Course Catalogue

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This level 4 honours course enables students to deepen and broaden their understanding of constitutional law and also to develop certain skills in research and writing.

The course is taught by way of weekly 2-hour seminars. There will be 20 such seminars in total.

This course is only available to LLB students.

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Research essay of up to 4000 words (40%); 3 hour unseen examination (60%).

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. Where, exceptionally, reassessment on Honours courses is required to satisfy professional/accreditation requirements, only the overall course grade achieved at the first attempt will contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below.

The aims of the course are:

· to enable students to develop a deep understanding of a variety of key concepts in constitutional law and the major debates surrounding them;

· to introduce students to some of the leading scholarly literature on constitutional law and to encourage reflection on academic debate in constitutional law;

· to enable students to engage in critical debate concerning the relationship between law and government in the UK and, where appropriate, to make some comparative analysis;

· to enable students to apply their general understanding to particular areas of public law; and

· to enable students to develop oral and written communication skills through participating in seminar discussion and submitting essay and dissertation work.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

· outline the key concepts of, and the main approaches to the study of, constitutional law, both in general terms and with respect to the constitution of the United Kingdom;

· evaluate the changing roles of the principal actors within UK and other constitutional practice;

· critically assess the relationship between constitutional law and politics; and

· summarise some of the major issues of constitutional law in the UK and elsewhere, and understand and critically assess the key debates surrounding them.

  Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.