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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2013/2014 -
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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Law : Law

Postgraduate Course: Risk Society & Regulatory Frameworks (LAWS11288)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Law CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Course typeStandard AvailabilityAvailable to all students
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) Credits20
Home subject areaLaw Other subject areaNone
Course website None Taught in Gaelic?No
Course descriptionThis course is a detailed exploration of risk and its regulation across a broad range of human activities, focusing on regulatory instruments and institutions ¿ legal and non-legal, domestic, regional and international ¿ which govern and shape individual and organisational conduct. It examines how regulatory instruments and institutions are shaped and/or respond to natural events and new and emerging human activities, many of them which rely on or prompt new modes of action, new technologies, new relationships, and, importantly, new risks. Specifically, it explores regulatory frameworks in different contexts, including the environment, biotechnologies, information and communication technologies, policing, and commerce, and how they interact with other frameworks.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus?No
Course Delivery Information
Delivery period: 2013/14 Semester 2, Available to all students (SV1) Learn enabled:  No Quota:  25
Web Timetable Web Timetable
Course Start Date 13/01/2014
Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 176 )
Additional Notes
Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
No Exam Information
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course students should be able to:

¿ articulate the idea of 'risk' in the regulatory context and appreciate that risk is not a purely local or subject/field-specific matter;
¿ appreciate the range of competing interests and values which shape risk articulations and thereby feed regulatory efforts;
¿ appreciate how regulatory frameworks which address risk respond to and shape our conceptions of and tolerances for risk; and
¿ formulate well-reasoned and coherent arguments relating to risk and, where appropriate, suggest reforms to regulatory responses to risk.
Assessment Information
class participation (20%)
mid-term assessed assignment or poster (20%)
research essay (5000 words max, including footnotes) (60%)
Special Arrangements
None
Additional Information
Academic description Not entered
Syllabus This is still being developed, but it is expected that the course will largely reflect the following:

The course will adopt the following format:

Weeks 1-5
The first half if the course will introduce students to the idea of a 'risk society' (complexity and contingency of modern society; the rise of risk discourse; the political and regulatory use of risk; role of technologies in all of this), an 'interdisciplinary' social and regulatory environment (challenges associated with interdisciplinary and collaborative activities; role of public in articulating risk and setting risk tolerances; how engagement shifts conceptions of risk and feeds governance structures), and 'regulation' and 'governance' (theory of regulation; rising practice of risk management; how this is embedded in regulation, ie, a key regulatory objective, precautionary principle).

Weeks 6-10
The remainder of the course will consist of Case Studies across a broad range of fields, with each case study addressing as many of the following questions as possible:

1. What are the perceived risks that are being governed?
2. What are the relevant regulatory onstitutions (international, regional (EU), domestic)?
3. What are the regulatory responses/rules and how they have been shaped?
4. Whose ideas of risks are shaping actions on the ground?
5. What is the efficacy of the prevailing/dominant regulatory regime?
6. What other related human activities and regulatory frameworks are implicated in this field (to what extent does it notice or interact with other fields)?

Case studies will include:

(1) Regulation, Risk & Climate Change;
(2) Regulation, Risk & the Environment & Biodiversity;
(3) Regulation, Risk & ICTs;
(4) Regulation, Risk & Policing;
(5) Regulation, Risk & Competition.

Each session will revisit the idea of regulation, getting students to examine how it is deployed in the different settings and what we might conclude from that about risk and about regulation itself as a legal undertaking within a broader governance pallet.

It is expected that each week will have between 3 and 5 readings.
Transferable skills Not entered
Reading list Not entered
Study Abroad Not entered
Study Pattern Not entered
Keywordsrisk, regulation, governance, case-studies
Contacts
Course organiserMr Shawn Harmon
Tel: (0131 6)51 4267
Email: Shawn.Harmon@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Amanda Mackenzie
Tel: (0131 6)50 6325
Email: amanda.mackenzie@ed.ac.uk
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