LAW3597: ADVANCED ISSUES IN CRIMINAL LAW

• Criminal Law (LAW2221)

• None

• Advanced Issues in Criminal Law (LAW3521)

• To develop a detailed understanding of specialised aspects of criminal law through the study of selected topics in critical perspective.

• The module will consist of critical analysis of three areas of criminal law. A selection of topics in the following indicative areas will run each year:
• Obstetric violence
• Infanticide
• Gender and homicide
• Race/ethnicity and criminal offending
• Domestic violence
• Sexual violence
• Consent
• Terrorism
• Jurisdiction

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Students should be able to demonstrate:
• A thorough knowledge of certain selected issues in criminal law.
• Critical assessment of key academic debates on selected issues within criminal law.
• A familiarity with the policy and reform literatures on selected issues in criminal law.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Students should be able to:
• Identify legal and policy issues and arguments concerning selected issues in criminal law.
• Critically evaluate how political, cultural, social, and historical factors affect legal approaches to selected issues in criminal law.
• Appreciate that certain aspects of criminal law may be uncertain and complex, and critically evaluate the doctrinal coherence and consistency of criminal law.

Key Skills:

• Students should be able to:
• Develop research and writing skills, including the ability to work independently and to take responsibility for their own learning.
• Engage in critical reading of legal, academic, and policy texts.
• Identify relevant principles of law and analyse relevant case law.
• Apply knowledge to complex situations, recognise potential alternative conclusions for particular situations, and provide supporting reasons for them.
• Communicate complex ideas in writing.

• The course will be taught as a series of three topics, with each topic containing one two-hour lecture and one two-hour seminar. Lectures will provide students with a background to the topic, outlining the relevant law and indicating points of debate and tension. Seminar worksheets will be provided in advance of each seminar to encourage students to engage in pre-session reading and preparation. The reading will be selected to enhance students capacity for evaluation and critical analysis. Seminars will allow students to develop their own ideas and perspectives through engagement in in-depth discussion of each topic.
• The assessment will take the form of one formative and one summative assessment.
• The formative assessment is designed to support students to prepare for the summative assessment, and feedback will reflect this (so will feedforward). The formative assessment will be a 250-word plan of the Law Reform Proposal, illustrating the key points of critique and analysis.
• There is one summative assessment: a 2,000-word Law Reform Proposal. Students will be provided with a Law Reform Proposal Brief , that sets out the task. It will require students to identify the criminal law issue they have selected, explain the legal, political, social and historical context within which the issues has emerged, critically analyse the issue, drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary source materials, and set out their position on why the issue should be retained, reformed, or repealed. As such, students will be encouraged to take a narrow focus so as to provide an in-depth analysis of a key issue.

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