Legal Studies and Spanish & Latin American Studies, _MA

15 Credit Points

This course aims to prepare intending Honours students of Spanish and Latin American Studies for their compulsory period abroad in a Spanish-speaking country.

The course will develop further Spanish language skills, both receptive and productive. Classes on grammatical and linguistic analysis will contribute to the development of both sets of skills. In addition students will complete a structured self learning programme of audio-visual study and grammatical reinforcement study.

15 Credit Points

This course uses texts, which can include plays, films, novels, music, letters and an etiquette guide, to understand issues, concerns and themes in Latin American history. The course is organised chronologically and each week classes focus on texts from a particular country as a means to discuss bigger questions, such as how to make a new nation after three hundred years of colonial rule and a decade of warfare, how to demonstrate your honourability in an anonymous city and what cultural models are the best source of inspiration. The course also focuses on 'context' shared throughout Latin America.

15 Credit Points

This course is a compulsory course on the LLB degree introducing students to Scottish Criminal Law including its sources and current law. It examines various aspects of substantive law including crimes against the person, crimes of dishonesty, crimes against property and criminal defences enabling students to understand and apply the law in these areas. The course also develops student’s written, verbal and analytical skills utilising written course work and problem solving exercises in tutorial groups.

15 Credit Points

This module examines, through the use of current, high-profile case-studies, the varying role played by law in wider society. The course departs from the traditional ‘black letter’ approach to studying law and will focus primarily upon current legal problems facing society and the related ethical, economic and social arguments. It will be seen that law is not merely a static body of rules but a mechanism for facilitating and inspiring change in all aspects of our society.

15 Credit Points

This course examines the law of the European Union and its relationship with the legal systems of the United Kingdom. Lecture topics include the composition and function of the EU Institutions, sources and effects of EU Law, state liability and judicial review. Other topics covered include human rights in the EU, the fundamental freedoms, and competition law. Each lecture topic includes consideration of the evolving relationship between the legal systems of the United Kingdom and the European Union.

15 Credit Points

This compulsory LLB course is all about things. What items can you own? How do you become owner of property? What can you do as an owner of property? What can you do with the property of other people? And so on. An understanding of Scots property law is crucial to markets, commerce and domestic life. This course will give students a broad overview of the regulation of land, moveable items and incorporeal rights like intellectual property in Scotland.

15 Credit Points

The course aims to systematically and critically introduce the foundations of Public International Law (PIL). The history, nature, legal personality, statehood and recognition, sources, the law of treaties and how PIL interacts with domestic law are considered in-depth. These are followed by topics such as jurisdiction, sovereignty, the role of the United Nations, the law of state responsibility and peaceful settlement of disputes between states. The contents of the course are designed to enable students to understand why and how international law regulates the behaviour of its actors with respect to some specific subject areas.

15 Credit Points

This course will examine in detail both administrative law and civil liberties under the constitution of the United Kingdom. Major topics include judicial review (scope, standing and grounds), the European Convention on Human Rights, the Human Rights Act 1998, voting rights, and common law rights. This area is fast-moving, and an effort is made to address current issues.

15 Credit Points

This is a core prescribed course open only to Junior Honours Spanish and Latin American Studies students and a selected range of other programmes at the appropriate level. This course aims to enable you to identify and use, accurately, fluently, and with an appropriate level of sophistication, a range of vocabulary and linguistic registers at advanced level.

30 Credit Points

This course examines the law of sales in both a Scottish and international context. Seminar topics will give students a good working knowledge of issues that occur when a difficulty arises (e.g., non-conformity of goods, passing of risk, damages, exemption, avoidance) and the role of important European law as well as international treaties and conventions. The precise focus of the course varies from year to year and depending on the teaching staff involved there may be a greater or lesser focus on Scots law.

30 Credit Points

This course looks in depth at the main aspects of the Scottish criminal justice process, focussing upon its mainly adversarial nature. Topics addressed include: prosecution systems; the position of the accused; the status of the victim; plea-bargaining; the trial process; and appeals. The emphasis is not so much on ‘black-letter law’ but on the principles and policies, often clashing, which underlie the detailed legal rules and regulations governing the relevant institutions and processes.

30 Credit Points

The issue of how gender impacts upon and interrelates with law and legal processes is topical and socially important, with questions relating to gender equality and gender-based violence currently attracting a high degree of academic, media and government attention. Through examining topics connected to the themes of criminal justice and family law, this course will introduce students to current legal dilemmas and legal responses in the area of gender and the law, in addition to sociolegal and feminist approaches to law.

30 Credit Points

The course analyses recent developments in public international law. It first considers the sources of public international law. The question is then asked whether traditional public international law can regulate pressing issues on the international plane. Examples of these problems are international terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferation, protection of human rights, ethnic conflicts, and climate change. The course encourages the student to think creatively as an international lawyer to resolve contemporary international dilemmas. Teaching will be delivered through lectures and discussion-based seminars.

30 Credit Points

The course is intended to offer insights into the dynamics of the development of international human rights law. It provides advanced instruction in several key aspects of international human rights law (freedom from torture, freedom of religion, social rights, right to self-determination, etc.) in order to develop a critical understanding of the protection of human rights at the global level. It also seeks to shed light on the way the forces of globalisation and global civil society activism shape the conditions under which human rights law can be created and maintained.

30 Credit Points

The course will provide a clear overview of the commercial law aspects of private international law in international commercial litigation and arbitration. The course will cover issues of jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in international commercial litigation, and private international law matters in international commercial arbitration.

30 Credit Points

The UK Constitution has long been shrouded in controversy and uncertainty. Through an exploration of some of some of the key aspects of, and issues arising under, the UK Constitution, this course will seek to evaluate critically the nature of the contemporary constitution, with a particular emphasis on the desirability of its arrangements in the twenty-first century.

30 Credit Points

The aim of this course is to introduce students to American constitutional law through the study of landmark Supreme Court decisions on controversial moral issues. The material on the course will be organised in relation to broad themes that will enable students to develop and refine their understanding of major issues in American Constitutional Law. The themes include abortion; homosexuality and same-sex marriage; freedom of religion; affirmative action. The course will also help students to familiarise themselves with the main approaches to constitutional interpretation.

30 Credit Points

This course seeks to guide students through the core aspects of company law and corporate governance including, inter alia, corporate legal personality, directors’ duties, the protection of minority shareholders, and the basics of corporate finance. The legal study will be combined with commercial and strategical scenarios such as private equity deals, initial public offerings (IPOs), and corporate control battles. Major policy debates will also be engaged. There are numerous career opportunities associated with this course

30 Credit Points

This course offers an introduction to study of the civil law tradition and may be taken by students with no prior knowledge of the subject. The two seminars in the first part of the course examine the sources and literature through which the tradition has taken shape. The two seminars in the second part examine selected topics from the law of property, and the two seminars in the third part selected topics from the law of obligations. In each part some attention is paid to the relationship between Scots law and the civil law tradition.

30 Credit Points

This course engages students with the economic underpinnings of different aspects of the law. Why and when should property be privately, communally, or publicly owned? How can a legal system minimise the social costs of accidents? Why and to what extent do we need the law to regulate contracts? These are some of the questions that the course will address. Each seminar will focus on a legal topic that will be analysed through an economic lens. No prior knowledge of economics is needed.

30 Credit Points

This course builds upon the introduction to Delict provided in LS2025 and LS1536 examines a number of aspects of the law of delict in greater detail. Topics will be discussed in a comparative, historical and/or theoretical context. The specific topics covered will vary on a year-by-year basis as the course aims to examine issues of topical interest. Some of the topics covered in previous years include: causation; product liability; liability for breach of privacy; liability for pure economic loss; psychiatric injury; advocates' immunity and the liability of the police for negligently-conducted investigations.

30 Credit Points

The course builds upon the basic understanding of criminal law acquired in LS1020 although it is very important to understand that the topics are approached from a much more theoretical perspective. The course examines in detail selected principles of criminal liability, including the role and limits of the criminal law, the defence of mental disorder, murder, rape, provocation and the limits of excusability. Comparative material from a variety of jurisdictions is included.

30 Credit Points

This course provides students with a knowledge and understanding of certain key points in Scottish legal history. Seminar topics have been chosen to show students how to evaluate primary material as well as to engage with academic debate. Students will also in some seminars engage with research projects based at Aberdeen.

30 Credit Points

This course examines the way in which the law regulates the treatment of animals in Britain. Topics include: historical development; legal and moral status of animals; the basis and nature of regulation; the legal and political framework, including the impact of the WTO and the EU; the legal meaning of unnecessary suffering; the scientific concept of animal welfare; enforcement; and legislation relating to animals in specific contexts. Consideration is also given to relevant political, scientific, ethical and commercial issues which influence the substantive law. Students are expected to undertake significant personal research under the guidance of the course coordinator.

While self-evident from the Course Description, students should be aware that this course includes consideration of the ill-treatment of animals.

30 Credit Points

The course aims to introduce legal, ethical, and social implications of international commercial relationships.

The course will cover the concept of global value chains and the drivers behind global value chains structures, such as globalization, development, and sustainable development.

It will then focus on the negative impacts that the production processes in global value chains have on individuals, communities, and the environment in, primarily, low-and middle-income countries. Examples include labour and working conditions, overexploitation of resources and pollution, project-related human rights impacts including forced labour and child labour.

Finally, the course will cover policy, regulatory, and litigation response to these challenges in their socio-economic, legal, and ethical contexts.

30 Credit Points

This course engages with the overarching question of the appropriate limits on freedom of expression in liberal democracies in the digital age. It does so through a comparative constitutional approach to the regulation of extreme speech in different jurisdictions, including the US, Canada, the EU, and the UK (among others), with a particular focus on the regulation of online speech. It examines existing constitutional frameworks for the regulation of extreme speech as well as proposals for reform.

30 Credit Points

This course offers students the opportunity to engage with the history and nature of international criminal law, to develop their understanding of the core crimes, how these offences have evolved, and the road to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Through traditional seminar discussions, students can discuss their informed views on issues as varied as the role of international cooperation to suppress international crimes, how this has worked (and where it has failed) and to research their ideas on contemporary problems in the area, from a critical perspective.

30 Credit Points

The ocean by providing oxygen, freshwater, and food, is crucial for sustaining life, yet is under increasing pressure from human activities: including climate change, overfishing, and pollution. This course focuses on the international legal framework for the ocean based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and other legal instruments including climate, biodiversity and human rights.

30 Credit Points

Historically, markets of the EEC/EU were integrated mainly on the basis of the ECJ case law of using fundamental freedoms as a tool for integration. Today, these freedoms are still an important pillar of the economic constitution, but free trade and competition between Member States’ undertakings have to be supported by other policies and the creation of competition in markets that suffer from market failure. This course looks at the integrating function of fundamental freedoms and fundamental rights. And develops further insights into policies creating the common market (state aids, regulating network industries).

30 Credit Points

This is an optional course at honours level for students interested in how companies finance their business activities and would be suitable for those students seeking to specialise in finance or corporate law. The course examines the law concerning the financing of companies of all sizes, from small and medium-sized companies to the largest public limited companies. Various forms of debt and equity finance will be considered, including share capital and raising finance on stock markets, unsecured borrowing, securitisations and secured finance.

30 Credit Points

Today there is a global dialogue on constitutionalism and judges extensively borrow doctrinal concepts and arguments from each other. This makes the study of comparative constitutional law ever more relevant and has contributed to the rapid evolution of the discipline. The aim of this course is to introduce students to the methods and main themes of comparative constitutional law. The topics include constitutional borrowing; federalism; the comparison of presidential and parliamentary governments; the types of judicial review; different approaches to constitutional interpretation.

30 Credit Points

This constitutional law course considers how core political freedoms are protected by human rights law in the UK. The course takes the form of seminar discussion, based on prescribed reading, of civil liberties such as freedom of expression; freedom of thought; freedom to protest; and the right to vote. Students are encouraged to reflect critically on how the law guarantees those rights. The broader context of class discussion includes the relationship between the law of the ECHR and domestic law on human rights; and the balance of power between courts, Parliament and government to determine the scope of civil liberties.

30 Credit Points

The course aims to develop an in-depth and critical appreciation of current issues in the area of the use of armed force in International Law.

The course will first analyse the fundamental principle of the prohibition of the use of force between States. It will then examine the current exceptions to this principle; further, what types of arguments States tend to use to “justify” the recourse to force - and how scholars of International Law have addressed this question. The course will also study how the international community has reacted to the most recent cases involving the use of force on the international plane (in particular, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Libya, Ukraine, and Syria) and what the implications are for the evolution of International Law in the field of recourse to force.

30 Credit Points

This course explores various aspects of corporate insolvency law, which is an important area in practice. Among the topics that will be covered are theories of corporate insolvency law, types of insolvency process (including corporate rescue processes), creditors’ claims and security rights (especially floating charges), challengeable transactions, and liability of directors. While the principal focus will be law in the UK, references will also be made to other jurisdictions, including the USA.

30 Credit Points

Through a series of seminars, this course engages students with a body of ‘media law’ which covers topics such as the freedom of the press, freedom of expression, access to information, open justice principle on the one hand, and on the other hand,the right to fair trail, right to privacy, right of publicity, right against defamation, and the regulation of obscene publications. The focus is on the regulation of media contents. While the course follows the relevant current developments in the law, it also lays the foundation and the broader social and historical contexts within which these developments take place.

30 Credit Points

Great diversity can be traced to the historical development of the legal systems of modern Europe. That diversity has been shaped by various common traditions of legal ideas and intellectual movements, influential across the continent at different times and in different ways. This course aims to understand how such traditions helped to shape contemporary law as it conceptualised, practised, and taught in many different jurisdictions. It will focus on the period ca.500 BC to 1800.

30 Credit Points

This course examines the relationship between the law and the exercise of public power. Topics covered include: the nature of public administration and administrative law; mechanisms by which public administrative power is regulated; the development, role and impact of judicial review in both Scotland and England.

30 Credit Points

Changes in medical technology frequently cause changes in ethical attitudes and in the content of the law. The purpose of this course is to explore the interaction between law, ethics and medicine with an emphasis on the ethical aspects.

30 Credit Points

Storytelling is firmly embedded within the law. Advocates use narrative techniques to present their clients’ stories and to evoke responses from audiences. Histories of our laws and legal institutions are taught to us from an early age. But who has the power to decide which stories get told? Which stories are ignored, forgotten, or marginalised?

The aim of the course is to critically examine the use of legal storytelling in scholarship and practice. Through close readings of texts and other media, it will encourage students to reflect on how legal stories are created and challenged.

30 Credit Points

This course addresses the international legal rules and principles applicable to activities in outer space, including the UN-based space treaties and international customary (space) law, and also the many specialised regimes such as those applicable to the protection of the outer space environment, the regulation of military activities and the peaceful settlement of international space law disputes.

30 Credit Points

The course aims to introduce students to the legal aspects of the digital economy. The course will first explore the historical and economical dimension of the ‘platformisation’ of the digital market, to then dig into the relevant areas of law invested by the “disruptive” intervention of online platforms. The course will have a focus on domestic and European Law.

30 Credit Points

This course will focus on how the basic theoretical concepts underpinning contract law have been developed historically, in both common law jurisdictions and continental Civilian tradition. Students will be shown how the historical development of these concepts continues to influence contemporary debates on contract law, such as the place of relational contracts and the extent to which courts should intervene in unequal exchanges.

30 Credit Points

Unjustified enrichment is a relatively new addition to Scots private law. In spite of its novelty, or perhaps because of it, the subject has attracted a significant degree of academic attention over the past thirty to forty years, having stirred up a number of academic debates, ranging from the national to the existential (i.e. ‘Does unjustified enrichment even need to exist in a modern legal system?’). This course aims to confront at least some of these debates.

30 Credit Points

The course examines the regulation of biometric data and profiling in the European Union and the United Kingdom and it is designed in a way to assess the balance between the development of technology and the regulation process. It also deals with the ethical, social and human rights aspects of the issue, and it is aimed to develop innovative legal thinking which can solve the “privacy paradox”.

30 Credit Points

The course addresses international legal issues raised by the increasing need to secure information and communication technology. It explores the modalities of international cyberattacks; discusses data protection in the EU and UK; questions the scope of the obligation of States to secure cyberspace; studies the role of private companies in monitoring online content and reacting to international cyberattacks; analyses how cyberoperations can be attributed to States; examines what cyberoperations violate international law and how States could react to unlawful international cyberoperations; and gives a comprehensive map of the governance and standards organisations in the cyberspace ecosystem.

30 Credit Points

This course examines the way in which children and young people interact with the justice system, from a domestic, comparative, and international perspective.

30 Credit Points

Planning Law in Scotland examines urban and rural land use. Set in the context of history, politics and international developments, the law is considered in detail with examples of plans such as the National Planning Framework and topical and controversial planning applications used for illustration. There is a body of case law and intricate legislative provisions and policy sources for all the key areas. This course mixes academic reflection with practical knowledge and application.

30 Credit Points

The course develops knowledge of EU law acquired at Level 2. Students are invited to engage with timeless questions of European integration which remain of current concern, such as the legitimacy of law-making and the appropriate means of achieving integration. Discussions will address contemporary issues in European Union law diagnosing the present state of the law, and determining how the constitutional settlement of the EU should be developed. This will enable students to articulate their own views of what the EU is, and what it should be. Topics include economic law, family law, human rights law, institutional law and democratization.

30 Credit Points

This course will discuss the trajectory of the development of corporate governance over the past three decades, especially in the UK and the US, with a view to understanding the extent to which underlying theoretical assumptions and policy decisions impact legislative, regulatory and self-regulatory arrangements as well as reform options. Students will gain an understanding of why the company as a legal entity has the shape and form that it does; why certain actors are regarded as internal to corporate governance arrangements and others external; and why ongoing (and sometimes apparently futile) reform efforts take the form that they do.

30 Credit Points

The course seminars will engage students with; understanding the rules of evidence and the regulation of the admissibility of evidence; the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial; issues surrounding evidence from vulnerable witnesses; issues with expert evidence; hearsay evidence and the reverse burdens of proof; corroboration and similar fact evidence.

30 Credit Points

The course will provide a clear overview of the successful family law conventions made at the Hague Conference on Private International Law, as well as an analysis of the working methods of the Hague Conference in making, reviewing and helping to ensure uniform interpretation of Conventions. Students will acquire a thorough knowledge of the Hague Conventions on child abduction (1980), intercountry adoption (1993), child protection (1996) and maintenance (2007); a good understanding of private international law relating to surrogacy with an international element, and an appreciation of the options for the legal regulation of family agreements at the global level.

30 Credit Points

Many students will be members of clubs and societies and will go on to become board members for clubs and charities, or community organisation chairpersons and secretaries.

The aim of this course is to ensure that potential future practising lawyers can develop a good grounding in a commercially and socially important field of law. In this respect it worth noting that the Third Sector is a growing area of specialism in law firms.

30 Credit Points

This course considers various aspects of copyright law including subject matter, the term of protection, criteria for protection, infringement and defences, and the moral rights of authors. Copyright is of importance given the value of the digital economy and the significance of the cultural industries. In terms of career opportunities, students may practice in large intellectual property firms or provide advice to large entertainment companies etc.

30 Credit Points

This is the final Spanish language course within the degree that will provide students with advanced comprehension and writing skills in general and specialised registers.

30 Credit Points

This year-long course unit combines dissertation research with research methods training. The dissertation is a piece of extended independent research (8,000-10,000 words long), structured as a critical evaluation, analysis or argument, about a topic germane to Spanish and Latin American Studies. The topic is chosen by the student, in conjunction with the dissertation coordinator and an individual Departmental supervisor, both of whom approve the topic. Students are encouraged to design their topic building on their previous studies, especially honours courses. The dissertation offers a chance for students to carry out in-depth independent study in Spanish and Latin American Studies, and to acquire and develop valuable research skills. The course begins, in the first half session, with workshops on diverse research methods and the creation of peer support groups. The second half session includes structured meetings with the dissertation supervisor and meetings with the peer support group, as well as independent research and writing.

30 Credit Points

This course, that is only available to final year honours students, allows you to write a 10,000 word piece on an aspect of law that you choose with the help of a supervisor. Once your topic and plan are approved by the law school you work independently and hand in the dissertation shortly before the Easter Break.

30 Credit Points

This course examines the law of sales in both a Scottish and international context. Seminar topics will give students a good working knowledge of issues that occur when a difficulty arises (e.g., non-conformity of goods, passing of risk, damages, exemption, avoidance) and the role of important European law as well as international treaties and conventions. The precise focus of the course varies from year to year and depending on the teaching staff involved there may be a greater or lesser focus on Scots law.

30 Credit Points

This course looks in depth at the main aspects of the Scottish criminal justice process, focussing upon its mainly adversarial nature. Topics addressed include: prosecution systems; the position of the accused; the status of the victim; plea-bargaining; the trial process; and appeals. The emphasis is not so much on ‘black-letter law’ but on the principles and policies, often clashing, which underlie the detailed legal rules and regulations governing the relevant institutions and processes.

30 Credit Points

The issue of how gender impacts upon and interrelates with law and legal processes is topical and socially important, with questions relating to gender equality and gender-based violence currently attracting a high degree of academic, media and government attention. Through examining topics connected to the themes of criminal justice and family law, this course will introduce students to current legal dilemmas and legal responses in the area of gender and the law, in addition to sociolegal and feminist approaches to law.

30 Credit Points

The course analyses recent developments in public international law. It first considers the sources of public international law. The question is then asked whether traditional public international law can regulate pressing issues on the international plane. Examples of these problems are international terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferation, protection of human rights, ethnic conflicts, and climate change. The course encourages the student to think creatively as an international lawyer to resolve contemporary international dilemmas. Teaching will be delivered through lectures and discussion-based seminars.

30 Credit Points

The course is intended to offer insights into the dynamics of the development of international human rights law. It provides advanced instruction in several key aspects of international human rights law (freedom from torture, freedom of religion, social rights, right to self-determination, etc.) in order to develop a critical understanding of the protection of human rights at the global level. It also seeks to shed light on the way the forces of globalisation and global civil society activism shape the conditions under which human rights law can be created and maintained.

30 Credit Points

The course will provide a clear overview of the commercial law aspects of private international law in international commercial litigation and arbitration. The course will cover issues of jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in international commercial litigation, and private international law matters in international commercial arbitration.

30 Credit Points

The UK Constitution has long been shrouded in controversy and uncertainty. Through an exploration of some of some of the key aspects of, and issues arising under, the UK Constitution, this course will seek to evaluate critically the nature of the contemporary constitution, with a particular emphasis on the desirability of its arrangements in the twenty-first century.

30 Credit Points

The aim of this course is to introduce students to American constitutional law through the study of landmark Supreme Court decisions on controversial moral issues. The material on the course will be organised in relation to broad themes that will enable students to develop and refine their understanding of major issues in American Constitutional Law. The themes include abortion; homosexuality and same-sex marriage; freedom of religion; affirmative action. The course will also help students to familiarise themselves with the main approaches to constitutional interpretation.

30 Credit Points

This course seeks to guide students through the core aspects of company law and corporate governance including, inter alia, corporate legal personality, directors’ duties, the protection of minority shareholders, and the basics of corporate finance. The legal study will be combined with commercial and strategical scenarios such as private equity deals, initial public offerings (IPOs), and corporate control battles. Major policy debates will also be engaged. There are numerous career opportunities associated with this course

30 Credit Points

This course offers an introduction to study of the civil law tradition and may be taken by students with no prior knowledge of the subject. The two seminars in the first part of the course examine the sources and literature through which the tradition has taken shape. The two seminars in the second part examine selected topics from the law of property, and the two seminars in the third part selected topics from the law of obligations. In each part some attention is paid to the relationship between Scots law and the civil law tradition.

30 Credit Points

This course engages students with the economic underpinnings of different aspects of the law. Why and when should property be privately, communally, or publicly owned? How can a legal system minimise the social costs of accidents? Why and to what extent do we need the law to regulate contracts? These are some of the questions that the course will address. Each seminar will focus on a legal topic that will be analysed through an economic lens. No prior knowledge of economics is needed.

30 Credit Points

This course builds upon the introduction to Delict provided in LS2025 and LS1536 examines a number of aspects of the law of delict in greater detail. Topics will be discussed in a comparative, historical and/or theoretical context. The specific topics covered will vary on a year-by-year basis as the course aims to examine issues of topical interest. Some of the topics covered in previous years include: causation; product liability; liability for breach of privacy; liability for pure economic loss; psychiatric injury; advocates' immunity and the liability of the police for negligently-conducted investigations.

30 Credit Points

The course builds upon the basic understanding of criminal law acquired in LS1020 although it is very important to understand that the topics are approached from a much more theoretical perspective. The course examines in detail selected principles of criminal liability, including the role and limits of the criminal law, the defence of mental disorder, murder, rape, provocation and the limits of excusability. Comparative material from a variety of jurisdictions is included.

30 Credit Points

This course provides students with a knowledge and understanding of certain key points in Scottish legal history. Seminar topics have been chosen to show students how to evaluate primary material as well as to engage with academic debate. Students will also in some seminars engage with research projects based at Aberdeen.

30 Credit Points

This course examines the way in which the law regulates the treatment of animals in Britain. Topics include: historical development; legal and moral status of animals; the basis and nature of regulation; the legal and political framework, including the impact of the WTO and the EU; the legal meaning of unnecessary suffering; the scientific concept of animal welfare; enforcement; and legislation relating to animals in specific contexts. Consideration is also given to relevant political, scientific, ethical and commercial issues which influence the substantive law. Students are expected to undertake significant personal research under the guidance of the course coordinator.

While self-evident from the Course Description, students should be aware that this course includes consideration of the ill-treatment of animals.

30 Credit Points

The course aims to introduce legal, ethical, and social implications of international commercial relationships.

The course will cover the concept of global value chains and the drivers behind global value chains structures, such as globalization, development, and sustainable development.

It will then focus on the negative impacts that the production processes in global value chains have on individuals, communities, and the environment in, primarily, low-and middle-income countries. Examples include labour and working conditions, overexploitation of resources and pollution, project-related human rights impacts including forced labour and child labour.

Finally, the course will cover policy, regulatory, and litigation response to these challenges in their socio-economic, legal, and ethical contexts.

30 Credit Points

This course engages with the overarching question of the appropriate limits on freedom of expression in liberal democracies in the digital age. It does so through a comparative constitutional approach to the regulation of extreme speech in different jurisdictions, including the US, Canada, the EU, and the UK (among others), with a particular focus on the regulation of online speech. It examines existing constitutional frameworks for the regulation of extreme speech as well as proposals for reform.

30 Credit Points

This course offers students the opportunity to engage with the history and nature of international criminal law, to develop their understanding of the core crimes, how these offences have evolved, and the road to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Through traditional seminar discussions, students can discuss their informed views on issues as varied as the role of international cooperation to suppress international crimes, how this has worked (and where it has failed) and to research their ideas on contemporary problems in the area, from a critical perspective.

30 Credit Points

The ocean by providing oxygen, freshwater, and food, is crucial for sustaining life, yet is under increasing pressure from human activities: including climate change, overfishing, and pollution. This course focuses on the international legal framework for the ocean based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and other legal instruments including climate, biodiversity and human rights.

30 Credit Points

Historically, markets of the EEC/EU were integrated mainly on the basis of the ECJ case law of using fundamental freedoms as a tool for integration. Today, these freedoms are still an important pillar of the economic constitution, but free trade and competition between Member States’ undertakings have to be supported by other policies and the creation of competition in markets that suffer from market failure. This course looks at the integrating function of fundamental freedoms and fundamental rights. And develops further insights into policies creating the common market (state aids, regulating network industries).

30 Credit Points

This is an optional course at honours level for students interested in how companies finance their business activities and would be suitable for those students seeking to specialise in finance or corporate law. The course examines the law concerning the financing of companies of all sizes, from small and medium-sized companies to the largest public limited companies. Various forms of debt and equity finance will be considered, including share capital and raising finance on stock markets, unsecured borrowing, securitisations and secured finance.

30 Credit Points

Today there is a global dialogue on constitutionalism and judges extensively borrow doctrinal concepts and arguments from each other. This makes the study of comparative constitutional law ever more relevant and has contributed to the rapid evolution of the discipline. The aim of this course is to introduce students to the methods and main themes of comparative constitutional law. The topics include constitutional borrowing; federalism; the comparison of presidential and parliamentary governments; the types of judicial review; different approaches to constitutional interpretation.

30 Credit Points

This course considers various aspects of copyright law including subject matter, the term of protection, criteria for protection, infringement and defences, and the moral rights of authors. Copyright is of importance given the value of the digital economy and the significance of the cultural industries. In terms of career opportunities, students may practice in large intellectual property firms or provide advice to large entertainment companies etc.

30 Credit Points

Many students will be members of clubs and societies and will go on to become board members for clubs and charities, or community organisation chairpersons and secretaries.

The aim of this course is to ensure that potential future practising lawyers can develop a good grounding in a commercially and socially important field of law. In this respect it worth noting that the Third Sector is a growing area of specialism in law firms.

30 Credit Points

The course will provide a clear overview of the successful family law conventions made at the Hague Conference on Private International Law, as well as an analysis of the working methods of the Hague Conference in making, reviewing and helping to ensure uniform interpretation of Conventions. Students will acquire a thorough knowledge of the Hague Conventions on child abduction (1980), intercountry adoption (1993), child protection (1996) and maintenance (2007); a good understanding of private international law relating to surrogacy with an international element, and an appreciation of the options for the legal regulation of family agreements at the global level.

30 Credit Points

The course seminars will engage students with; understanding the rules of evidence and the regulation of the admissibility of evidence; the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial; issues surrounding evidence from vulnerable witnesses; issues with expert evidence; hearsay evidence and the reverse burdens of proof; corroboration and similar fact evidence.

30 Credit Points

This course will discuss the trajectory of the development of corporate governance over the past three decades, especially in the UK and the US, with a view to understanding the extent to which underlying theoretical assumptions and policy decisions impact legislative, regulatory and self-regulatory arrangements as well as reform options. Students will gain an understanding of why the company as a legal entity has the shape and form that it does; why certain actors are regarded as internal to corporate governance arrangements and others external; and why ongoing (and sometimes apparently futile) reform efforts take the form that they do.

30 Credit Points

The course develops knowledge of EU law acquired at Level 2. Students are invited to engage with timeless questions of European integration which remain of current concern, such as the legitimacy of law-making and the appropriate means of achieving integration. Discussions will address contemporary issues in European Union law diagnosing the present state of the law, and determining how the constitutional settlement of the EU should be developed. This will enable students to articulate their own views of what the EU is, and what it should be. Topics include economic law, family law, human rights law, institutional law and democratization.

30 Credit Points

Planning Law in Scotland examines urban and rural land use. Set in the context of history, politics and international developments, the law is considered in detail with examples of plans such as the National Planning Framework and topical and controversial planning applications used for illustration. There is a body of case law and intricate legislative provisions and policy sources for all the key areas. This course mixes academic reflection with practical knowledge and application.

30 Credit Points

This course examines the way in which children and young people interact with the justice system, from a domestic, comparative, and international perspective.

30 Credit Points

The course addresses international legal issues raised by the increasing need to secure information and communication technology. It explores the modalities of international cyberattacks; discusses data protection in the EU and UK; questions the scope of the obligation of States to secure cyberspace; studies the role of private companies in monitoring online content and reacting to international cyberattacks; analyses how cyberoperations can be attributed to States; examines what cyberoperations violate international law and how States could react to unlawful international cyberoperations; and gives a comprehensive map of the governance and standards organisations in the cyberspace ecosystem.

30 Credit Points

The course examines the regulation of biometric data and profiling in the European Union and the United Kingdom and it is designed in a way to assess the balance between the development of technology and the regulation process. It also deals with the ethical, social and human rights aspects of the issue, and it is aimed to develop innovative legal thinking which can solve the “privacy paradox”.

30 Credit Points

Unjustified enrichment is a relatively new addition to Scots private law. In spite of its novelty, or perhaps because of it, the subject has attracted a significant degree of academic attention over the past thirty to forty years, having stirred up a number of academic debates, ranging from the national to the existential (i.e. ‘Does unjustified enrichment even need to exist in a modern legal system?’). This course aims to confront at least some of these debates.

30 Credit Points

This course will focus on how the basic theoretical concepts underpinning contract law have been developed historically, in both common law jurisdictions and continental Civilian tradition. Students will be shown how the historical development of these concepts continues to influence contemporary debates on contract law, such as the place of relational contracts and the extent to which courts should intervene in unequal exchanges.

30 Credit Points

The course aims to introduce students to the legal aspects of the digital economy. The course will first explore the historical and economical dimension of the ‘platformisation’ of the digital market, to then dig into the relevant areas of law invested by the “disruptive” intervention of online platforms. The course will have a focus on domestic and European Law.

30 Credit Points

This course addresses the international legal rules and principles applicable to activities in outer space, including the UN-based space treaties and international customary (space) law, and also the many specialised regimes such as those applicable to the protection of the outer space environment, the regulation of military activities and the peaceful settlement of international space law disputes.

30 Credit Points

Storytelling is firmly embedded within the law. Advocates use narrative techniques to present their clients’ stories and to evoke responses from audiences. Histories of our laws and legal institutions are taught to us from an early age. But who has the power to decide which stories get told? Which stories are ignored, forgotten, or marginalised?

The aim of the course is to critically examine the use of legal storytelling in scholarship and practice. Through close readings of texts and other media, it will encourage students to reflect on how legal stories are created and challenged.

30 Credit Points

Changes in medical technology frequently cause changes in ethical attitudes and in the content of the law. The purpose of this course is to explore the interaction between law, ethics and medicine with an emphasis on the ethical aspects.

30 Credit Points

This course examines the relationship between the law and the exercise of public power. Topics covered include: the nature of public administration and administrative law; mechanisms by which public administrative power is regulated; the development, role and impact of judicial review in both Scotland and England.

30 Credit Points

Great diversity can be traced to the historical development of the legal systems of modern Europe. That diversity has been shaped by various common traditions of legal ideas and intellectual movements, influential across the continent at different times and in different ways. This course aims to understand how such traditions helped to shape contemporary law as it conceptualised, practised, and taught in many different jurisdictions. It will focus on the period ca.500 BC to 1800.

30 Credit Points

Through a series of seminars, this course engages students with a body of ‘media law’ which covers topics such as the freedom of the press, freedom of expression, access to information, open justice principle on the one hand, and on the other hand,the right to fair trail, right to privacy, right of publicity, right against defamation, and the regulation of obscene publications. The focus is on the regulation of media contents. While the course follows the relevant current developments in the law, it also lays the foundation and the broader social and historical contexts within which these developments take place.

30 Credit Points

This course explores various aspects of corporate insolvency law, which is an important area in practice. Among the topics that will be covered are theories of corporate insolvency law, types of insolvency process (including corporate rescue processes), creditors’ claims and security rights (especially floating charges), challengeable transactions, and liability of directors. While the principal focus will be law in the UK, references will also be made to other jurisdictions, including the USA.

30 Credit Points

The course aims to develop an in-depth and critical appreciation of current issues in the area of the use of armed force in International Law.

The course will first analyse the fundamental principle of the prohibition of the use of force between States. It will then examine the current exceptions to this principle; further, what types of arguments States tend to use to “justify” the recourse to force - and how scholars of International Law have addressed this question. The course will also study how the international community has reacted to the most recent cases involving the use of force on the international plane (in particular, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Libya, Ukraine, and Syria) and what the implications are for the evolution of International Law in the field of recourse to force.

30 Credit Points

This constitutional law course considers how core political freedoms are protected by human rights law in the UK. The course takes the form of seminar discussion, based on prescribed reading, of civil liberties such as freedom of expression; freedom of thought; freedom to protest; and the right to vote. Students are encouraged to reflect critically on how the law guarantees those rights. The broader context of class discussion includes the relationship between the law of the ECHR and domestic law on human rights; and the balance of power between courts, Parliament and government to determine the scope of civil liberties.