LS4065: OIL AND GAS LAW (2015-2016)

Course Aims: To provide students with the opportunity to examine and critically assess key issues in oil and gas law, particularly in the UK. The course further aims to permit students to develop their critical and analytical skills by considering relevant policy and other contextual material and integrating such material into their analysis.

Main Learning Outcomes:

Knowledge and Understanding

Students will acquire knowledge and understanding of a number of issues in oil and gas law. The particular areas studied will vary from time to time depending on factors such as current developments in the law and the research interests of staff involved, but irrespective of the topics selected, students will have an opportunity to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the licensing model used to exercise control over hydrocarbon resources by the UK government.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the commercial and strategic imperatives underlying oil and gas contractual arrangements and the key legal devices used to further those goals.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the regulation of key substantive issues in the oil and gas industry. 4. Explain and analyse the legal rights and responsibilities of key actors in each of the above settings.

Subject Specific Skills and Concepts

Students will be able to:

1. Differentiate between and use appropriate primary and secondary sources and identify and retrieve up-to-date legal information using paper and electronic sources;

2. Use recognised methods of citation;

3. Use sources to support arguments and conclusions;

4. Recognise, analyse, and rank arguments and evidence in terms of relevance and importance by managing volume of legal sources and select key material to construct written or oral answers to a legal problem;

5. Bring together, integrate, compare and synthesise information and materials from a variety of different sources, which explore policy and doctrinal issues;

6. Present arguments for and against propositions;

7. Think critically and make critical judgements on the relative and absolute merits of particular arguments and solutions and make choices as to the most preferable;

8. Communicate orally and in writing (and electronically where appropriate) using English language by creating work in a permanent format that is understandable by the intended audience (through submission of exam answers, essays, and participating in seminar discussion);

9. Display informed knowledge and understanding of the social, economic, moral and ethical contexts in which law operates by demonstrating legal knowledge in association with related policy, underlying social conditions, professional ethical issues and moral issues.

Key Skills (Transferable)

1. Communicate orally and in writing;

2. Ability to work independently, to organise and manage time, stress and effort in performance of tasks;

3. Critical analysis;

4. Logical argument;

5. An ability to synthesise and organise complex materials and arguments;

6. With limited guidance, act independently in planning and undertaking tasks;

7. Conduct informal oral presentations by contributing to class discussion;

8. Make appropriate use of technology in research, writing and oral presentations; and

9. Reflect on own learning and to seek and make use of feedback.

Content: The course will explore and critically evaluate selected areas of oil and gas law. The particular topics selected will vary from time to time depending on factors such as current developments in the law and the research interests of staff involved, but are likely to include some or all of the following:

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

More Information about Week Numbers

1st Attempt: 3-hour written examination (100%). Resit: Normally, no resit is available.

One 2500-word essay.