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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2016/2017

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Law : Law

Undergraduate Course: Centralizing Justice: Scotland in Early Modern Europe (LAWS10192)

This course will be closed from 13 January 2017

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Law CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course will examine the development central institutions of justice in Scotland in the early modern period, as influenced by the Renaissance and the growth of royal government. As well as looking at the development of the College of Justice in a comparative European context, the course will consider the development of a central criminal court. Other key institutions will be discussed and analyzed, notably the role of Parliament as court and legislature and it changing nature. The impact of these changes and their interrelationship with other courts in Scotland will be a major theme. The development of a legal profession as well as the impact of the ius commune and the Reception of civil law will also be reflected on, as will that of the Reformation on the law and ist institutions.
Course description The course aims to allow students to explore and reach their own understandings of the mechanisms of development of these institutions and their impact on law and society. They should have an understanding of the nature of the relevant institutions and their impact on and role in Scottish society in a Renaissance and comparative European context.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2016/17, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  1
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
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 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) The course will be assessed by two essays, one due in the middle of the course (30%), the other at the end of the course (70%). Both are summative.
Feedback The first essay will be formative as well as summative. Feedback will be provided to the students after the first essay, which has a much lighter weighting in overall assessment, but also with an element of feed-forward to assist in preparation of the second essay.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Have acquired a knowledge of the development of central courts in Scotland, their relationship to other courts, and all in a comparative contex exploring the development of early modern legal systems.
  2. Demonstrate the ability to explore relevant source material about historic courts and their operation, and awareness of comparative issues; ability to read and develop knowledge of existing secondary literature, and to write about a complex topic.
  3. Concentrate on and understand complicated material and issues; and demonstrate enhanced writing skills.
  4. Develop critical reasoning, and analyse and expound complex matters.
  5. Develop and consolidate awareness of the differing sets of values.
Reading List
A.M. Godfrey, Civil Justice in Renaissance Scotland: The Origins of a Central Court, Brill 2009
John Finlay, Men of Law in Pre-Reformation Scotland, East Linton, 2000
R.K. Hannay, The College of Justice (1932; repr Stair Society Supp Vol. 1)
L. MacFarlane, William Elphinstone ad the Kingdom of Scotland, 1985; repr 1995
T.M. Green Consistorial Decisions of the Commissaries of Edinburgh, Stair Society 2014
Michael Wasser, Violence and the Central Criminal Courts in Scotland, Coumbia Univ PhD theses 1995, copy Law library
J.W. Cairns, Law, Lawyers, and Humanism EUP, 2015
Various essays in periodicals and collected volumes
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsJustice,Legal History,Early Modern Europe,Scotland,
Contacts
Course organiserProf John Cairns
Tel: (0131 6)50 2065
Email: John.Cairns@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Krystal Hanley
Tel: (0131 6)50 2056
Email: Krystal.Hanley@ed.ac.uk
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