Law and Policing LLB Honours

This module will develop your legal research and writing skills within a structured and supported context, working with fellow students and guided and supervised by a tutor. You will explore ways to map ideas, locate and use sources, and present legal arguments effectively.

This module will introduce you to the subject of Criminal Law. You will study the principles that form the core of Criminal Law including offences such as murder, manslaughter, non-fatal offences against the person, sexual offences, theft, burglary, robbery and attempts. You will also study defences such as insanity, automatism, self-defence and intoxication.

As well as being taught these core principles you will also be taught the theories that underpin the creation of criminal law in order to understand how we decide when to use the criminal law. You will also develop an understanding of the contextual dimension of the subject such as its role in politics, economics and society.

You will develop your research, writing and lawyering skills and apply these skills to the skeleton argument assessment. You will be taught via a variety of methods including television programmes, the media and online resources to reflect the interesting and dynamic subject that criminal law is.

This module aims to start your police professional skills journey. It will introduce you to the basic investigation skills required by police officers, including rules governing evidence for criminal prosecutions. For example, you will learn about the importance of provenance and chains of evidence for exhibits; legal rules on admissibility; the value of achieving best evidence from accounts provided by witnesses, victims, and suspects. You will begin to explore the importance of scene attendance, the golden hour and initial investigation, and understand the relevant police powers that support this activity. You will explore basic crime scene investigation and what types of forensic evidence might be useful to collect, including the weight attributed to these at court trials. You will also develop your written and oral presentation skills as a prosecution witness.

Private law covers all aspects of our lives that cannot be described as criminal law or public law. It is the law that governs the rights and duties that exist between individuals and/or organisations, rather than the State. This module will introduce you to the legal duties and rights which govern the relationship between individuals and their application, within the fields of tort and contract law. You will look at the main tort of negligence and consider for example the circumstances in which it is possible to succeed on a claim for harm suffered as a result of an accident that was not your fault. You will also consider how contracts are formed and what rights can arise and be excluded in some common forms of contract.

This module is an introduction to the basic principles of constitutional and administrative law, which are important because they underpin the democratic state with which you interact every day. The content will cover fundamental concepts such as the nature of the British constitution, the status of the Parliament in the constitutional system and the impact of Brexit on UK law. There will be a focus on engaging with current issues and how these impact on the relationship between individuals and the state.

This module draws upon a range of material from film and television to explore representations of law, justice and legal personnel. What do the images, plots, characters and storylines tell the viewers about the law and legal system? The module uses the film and television portrayals as the primary source of material in concert with texts and other academic commentary. You will watch the films and/or TV courses during the class which leads to discussion and analysis.

This module will introduce you to the ongoing debates surrounding the key institutions of the criminal justice system. For example, you will learn about the current challenges facing the police, the different approaches to young offenders and how the prison system operates. You will explore the policy and practice that form the core of the criminal justice system and gain awareness of the contextual dimension of the subject. You will also develop your research and communication skills.

This module involves the study of the practical application of the law in the main areas of legal practice. It is of primary interest to those who plan to practice in law. The module will focus on the changing nature of the legal profession and its regulation. You will learn about professional ethics and the rules of professional conduct. The module will also focus on the development of legal skills necessary for legal study and practice with a particular focus on legal research and interviewing, advising and client care.

Following the atrocities of World War II, states internationally agreed to safeguard the inherent dignity of every human being by protecting inalienable rights to which all members of the human family were equally entitled. Those rights, recognised as ‘human rights’, are still relevant today as they remain heavily violated worldwide and require protection. Various mechanisms have been established at the international and regional levels to monitor human rights’ implementation. Furthermore, various actors have come into play.

This module aims at introducing the fundamentals of human rights and the law, while at the same time trying to motivate you to later deepen your interest in human rights law. This will be done in an engaging and interactive style that aims to inspire your research instincts. It starts with broad discussion on rights and continues with an exploration of the central institutions of the human rights regime, while pointing to some of the main controversies in the human rights system.

At times where Islamic law is in the media, the module will offer you a critical understanding and comparative overview of Islamic law in its historical and contemporary aspects. The aim is to introduce you to the jurisprudence, the legal history and the techniques used in Islamic law through the centuries. This includes the early development of the law, the emergence of the schools of law, classical theory in the mediaeval period, modernist methodologies and evolution of the law from the 19th century to the present. The module is delivered using English-language scholarship. In the second part of the module, Islamic criminal law and Islamic family law are examined in light of a consideration of classical rules and recent developments in legal systems applying Islamic law in various States of the Muslim world.

During this module you'll be guided through the processes required to undertake a moot, by practically researching and applying the law and developing confidence in advocacy. You'll also explore basic theories of how the space and performance of the courtroom affects both practitioner and client experience of law, in order to enhance understanding of how to effectively deliver and perform oral arguments. You will receive constructive feedback throughout the course of the module in terms of your progress.

This module provides an introduction to the complex relationship and interaction of race and the law to examine how the law in contemporary Britain has often been used to create, justify or maintain systems of oppression. You will be able to engage in dialogue about race and appreciate the significance of social and legal histories. The module explores fundamental questions such as what is race? How have legal histories informed our understanding of the present? How has the law sustained and maintained these notions? Through this module you will decipher the 'dominant' narratives that are constructed around racial identity and how you directly and indirectly contribute to inequalities. These approaches will provide you with an appreciation of intersectionality that is grounded in critical race theory, social theory, decolonial thinking and feminist and queer theory. You will be introduced to concepts through a socio-legal investigation of selected case studies.

This module aims to develop your police professional skills journey. Building on our Level 4 Investigation and Evidence module, this advanced core module introduces you to more advanced investigation skills required by police offices, including rules governing disclosure of evidence for criminal prosecutions. Additionally we will look at the National Intelligence Model, and the difference between Intelligence and Evidence – particularly in light of disclosure rules. We will introduce ideas about covert policing and the rules that govern this, as well as exploring newer and emerging types of forensic evidence and investigative techniques linked to technology and cyber policing. This module further enhances your developing written and oral presentation skills linked to professional authentic assessments.

The module encourages you to develop your independent learning and critical reflection on your performance in the context of relevant work-based learning experiences, providing an opportunity for you to evaluate the workplace culture, your development, and your potential future role in the legal services industry. The module will also contribute to the development of your communication, interpersonal and other transferable skills in the context of relevant work-based learning. The module also encourages you to critically reflect on the changing nature and future of the legal profession, providing you with an opportunity to consider your potential future role within this context.

This module introduces you to the principles and concepts of modern English property law. You will explore the legal framework of registered land to understand why land transactions are registered at the Land Registry, estates and interests in land, distinguishing between law and equity to understand how the various interests in land are protected, the law relating to mortgages, to understand how a bank can take steps to repossess and how defaulting borrowers can defend a potential claim, the creation of a constructive trust and quantification of land in implied co-ownership, to understand what happens to the home when more parties buy a home together and the relationship breaks down – how the courts deal with the different scenarios, dispute resolution to understand what happens when co-owners end up in a dispute, express trust, implied trusts, constructive trust of the family home, fiduciary duties and the three certainties and remedies.

This module aims to build on foundational knowledge acquired at Level 4. Public protection is a core function of modern policing, encompassing broad areas of police activity and resources. You'll be introduced to the core concepts of public protection, community safety, safeguarding and vulnerability. For example, you will learn about the importance of domestic abuse and its links to domestic homicide; child abuse and child protection; adult abuse; the role of the police in dealing with those suffering from mental ill health; the policing of neighbourhoods and behaviours.

You'll also explore how policing has developed to play a key role in 'community safety partnerships' since 1998, and introduce ideas about what gets prioritised for policing, concepts of vulnerability and how this might be understood. You will also look at case studies to understand where things go wrong, and the types of review that are triggered and what lessons can be learnt.

This module will address the public law child protection and family support provisions in Parts III, IV and V of the Children Act 1989, including local authority support for children and families, care and supervision of children and child protection powers and duties. It will also look at the broader context of policy and guidance in this area.

This module considers a range of political and criminological theories that will lead to a better understanding of the law in its criminal and cultural context, including its social role and theoretical foundations.

You will explore how theories, put forward by authors from Erving Goffman and David Garland to Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault have relevance for contemporary understandings of law, culture and crime. You will learn about explanations for crime causation, including psychological and sociological theories, as well as how political populism has informed criminal justice policy, particularly over the last 40 or so years. Subcultural and deviancy theories will also be explored, while you will have the opportunity to study thematic areas, including sex and victimisation, youth justice and drugs/alcohol, in order to consider how social and cultural theories have informed the development of the law and the contemporary criminal justice system.

This module examines the intersection between the two disciplines of law and social psychology. You will cover various aspects of the criminal trial process, linking theories and ideas from social psychology with the practice of the criminal justice system. For example, research has cast doubt on the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Similarly, Solomon Asch's work examined the influence of group dynamics on individual decision-making – could this be applied to jury deliberations? The exact module content will vary according to topical relevance.

This module aims to engage learners with the fundamental processes of community building. It will introduce the core stages of organising, listening, planning, acting and negotiating, and then apply these with a community organisation with a stake in local policing. Through these processes, learners will develop core non-cognitive capabilities including the ability to listen effectively and build empathy; co-creation and partnership; and collaboration and team building. The module will also enable learners to reflect on their own journey and identity, and how they relate to the diverse communities with whom they are likely to interact in their careers as policing professionals. Learning will involve some classroom-based workshops and lectures, but also extended fieldwork where learners will engage directly with a community/communities and learn authentically from their experiences in this field. This module is designed to promote the context of sustainable education where the interactions between the students and the organisation promote and contribute to the wider communities to which they belong.

This module introduces you to the fundamental principles of European Criminal Law. You will learn about mutual recognition in criminal matters, particularly the European Arrest Warrant. Furthermore, you'll be familiarised with a package of defence rights directives (for instance, the right to translation and interpretation in criminal proceedings) as well as the legislation on the rights of victims. You'll also study harmonisation of definitions of crimes and penalties. The roles of Eurojust, Europol, and the European Public Prosecutor will also be explored. Finally, you'll be familiarised with the post-Brexit framework for cooperation in criminal matters between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

This module introduces you to European law, with a particular emphasis on the European Union as the continent’s largest international organisation. In this module, you will examine current legal issues in this field and will become familiar with the EU’s legislative, judicial, and operational structures. This foundational knowledge will be applied to selected areas of procedural and substantive law, which may include topics such as the internal market, technology regulation, human rights protection, and the EU’s external relations (including Brexit). These subjects are analysed within their broader historical, political, economic, and social contexts.

This module provides a broad and generic introduction to the legal protection of human rights offered at the national, regional (African, European, and Inter-American) and international levels. The module introduces you to the historical development of the legal protection of human rights along with introducing the legal frameworks for the protection of human rights in place at the national (UK), regional (African, European, and Inter-American) and international (UN) levels. For instance, the module will explore how an individual whose rights are violated can access justice before national and international human rights courts and mechanisms.

This module will enable you to understand and evaluate aspects of the legal framework which relate to business and businesses. It will provide you with an opportunity to consider the formation and internal organisation of businesses, the law related to the relationship between businesses, as well as the relationship between businesses and other stakeholders, including the community. In this module, you will learn about the formation of a company, its legal duties, and the company's broader responsibilities within the wider business community.

This module supports you in launching yourself in the media industries, or other intended careers. You present and promote yourself and your work to potential employers, with this facilitated through a programme of visiting professionals and workshops. Tasks include the production of a career plan and associated promotional materials, which you show to relevant professionals for advice and feedback.

This module allows you to engage in an advanced research project, working closely under the supervision of an academic or professional expert in the relevant field. You will develop advanced legal and critical research skills, and use these to map the state of the art in the area of your project. You will produce a research project which either contributes to a larger on-going project as part of a team or individually with your expert supervisor, and your findings will be presented in the form of a relevant written submission which contains your critical perspectives and conclusions. You will also work with to produce an artefact or creative work which reflects your journey throughout your law degree.

This is a core module for the LLB in Law and Policing at Level 6, and aims to allow you to critically reflect on the diverse perspectives on policing you have encountered during the programme, including the lived experiences of those serving in policing, and encountering policing as citizens. The module allows you to tackle the challenges facing contemporary policing in Britain from a range of viewpoints.

The module explores the development of policing in Britain using historic, theoretical and diverse perspectives to illuminate ideas about the police and re-imagine possibilities for a brighter future for what has become an embattled service in recent years. We will examine miscarriages of justice and consider the social impact of particular types of crime (Sex work and drugs), taking global comparisons to understand why they are dealt with in particular ways in Britain, and what the social impacts of this might be. The module will take a thematic approach to explore how policing has impacted on women, the working class, and persons of colour and use theoretical (including the impact of intersectionality) and historical frameworks to analyse why twenty-first century British policing appears as it does.

The module confronts challenging issues for contemporary policing and encourages you to engage with differing proposed solutions to improving policing, coming to your own views about what might be done as you graduate and potentially join the police service. We will explore the emergence of privatised policing and ask whose crime matters? We will also critically examine the policing of protest. We will also look at competing perspectives on police culture(s) as explanations of why things go wrong, considering attempts to ‘improve policing’ under the ‘professionalisation agenda’, weighing this against competing radical ideas for future policing models, such as the global defunding movement.

This module is designed to provide you with an in-depth understanding of the core legal principles and practices that govern the modern corporate world. In this module you will explore how law shapes corporate decision-making, financial practices, governance structures, ethical standards, and adapts to technological advancement in today’s business environment. By focusing on areas such as corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, insolvency, corporate social responsibility and alternative dispute resolution, the module will provide you with both practical and theoretical knowledge and skills necessary to address modern challenges faced by corporations.

This module will allow you to develop a deeper understanding of criminal law. You will study a variety of areas of criminal law, starting with the theoretical approaches to criminalisation. The theories and processes of punishment will also be explored, as well as the causes and rectification of miscarriages of justice. The module then examines various aspects of criminal law, with a particular focus on how it operates in both regulatory and social contexts. These areas include how the law regulates aspects of social control, such as public order, healthcare choices (including the right to die), sexual autonomy, and immigration. It then looks at criminal law in a social context, including areas such as drugs and crime, domestic crime, and hate crime. The module examines the law underpinning these areas, but it also adopts a broad criminological perspective, situating these areas of law within the context of political, economic, policy, and societal influences.

This module provides an opportunity to consider the role of the law in relation to commercial transactions and the ways in which the law intervenes and regulates commerce, trade and business. It will examine the purposes of commercial law and the way it facilitates the commercial practices of the business community. The module will also identify the substantive law in key areas, consider its development and application to contracts for the sale of goods, the law of agency, and methods of payment, security, and finance of business.

This module aims to build on knowledge, understanding and experiences gained on the programme to date and goes further to develop your critical thinking skills. The module will interrogate various aspects of terrorism, focusing on the unique role of counter terrorism (and Counter Terrorism Policing) has in British policing, but also looking at terrorism in appropriate historical, theoretical and global perspectives.

The module explores the legal footing of terrorism in Britain and explores the 'exceptionalism' thesis for the extraordinary powers used by the state to combat terror. We will look at current government policy, using case studies to illustrate what outcomes currently derive from the British 4P approach, and gaining insight into when things go wrong and why.

We will critically examine the increasing overlap seen between how policing deals with terrorism, extremism and lawful protest. The module will also use the literature and primary material to help understand diverse perspectives on terrorism, how it is policed and the impact this has on confidence and trust in British policing.

Employment law provides you with a broad framework to understand, analyse and apply the fundamental principles of the law of work, workers’ rights and the rights and duties of employers. Employment law is an exciting and extremely practical area of law which allows you to develop an advanced understanding of how the law balances competing political, legal, economic and ethical issues in the real world. The module covers the legal structure of employment relationships, looking at matters such as fundamental rights at work, wages, dismissal and equal pay. The module, therefore, combines questions of justice and rights, on the one hand, with practical questions relating to businesses and how they are run.

In this module, you will explore the development of equality law in the UK and beyond in a contextualised manner. Some legal systems have a general requirement that the law treat all similar cases in a similar manner. Most Western legal systems now employ a protected characteristics approach to equality law, commonly referred to as discrimination law. Equality has long been said to be the basis of justice, but what this means is complicated and depends on what you think of as worthy of being treated equally and why. This module will examine the emergence of equality law within its historical, legal, political, and philosophical context, and critically analyse the law in light of its competing goals.

The module aims to provide an opportunity to consider the role of the law in relation to the family, the ways in which the state and the law intervene in and regulate private and family life, and whether such intervention and regulation is justifiable. It will cover subjects such as domestic violence, divorce and child law. The module will also identify the substantive law in key areas, consider its origins and development, and consider its application to solve factual problems.