Postgraduate Course: Gifts in Context (LAWS11559)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course explores the complexity of the world of gifts by examining different social practices of gift-giving. It considers the motivations that underpin gifts and whether, and if so how, these motivations are reflected in the law. It examines different legal conceptions of gifts and gift promises across the common and civil law legal traditions and explores how gifts relate to various areas of the law.
As the title reveals, the aim of this course is to put gifts into context and to study them through the lens of such contexts. The course is structured into two parts. The first part explores how insights from other disciplines (eg anthropology, sociology, psychology and economics) can enrich our understanding of gifts, as well as the legal challenges that gifts pose and how the law 'controls' gifts. The second part explores what can be given and how and the role that both the donor's but also the donee's intention play. It further explores whether gifts can be revoked and or be reduced and what that tells us about how law sees gifts.
The course is interdisciplinary, historical, and comparative. It is also multi-jurisdictional, drawing on examples from both the common and civil law legal tradition. |
| Course description |
This course will be taught in 10 seminars. Below is an outline of the provisional teaching programme.
Seminar 1: The social practice of gift-giving
Seminar 2: The psychology of gift-giving
Seminar 3: Legal conceptions of gifts and gift promises
Seminar 4: Gifts and their place on the map of private law
Seminar 5: Controlling gifts
Seminar 6: What can we give?
Seminar 7: The intention to make a gift
Seminar 8: Making/executing gifts
Seminar 9: Binding v non-binding gifts
Seminar 10: Charitable gift giving
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 10 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
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 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
30% - in-class presentation«br /»
70% - 3,000 word essay«br /»
«br /»
Presentation: «br /»
All students in the class will be required to present a paper on one of the set readings, reflecting on and critically analysing the principal arguments in the relevant material. Additionally, students will be expected to include reflections on the paper in light of the broader themes of the course. «br /»
-The presentations will be 5 minutes in length, followed by a 2-minute follow-up from the seminar leaders and class. «br /»
-Students will also be required to prepare a handout of no more than 2 sides of A4 which will be uploaded to Learn«br /»
«br /»
«br /»
70% essay:«br /»
-Students will be required to write an essay of 3,000 words in length at the end of the course |
| Feedback |
Students will receive written feedback on their presentations and handouts within three weeks of delivering them.
In addition, students will be given the opportunity to submit a piece of formative written work. The formative assessment does not contribute toward the overall course mark. The formative assignment (up to 1,200 words) will take the form of an essay
Students will also be given in-depth written feedback on the summative essay. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand the notion of gift from a multidisciplinary perspective and integrate themes and ideas including boundaries, definitions, gift-giving practices, and terminology
- Critically understand the core principles and debates surrounding gifts and gift promises and the rationale underpinning current laws, and critically understand specialist ideas and theories stemming from a wide range of disciplines, including history, sociology, philosophy, literature, economics, and psychology
- Understand the connection of the law of gifts with various areas of private law and the reasons why law is often suspicious of gifts, while also considering how the legal conceptions accurately reflect social and philosophical practice from an historical and modern perspective
- Understand the core legal requirements for the validity of gifts in more than one jurisdiction. Deal with complex issues surrounding legal conceptions and execution of gifts and make informed judgements in the absence of complete or consistent data/information
- Develop experience in applying comparative methodologies to an area of private law that is often understudied
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Reading List
- JB Baron, 'Gifts, Bargains, and Form' (1988-1989) 64 Indiana Law Journal 155
- J Beckert, Inherited Wealth (2008)
- JE Dawson, Gifts and Promises (Yale University Press 1980)
- MA Eisenberg, 'The World of Contract and the World of Gift' (1997) 85 California Law Review 821
- E Fehr and KM Schmidt, 'The Economics of Fairness, Reciprocity and Altruism. ' Experimental Evidence and New Theories', in SG Kolm and JM Ythier (eds), Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Altruism and Reciprocity, vol 1 (North Holland 2006) 615
- JT Godbout, The World of the Gift (McGill-Queen's Press 1998)
- GL Gretton and AJM Steven, Property, Trusts & Succession (4th edn, 2021)
- AG Gulliver and CJ Tilson, 'Classification of Gratuitious Transfers' (1941) 51 Yale Law Journal 1
- F Heal, The Power of Gifts: Gift Exchange in Early Modern England (2014)
- A-S Hulin, 'Translating the Charitable Affectation in Civil Law' (2017) 9:2 Journal of Civil Law Studies, 410-426
- R Hyland, Gifts: A Study in Comparative Law (OUP 2009)
- SG Kolm and JM Ythier (eds), Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Altruism and Reciprocity, vol 1 (North Holland 2006)
- AE Komter (ed), The Gift: An Interdisciplinary Perspective (Amsterdam Univ Press, 1996)
- H MacQueen and M Hogg, 'Donation in Scots Law' (2012) Juridical Review, 1-24.
- M Mauss, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies (I Cunnison transl, WW Norton 1967)
- M Osteen (ed), The Question of the Gift: Essays Across Disciplines (Routledge, 2002)
- EA Posner, 'Altruism, Status, and Trust in the Law of Gifts and Gratuitous Promises' [1997] Wisconsin Law Review 567
- O-A Ronning, H Moller Sigh and H Vogt (eds), Donations, Inheritance and Property in the Nordic and Western World from Late Antiquity until Today (Routledge 2017)
- CM Rose, 'Giving, Trading, Thieving, and Trusting: How and Why Gifts become Exchanges, and (More Importantly) Vice Versa' (1992) 44 Florida Law Review 295
- SJ Stoljar, 'A Rationale of Gifts and Favours' (1956) 19 Modern Law Review 237
- R Titmuss, The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy (Phanteon Books 1971)
- AB Weiner, Inalienable Possessions: The Paradox of Keeping While-Giving (Berkeley: University of California Press 1992)
- R Zimmermann, The Law of Obligations (Clarendon 1996) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Students will develop the skills of working independently in the critical analysis of legal materials across different jurisdictions. They will become familiar with reading primary case law and statutory sources but also secondary literature across the common and civil law traditions. They will further become familiar with readings drawn from history, psychology, economics, sociology, and anthropology.
Students will develop an ability to engage with theoretical questions, as well as with policy debates.
By interactive discussion, students will learn the value of shared dialogue to the formation and refinement of their thinking. They will also develop an ability to formulate considered questions, to articulate connected explanations, and a sensitivity to terminological issues in the field. |
| Keywords | Gifts,promises,Unjustified enrichment,bribes,charities,altruism,egoism,exchange,intention |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Alexandra Braun
Tel: (0131 6)51 5560
Email: Alexandra.Braun@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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