What are human rights? How do we protect them? And what challenges do we face when promoting human rights on an international level? Discover the fundamental principles and practices, including topics related to international law and ethics, which underpin the protection and promotion of our human rights.

What is the relationship between comparative law and the EU? What about the UN? Examine current theoretical debates to comparative law. Analyse the methodology available to conduct comparative research. Undertake a micro comparison on a particular legal topic, gaining experience of the concepts and methods through your own work.

What are the rules governing state responsibility? Or the acquisition of statehood? How do you apply international law to notions of jurisdiction? Study the theories and concepts behind public international law, plus new developments in the field. Learn to apply relevant principles to specific case studies.

What are the main corporate management issues today? What is the legislative framework for insolvency and takeovers? Have corporate scandals changed modern company law? Examine the rules that govern companies, building knowledge for a career in commerce and industry. Evaluate real-life cases to understand statutes, case law and regulatory practice.

Want to experience a practice-based role in a legal environment? Undertake a placement to deepen and apply your understanding of law to a real-world setting. Build your personal and professional skills, including oral and written communication skills, problem solving skills and the ability to reflect on your work.

The module introduces students to the re-emergent interdisciplinary field of law and psychoanalysis. Uniquely, it will examine both how psychoanalytic insights may contribute to legal thinking, as well as how legal thinking may contribute to psychoanalytic theory and practice. From its earliest days psychoanalysis has had a link to the law. Hans Kelsen was a part of Sigmund Freud’s Vienna circle in the 1920s. Starting with US judges such as Jerome Frank and Benjamin Cardozo (who both underwent analysis), psychoanalytic insights had a strong influence in developing the theory of legal realism. In the 1960s the law and psychoanalysis project at Yale Law School included seminars led by Anna Freud.

Jurisprudence is a module that enables you to think in depth about how law works and the impact it has on the society around us. For example: How is law different to other rules and principles? Should law reflect moral opinion, and if so, how do we decide what is moral? Can judges really be objective when they make decisions? How do we judge if law is making society fairer? The module covers many key theoretical approaches to understanding what law is and how it functions. In doing so, we will look at the relationship (and conflicts) between law, on the one hand, and politics, markets, and social justice on the other. You will be asked to think for yourself about these issues, and reflect on which perspectives provide us with the most accurate, and the most useful, ways of thinking about law.

Islamic Law (Shariah) is present in many legal fields ranging from contract, to property, to criminal law. Various jurisdictions have adopted particular systems of regulation for specific sectors due to its significance. This module places particular emphasis on the history of Islamic law and its place in modern society. You are challenged with demonstrating a critical understanding of the key concepts and approaches to Islamic law and the ability to analyse and evaluate differing opinions on legal and ethical arguments.

This module offers an introduction to Canadian Constitutional Law, shedding light on the unique composition of Canada’s constitutional framework and how it is shaped and interpreted by political and legal institutions within a multicultural society. It serves as a comparative lens to understand constitutional frameworks, drawing parallels with the USA and other Common Law nations. The module underscores the unique history and characteristics of Canada’s federal state and constitutional system, illustrating their relevance both as independent subjects of study and as comparative models in constitutional studies. A principal aspect of the module is the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, recognised for its influential role in shaping legal thinking in the UK and other Commonwealth countries. The module also navigates through the foundational aspects and sources of the Canadian Constitution. It explores the distinctive trajectory of Canada's constitutional arrangements and the rich Canadian constitutional literature, which has played a pivotal role in international constitutional discourse.