Undergraduate Course: Family Law (Ordinary) (LAWS08126)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | The broad aims of the course are threefold: (1) to impart basic information about Scots Family Law (within the framework of the United Kingdom, the EU and International Human Rights Conventions) focusing on the law of persons as it relates to husband and wife and civil partners, cohabitants, same sex couples and parent and child; (2) to help students develop basic legal skills, applying them to problem solving questions arising from their course materials; and (3) to encourage students to think critically about the law, legal institutions and legal process, and their relationship with the socio-economic dimension of families as they exist in real life. The course treats these three aims as inter-linked through the lectures and tutorials that underpin it. The lectures aim to provide a framework for understanding the regulation of diverse family forms in Scotland on which students can build, through tutorials, independent study and research and written assessments, to pursue a more in-depth analysis of concrete legal problems facing families today as well as tackling law reform. Thus the course seeks to enhance students¿ capacities for a) understanding primary legal material (statutes and case law) in order to develop their skills in identifying and retrieving legal information on their own; b) bringing together and integrating information from a variety of sources, to synthesise and analyse it from a legal perspective; and c) critically applying their knowledge in making informed judgements on the rules of family law and their application within the domestic legal system. |
| Course description |
Not entered
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | Students MUST also take:
Scottish Legal System (LAWS08128)
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| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | This course is only open to visiting students coming through a direct exchange with the School of Law (this includes Erasmus students on a Law Exchange). |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2017/18, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 335 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 22,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 5,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
69 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
100 %,
Coursework
0 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Degree examination ¿ 100% of the final mark. In order to test the students overall knowledge and skills in relation to the course, all students must answer a compulsory problem question that covers all sections of the course work and that is worth 50% of the final mark. In addition to this, students must choose one out of two more specific, focused problem questions worth 25% of the final mark, as well as one out of two essay questions worth the final 25% of the mark. |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
|
| Main Exam Diet S1 (December) | | 2:00 | | | Resit Exam Diet (August) | | 2:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
Having completed the course students should be able to demonstrate a basic knowledge of:
¿ Legal personality (natural) and the legal capacity of children;
¿ The establishment of parenthood and its consequences, including responsibilities and rights;
¿ The civil status and legal rights of children;
¿ Child protection and state intervention;
¿ The creation and place of marriage, civil partnerships and cohabitation in contemporary society;
¿ The dissolution of marriage and civil partnerships;
¿ The proprietary consequences of divorce and dissolution of civil partnerships;
¿ The legal position of cohabitants and the rights and obligation arising from cohabitation.
¿ The impact of international human rights and the Human Rights Act 1998 on Scots Family Law
¿ The impact of the EU on Scots Family Law
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Having completed the course students should be able to demonstrate a basic ability to:
¿ Recognise, analyse and rank arguments and evidence in terms of relevance
and importance by:
o managing volume of legal sources and select key material to construct written or oral answers to a problem.
o identifying the legal problem from information provided.
o addressing problems by reference to relevant material.
o bringing together and integrating information and materials from a variety of different sources.
o acknowledging ranking of sources and relative impact in context.
o application of the law and problem-solving in a legal context.
o presenting arguments for and against propositions.
¿ Be aware that arguments require to be supported by evidence, in order to meet legal requirements of proof by showing awareness of the need for evidence to support arguments
¿ Apply knowledge and analysis
o in a legal context
o creatively to complex situations in order to provide arguable solutions to concrete problems by presenting a range of viable options from a set of facts and law.
¿ Think critically and make critical judgments on the relative and absolute merits of particular arguments and solutions
¿ Act independently in planning and undertaking tasks in areas of law which he or she has already studied
¿ Reflect on his or her own learning, and to seek and make use of feedback |
| Keywords | Family Law Ord |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Anne Griffiths
Tel: (0131 6)50 2057
Email: anne.griffiths@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Susan Leask
Tel: (0131 6)50 2344
Email: susan.leask@ed.ac.uk |
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