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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2020/2021

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Law : Law

Postgraduate Course: Risk Society and Regulatory Frameworks (LAWS11335)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Law CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits10 ECTS Credits5
SummaryThis course is a detailed exploration of risk and its regulation. Proceeding via a number of case-studies, and focusing on regulatory instruments and institutions ¿ legal and non-legal, domestic, regional and international ¿ which govern and shape individual and organisational conduct, it examines how regulatory frameworks are shaped and/or respond to new and emerging human activities, many of them which rely on or prompt new modes of action, new technologies, new relationships, and, importantly, new risks. Specifically, it explores regulatory frameworks in population genetic research, animal research, and the environment, and how they interact with other frameworks, concluding with a session on alternate (non-risk) approaches to regulation.
Course description Week 1: Introduction to ¿Risk¿ and ¿Regulation¿ (S Harmon)
Week 2: Risk and Biobanking (S Harmon)
Week 3: Risk and Animals (A Bruce)
Week 4: Risk and the Environment (maybe D Bruce but Variable)
Week 5: Alternatives to Risk Based Regulation ¿ New Technologies (Harmon/Calvert)
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. A deep understand of the fundamental elements of risk and regulation and an understanding of the interaction between them and their influence on law, ethical, and professional frameworks.
  2. The ability to analyse critically medico-legal scenarios, drawing on different risk schools of thought and regulatory schools of thought, in order to demonstrate original and creative applications of knowledge and understanding.
  3. The facility to conduct independent study and research to a high level that demonstrates knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the importance of interaction between risk and regulation in the shaping of regulatory frameworks in different health related settings.
  4. The ability to engage critically in a group setting on issues of contemporary medico-legal relevance, drawing on a range of ethical, legal and professional sources and to justify robustly any positions take or defended.
  5. The ability to manage time effective, preparing for deep engagement in class, to conduct research for assignments to the requisite level and to demonstrate improvement over the course of the module.
Reading List

U Beck, The Risk Society (London: SAGE, 1992). (Law Reserve)
A Giddens, ¿Risk and Responsibility¿ (1999) 62 Modern Law Rev 1-10. (eJournals)
D Lupton, Risk (London: Routledge, 1999), ch. 1-2. (Main Library)
C Panter-Brick & A Fuentes (eds.), Health, Risk and Adversity (NY: Berghahn Books, 2009), Introduction, ch. 7, Conclusion, Section Introductions. (Main Library)
P Slovic, The Perception of Risk (London: Earthscan, 2001). (Main Library)
J Black, ¿Decentring Regulation: The role of regulation and self-regulation in a ¿Post Regulatory¿ world¿ (2001) 54 Current Legal Problems 103-146. (eJournals)
J Black, M Lodge & M Thatcher (eds.), Regulatory Innovation (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2005), ch. 1, 2, 9 (Law Reserve)
R Baldwin, M Cave & M Lodge, Understanding Regulation, 2d ed. (Oxford: OUP, 2012), ch. 1, 2, 3 (Law Reserve)
B Morgan & K Yeung, An Introduction to Law and Regulation (Cambridge: CUP, 2007), ch. 1, 2, 3, 7. (Law Reserve)
R Baldwin, M Cave & M Lodge, Understanding Regulation, 2d ed. (Oxford: OUP, 2012), ch. 6, 13, 14 (Law Reserve)
European Commission, Communication on the Precautionary Principle, COM (2000)1. (online)
A Giddens, ¿Risk and Responsibility¿ (1999) 62 Modern Law Rev 1-10. (eJournals)
S Jasonoff, Designs on Nature (Oxford: OUP, 2005). (Law Library)
Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Emerging Biotechnologies: Technology, Choice and the Public Good (London: NCB, 2012), Summary and Chs. 3 and 8, at http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/emerging-biotechnologies
P Macnaghten and J Chilvers, ¿Governing Risky Technologies¿. In S Lane, F Klauser & M Kearnes (eds), Critical Risk Research: Practices, Politics and Ethics (London: Wiley, 2012), at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781119962748.ch6/pdf
D Fraser, ¿Assessing animal welfare at the farm and group level: the interplay of science and values¿ (2003) 12 Animal Welfare 433-443.
J Lassen, P Sandøe & B Forkman, ¿Happy pigs are dirty! Conflicting perspectives on animal welfare¿ (2006) 103 Livestock Science 221-230.
J MacArthur Clark, M Potter & E Harding, ¿The welfare implications of animal breeding and breeding technologies in commercial agriculture¿ (2006) 103 Livestock Science 270-281.
Corner, A., Venables, D., Spence, A., Poortinga, W. Demski, C. & Pidgeon, N., ¿Nuclear power, climate change and energy security: Exploring British public attitudes¿ (2011) 39 Energy Policy 4823-4833.
Pielke, R.A.Jr (2007) The Honest Broker. Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Chapter 1 ¿Four idealized roles of science in policy and politics¿
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
Keywordslaw, risk
Contacts
Course organiserMr Shawn Harmon
Tel: (0131 6)51 4267
Email: Shawn.Harmon@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Clare Polson
Tel: (0131 6)51 9704
Email: Clare.Polson@ed.ac.uk
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