Undergraduate Course: Entertainment Law (LAWS10161)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Entertainment Law is a course about the legal aspects of industries such as music, theatre, cinema, and gambling. It considers issues of public law (especially the licensing process for venues and events) and private law (especially contracts and the management of image). The focus is on the study of legal tools that are specific to a given industry or to entertainment law in general, with particular attention being paid to appreciating the role played by relevant legal and policy actors (associations, unions, specialist agencies, self-regulatory systems). The core aims are to introduce the different legal/regulatory risks which are important within the entertainment industries, to promote problem-solving and attention to detail, and to encourage students to scrutinise and criticise the impact of legislation and administrative action on cultural, social and economic aspects of entertainment (including audience / consumer matters). |
| Course description |
Indicative teaching programme
1. Entertainment: introduction to law and policy
2. Regulating entertainment in the 20th century
3. Legislation, licensing and local authorities: entertainment, cinema/theatre, alcohol
4. Continued from week 3
5. Gambling and the National Lottery (UK law)
6. Problem exercise 1: the night-time economy
7. Music industry contracts
8. Image rights
9. Television production
10. Problem exercise 2: festivals
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- 1. Knowledge and Sources of Law:
a) An advanced understanding of the law of licensing of Scotland
b) An understanding of the law of licensing of England
c) An advanced understanding of the law of gambling and of television production of the UK
d) An appreciation of the constraints on local authority decisions through judicial review of administrative action
e) A deeper knowledge of the application of private law (particularly contract) in the entertainment industries
- 2. Subject-specific Skills:
a) Understanding how legislative principles are translated into administrative processes and standard agreements
b) Criticism of legal doctrines (both public and private law), including the cultural and economic consequences of these doctrines
c) Comparing different systems (particularly over time, but also between jurisdictions and between different forms of entertainment)
- 3. General Transferable Intellectual Skills:
a. Attention to detail
b. Use of electronic resources
c. Presentation of arguments
- 4. Key Personal Skills:
a. Advanced writing skills
b. Group work, including problem-solving and co-operation
c. Note-taking, and analysis of dense textual information
- 5. Subject-specific Legal and Ethical Values:
a. Awareness of the roles of different parties (e.g. applicants, objectors and decision-makers in relation to licensing; artists, agents and managers in relation to music industry contracts) and their various duties
b. Sensitivity to the balance of interests in relation to the regulation of entertainment (e.g. through the history of gambling of theatres, debates on moral aspects).
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Entertainment law |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Daithi Mac Sithigh
Tel: (0131 6)50 9510
Email: Daithi.Mac.Sithigh@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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