THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2021/2022

Information in the Degree Programme Tables may still be subject to change in response to Covid-19

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Law : Law

Postgraduate Course: Aspects of Commercial Law (LAWS11480)

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 Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course provides students with an overview of selected topics in English and Scots commercial law. The topics will be chosen from areas such as commercial trusts, rights in security, employment law at its intersection with commercial law, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the law. Topics chosen for the course may change from year to year.
Course description The course will be split into three or four blocks, each on a different main topic. An indicative list of the main topics considered is:

1. Commercial Trusts;
2. Rights in Security;
3. Employment;
4. Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2021/22, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  25
Course Start Semester 2
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) This course will be assessed by the following assessment component:

1) 5000 Word Essay (100%)
Feedback Students will prepare an essay plan of no more than 2 sides of A4 on a subject drawn from the first main topic of the course. They will receive feedback which will help them to prepare their summative essays which will be written on a different topic.

Feedback on the formative assessment may be provided in various formats, for example, to include written, oral, video, face-to-face, whole class, or individual. The course organiser will decide which format is most appropriate in relation to the nature of the assessment.

Feedback on both formative and summative in-course assessed work will be provided in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.

Feedback on the summative assessment will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Evidence an understanding of the contemporary theories and key legal sources in selected key areas of commercial law, such as security rights, employment law, trust law, and corporate social responsibility.
  2. Engage in critical analysis of those theories and sources, both for their internal coherence and their coherence within wider commercial law.
  3. Draw linkages between different areas of the course to establish students¿ own perspective on the coherence of commercial law.
  4. Demonstrate advanced skills in reading, critical analysis and writing, which would be useful for working practices outside academia.
  5. Discuss their understanding of relevant legal sources and theories.
Reading List
Individual reading lists will be circulated at least one week in advance of the seminar.

There is no text which covers the whole of this course. The main recourses are:

M. Graziadei, U. Mattei & L. Smith, eds. Commercial Trusts in European Private Law, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

P. H. Pettit, Equity and the Law of Trusts, 12th ed (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).

P. Panico, International Trust Laws, 2nd ed (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).

D Garrity, J Hardman, L Macgregor, A MacPherson and L Richardson, Commercial Law in Scotland (6th edn, 2020)

E. West, Cautionary Obligations, Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia (Reissue).

A. Fraser, ¿The Employee¿s Contractual Duty of Fidelity¿ (2015) 131 Law Quarterly Review 53.

Clyde Summers, ¿Similarities and Differences between Employment Contracts and Civil or Commercial Contracts¿, (2001) 17(1) International Journal of Comparative Law & Industrial Relations 5.

D. Brodie, ¿The Autonomy of the Common Law of the Contract of Employment From the General Law of Contract¿ in M. Freedland et al (eds.) The Contract of Employment (OUP, 2016) 124-144.

H. Collins, ¿Contractual Autonomy¿ in A. Bogg, C. Costello, A. C. L. Davies and J. Prassl (eds.) The Autonomy of Labour Law (Hart, 2015) 45-71.

The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility: Psychological and Organizational Perspectives (2019)

The Cambridge Handbook of Corporate Law, Corporate Governance and Sustainability (2019)
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Knowledge and Understanding:
- An understanding of the contemporary theories and key legal sources in selected key areas of commercial law, such as security rights, employment law, trust law, and corporate social responsibility.

Graduate Attributes: Skills and abilities in Research and Enquiry:
- An ability to engage in critical analysis of those theories and sources, both for their internal coherence and their coherence within wider commercial law.

Graduate Attributes: Skills and abilities in Personal and Intellectual Autonomy:
- An opportunity to draw linkages between different areas of the course to establish students¿ own
perspective on the coherence of commercial law.

Graduate Attributes: Skills and abilities in Communication:
- An opportunity to discuss in class their understanding of relevant legal sources and theories.

Graduate Attributes: Skills and abilities in Personal Effectiveness:
- An opportunity to use their own motivation to prepare for the seminars and to link various topics in commercial law together.

Technical/practical skills:
- An opportunity to develop skills for reading, critical analysis and writing which would be useful for working practices outside academia.
KeywordsLLM,Commercial Law,Level 11,Postgraduate,Law
Contacts
Course organiserDr Ruiqiao Zhang
Tel: (0131 6)50 2029
Email: Ruiqiao.Zhang@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Bethan Walters
Tel: (0131 6)50 2386
Email: bethan.walters@ed.ac.uk
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