Undergraduate Course: Reasoning Using Civilian Authority (LAWS10213)
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 | This course will expose students to the debates surrounding the use of historical material in courtroom argumentation. Using a number of court decisions from Scotland and elsewhere, students will investigate the methods and pitfalls associated with the use of historical authority in courtroom argumentation. |
| Course description |
The aim of this course is to provide students with the intellectual tools necessary to construct arguments based on civilian authority in a court of law. In doing so, the course will take a thoroughly practical approach, focusing across a number of seminars on specific instances in which arguments using civilian authority have been employed in a court of law as well as the opportunities and pitfalls associated with an approach of this kind. Students will be exposed to the sources associated with this type of argument, the intellectual merit of such arguments as well as their place within the larger narratives of the 'sources' of a legal system. Finally, issues of accuracy and 'movable texts' in historical sources will be addressed.
This course will consist of an introduction followed by nine seminars focusing on specific court decisions in which civilian authority have been employed. Students will be asked to do reading in advance, to dissect the argument employed and to investigate the sources used in order to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the overall argument. This will be used as a backdrop for discussion of specific issues such as when an historical argument should be employed, how to do so, what sources to use and what pitfalls to avoid.
Each seminar will be centred around a specific case. In each instance, a reading list will be provided. Students will be asked to analyse the arguments raised in each case, to assess the sources employed and to comment on the accuracy of the use of historical sources. This will be distilled into a position paper of 10 minutes that will be presented in class. At the start of each seminar, a student will be selected at random to present their position paper. Class members will be encourage to comment on the paper delivered, thereby providing a vehicle for seminar discussion.
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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 |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Critically identify, define and analyse complex concepts and appreciate their development over time;
- Acquire a deeper knowledge and understanding of important literary works and of their interaction with legal issues;
- Demonstrate advanced skills in reading, understanding, and adopting an independent critical position in relation to complex material;
- Enhance their oral and written communication skills through written essays, class presentations and dialogue with other students.
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Reading List
| A full reading list will be supplied in advance of every seminar. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
The course will encourage the students to engage with primary sources and to develop their critical skills. It will help them to better appreciate the limits of the law and its underlying moral values, and their change over time. It will encourage them to appreciate the ways in which literature articulates both the capacities and incapacities of the law as it is practised and as it might be practised. |
| Keywords | Argumentation,Civil Law,Legal History,Historical Authority,Legal System,Legal Argumentation |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof P Du Plessis
Tel: (0131 6)50 9701
Email: P.Duplessis@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Krystal Hanley
Tel: (0131 6)50 2056
Email: Krystal.Hanley@ed.ac.uk |
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