LLB (Hons) Law

Delivered near the heart of legal London, this module will introduce you to domestic sources of law and key institutions of the English Legal System, including fundamental principles and rules of the civil justice system, in line with the new Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE).

The module adopts a highly contextual and cosmopolitan approach. Visits to legal courts and other venues of legal significance in London provide a deeper understanding of how these institutions work in reality, and how professional parties operate in practice. Principles, rules and institutional aspects of the English Legal System are also compared and contrasted with selected examples from foreign and international jurisdictions such as Canada, the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, France, Greece, the European Court of Human Rights, the Court of Justice of the European Union and International Court of Justice.

As part of your assessment, you will be given the opportunity to put theory into action. You will take part in comparative ‘mock trial’ exercises that offer a representation of trials in common law and Continental European law to draw conclusions about the differences and similarities between common law and civil law institutions.

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.

This module critically explores the definition, scope and application of criminal offences and the theories that underpin them. You will gain a systematic understanding of the practical, cultural, ethical, institutional and socio-political context within which these apply, with reference to feminist and human rights perspectives. Analysis will be continually informed by reference to criminalisation theories, with a view to identifying, and critically reflecting upon, liberal or more conservative interpretations. The need for reform will be critically assessed from a normative and practical, evidence-based, perspective.

We will explore themes such as general principles of criminal liability, homicide offences and non-fatal violent offences against the person, sexual offences, property offences and secondary participation in crime. Key discussions will include engagement with police station procedure and suspects’ rights, prosecutorial discretion, pleas, pre-trial hearings, and trial procedure including the exclusion of improperly obtained evidence.

The key aspects of criminal law theory that you will cover in the module are in line with relevant qualifying exam guidance, particularly the SQE1. The module also incorporates activities such as guest lectures and workshops delivered by criminal justice professionals, study visit(s) to the Old Bailey and/or local Magistrates and Crown Court, participation in relevant VR experiences and observation of/participation in mock Crown Court trial and mooting.

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.

This module introduces the theoretical principles, institutional structures and legal practices that underpin Constitutional and Administrative Law in the UK, and their intricate relationship with human rights law.

You will develop a contextual understanding of this area, with significant emphasis on the constitutional crisis generated by Brexit. Through this you will explore fundamental constitutional law concepts from the angle of the current ‘political crisis’: parliamentary sovereignty; the Royal Prerogative; the relationship between the House of Commons and House of Lords; the separation of powers; the role of the UK Supreme Court in constitutional matters and challenges to judicial independence; devolution; the absence of a written Constitution. 

Significant emphasis is placed on the effect of the Human Rights Act on common law doctrines in public law. You will investigate the links between Brexit and the debate on the repeal of the Human Rights Act from a historic and socio-legal perspective, with direct reference to Eurosceptic and isolationist trends in the UK. The module also examines the range of public law processes that regulate the relationship between the individual and the state, with a focus on judicial review.

To bridge the gap between theory and practice, the module integrates research and public engagement activities undertaken as part of the ‘Britain in Europe’ think tank and ‘Knowing Our Rights’ (KOR) research project. This may involve meeting MPs, select committee and ‘Britain in Europe’ experts; attending research events; taking part in human rights workshops delivered at local schools as part of KOR (selected groups of students); visiting Parliament, when in session, or attending select committee hearings.

As part of the assessment strategy for this module you will have the opportunity to take part in a simulated parliamentary debate.

One of the paradoxes of the EU referendum in the UK, and the decision to leave the European Union, is that EU law has become a hotly debated and controversial area of law, and one that future lawyers practicing in the UK will need to continue to master, arguably for years, if not decades, to come (whereas in the past, EU law was often devoid of attention, in the socio-political landscape at least).

Goldsmiths takes a novel and dynamic approach to teaching this area of law, fully equipping you with the knowledge and skills that you will be required to possess as a future lawyer, at a time when the UK is disentangling itself from thousands of pieces of EU legislation and starting to design the domestic legislation that will have to substitute for them.

You will be introduced to the key EU institutions and fundamental principles of law, for example, the legislative mechanisms by which EU law is produced and incorporated in Member States, and the relationship between EU law and domestic law. But it will also take you much further than that.

It will place the operation of EU law in the UK in its – critical – historical and current socio-political context to ask whether the often-obscure institutional mechanisms and characteristics central to EU law played a part in, or actually facilitated, the negative representations to which it was subjected in British media. The EU referendum will be examined as a case study for the analysis of Eurosceptic challenges facing the application of EU law today in several EU member states, suggesting avenues for enhancing transparency and accessibility of EU law and its institutions.

Significant emphasis will be placed on the challenging process of formally repealing, then retaining, the vast majority of existing EU legislation, within the strict deadlines of the Article 50 process, with a parallel focus on threats to human rights inherent in the loss of relevant legislation (notably the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union), threats to peace and security in Northern Ireland, or the economic impact of Brexit. 

The module will take you beyond the classroom, bringing you in contact with key players in current debates on EU law such as MPs, Members of European Parliament (MEPs), Human Rights NGO experts, policymakers and members of EU institutions. This will be in the context of guest lectures by visiting fellows to Goldsmiths and EU officials, participation in a wide range of high profile research and public engagement events organised by Goldsmiths-based thinktank on EU law and policy and participation in simulation-based activity.

This module equips you with a sound understanding of and the ability to critically analyse and apply, the theories underpinning the law of Tort. It introduces the concepts of civil wrongs and injuries, compensation, the protection of interests in property, reputation and personal freedom.

Key themes include:

• the law of negligence (exploring key concepts such as omissions and acts of third parties, duty of care, standard of care, breach of duty of care)
• special liability regimes (occupiers’ liability, product liability, employers’ liability, breach of statutory duty)
• personal torts (invasion of privacy and defamation)
• land torts (trespass)
• vicarious liability and damages for death and personal injuries

You will have opportunities to engage with the intellectually challenging philosophical questions which define how far liability under Tort should extend, for example, the extent to which a person should be vicariously held accountable for the mistakes of others. The module will also expose you to international and foreign law perspectives, placing English law in a global context. European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence will provide a key point of reference, concerning human rights violations by states and businesses.

Special workshops led by legal professionals will address aspects of functioning legal knowledge relevant to Tort, notably dispute resolution in Tort (in relation to contracts). These workshops will be in line with requirements in the new solicitors qualifying examination (SQE).

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).

This module provides you with a sound understanding of UK immigration policy, as underpinned by the statutory legislation, case law and wider political and philosophical discussions that determine the purpose and extent of domestic immigration controls, and protections afforded to immigrants (or lack thereof).

You will be introduced to the wider legislative and jurisprudential (legal) framework applying to immigration controls. The focus will then turn to topical and controversial case studies – such as analysis of the ‘hostile environment’ policy, indefinite immigration detention, the rights of EU citizens in the UK and the refugee crisis. These case studies offer the opportunity to analyse UK law in its cultural and socio-political context, with reference to domestic and international human rights protections.

Specialist workshops delivered by immigration lawyers, government officials and NGO experts will allow you to critically assess immigration law in its current socio-political and economic context.

Throughout this module you will be expected to have read specific materials before arriving in the classroom, and be assessed by an innovative ‘assessment by student participation’ method, where you will be given marks for your level of contribution to learning in the classroom.

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.

The module considers a number of issues broadly concerning crime: both criminal acts themselves and the legal, penal, civil society and policing frameworks which address and frame them. The module explores longstanding philosophical and social theoretical questions about the relationship between crime, the law, justice and rights. It is specifically concerned with the actualisation of ideas, theory, principles and discourse into practice and lived experience.

The module is structured around guest speakers who will talk about their experiences and research concerning how things actually happen, in relation to theories and ideas about how things are said to happen.

The module explores the space between law’s conceptualisation of itself as being neutral, above and outside society, and a social critique of that conceptualisation which focuses on all the ways in which law falls short of its own ideals. Law is understood as a relationship between concepts and their actualisations by social actors; a relationship between the conceptual and the material.

The module also considers the institutions of criminal justice systems (for example, police, judiciary, legal defence and prosecution, legal support, sentencing, prison).

This module looks at the law through a sociological lens. Treating it as a social institution, we explore the role of law in the organisation of society and the establishment (and maintenance) of social order.

We consider the relationship between legal and social norms and the ways in which they inform, reinforce and/or challenge each other. Through a series of local and international case studies focused on contemporary social issues affecting our world, we examine how the law responds to and, in some cases, triggers social change. We also explore law outside of legal institutions to consider its role in broader social processes and discourses.

Examples of the types of case studies we may consider include:

• changing social conceptions of the family and the law’s response
• the relationship between law and the body
• the law’s role in responding to sexism, racism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination
• social and legal conceptions of justice and deviance
• the development of human rights and international law
• the role of law in post-atrocity settings
• law and morality in relation to issues like euthanasia, abortion, torture and alternative sexual practices
• the law in the War on Terror
• the place of law in a multicultural society

Global issues of crime and crime control are of double importance in criminology. Firstly, they demand sophisticated new methods for their comprehension; and secondly they demand that we revisit the theories we have previously used.

Criminologists now recognize that many of our theories, developed during colonialism and empire, are not relevant outside of the global north, and may even be harmful. As a result, contemporary criminologists need to learn to think globally in comprehending and researching transnational and global forms of crime.

This module has a theoretical core that draws on post-colonial theory, and critical theory of globalisation. Substantively, it examines a wide variety of forms of transnational and global crime including organised crime, drug trafficking and human trafficking, the so-called war on drugs and border control.

The dissertation module will include lectures and seminars where students will be provided guidance on how to research and structure their dissertation, and where they will be exposed to developments and contemporary debates within a range of related areas.

These lectures and seminars will provide students with a unique opportunity to work with Law academics, Goldsmiths academics from other departments, Law Visiting Professors, and other external partners, who will have leading expertise within wide thematic areas related to the dissertation.

These lectures and seminars will also provide a platform for students and academics teaching in the programme to engage in relevant interactive exercises, study visits and public engagement work. Activities will include attendance in research seminars, public debates, film screenings, exhibitions, and other events of interest to relevant thematic areas, at Goldsmiths and in the city.

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 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 involves a series of lectures on history and contemporary developments of international media law and ethics.

Specific topics include the legal problematising of journalism, defamation law and contempt issues, debates in media ethics, state security and secrecy, professional codes and practices, privacy, human rights and international law, and international comparisons.

Studying the law of Criminal Evidence will be a primary focus for all students wishing to enter the Bar or practice in criminal law more generally. This module will equip you with a sophisticated understanding of, and the ability to apply, the rules relating to the admissibility, use and appreciation of evidence in criminal trials.

Throughout the module, you will explore topics such as confessions; the right to silence and the privilege against self-incrimination; identification evidence; undercover police operations; exclusionary rules for evidence obtained in violation of human rights; character evidence; and the course of evidence, with a focus on examination in chief and cross-examination.

The module adopts a legal cosmopolitanism approach. It will examine domestic legislation, case law and practice through the lens of international human rights and comparative law. The right against torture, the right to fair trial and the right to privacy will provide the required focus with regards to the former; the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights will be a key point of reference in that respect. Examples from Commonwealth countries, the United States, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Greece will ensure that sufficient comparative law coverage is provided, and that strengths and weaknesses of English common law come to the surface.

As well as learning about the theory of the law of Criminal Evidence, you will gain crucial advocacy skills through guest lectures by leading practitioners. These skills are then put into action, and assessed, in the context of participation in mooting competitions. 

The module adopts an innovative ‘assessment by student participation’ method, where students are given marks for the quality of their participation in mooting.

This module will provide you with a solid foundation for the second stage of the new solicitors qualifying examinations (SQE2), and the Bar qualifying equivalent.

It will introduce you to the five practical legal skills assessments that form part of SQE2:

• Client Interviewing
• Advocacy/Persuasive Oral Communication
• Case and Matter Analysis
• Legal Research and Written Advice
• Legal Drafting

The teaching and assessment of these skills will be set in the following contexts:

• Business Practice
• Wills and the Administration of Justice 

The module adopts an innovative ‘assessment by student participation’ method, where students are given marks for the quality of their participation in relevant legal practice activities.

This module is designed in line with the ‘SQE – Draft Assessment Specification’ document published in June 2017. Appropriate adjustments will be made to the content of this module to accommodate any changes in related SRA guidance and forthcoming guidance by the Bar Standards Board.

This module will provide you with a solid foundation in European human rights law as it applies in the United Kingdom. It will focus on the application of specific rights in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), using these as case studies to shed light on the general philosophies that underpin its operation in practice.

You will explore:

• the right to fair trial
• the right to private and family life
• freedom of thought, conscience and religion
• the right to marry and start a family
• and the protection of discrimination in respect of the rights in the Convention.

Analysis of several recent reforms of the Court and Convention system will enable you to evaluate the political and logistical challenges that it is faced with.

Analysis of the ECHR’s application in the UK will be undertaken against the backdrop of the debate on UK withdrawal from the Convention and the potential repeal of the Human Rights Act, as a case study of the political, cultural and institutional factors that can affect the implementation of international human rights in domestic jurisdictions. 

The law of the ECHR will also be examined in parallel with rights protected under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, with reference to the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union. This will allow students to obtain a holistic view of, and critically reflect upon, the state of human rights in the UK, particularly after withdrawal from the European Union. 

The module will incorporate guest lectures by leading European Human Rights experts, attendance in research seminars and study visits to areas of interest, including an annual visit to the European Court of Human Rights for selected students.

Specific details about guest lectures, research seminars and the annual study visit will be made available by the department on an annual basis.

This module will offer students the opportunity to take part in Goldsmiths’ Human Rights Clinic.

This involves a range of activities, such as:

• Advising clients: Some students will work alongside barristers or solicitors specialising in human rights adjudication. They will research relevant topics such as immigration, housing, data protection, and will advise clients, under supervision, on the human rights dimensions of their cases. Students will be introduced to general principles of clinical legal education and ethics, and related skills, such as client interviewing and legal drafting.
• Participation in Knowing Our Rights project: This will involve participation in a number of research activities such as school human rights workshops, researching human rights jurisprudence, blogging, participation in research events and the production of short human rights videos.
• Participation in Human Rights mooting competitions: Students will be entered into ELSA’s annual European Court of Human Rights Mooting Competition and/or the ‘Knowing Our Rights’ annual inter-University mooting competition.

Students may be able to take part in only one or all of the above. Specific details about clinical supervision, and the ECtHR and Knowing Our Rights moots, will be made available by the department on an annual basis.

In addition to the clinical elements, this module will provide students with a solid foundation in European human rights law as it applies in the United Kingdom. It will focus on the application of specific rights in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as case studies that will shed light on the general philosophies that underpin its operation in practice.

The ECHR’s application in the UK and the debate on UK withdrawal from the Convention and the potential repeal of the Human Rights Act, will be used as a case study of the political, cultural and institutional factors that can affect the implementation of international human rights in domestic jurisdictions.

The law of the ECHR will also be examined in parallel with rights protected under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, with reference to the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union. This will allow you to obtain a holistic view of, and critically reflect upon, the state of human rights in the UK, particularly after withdrawal from the European Union.

The module will incorporate guest lectures by leading European Human Rights experts, attendance in research seminars and study visits to areas of interest, including an annual visit to the European Court of Human Rights for selected students.

The module adopts an innovative ‘assessment by student participation’ method, where students are given marks for the level of contribution they make to learning in the classroom and the quality of their performance in relevant clinical and experiential learning activities.

As incarceration rates reach record levels around the world, the use of penal power and its impact upon those subject to it are urgent areas of social inquiry. Taking perspectives from sociology and criminology, this module will introduce key debates about what prison is for, what it does, and what alternatives may be possible. We will ask how practices of imprisonment have been intertwined with other aspects of state power in historical and contemporary contexts.

Focusing primarily on Britain and the United States, we will pay particular attention to the interaction of penal policies with structures of racism, gender, class, nation and disability, examining the prison as a ‘concrete space where global inequalities play out’ (Bosworth and Kaufman 2013, 171).

We will engage with classic and contemporary research to think about the lived experiences of prisoners on the inside, as well as how regimes of imprisonment shape the social terrain and broader discourses of identity, citizenship and social order on the outside.

The central question in this module is: ‘what is to be done about crime?’

This module engages with contemporary developments in criminology and criminal justice, for example, the use of forensic science in crime detection, the impact of austerity and privatization on criminal justice agencies and the introduction of novel alternatives such as restorative justice.

This module also engages with theoretical debates about the nature of justice, punishment and rehabilitation. Reflecting the sociological approach central to the degree, this module pays close attention to social inequalities, such as gender, class, ethnicity etc.

This is an advanced level module that builds on modules such as Policing the State, Criminological Imaginations I and II and Criminal Justice in Context by engaging with key theoretical debates in criminology.

The module will provide the opportunity for advanced study of psychological science applied to the investigation of crime and the process of criminal law. Research will be primarily, but not exclusively, drawn from applied cognitive psychology. The syllabus will cover current issues in psychology and law, for example: interviewing suspects and witnesses, confessions, detection of deception, eyewitness testimony, eyewitness identification, offender profiling, and CCTV. Material from case studies will be used throughout.

The module will be of interest to students considering postgraduate study in forensic psychology.

This module encourages you to engage critically with the rights discourses that underpin development agendas in the contemporary world. You will consider the historical evolution of rights discourses, the institutions that have been established to uphold rights, the language of Human Rights used in international law, as well as the concept of rights as understood by development organisations, governments and multilaterals (such as the UN). You will also analyse the cross-cutting – and often competing – claims made in the name of, for example, gender and child rights, indigenous rights, intellectual property rights, animal and environmental rights, customary law and bioethics.

The module provides an opportunity to explore the concept and discourses of rights in relation to numerous contemporary social issues (such as natural disasters, constitutional reform, war crimes tribunals, environmental disputes and gender politics), and consider the purchase of the rights concept (and its limitations) within development discourses and practices, as well as in relation to patterns of governance and social justice.