PROGRAMME APPROVAL FORM SECTION 1 THE PROGRAMME SPECIFICATION

(1)

PROGRAMME APPROVAL FORM

SECTION 1 – THE PROGRAMME SPECIFICATION

1. Programme Title and Designation

_{LEGAL STUDIES}

For Undergraduate Programmes Only: Single Honours Joint Minor

2. Final Award

Award Title Credit value ECTS equivalent Any special criteria

UG Cert Legal Studies 120 60

3. Nested Award

Award Title Credit value ECTS equivalent Any special criteria

N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

4. Exit Award

Award Title Credit value ECTS equivalent Any special criteria

N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

5. Level in the Qualification Framework C

6. Attendance Full-time Part-time Distance Learning

Mode of Attendance Yes No No

Minimum Length of Programme 1 Year - -

Maximum Length of Programme 1 Year - -

7. Awarding Institution / Body King’s College London

8. Teaching Institution King’s College London

9. Proposing Department School of Law

10. Programme Organiser

Name Professor Alison Jones

Address School of Law, Strand Campus

Email [email protected]

Telephone x 1151

Fax

11. UCAS Code (if appropriate) M100

12. Relevant QAA Subject Benchmark / Professional & Statutory Body Guidelines

• Law Benchmark Statement (2000)

• Criteria for degrees (University of London)

• Joint Statement of the Law Society and the general Council of the Bar (1999)

• I-level descriptors of the framework for higher education qualifications (2001)

13. Date of Production of Specification Converted to Credit Framework April 2007

14. Date of Programme Review 2011/12

16. Educational Aims of the Programme:

• To provide students with a knowledge and understanding of the fundamental doctrines and principles which underpin the law of England and Wales

• To ensure that students have an understanding of a wide range of legal concepts, values, principles and rules of English law,

• To ensure that students can apply their understanding of legal rules in answering questions raised in discrete factual situations, or in critically analysing existing legal rules.

• To provide students with the research skills necessary to find the law in any given area even if the student has not studied that area in detail previously.

(2)

• To enable students to identify relevant material over the irrelevant,

• To ensure that students have the ability to use (where appropriate) information technology and the ability to write using English language and legal terminology with care and accuracy.

17. Educational Objectives of the Programme / Programme Outcomes

The programme provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding and skills in the following areas:

Knowledge and Understanding

This is achieved through the following teaching / learning methods and strategies:

Lectures, student preparation for seminars and tutorials, based seminars, discussion-based tutorials, opportunity to submit written answers to questions for comment by tutors, opportunity to engage in mooting.

The programme provides a knowledge and understanding of the following:

• Knowledge of the main features and ideas involved in the legal system of England and Wales

• Detailed knowledge of a selected number of areas of law, some of which are determined by the institution and some of which are chosen by the student

• Knowledge of and exposure to a wide variety of academic approaches to the study of law, including socio-legal, theoretical, historical and critical studies of law.

• Knowledge of the basic research tools used in locating legal sources

• Appropriate personal and professional conduct in the context of the discipline

Assessment:

Unseen closed-book examination, unseen open-book examination, assessed coursework, assessed

dissertations. The combination of methods of assessment ensure that the graduate cannot pass the programme without acquiring the requisite

knowledge and understanding. Skills and Other Attributes

Lectures, student preparation for seminars and tutorials, based seminars, discussion-based tutorials, opportunity to submit written answers to questions for comment by tutors, opportunity to engage in mooting.

Intellectual Skills:

• Application of legal rules to reasonably complex factual situations requiring students to discern relevant legal and factual material from the irrelevant

• Ability to interpret legal sources so as to arrive at conclusions which are both legally sustainable and are supported by legal sources, and to recognise that it is possible that more than one conclusion may be supported in this way

• Ability to conduct unsupervised research so as to gain an understanding of areas of law not previously studied in depth

• Ability to locate and use basic legal material in paper and electronic form

• Ability to critically analyse legal arguments and to evaluate such arguments by reference to legally-relevant material.

• Ability to absorb new developments in the law and to incorporate such developments so as to be cognisant with the current state of the law

Assessment:

dissertations. The combination of methods of assessment ensure that the graduate cannot pass the programme without acquiring the requisite

knowledge and understanding.

This is achieved through the following teaching / learning methods and strategies: As above. Practical Skills:

The intellectual skills of the programme are the practical skills

required in the practice of law or law-related careers. Assessment: As above.

Lectures, student preparation for seminars and tutorials, based seminars, discussion-based tutorials, opportunity to submit written answers to questions for comment by tutors, opportunity to engage in mooting.

Generic / Transferable Skills:

• Ability to discern relevant material from irrelevant • Ability to make an argument supported by relevant

material

• Ability to critically evaluate arguments by reference to a variety of methodologies and ideologies

• Ability to work independently • Literacy

• Communication, both orally and in writing • Use of information technology

• Teamwork

Assessment:

(3)

programme without acquiring the requisite knowledge and understanding.

The assessment strategies for elements of the programme are underpinned by a requirement for students to fulfil outcomes 5-8.

18. Statement of how the programme has been informed by the relevant subject benchmark statements(s) / professional, regulatory and statutory body guidelines:

The educational aims of the programme, and the knowledge and understanding, subject-specific skills, and generic transferable skills have all been informed by the standards set out in the Law Benchmark statement, and reflect as a minimum the standards set out in that statement. The programme, however, has not followed the benchmark statement with reference to the requirement that law graduates graduate with a generic/transferable skill of numeracy. Whilst the programme offers a wide variety of situations where students may be expected to use numeracy skills, the programme does not specifically assess the level of achievement of individual students in relation to this skill. Thus, whilst it is highly unlikely that students can graduate without using numeracy skills, it cannot be said that a particular level of proficiency in numeracy is a skill that results from successful completion of the programme.

The programme provides an academically coherent programme of study over one year in accordance with the Criteria for degrees of the University of London. Students achieve a satisfactory overall standard through formative (essays) and summative assessments, which offer a mix of written examinations, assessed dissertations and assessed coursework. The various forms of assessments examine the students’ command of knowledge and skill (see above 16) as well as the methodologies appropriate to the study of law (see above 16) and the capacity for independent and critical thought (see above 16).

The programme has also been informed by the Joint Statement of the Law Society and the general Council of the Bar by providing students with the necessary knowledge and general transferable skills. The ability of students to produce word-processed text and to present it in an appropriate form is assessed in the context of assessed dissertations and assessed coursework. In the context of formative assessments (essays), students are encouraged to provide word-processed text, but this is not made a requirement. The programme also provides students with the possibility to obtain the foundations of legal knowledge as set out by the Joint Statement.

The educational objectives, the intellectual skills and the generic transferable skills have also been informed by the I-level descriptors of the framework for higher education qualifications.

19. Programme Structure and Award Requirements

(where relevant the information should differentiate between the particular requirements of pathways within a programme or nested/exit awards)

19a. Number of introductory, core, compulsory and optional modules to be taken in each year of the programme, with related credit values

Introductory Core Compulsory Optional

Year No. Credit No. Credit No. Credit No. Credit

1 4 120

2 3 4

19b. Range of permitted credit levels 4, 5, 6 19c. Maximum number of credits permitted at

the lowest level

60

19d. Minimum number of credits required at the highest level

60

19e. Progression and award requirements (if different from the standard)

All modules must be passed

19f. Maximum number of credits permitted with a condoned fail (core modules excluded)

n/a

(4)

To achieve the Certificate in Legal Studies students must select one of the option sets A-D as listed below: A.

Law of Contract Law of Tort

Further modules totalling 60 credits from the options table below, only 30 credits of which may be at Level 4. B.

Public Law

English Administrative Law

Further modules totalling 60 credits from the options table below, only 30 credits of which may be at Level 4 C.

Criminal Law

Criminology and Criminal Justice

Further modules totalling 60 credits from the options table below, only 30 credits of which may be at Level 4 D.

Law of Property

Law of Trusts and Equitable Remedies

Further modules totalling 60 credits from the options table below.

Students wishing to select 15 credit modules from the further options list may take a maximum of two of these modules. This rule applies to each of the option sets A-D.

AWARD OF CERTIFICATE

1. Subject to rules 2 and 3, a candidate shall be held to have passed the examinations if he or she obtains the normal pass mark of 40% in all subjects.

2. A candidate who obtains the normal pass mark in three modules, but not in the fourth, may be allowed to resit in the fourth module, provided that the mark in the fourth module is at least 33 and provided that the aggregate mark exceeds 160 by at least the amount by which the mark in the fourth module falls short of the normal pass mark. Resit marks shall be capped at 40%.

3. A candidate who fails in two or more modules, or who fails in one module and does not fall within rule 2, shall be deemed to have failed the Certificate and shall not be permitted to resit the failed modules.

Programme Structure Table Notes:

1) Status: Introductory (I), Core (Cr), Compulsory (Cp) or Optional (O).

2) Progression: Module required for year to year progression (Y); module required for completion of award (N) 3) Assessment: List assessment components in broad terms

4) Availability of optional modules may vary from year to year. The listed modules are those available at the

commencement of the programme

Credits Status Progression Title

Lev

el

Value Single Joi

n

t

Other Single Joi

n

t

Other

Assessment

Law of Contract 4 30 O* N Exam; Coursework

Criminal Law 4 30 O* N Exam

Public Law 4 30 O* N Exam

Law of Tort 6 30 O* N Exam

Law of Property 6 30 O* N Exam

Law of Trusts & Equitable Remedies 6 30 O* N Exam

Jurisprudence and Legal Theory 6 30 O N Exam; Coursework

History of English Law 6 30 O N Coursework

(5)

English Administrative Law (not offered 2010/11)

6 30 O* N Exam

Public International Law 6 30 O N Exam

Labour Law 6 30 O N Exam

Family Law 6 30 O N Exam

Law of Personal Taxation 6 30 O N Exam

Conflict of Laws 6 30 O N Exam

Commercial Law 6 30 O N Exam

Human Rights Law 6 30 O N Exam

Advanced Constitutional Law 6 30 O N Exam; Coursework

Medical Law 6 30 O N Exam; Coursework

Company Law 6 30 O N Exam; Coursework

Soviet & Post-Soviet Legal Systems 6 30 O N Exam

Competition Law 6 30 O N Exam

Criminology and Criminal Justice 6 30 O* N Exam; Coursework

Anti-Discrimination Law 6 30 O N Exam

Moral Philosophy 6 30 O N Exam

Law and Social Theory 6 30 O N Exam; Coursework

Commercial Arbitration 6 30 O N Exam

German and European Commercial Law

6 30 O N Exam

Dissertation 6 15 O N Coursework

Russian Legal Institutions 6 15 O N Exam

Copyright & Designs 6 15 O N Exam

Trade Marks & Passing Off 6 15 O N Exam

Patents & Breach of Confidence 6 15 O N Exam

* Optional modules, but also available as part of options a-d above.

20. Marking Criteria: The College’s standard marking criteria are employed.

21. Particular features of the programme which help to reduce the barriers experienced by disabled students and ensure that the programme is accessible to all students who meet the entry requirements:

(6)

PROGRAMME APPROVAL FORM

SECTION 2 – SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

Some or all of the information in this section will not be relevant for all programmes

1. Programme Name UG CERT IN LEGAL STUDIES

2. Joint Programme / Award

Yes No N/A X

If the programme is a joint award with an institution outwith the University of London, has the necessary approval been sought from

the Academic Board? Please attach a copy of the request to Academic Board

3. In cases of joint honours programmes please provide a rationale for the particular subject combination, either educational or academic:

Which is the lead department and/or School?

Year Abroad Year in

Employment

Placement Other (specify):

4. If the programme involves time outside the College of longer than a term, please indicate how the time will be spent, the length of time out and whether it is a compulsory or optional part of the programme

Time Spent Compulsory / Optional

(C/O) 5. Please provide a rationale for any such time outside the College, other than that which is a requirement of a professional, regulatory or statutory body:

6. Please give details if the programme requires validation or accreditation by a professional, regulatory or statutory body:

Name Law Society and General Council of the Bar

Address 289-293 High Holborn

London WC1V 7HZ

Email

Telephone 0207 611 1444

Fax Frequency of validation / accreditation Six Years

Date of next validation / accreditation 2012

7. In cases where parts or all of the programme (other than those in section 4) are delivered away from the College campuses and/or by a body or bodies external to the College please provide the following details: Name of location and/or external body

Address Email Telephone Fax Percentage/amount of the programme delivered off-campus or by external body:

Nature of the involvement of external body:

Description of the learning resources available at the off-campus location: