by legislation inspired and developed by the EU.

Ethical issues deriving from analysis of failures in corporate governance will also attract attention, particularly with reference to the relationship between directors and shareholders, and companies’ responsibility to society more generally.

Other topics discussed will include corporate personality and limited liability; raising capital; the constitution of the capital; corporate management; corporate governance; corporate rescue and liquidations.

Finally, in line with the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), the module will provide you with elements of functioning legal knowledge relevant to business law and practice, and will give you the opportunity to hone relevant skills in experiential learning activities. This could include advising a business start-up to meet a business’s objectives or applying the understanding of principles of contract law to advise a business client entering into a contractual arrangement.

This module combines resources from three fields of economic theory: macroeconomic analysis, history of economic thought and economic history.

The first seven weeks focus on six episodes in economic history, ending with the current (post 2007) crisis. The writings of different schools of economic thought are used and contrasted in order to see how different theorists understood and analyzed the crises and the types of solutions they offered to solve them. Discourses from outside economics (from psychology or/and sociology or/and anthropology) will also be utilized as competing interpretations that explain different aspects of these crises not captured by economic analysis.

Finally, the last three weeks will focus on the general concept of economic crises, and related concepts of risk and uncertainty, and discuss how these events alter our understanding of the workings of the market economy.

This module compares and contrasts the behaviour of individuals and institutions. It provides a more detailed understanding of the various levels of analysis that you have encountered throughout the degree and provides an applied discussion of the issues surrounding methodological individualism, including the social construction of the individual from different geographical and disciplinary traditions.

The first eight weeks of the module cover four levels: i) the individual; ii) firms and organisations; iii) the state; and iv) the supranational and international level.

The last two weeks are devoted to how individuals and institutions cope with uncertainty. The view of uncertainty as risk is integrated and contrasted with theories of strong and fundamental uncertainty, as well as perspectives from other social sciences.

This module explores the role of gender and race in areas of relevance to economics and management. You'll analyse gender and racial relations through both theoretical and methodological analyses, and look at how this relates to households, businesses and the wider economy.

You'll be introduced to multi-disciplinary theoretical viewpoints and use academic literature and everyday communication tools such as practitioner reports, blogs, podcasts and tweets. You'll gain the skills to critically evaluate current economic relations from a gendered and racial lens, develop suggestions to tackle current inequalities and communicate key insights to a wider audience with the help of a podcast.

Modules will be divided into two parts. The first part of each lecture will consist of introducing you to different theoretical viewpoints (e.g. stratification economics) and methodological approaches (e.g. social network analysis) while the second gives you the chance to take part in discussions of real-life case studies, and share your ideas through presentations with the class an element of their everyday life and its connection to conceptualizations of gender and race. 

The module will start with providing definitions of the concepts of gender and race and how these apply to management and economics, followed by weekly topics. Internalising the concept of de-disciplining (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2021), the weekly topics will be arranged according to different levels of institutional analysis (micro-, meso- and macro) and provide insights from diverse disciplines when explaining economic relations at this level of analysis. The particular focus lies in exploring how structural and normative constraints impact everyday economic relations and how these could be overcome. While the first eight weekly topics will be determined by the lecturer, you'll get the opportunity to input into the curriculum yourself, and help to choose the last two topics.

This forward-looking module draws on Goldsmith’s strengths in the areas of technology and creativity, and its rich heritage of fostering original thinking and innovation. The module asks novel questions about rapidly changing, highly sophisticated technologies, their impact on society and how they risk (or promise) to transform the legal profession.

Law is always playing catch-up with modern technology and this module will provide you with the technological, systemic, ethical and cultural understanding to keep abreast of new technologies, and to provide critical responses to them, including in relation to the risks for fundamental human rights.

Teaching on the module will be interdisciplinary. You will engage with tech experts and firms leading in the development, proliferation and use of such technologies, who will provide an essential understanding of how these technologies work in practice, what they aim to do and how they affect us. Legal experts will then raise critical questions about how law can (and whether it should) regulate such technologies, and the logistical and ethical challenges that arise when attempting to do so.

Specific areas of discussion will range from year to year. Key debates will include:

• data protection, and how the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is changing the existing landscape
• the challenges and opportunities in the use of Big Data; the ‘Cambridge Analytica’ scandal will provide an important case study. The class will reflect on the implications of global corporations and governmental authorities obtaining access to such data
• cybercrime and the regulation of internet communications, particularly in the social media environment; these will be analysed through the lens of the conflict between privacy and freedom of speech
• the impact of disruptive technologies on existing markets, and how far can regulation go: ‘Uber’, ‘Netflix’, the ‘Blockchain’ technology and regulation of crypto-currencies like ‘bitcoin’ will provide interesting case studies
• cloud computing and the risks for data protection and the right to privacy
• AI’s implications on the workplace: the first stages in the recruitment process may soon have little human interaction or AI may be used to defeat latent bias in recruitment and reduce the gender pay gap; how should Law respond to these developments?
• Ethics and AI: can artificial intelligence make a value judgment in a ‘lesser evil’ scenario, for example would a self-driving car be programmed to protect its passengers at all costs and what should be the implications where it decides to do so at the cost of an innocent bystander? Or how should we conceptualise criminal liability where it is a robot that has committed a mistake, for example in conducting a medical operation?

The pioneering Art Law module at Goldsmiths is strongly grounded in the university’s rich heritage in the creative arts. The Department of Art, which has a leading reputation internationally and whose academics, students and graduates form part of London’s dynamic art world, provides a unique backdrop against which students in the LLB (Hons) Law will critically explore the interactions between their discipline and the world of art.

The module will start by introducing students to essential knowledge and understanding of contemporary art. It will then focus on providing you with a sound understanding of the legal principles that concern the operation of the commercial art world, and the ability to engage in critical analysis and evaluation of contemporary issues in art and law. You may explore the formation of contracts in art market transactions, corporate practice in the art world, the application of intellectual property law (for example copyright and moral rights) to artistic work, artists’ rights in relation to their work, and cultural heritage restrictions to the international trade of art, among other topics. 

Graduates from the LLB (Hons) Law programme who take Art Law as an option will be well placed to pursue a career in commercial art galleries, auction houses, fine art insurance, museums and similar. This is a competitive but lucrative and continually growing area of law, with the UK performing for many years as the second largest art market in the world.

This module explores the emerging field of behavioural economics – a body of work that lies in the interface between economics and other disciplines, such as psychology, sociology and philosophy.

The module builds on introductory economics knowledge. It engages in a detailed, critical analysis of the assumptions that characterize homo economicus – the rational economic actor. It outlines important empirical challenges and criticisms levelled against viewing agents as expected utility maximisers. In doing so, it covers different strands of behavioural economics – both classical (developed primarily by Herbert Simon) and modern (developed, among others, by Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky and Richard Thaler). It examines their historical origins, pioneers, philosophical underpinnings, methodological differences and important insights. 

The module explores psychological and philosophical foundations of human decision makers and examines the role of cognitive limitations, constrained computational abilities, emotions, social preferences and the decision environment in shaping the behaviour of human agents. It develops fundamental notions such as bounded rationality, satisficing and heuristic decision-making and presents a selection of models that employ them. It also sketches the different fields of economics and social sciences where these insights are fruitfully applied. The ethical and philosophical conundrums associated with translating some of these insights in to actionable public policy and designing institutions are also analysed.

This module expands on the topic of macroeconomics and focuses on the nature of money and credit in the modern economy. It covers the different public and private institutions that govern behavior in the modern financial economy, and their historical evolution in different parts of the world.

For example, it discusses the central banks of US, UK, Japan and the Eurozone, as their decision making structures, capacities and occasionally objectives, are partly determined by their different histories.

Furthermore, the module covers the theoretical analysis underpinning the modern operation of central, commercial and investment banks. It covers topics of exchange rates, the supply of money, interest rate setting, and the evolving institutional political economy that banks operate in.

It introduces students to central bank balance sheet analysis in relation to liquidity and capital assets. Finally it presents key aspects of the recent literature on regulation that has substantially altered operations in the financial sector since the 2008 crisis.