Law (Study Abroad)

How does the law relate to land and property? And is the current law still fit for the 21st Century?

Our Land Law module immerses you in real life scenarios to promote an understanding of how the law actually works. You are given the opportunity to work through legal problems as though you are advising a client, and we discuss some of the documentation and protocols that are used by property lawyers.

We encourage lively debate and discussion, and aim to develop your skills in thinking and reasoning logically and creatively, challenging convention and understanding how land law has shaped our environment and society. You should also have an appreciation of the ways in which land law has developed and changed.

Topics typically covered include:

• co-ownership of family homes and division of property between cohabitees
• mortgage law, including undue influence and the rights of lenders and borrowers
• landlord and tenant law, including the law on tenants’ rights and ‘sham licences’
• adverse possession and squatters’ rights
• rights of airspace and the three dimensions of land ownership
• the law of easements and restrictive covenants

Your lecturers will be specialists in their field and active researchers. Current research within the teaching team addresses the system of land registration for the protection of title or ownership of land, and the history of property law and how well it works.

This core module introduces you to torts. You will critically explore the key torts and tort principles typically including such topics as trespass to the person, negligence, torts of strict liability and vicarious liability. You will also consider defences to torts and remedies for aggrieved parties.

This module introduces students to a range of contemporary crime ‘problems’ through a study of academic debates and perspectives. The historical, socio-economic and cultural contexts will be explored whereby students will be encouraged to critically analyse the process of criminalisation, criminal justice responses, and how these criminal or ‘deviant’ activities have come to be considered problematic. Specialist areas of criminological debate will be addressed, such as cultural criminology, the criminology of everyday life and the relationship between crime, pleasure and transgression.

This module tackles key questions around the organisational and institutional structures of the legal profession, taking a close look at the contemporary challenges that it now faces.

While the module primarily focuses on the Anglo-Welsh system, we will also address other systems through literature on law in the USA, Australia and other commonwealth jurisdictions.

Topics covered in the module may include:

• an appreciation of the current status of the legal profession, including its globalised context
• ‘Tesco Law’ and law in an information/digital age
• business, economic and ethical considerations in the legal profession, lawyering and access to justice
• implications of key statues such as the Legal Services Act
• The current state and future development of legal education

Throughout the module, you should develop a solid understanding of issues relating to lawyer/client interactions, such as ethics, confidentiality, legal professional privilege, conflict of interest. You will also have the opportunity to study representations of lawyers and lawyering in fictional settings, such as TV, film, literature and plays. This module exposes you to a range of debates and encourages you to think creatively and critically, as well as from a socio-legal perspective.

How does the law define familial relationships? And how do the law and family justice systems regulate those relationships – between adults, and between parents and children?

Our Family Law module focuses on such questions, and more. We will delve into family life and intimate relationships, exploring issues such as marriage, divorce and custody. You will critically evaluate legal issues relating to family, and develop a sound legal understanding of how the law affects family relationships and resolves familial conflicts.

Topics covered in this module may include:

• Forming Legal Relationships
• Cohabitation
• Ending Legal Relationships
• Parents and Children
• Responsibility
• Child Arrangements Orders (Residence)
• Child Arrangements Orders (Contact)
• Abuse within the Family (Adults)
• Abuse within the Family (Children)

What are human rights? How are they implemented or contravened? What is the relationship between complex human rights issues and society today?

This module uses the context of the European human rights regime to investigate civil liberties and human rights protection. You will adopt a critical and comparative approach as you gain a comprehensive grounding in the law of human rights.

We will tackle some of the most complex and relevant issues such as the right to life, freedom from torture, freedom of expression, and capital punishment. Specific case studies allow you to engage with issues and questions regarding whistle-blowing and enforced disappearances.

Our teaching is research-led and combines seminars, tutorials and lectures. You will be encouraged to read as widely as possible on the subject and we will help you to develop your skills in critical analysis, discourse and debate.

Social research is at the heart of social science perspectives on criminology. Research provides an important means of producing evidence within criminology and in the planning and evaluation of policies and provision within the criminal justice system. The module introduces the theoretical foundations and processes of different forms of social research used within criminology focusing in particular on criminological fieldwork.

Our Youth Justice module is an opportunity to consider the tension between perceptions of children as ‘troubled’ and ‘troublesome’. We will also explore the criminal justice response to children who are in conflict with the law.

The competing themes of welfare and justice are closely examined, along with the recent history of youth justice policy. Following these thematic explorations, we take a more in-depth look into specific topics, including:

• female offenders
• youth imprisonment
• comparative youth justice
• children in care

This module is led by a research-active lecturer with an interest in children in the care and criminal justice systems; the lecture on children in care draws specifically on their cutting-edge research. The combination of lectures and small group teaching helps you to develop your understanding, deepen your criminological knowledge, and develop your critical evaluation skills.

Spending your third year of four with one of our highly-regarded partner universities in the US, Europe, or Canada, you will study Law or Law-related subjects, providing you with insight into the way law impacts on societies around the world.

You will need to pass your first and second year studies at the first attempt (without resits) in order to progress to the year abroad.

Lancaster University will make reasonable endeavours to place students at an approved overseas partner university that offers appropriate modules which contribute credit to your Lancaster degree. Occasionally places overseas may not be available for all students who want to study abroad or the place at the partner university may be withdrawn if core modules are unavailable. If you are not offered a place to study overseas, you will be able to transfer to the equivalent standard degree scheme and would complete your studies at Lancaster.

Lancaster University cannot accept responsibility for any financial aspects of the year or term abroad.

This module covers the major types of trust and the key elements required for their validity and operation as well as relevant aspects of equitable remedies. The overarching imposition of Equity will be interwoven with the discussion of the substantive types of trust. As well as an in-depth exploration of the workings of each mode of trust, the emergence of each will also be examined before modern uses and policies are considered. Key current developments in relation to the law of trusts will also be drawn upon.

The company law module covers the key areas of company law from incorporation to insolvency including corporate personality and piercing the corporate veil, the company’s constitution, contracts and companies, directors’ duties and minority shareholder protection. These practical, substantive areas of company law are discussed in accordance with relevant theories relating to the corporation and its role in society generally.

The Competition Law module is designed to give students a good grounding in contemporary competition law and the economics and policy which underlie it. The main focus will be on EU and UK competition law, but reference will also be made to US and Australian law where it provides a useful counterpoint. The module will examine the way in which antitrust and behavioural economics interact and inform the development of competition law and policy. Substantive areas such as the main EU antitrust provisions, their UK counterparts, and the merger control regimes in the EU and UK will be covered. The module will cover the basic provisions but special focus will be given to areas of controversy or recent reform. The enforcement of the law will also be given special consideration.

This module focuses on the crimes that power makes possible. Criminological theory and research has traditionally prioritized the crimes of the powerless over and against the crimes of those that make laws, wield influence and capital or authorize State violence. As such, this module will introduce you to theory, research, and case-studies on corporate and white-collar crimes, as well as state crimes like genocide and torture, in order to provide an analysis of the commission and punishment of such crimes.

Is there a criminal justice preoccupation with risk and prediction? If so, how helpful has this been to date?

This engaging module will tackle these fundamental questions and deepen your understanding of why some criminals appear to choose a life of crime: ‘criminal careers’ being the criminological term.

You will be taught by research-active academics who are experts in the field and you will explore some of the key contributions of research in this area, including work published by our teaching staff. For instance, staff research will inform your lectures on the criminalisation of children in care and the issue of ‘onset’ in criminal careers. Departmental research will also feed into your study of perceptions of ‘risk’ and ‘risky’ populations. A co-authored book (Soothill, Fitzpatrick & Francis, 2009 – ‘Understanding Criminal Careers’) is also used to support this module.

Topics covered include onset, persistence and desistance. You will also critically analyse some of the unintended consequences of research into this area – as well as considering the future implications on criminology of those consequential findings.

The dissertation is an independent, in-depth inquiry into a research topic of your choosing, subject to there being a suitable expert in the department to supervise your project. The topic will relate to a key legal question or issue and may also directly relate to your professional/career interests.

This is your opportunity to make a contribution to the legal and academic community with new and original research and writing on a legal issue.

This module introduces you to the principles of the law of evidence in criminal cases. It also introduces you to the nature and theory of proof. These general issues are developed through the study of particular topics such as the burden and standard of proof; confessions and illegally obtained evidence; disputed identification evidence and other warnings to the jury; hearsay; the credibility of witnesses and bad character evidence.

This module introduces the principles of UK immigration and asylum law. Asylum is a subject seldom out of the press and it has received unprecedented political attention in the last decade. Given that immigration is now such a wide subject, with a number of major new statutes, you will only be introduced to selected highlights and the module will focus mainly on the asylum process. Consideration of the general issues is developed through the study of particular topics such as the nature of an asylum claim and the link between human rights and asylum. Immigration detention and the foreign prisoner crisis and deportation issues will also be discussed. If possible, the module will be supplemented by a visit to the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal.

Focusing on new technologies and our own research in this area, this module addresses the changes in the law that are necessary to accommodate the impact of the internet, developments in 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and advancements in bio-technology.

You will examine intellectual property law and the protection of intangible property, particularly copyright and patent law. And you will explore the theories that justify the legal protection of human creativity, whilst also studying its practical application.

You will consider copyright protection and its basic tenants alongside the defences and exceptions that allow society to benefit. Following this, you will look at the impact of the Internet and the ability to infringe upon copyright at an unprecedented level.

We will also cover the basics of patent law protection, along with issues relating to the ownership of patents by employers. And you will undertake an in-depth study of the current UK and international policies relating to bio-technology patents.

To what extent does English law accommodate religious belief and practice? How has the law interacted with religion historically? What is the current interplay between law and religion? And how does the UK model of religious accommodation compare with those adopted in European jurisdictions?

Religion in the 21st century continues to attract and engage the attention of the government, parliament and the courts - as it has done throughout English legal history. Law and Religion, an engaging, policy-significant and popular module, will tackle the central questions outlines above and introduce you to the laws that regulate religion and belief in the UK.

Typically the module covers the following topics:

• history of relationship between religion and English law
• legal definition of religion
• legal status of established and non-established religious groups
• religious freedom
• religious discrimination
• religious offences
• religion in schools
• religious law
• religious tribunals

The module focuses on two very pertinent topics in the area of religion and law: the application of Islamic law in the UK, and religious tribunals in the UK. We will draw on our research as we discuss issues that are high on the agenda of policy makers and are part of current media discussion.

This module will assess the legal and practical issues surrounding responses to massive violations of human rights, before the political and moral issues involved in using national and international courts will be discussed. The imposition of truth commissions as well as other techniques of ‘transitional justice’ to respond to massive human rights violations will be critically analysed in order to deduce the success of such responses.

How should we understand the role of punishment under democracy? How do the historical, cultural and ideological relationships that underpin and, to a certain extent, determine punishment inform our conceptions of Justice, Fairness, and Equality?

This module examines both the historical and philosophical dimensions of modern democratic punishment. We will probe the punitive landscape charted by theorists like Michel Foucault, Norbert Elias, and Emile Durkheim. This module will also consider the “new punitiveness” and the “old” in search of an explanation for the rise of the incapacitative approach to punishment, its permanence and its implications for the legitimacy of the democratic project.