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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2020/2021

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Law : Law

Undergraduate Course: Unjustified Enrichment (LAWS10155)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Law CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course will consider the law of unjustified enrichment, predominantly from the perspective of Scots law but also within a comparative legal context. The history of the principle against unjustified enrichment will be considered first from an historical perspective, before a consideration of the component elements of claims in the modern law. The course will set unjustified enrichment within the wider context of the law of obligations, as well as considering its boundaries and connections with other areas of law such as property law, trusts, and negotiorum gestio. The nature of both direct and indirect unjustified enrichment claims will be studied.
Course description The course may include seminars addressing the following topics (among others):

1. Historical development of the legal principle against the retention of unjustified enrichments.
2. External boundaries of enrichment law with other areas of law.
3. Internal taxonomy of unjustified enrichment.
4. Enrichment by transfer.
5. Enrichment by interference.
6. Enrichment by imposition.
7. Third party enrichment.
8. Defences.
9. The measure of recovery.
10. Property law, constructive trusts, tracing, and unjustified enrichment.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesThis course is only open to visiting students coming through a direct exchange with the School of Law (including Erasmus students on a Law-specific Exchange). Exchange students outside of Law and independent study abroad students are not eligible to enrol in this course, with no exceptions.

**Please note that 3rd year Law courses are high-demand, meaning that they have a very high number of students wishing to enrol in a very limited number of spaces.**
Priority will be given to students studying on exchange within the Law department, and it is highly unlikely that there will be additional spaces for general exchange students & independent study abroad students to enrol; we will look into this on a case-by-case basis in September/January. Visiting students are advised to bear in mind that enrolment in specific courses can never be guaranteed, and you may need to be flexible in finding alternatives in case your preferred courses have no available space.

These enrolments are managed strictly by the Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department, and all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. It is not appropriate for students to contact the department directly to request additional spaces.
High Demand Course? Yes
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: - An advanced understanding of the principle against unjustified enrichment within the law of obligations. - An advanced understanding of the current law of unjustified enrichment in Scotland, and its relationship with other areas of the law of obligations and with other categories of legal liability. - A deeper knowledge of the role of unjustified enrichment within a comparative legal context. - A deeper knowledge of the place of unjustified enrichment in proposed instruments of European legal harmonisation, such as the Draft Common Frame of Reference.
  2. Subject-specific Skills: - An ability to analyse, evaluate and interpret relevant source material. - An ability to identify the material legal issue under discussion. - The development of an advanced approach to addressing critically complex legal Questions. - An ability to apply knowledge of legal rules/concepts/principles to solve legal problems. - An ability to critique conventional legal rules and doctrines. - An ability to understand legal doctrines within a wider historical and inter-disciplinary context - The further development of an awareness of the need to provide evidence for assertions and in argument, in particular appropriate legal authority. - The further development of an ability to critique possible avenues for legal development, and to assess the merits of such.
  3. General Transferable Intellectual Skills: The course aims to provide students with skills in:- - developing complex evaluative and critical reasoning; - developing creative thinking; - developing an ability to apply knowledge outcomes to complex questions in written and oral form; - developing an advanced ability to present arguments for and against a proposition in a dispassionate manner; - developing the faculty of assessing and presenting the relative weight to be accorded to arguments; - developing doctrinal and taxonomical skills in a logical manner; and - using electronic legal and other disciplinary resources at an advanced level.
  4. Key Personal Skills: The course aims to provide students with skills in:- - developing advanced written communication by way of formative assessment and examination, including the ability to compose written work in conformity with a prescribed format; - formatting and presentation skills by virtue of word processing; - oral communication skills developed in seminar discussions; - group work, including the importance of appreciating different dynamics within a group and learning to respect the opinions of other people even if there is disagreement.
  5. Subject-specific Legal and Ethical Values: The course aims to provide students with: - an awareness of the moral and philosophical questions posed by the course; - an appreciation of the way in which philosophical and moral concepts can become embedded in law; - provide students with a space to reflect on their view of the implementation of moral values in the law, and the extent to which the law should reflect such values.
Reading List
None
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsUnjustified Enrich
Contacts
Course organiserProf Hector MacQueen
Tel: (0131 6)50 2060
Email: Hector.MacQueen@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Krystal Hanley
Tel: (0131 6)50 2056
Email: Krystal.Hanley@ed.ac.uk
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