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Semester 1

The Changing Constitution (LAWS10210)

Subject

Law

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 3 Law courses at grade B or above, including courses equivalent to both Public Law & Individual Rights (LAWS08132) and Public Law of the UK & Scotland (LAWS08123). We will only consider University/College level courses. This course is only open to visiting students who are nominated to study with us on a Law exchange agreement. Exchange students outside of Law and study abroad students are not eligible to enrol on this course before teaching begins, with no exceptions, and spaces cannot be guaranteed to those students at any time. **Please see Additional Restrictions**

Course Summary

This is an advanced level course in the constitutional law of the UK. The aim of this course is to develop an advanced knowledge and understanding of selected aspects of constitutional law. Building upon PLUS and PLAIR, the School's Ordinary level public law courses, this Honours course takes an in-depth view of selected areas of the constitution that are currently changing, e.g.: Devolution and the territorial constitution; The role of Parliament; Post-Brexit constitutional issues. **The course aims to draw out themes of change, how the various areas are linked, and where they are in fact disparate and disconnected. The course will seek to arrive at new understandings of patterns within the constitution, assessing it against established doctrines such as parliamentary supremacy, prerogative powers, and the rule of law.

Course Description

**1. Students will be expected to develop a sophisticated sense of how to read relevant primary materials as well as the ability to engage with demanding secondary texts dealing with both substantive constitutional law and the theoretical work that helps us to understand constitutionalism in context. They will be expected to read statutes; delegated legislation; parliamentary reports and cases. **2. The course will address current issues in the constitution. Inevitably these will depend upon developments at the time. It is not possible to be too precise, but reading lists and seminar sheets will be developed two to three weeks in advance to keep the subject-matter fresh. **3. The course will be seminar-based. Students will be given listed reading or research tasks based upon current developments. They will be expected to discuss these in class. Course presentations will also be assigned.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

This course cannot be taken alongside Public Law of the UK & Scotland (LAWS08123). **All 3rd year Law courses are ONLY open to visiting students nominated on an exchange agreement within the School of Law (including Erasmus students on a Law-specific exchange). Exchange students outside of Law, and independent study abroad students, are not eligible to enrol in these courses, with no exceptions.** Please note that 3rd year Law courses are high-demand, meaning that they have a very high number of students wishing to enrol in a very limited number of spaces. These enrolments are managed strictly by the CAHSS Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department, and all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. It is not appropriate for students to contact the Law School directly to request additional spaces. If there is sufficient space for other visiting students to enrol at the start of the semester (which cannot be guaranteed at all), visiting students must meet the pre-requisites listed above.

view the timetable and further details for this course