LAW-20038 - Module Specification
School of Law
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2024/25

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

LAW-10039 (Legal Essentials)

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2024/25

Cynics may suggest that the words 'ethics' and 'lawyers' are not commonly seen together. This module will ask you to cast aside such cliched prejudice and to examine the important role of ethics within the law. This examination will include both abstract consideration of "ethics" and ethical argumentation from a strict philosophical viewpoint, but also how ethics influences, and should influence, law-makers in practice. Topics covered in previous years have included issues relating to punishment, decriminalisation, autonomy at the end of life, and abortion and reproductive rights. Ethical engagement and the ability to draw on ethical reasoning is increasingly signalled as a key area of concern for the legal profession by its regulators and as a key attribute for future lawyers. This module enables you to develop these skills and attributes, in advance of it being required as a formal part of a Qualifying Law Degree.

To introduce students to the major ethical frameworks required to understand and reflect on the relationship of ethics and law.
To encourage students to reflect critically on ethical arguments with reference to challenging ethico-legal issues.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Recognise and evaluate the major philosophical traditions underlying the structure of ethical thinking.: 1
Understand and critically appraise those ethical principles and their development and offer a reasoned analysis of the nature of their application to the law and the legal system in Britain.: 1
Critically reflect on the intellectual and personal issues raised by a range of challenging ethico-legal questions.: 2
Understand and assess the new challenges that are being offered to the major philosophical traditions in the twenty-first century.: 1

Study hours

Seminar attendance 24 hours
Seminar preparation 60 hours
Independent study 26 hours
Assessment preparation 40 hours
Total = 150 hours

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment