The course aims to give a modern treatment of company law, concentrating on those aspects which are both intellectually difficult and of practical importance. The course also attempts to place the legal rules in their present commercial context.
COMPARATIVE LAW
The course offers students the opportunity to study in depth the major groupings of the world?s legal systems and the connections which exist between them. The first part of the course includes detailed study of Russian law, German law and Islamic law. The second part focuses upon the comparative study of particular topics, the main emphasis being upon private law.
No knowledge of a foreign language is required, but those students who have a reading knowledge of one or more foreign languages will have access to a wider range of reference material.
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
This course involves more advanced study of some aspects of the subject, for which Constitutional Law (Ordinary) was the foundation course. A principal focus of study will be the government of Scotland under the Scotland Act 1998. The Scottish Parliament and Executive will be examined, as will their relationships with local government (and other public bodies) and with E.C. institutions. There will be special emphasis on the mechanisms for the allocation of devolved powers and, taking into account comparative material, the adjudication of ?devolution issues?. Other subjects to be considered and examined in 1999/2000 may include such topics as electoral systems and electoral law, second chambers, and processes of legislation, with reference to Scotland, the United Kingdom and comparative material.
CRIMINAL LAW
This course examines some of the major issues in modern criminal law. The topics are treated under four headings: (1) the criminal act (the voluntary act required, attempts); (2) the criminal mind (negligence, recklessness, intoxication, entrapment, error, insanity, etc.); (3) parties to the crime (the problem of art and part guilt); (4) selected offences (culpable homicide, murder, misuse of drugs, fraud, extortion, theft).
The approach is comparative – decisions from other jurisdiction are considered, alongside those of the Scottish courts.
CRIMINOLOGY
This course focuses upon the nature of crime and criminality in society and the various attempts that have been made to explain both. The first term looks at the development of criminology by examining the main ideas and theories that have been put forward to explain the causes of crime and criminality. The second term explores the contribution of contemporary criminological research to an understanding of a number of areas, such as the relationship between gender and crime, age and crime, race and crime, crime trends, the police, crime prevention, organised crime and white collar crime.
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
The aim of this course is to develop knowledge and understanding of the law (whether international law, European Community Law or domestic law) relevant to the protection of the environment at global, national and local levels. The course aims for an understanding of environmental problems themselves, of the policy response to them, and then of the role of the institutions and procedures of legal regulation and rules of liability for environmental damage. In doing so, the course straddles traditional disciplinary boundaries but also addresses issues in environmental law which are increasingly confronted in legal practice.
The course consists of (a) a general treatment of threats to the environment and analytical and policy responses to them; (b) national environmental law (especially integrated pollution control, planning law and nature conservation) including, in addition to substantive law, study of regulatory and enforcement strategies in general, access to environmental information and environmental justice; (c) E.C. law and institutions; (d) international environmental law.
EUROPEAN LEGAL HISTORY
This course aims to provide an historical introduction to the European Legal Tradition, and the place of Scots law within that tradition, up to and including the twentieth century. A seminar-type atmosphere is actively encouraged. Key components of the European legal tradition will be studied, including the Civil law, the Canon law, Feudal law and the English Common law. Particular aspects of doctrinal legal history will be studied including marriage and issues in obligations.
GERMAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND GOVERNMENT
This course is divided into four parts: introduction to German constitutional policy; principles and institutions of government; impact of European policy on the constitution; basic rights. The content of the parts may vary from one year to the next. In , coverage of the institutions of government included Chancellor principle, role of and, Federal Constitutional Court; coverage of the basic rights included free speech, immigration and asylum policies and policing issues. The Basic Law (constitution), as interpreted by the Federal Constitutional Court, is considered throughout in its political context, with the result that political as well as legal issues are examined. .
HISTORY OF LEGAL IDEAS
This course deals with the history of philosophical and sociological ideas concerning law. The approach will be through a careful reading of selected texts of historical significance in the development of philosophical and/or sociological theories of law within one or more leading traditions of thought. A distinct body of thought will be reviewed in each of the Autumn and Spring Terms. Materials for each term will be particularly prescribed from year to year, but may for example include:
Buchanan, Locke and Stair
Writings of the Scottish Enlightenment (Hume and Smith an their predecessors and successors)
Ideas of law and economy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
The history of criminology
Formalism and rule-scepticism in Europe and America
The themes will concern eighteenth century legal thought with special regard to the ?Scottish Enlightenment?. The focus in the first term will be on ideas of law, society and history developed during this period by Stair, Kames, Adam Smith, John Millar, Adam Ferguson and others. Their views on the links of law and economy and ?progress? will be particularly considered. The focus in the second term will be first on the ideas of natural law found in the Scottish Institutional writers Stair, Erskine and Kames, compared with Locke?s ideas of natural rights, secondly on doubts about rationalist legal and ethical thought raised by David Hume and others, and finally on ideas of justice utility and common sense developed to deal with these doubts (Writings by Francis Hutcheson, Hume, Adam Smith and Thomas Reid will be considered).
INTERNATIONAL LAW B: Inter-State Conflict and Dispute Settlement
The course will cover various topics relating to disputes between states. The principal topics will be such subjects as: general principles of state responsibility; diplomatic and institutional procedures for the settlement of disputes; arbitration; relevant aspects of the law of treaties (such as interpretation of treaties and rules governing breaches of treaties); the functioning of the World Court; international-law remedies; general principles relating to the resort to war and the use of force (including self-defence, the rescue of nationals abroad and humanitarian intervention); economic warfare; security aspects of law of the sea; and the law relating to the conduct of warfare and the protection of victims of war; the law of neutrality.
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ORDER OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND WORLD ECONOMY
This is a course about regulation of the global environment and world economy by international institutions. The first part is an overview of international law governing international organisations in general. The second part looks at the principal organisations which deal with the management of the global environment; topics covered include: competence and law-making, UN law, and selected topics relating to the atmosphere, the oceans, biological diversity, nuclear energy and liability. The third part covers selected aspects of the management of the world economy with emphasis on the WTO/GATT legal system. The fourth and final part examines mechanisms available for resolving international environmental and economic disputes.
INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE LAW
This course deals with Scottish solutions to problems in the private law sphere which have foreign links. Examples of such problems would be:
(1)A Frenchman wishes to sue a Scot in the Court of Session on a contract entered into between them in Bonn, or in respect of a traffic accident in Paris in which they were both involved. Questions such as the following arise:-
(a)Does the court have jurisdiction?
(b)What legal system is applicable to the dispute?
(2)Mr. Smith, divorced in Mexico, wishes to marry Miss Brown in Edinburgh. Will the Mexican divorce be considered valid in Scotland or is Mr. Smith considered by our system still to be married?
An attempt is made in this course to cover the general theory and major fields of this subject in outline, and a number of specific topics are selected for treatment in depth
LAW AND EUROPEAN ECONOMIC INTEGRATION
This course examines the ways in which law has been and is being used in the European Community to further economic integration. It studies the history, present and future of economic integration in the Community, and of the law governing it by focusing on selected subject areas.
THEORIES OF LAW AND SOCIETY
The course aims to give students a thorough understanding of the major social theories of law, beginning with the classic texts of Marx, Weber and Durkheim and moving on to consider the contributions of more recent writers and to focus on the uses and problems of approaching law through sociological frameworks on inquiry. Topics discussed here are among others; the relationship of Law to Risk, Law and Trust, Law and Solidarity Law and the Persons. The overall aim is to combine an awareness of general sociological perspectives with an attention to specific debates, taking particular areas of law and legal development as points of reference.
Teaching takes the form of weekly two-hour discussions premised on the assumption that students will have covered the prescribed reading. Short presentations by students may also be required.
WELFARE LAW AND ADMINISTRATION
This course begins with a consideration of the historical emergence of the welfare state, and identifies some common features of its development which will be looked at in more detail in examining specific areas. There then follow three blocks of material concerned with three ?pillars? of the Welfare State in which are looked at in turn the law and policy of the Social Security system, the National Health Service and social housing.
THE COMMON MARKING SCHEME
As of October 1996 the University has adopted a revised Common Marking Scheme. This is not intended in any way to alter the standards demanded of work or its assessment.. As far as Honours is concerned classification and percentages will correlate as follows:-
MarkHonours Grade
70-1001st Class
60-692.1
50-592.2
40-493rd
0-39Fail
ILL HONOURS STUDENTS
1.General
The term ?ill students? is used here, but the same rules apply to students prejudiced as a result of accidents or other circumstances beyond their control.
It is imperative that a student obtains a medical certificate if:
(a)he/she suffers from a medical condition which affects his/her performance during the course of the year, e.g. a broken arm, or
(b)he/she is absent through illness for more than seven consecutive days, or,
(c)he/she is ill during the examination diet
(d)illness delays the submission of a piece of written work for more than seven days beyond the due date. For illnesses of less than seven days or similar circumstances causing absence from class or failure in some other respect to comply with requirements you should use an Illness Self-Certification Form (see Appendix to this Prospectus)
2.Illness during the year
Attendance at Honours classes is necessary for due performance of the work of the class.
Every effort is made by the teaching staff to assist students who are ill during the year. In particular, staff consider sympathetically requests from such students for more time in which to produce essays and assignments. (See the statement on the late presentation of essays).
A student, well when he/she produces his/her examination script and other material for assessment, may have been ill for a significan