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LS453P: HUMAN RIGHTS LAW IN THE UK (2024-2025)

Last modified: 23 Jul 2024 11:08


Course Overview

The course aims to provide students with knowledge and understanding of the constitutional principles and context relevant to the protection of civil liberties in the UK; and to provide knowledge and understanding of the detailed legal mechanisms relating to selected rights.

Course Details

Study Type Undergraduate Level 4
Term Second Term Credit Points 25 credits (12.5 ECTS credits)
Campus Aberdeen Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Dr Erin Ferguson

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • Law (LS) (Studied)
  • One of Programme Level 3 or Programme Level 4 or Programme Level 5
  • Any Undergraduate Programme (Studied)

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

Are there a limited number of places available?

Yes

One or more of these courses have a limited number of places. Priority access will be given to students for whom this course is compulsory. Please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions for more details on this process.


Course Description

Course Aims:

The course aims to offer students the opportunity to develop their study of human rights law by considering critically the ways in which the law interacts with specific freedoms. ‘Civil liberties’ is the term used before the advent of the human rights law era (in the late twentieth century) to describe core political freedoms. The focus of the course is on political liberties such as freedom of expression, freedom of association (rights to protest), the right to vote, and the problem of balancing personal liberty with national security laws targeting terrorist activity. The aims are to provide students with an enhanced understanding of how the law governs those freedoms, and an opportunity to reflect critically on the balance the law achieves between individual liberties and potentially conflicting state goals, such as preserving public order. Has the advent of the human rights era improved the protection of citizens’ core civil liberties? The course aims to address this theme throughout its study of separate rights.

Main Learning Outcomes:

Knowledge and Understanding

Students will know:

  • How UK law protects human rights under the Human Rights Act model, and by other legal and political means;
  • How the law restricts particular liberties and the grounds for those restrictions;
  • Understand the arguments proposed by scholars about the legitimacy of restrictions on the rights studied;
  • Understand the problems of balancing individual liberties with potentially conflicting state goals;
  • Understand the roles of Parliament, government and the courts in the rights-protection regime;
  • Understand the challenges of legal regulation of political freedoms;
  • Understand the role of civil liberties and human rights law within the broader constitutional law context.

Subject Specific Skills and Concepts

Students will develop skills concerning:

  • Handling of primary legal materials, especially complex statutory rules;
  • Locating current law from electronic sources;
  • Understanding structure and content of legal comment and argument in relevant scholarship;
  • Understanding the role of legal scholarship in debates about law reform;
  • Offering reasoned oral and written arguments about the law and the principles informing it;
  • Critical analysis and reflection on the content of current law;
  • Understanding of the wider political context in which the law operates.

Key Skills (Transferable)

The course seeks to contribute to the development of the following skills-

  • Oral and written communication;
  • Working independently;
  • To organise and manage time to achieve tasks;
  • Critical analysis;
  • Logical argument;
  • An ability to synthesise and organise complex materials and arguments;
  • Conduct formal and informal oral presentations;
  • Make appropriate use of technology in research and writing;
  • Reflect on own learning and to seek and make use of feedback.

Contact Teaching Time

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

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 30 August 2024 for 1st term courses and 20 December 2024 for 2nd term courses.

Summative Assessments

Design Project: Individual

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 50
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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2,000 word essay and presentation

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
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Online Exam

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 50
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
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Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Resit Assessments

Resit failed element in same format

Assessment Type Summative Weighting
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
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Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
FactualRememberILO’s for this course are available in the course guide.

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