School of Law PROGRAMME HANDBOOK FOR LLB

Transcription

1 The University of Manchester Faculty of Humanities School of Law PROGRAMME HANDBOOK FOR LLB This Handbook provides details specific to your degree programme; see also the School of Law Handbook for general information for all Law School students. Further information is on our WEB SITES: Students are strongly encouraged to browse through the web sites listed below. ManLaw, the Law School intranet (for copies of Law lecture handouts and examinations information, and links to the other useful web sites) Law School public web site (includes telephone and contact information for all staff: Published September 2008

2 CONTENTS THE LLB PROGRAMME PAGE Welcome from the LLB Programme Director 3 1 STAFF RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LLB PROGRAMME 1.1 Programme Director Board of Studies for Law programmes 4 2 PROGRAMME AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES 4 3 PROGRAMME CONTENT, DESIGN AND ORGANISATION 5 including information on course unit details 4 PROFESSIONAL LINKS 6 5 EXAMINATIONS 7 6 STUDENT REPRESENTATION AND FEEDBACK 7 7 PLAGIARISM STATEMENT 8 Appendix PDP form for semester one, year one Semester Grid First Year Lecture Timetable Grid LLB Programme Handbook page 2

3 WELCOME Welcome to the University of Manchester s School of Law. The School of Law enjoys a national and international reputation and staff here hope you will enjoy studying in this lively environment. The School of Law provides you with a learning environment that combines attentive teaching, a rigorous curriculum, and a broad range of practical skills development. On the pages that follow, you'll learn the details of our programme in legal education. What you get out of your time at law school depends significantly on what you put into it. Your education is a shared responsibility. The teaching staff have a responsibility to encourage and motivate you, and to challenge you to fulfil your potential and goals. You, the student, have a responsibility to participate actively in this shared enterprise in preparing for classes, engaging in discussion, and ultimately making up your own minds on where you stand on contested issues of law and policy. Legal education is not confined to the training of lawyers. The study of law is not only meaningful and useful as a preparation for a career in the legal profession, but also as a vehicle for cultivating general analytical and linguistic skills, learning about how society, politics and the economy function, and engaging with the ethical values that inform a civilised and humane society. As such, legal education at Manchester may be viewed as a preparation for a diversity of careers. Have a great year! Dr Paul Kearns Programme Director for the LLB Degree September 2008 LLB Programme Handbook page 3

4 1 STAFF RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LLB PROGRAMME 1.1 Programme Director of LLB The Programme Director for the LLB degree is Dr Paul Kearns. 1.2 Board of Studies for Law Programmes and Teaching and Learning Committee The Board of Studies for Law Programmes is responsible for the management of the LLB degree, and other degrees which include mainly law subjects. The chair of this Board is Professor John Birds. This Board deals with the curricula and structure of the law programmes as well as examinations and assessment. The Law School Teaching & Learning Committee is a senior committee responsible for policy decisions relating to all teaching within the Law School. The Chair of this Committee is ex officio the School s Director of Teaching and Learning, who is Professor Dora Kostakopoulou. 2 LLB PROGRAMME AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES The LLB programme aims are as follows: Provide students with a knowledge and understanding of law as an academic discipline, at a breadth and depth appropriate to a first degree qualification and to satisfy the Academic Stage of training for the General Council of the Bar and the Law Society of England and Wales. Provide students with a strong grounding in the basic principles and rules of English Law and European Law and some awareness of other legal systems. Impart an understanding of the institutions of the law, and their social, economic and political context. Offer high quality teaching informed by research. Develop students critical interest in the reform of the law. Promote an appreciation of the responsibilities of lawyers to the courts, the legal profession, the community and individuals within it Promote an appreciation of the role of justice in the legal system. Provide students with the opportunity to develop specialised knowledge and skills in certain areas of laws of their choice. Offer students the opportunity to study, as part of their degree, a limited number of lawrelated subjects, and non law subjects, taught by other schools in the University. Offer students the opportunity to study abroad, as part of their degree, in high quality institutions with which Manchester School of Law maintains student exchange programmes. Encourage initiative, independent learning, and commitment to scholarship of the highest quality. Develop students' powers of inquiry, critical analysis, and logical thinking. Develop students range of transferable skills, such as computer literacy, numeracy, LLB Programme Handbook page 4

5 written and oral communication. Develop students generic skills, such as critical thinking and reasoning, identification of flaws and strengths in an argument, the ability to apply abstract concepts to factual situations, whether real or hypothetical, and offer a reasoned outcome (problem solving). Provide students with the knowledge and skills to equip them for a range of careers in law and in other related fields. It is expected that a majority of students will be seeking a professional legal qualification. The degree programme offers a strong foundation for such a career and satisfies the professional bodies in respect of a qualifying law degree. Help students to develop social skills, an understanding of society and of the role of law within society. Students are offered the chance to develop educational skills in the context of meeting members of the law profession and international staff, students and visitors. Learning Outcomes are described fully in the Programme Specification, which you can download from the Law Intranet web page for current UG students. 3 LLB PROGRAMME CONTENT, DESIGN AND ORGANISATION The curriculum for the LLB degree is summarised below. There are undergraduate degree regulations which apply to all undergraduate programmes in the University and are published in the School of Law UG Regulations Booklet, which may be downloaded from the Law School intranet page for current UG students. It is important for LLB students to note that the University regulations specify minimum criteria in relation to examination results. The LLB has additional and more demanding requirements, to maintain its professional accreditation as a qualifying law degree. See section 5 on Examinations. Individual course unit syllabuses, aims and learning outcomes, teaching and assessment methods are described fully in the Course Unit pages on the Law School web site (start at These descriptions are not available in hard copy. Students must complete 120 credits of course units in each year of the programme. All Law School course units which LLB students may take last for a single semester and almost all are of the value of 20 credits, so LLB students typically do three course units per semester. The compulsory course units are designed to ensure that every student gains a sufficient grounding in the fundamental branches of the law, and the optional course units provide an opportunity to develop particular interests and to deepen understandings. First Year LLB Semester One LAWS Public Law I 20 credits Compulsory LAWS Contract Law 20 credits Compulsory LAWS Legal Method and Systems 20 credits Compulsory Semester Two LAWS Criminal Law 20 credits Compulsory LAWS Tort 20 credits Compulsory LAWS Public Law II 20 credits Compulsory LLB Programme Handbook page 5

6 Second Year LLB Compulsory courses: LAWS Equity and Trusts 20 credits Compulsory LAWS European Community Law 20 credits Compulsory LAWS Land Law 20 credits Compulsory LAWS Jurisprudence 20 credits Compulsory Optional courses 20 credits to be chosen: Law Level 3 list 20 credits Optional Optional courses 20 credits to be chosen: Law Level 3 list 20 credits Optional Humanities Level 2 list credits Optional Humanities Level 3 list credits Optional CARS Leadership in Action 20 credits Optional CARS Leadership in Action Sem 1 10 credits Optional Third year LLB Semester One and Two Optional course units totalling 60 credits per semester (current Level Three options listed on the Law School web site) Individual course unit syllabuses are outlined on the Law School web site course unit pages, starting at Advice on which options to choose for the next year of your degree will be provided at Options Fairs in the Spring (dates on the Diary page of the Law School intranet) Students who opt to do a dissertation as one of the optional course units (only available in year 3) will be given special guidelines for writing and producing it. The guidelines are available to download from the Law School intranet examinations index. Students may take free options of up to 40 credits. A free option is a course unit offered by another School. Those interested in studying a new language for example may wish to pursue this opportunity, but there is a strong presumption against your being given permission to do a language free option, if you are a native speaker of that language, or ordinarily resident in the country where that language is the first language, or use the language regularly. Level One subjects are not permitted in third year. A Reading List of the books required for each course unit is available on the course unit pages on the Law School intranet. 4 Professional Links The LLB is a qualifying law degree, which enables students to go on to professional legal training, with maximum exemption from professional courses (subject, in general terms, to passing all your course units). Students may gain experience of work as a legal professional by working in our own Legal Advice Centre, either as a volunteer, or through one of the course units which include Legal Advice Centre work as part of the curriculum. LLB Programme Handbook page 6

7 5 Examinations LLB students' examinations details are set out in the document UG Regulations. Students are strongly encouraged to consult these (on the examinations index of the Law intranet website) but if this is difficult for any reason, you may collect a copy of this from the Law School UG Office. These documents describe in full how examinations procedures are operated. It is especially important for LLB students to appreciate that the rules which apply to the LLB are not the same as those applied to other degree programmes in the University, especially in relation to compensation for failed papers. One narrow fail (down to 35%) may be compensated by good marks elsewhere, but this applies only to certain subjects (not professional exemption subjects) and generally it only applies to one course unit in the whole of your degree programme. 6 Student Representation and Feedback Students from each year of the LLB programme are elected to serve on the Staff Student Committee of the School, which in turn elects students to serve on the Law School board; Board of Studies for Law Programmes and Teaching and Learning Committee. Questionnaires on teaching, (seminars and lectures), are issued in a selection of your course units each semester. Reports on the questionnaire outcome each semester are delivered to the Law Staff Student Committee, the Board of Studies for Law Programmes, and are published on the Law intranet. LLB Programme Handbook page 7

8 7 Plagiarism Statement Plagiarism is presenting the ideas, work or words of other people without proper, clear and unambiguous acknowledgement. Remember: no matter what pressure you may be under to complete an assignment, you should never succumb to the temptation to take a short cut and use someone else s material inappropriately. No amount of mitigating circumstances will get you off the hook, and if you persuade other students to let you copy their work, they risk being disciplined as well. Why you should not plagiarise: You WILL be caught!! The penalties can be very severe eg exclusion, suspension, loss of credit (you will only get a pass degree), resubmission, or reduction of marks (you will be failed!) You will not have learnt anything Your ethics will be corrupted, which can be noted on your permanent academic record Any proven charges will be reflected in any referees reports Your marks will not improve you will get higher grades if you can develop your own ideas, and not steal someone else s. You can be penalised even if you have not intended to plagiarise. Unintentional plagiarism will still be dealt with severely. The University plagiarism policy can be found in the School of Law Handbook, and at: guidance for students.pdf You may also find it useful to look at the following: which provides guidance on essay writing and referencing. If in doubt, ask a member of academic staff. LLB Programme Handbook page 8