LLB Law with French Law first year modules

Legal Skills and Methods

Legal Skills & Methods will introduce students to key legal skills as well as developing their study skills in transitioning from school/college to University. Students will be introduced to the Law School and University, to the assessment regime and to the pastoral care available to them. This module will also allow students to begin to develop their employability skills and attributes. 

This module will use a combination of plenary lectures alongside practical seminars. Indicative content is as follows:

  • Introduction to Legal Study
  • The English Legal System
  • Cases and Precedent
  • Legislation
  • Solving Legal Problems
  • European Legal Frameworks
  • Presenting Legal Arguments
  • International Law and Human Rights
  • Law and Justice in the Real World
  • Writing about the Law
  • Life in the Law School (including orientation of personnel, differing types of assessments, welfare services, personal tutoring, inclusivity, academic skills)
  • Self-reflection skills
  • Careers; employability skills including writing a CV

Criminal Law 

The module provides an exploration of substantive criminal law (ie, how the law defines and applies offences and defences). The following topics will be covered in a typical year: introduction to theories of criminalisation and punishment; actus reus; mens rea; homicide; offences against the person; sexual offences; property offences; denials of offending; and defences. 

Public Law

This module examines core public law principles, and seeks to enable students to further develop within the context of a substantive law subject, the academic and legal skills which they will have learned in the Legal Skills and Methods module in the first semester.

The substantive material covered in the module involves two components (each of which may involve the following topics): 

Section A examines foundational constitutional principles and issues including: the purpose of constitutions and the sources of constitutional rules; the evolution of the UK constitution including reference to international law, the European Union, devolution and the Human Rights Act 1998; and the distribution, use and control of legislative, judicial and executive powers in the UK. 

Section B is concerned with the grounds, procedure, remedies and constitutional foundations of judicial review in England and Wales.

Contract Law

The course covers a range of core issues in contract law, which may include the following areas: the nature of contract law and key ideas; contract formation (offer and acceptance, consideration, intention to create legal relations, certainty); contents and scope of the agreement; setting the contract aside; variation including promissory estoppel; performance, discharge and remedies for breach of contract.

The module discusses the development of contract law in some of its wider social, historical and economic context. Aspects of the module explore the theories and critiques about contract law.

Introduction to French Law I

The objective of this module, which is taught in the French language, is to introduce students to the French Constitution and the institutions of the French Republic. The following topics are studied:

  • Past constitutional regimes since 1789
  • The Parliament
  • The Executive
  • The hierarchy of norms
  • The Conseil constitutionnel

Introduction to French Law II

This module, taught throughout in the French language, introduces students to the French legal system, notably the process of codification and the Code civil, the sources of French law, judges and the independence of the judiciary and the French court system.