This module is designed to provide law and non-law students with the necessary
legal knowledge and skills to facilitate their current and future study of law.
Attention will be focused on the essential legal sources of law.

Particular attention will be paid to the following:

Areas of subject knowledge:
- court structure
- statutory interpretation
- doctrine of precedent
- legal personnel and key legal concepts
- funding
- Woolf reforms
- Human Rights Act 1998
- distribution between private and public remedies.

Legal skills and study skills:
- finding cases and statutes using appropriate sources
- reading cases and statutes
- developing basic research skills
- reading and note-taking
- time management
- essay, problem and examination technique
- the referencing of sources and the University's Regulations on Academic Dishonesty
- team-working
- use of internet and IT to support learning
- presentation skills
- basic word-processing
- developing reflective learning

The examination will take place during Teaching Block 2 and will assess Learning Outcomes 1-4.
The group portfolio will be submitted during or at the end of Teaching Block 2 and will assess Learning Outcomes 5-8.
(Where the group portfolio is required to be submitted during Teaching Block 2, any classes after the portfolio deadline will focus on study skills required to support the assessments in other Level 1 core modules.)

To pass the module, students must achieve a mark of at least 35% in each piece of assessment
and must achieve an average mark of at least 40%.

The lecture framework is designed to provide the student with the foundations of each
topic. 22 Lectures (44 hours) will be supported by small group sessions
(10 hours in total). Self-directed study (246 hours) will provide the student with the
opportunity to prepare for small group work and to carry out independent research as
well as team working.

The lecture sessions will provide detailed information and a critique of the legal system and will be
Used to introduce students to the requisite skills. The small group sessions corresponding to the lectures on the English Legal System will test the students? knowledge of the material covered in the lecture sessions and will involve group discussions and collaborative tasks. Skills-based small group sessions will focus on practical application of the relevant skills (e.g. library sessions, legal research and IT). They will also be used to promote team-working by requiring the students to work on such group tasks as mooting and client interviewing.

The study guide will provide a detailed programme of study, including reading for each session. Both the lectures and the small group sessions will require the students to undertake further study to enhance their knowledge and understanding. Independent study time will also provide the students with preparation time for research materials for small group
sessions and will allow them to work on the group portfolio. Students will be expected to draw on materials from other Level 1 modules.

Total learning time 300 hours.

Slapper G.D. and Kelly "The English Legal System", 7th ed., London, Cavendish, 2004
Huxley-Binns R, Riley, L and Turner, C 'Unlocking Legal Learning', Hodder Arnold, 1st ed, 2005
Holland J A and Webb J S, "Learning Legal Rules", 5th ed, Oxford, Open University Press, 2003

Access to appropriate texts, legislation and case law.
Module Study Guides
Computing facilities will be needed to access material available on the web and specialist on-line databases.
Specialist software: IOLIS, Westlaw, LEXIS/NEXIS