In your final year you must choose from Pathway A or Pathway B.
Pathway A is designed for students who are not intending a future career as a Solicitor,if you are are undecided about your future career or do not require specific preparatory learning for the external Solicitors Qualifying Examination.
Core unit
- Legal Research Project: This unit aims to provide you with the opportunity to conduct research on a topic relevant to law and to reflect upon and undertake subject matter related to any relevant work-based learning experience. You will develop critical thinking, your conceptual understanding of law and will evaluate new and existing research.
Option units (choose five)
- Health Care Law: This unit will provide you with knowledge and understanding of the main legal features of the relationships between patients/ users and the National Health Service and other health care providers operating in England and Wales. You will evaluate the success of the relationships and interactions between the law, patients/ users and the health care system/ professionals in selected areas and to further develop your independent research skills.
- Criminal Justice: You will gain a critical understanding of the subject of criminal law and the criminal justice system which goes beyond the foundation subject and purely domestic law. You will be encouraged to review the law in light of broader influences, eg social, corporate and political, and from various comparative and socio-legal perspectives.
- Informational Interests & the Law: The unit will provide you with knowledge and understanding of the wider legal context associated with the creation, collation, processing, communication and storage of information. It specifically addresses the disruptive impact of modern technologies on existing legal and regulatory categories and frameworks. You will identify current and future areas of disruption, and critically evaluate the use, success and appropriateness of law and regulation as a response mechanism to the management of ‘Informational Interests’.
- Intellectual Property Law: Intellectual property is recognised as one of the driving engines of a high-technology economy. As such the advances in technology as well as business practices have a significant impact on intellectual property laws. You will gain an understanding of the general principles of the substantive laws relating to contemporary issues in intellectual property law and their application within the industry.
- Jurisprudence: Jurisprudence is an important subject that considers the broader role and functioning of law and the legal system. This unit will give you the broadest understanding of the law as a discipline in its own right. You should then have an understanding and critical approach to the meaning of law in the context of traditions of thought, both historical and normative.
- Public International & International Criminal Law: You will be encouraged to understand theory of public international law, structures of international legal obligations and the subjects of this international legal order. (2) The unit will also develop your critical understanding of the subject of international criminal justice. You will be asked to review theories, law, policies and practices in light of developments at international criminal justice institutions, most notably the International Criminal Court, but also within the wider framework of international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
- Environmental Law: In this unit you will critically consider the dynamics of the legal and policy applications of environmental law and its role in environmental protection. Functioning legal rules and other governance tools are mainstays of the movement towards environmental protection, security and sustainable development. Laws on permitting, standards, compliance and enforcement mechanisms, voluntary instruments, liability regimes and citizens’ environmental rights all play a part in translating policies, goal and social objectives into reality.
- Media & Entertainment Law: You will study the various issues surrounding the mass media and popular culture. Due to advances in technology and the media, Media and Entertainment Law is of increasing significance in legal professional practice, industry and business, it crosses over various legal fields including but not limited to intellectual property law, tort law and contract law.
- Solicitor Ethics & Conduct: This unit aims to prepare you for the Solicitors’ Qualifying Exam: Part 1 (SQE1). It will provide you with the functioning legal knowledge needed on professional ethics, duties and conduct, and the ability to properly identify and apply that knowledge to questions and scenarios. You can then build on this knowledge in the subsequent period of Qualifying Work Experience.
- Employment Law: This unit aims to provide a technically and academically stimulating examination of the issues within employment and labour law faced by employers, employees and workers. You will develop the abaility to apply the fundamental principles of employment and labour law to a wide range of workplace situations and draw appropriate conclusions.
Pathway B is designed for students who are intending a future career as a Solicitor in England and Wales. The teaching and learning on this pathway aims to assist you in preparing for the external Solicitors Qualifying Examination, Part 1 assessments, due to be introduced in Autumn 2021.
Core units
- Legal Research Project: This unit aims to prepare you for the Principles of Professional Conduct, Public and Administrative Law, and the Legal System of England and Wales Assessment in Part 1 of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination. It will also facilitate preparation for the Part 1 Practical Skills Assessment and provide you with the opportunity to undertake research on practice- based areas.
- Legal Knowledge for Practice: During this unit you'll gain the functioning legal knowledge needed, the ability to properly identify and apply that knowledge to questions and scenarios. You can then build on this knowledge in the subsequent period of Qualifying Work Experience.
- Solicitor Ethics & Conduct: This unit will provide you with the functioning legal knowledge needed on professional ethics, duties and conduct, and the ability to properly identify and apply that knowledge to questions and scenarios. You can then build on this knowledge in the subsequent period of Qualifying Work Experience.
- Further Legal Knowledge for Practice: This unit will provide you with the functioning legal knowledge needed, the ability to properly identify and apply that knowledge to questions and scenarios. You can then build on this knowledge in the subsequent period of Qualifying Work Experience.
Option units (choose two)
Health Care Law: This unit will provide you with knowledge and understanding of the main legal features of the relationships between patients/ users and the National Health Service and other health care providers operating in England and Wales. You will evaluate the success of the relationships and interactions between the law, patients/ users and the health care system/ professionals in selected areas and to further develop your independent research skills.
Environmental Law: In this unit you will critically consider the dynamics of the legal and policy applications of environmental law and its role in environmental protection. Functioning legal rules and other governance tools are mainstays of the movement towards environmental protection, security and sustainable development. Laws on permitting, standards, compliance and enforcement mechanisms, voluntary instruments, liability regimes and citizens’ environmental rights all play a part in translating policies, goal and social objectives into reality.
Media & Entertainment Law: You will study the various issues surrounding the mass media and popular culture. Due to advances in technology and the media, Media and Entertainment Law is of increasing significance in legal professional practice, industry and business, it crosses over various legal fields including but not limited to intellectual property law, tort law and contract law.
Jurisprudence: This unit will provide you with knowledge and understanding of the main legal features of the relationships between patients/ users and the National Health Service and other health care providers operating in England and Wales. You will evaluate the success of the relationships and interactions between the law, patients/ users and the health care system/ professionals in selected areas and to further develop your independent research skills.
Intellectual Property Law: Intellectual property is recognised as one of the driving engines of a high-technology economy. As such the advances in technology as well as business practices have a significant impact on intellectual property laws. You will gain an understanding of the general principles of the substantive laws relating to contemporary issues in intellectual property law and their application within the industry.
Criminal Justice: You will gain a critical understanding of the subject of criminal law and the criminal justice system which goes beyond the foundation subject and purely domestic law. You will be encouraged to review the law in light of broader influences, eg social, corporate and political, and from various comparative and socio-legal perspectives.
Employment Law: This unit aims to provide a technically and academically stimulating examination of the issues within employment and labour law faced by employers, employees and workers. You will develop the abaility to apply the fundamental principles of employment and labour law to a wide range of workplace situations and draw appropriate conclusions.
Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.
