Advanced Criminal Evidence
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| LAWW3080 | Law | 3 | 20 | Spring UK |
- Code
- LAWW3080
- School
- Law
- Level
- 3
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Spring UK
Summary
Building on existing foundational knowledge (Foundations of Criminal Evidence), this module will provide opportunities for more specialist, advanced studies in criminal trial procedure and evidence, involving in-depth analysis of key topics with major theoretical, policy and practical significance, and drawing out interdisciplinary links to, psychology, philosophy, criminology, forensic science and socio-legal studies.
This module is designed to be flexible enough to incorporate issues and material arising from recent legislation, current policy debates (as reflected in the publications of parliamentary committees and Law Commission reports), and the latest judicial precedents as they occur in real-time. It will thereby exemplify both the pedagogical principle of research-led teaching and the practical reality of criminal litigation.
The precise content of the module will consequently change from year to year, in a constant state of evolution (just like procedural law).
Target Students
Available to Final Year students in the School of Law who have successfully passed LAWW3090. Also available to Law incoming exchange students, where those students have previously studied evidence law in a common law context.
Co-requisites
Modules you must take in the same academic year, or have taken in a previous year, to enrol in this module:
Classes
This module is taught in seminars.
Assessment
- 100% Exam (3-hour): Electronic Examination.
Assessed by end of spring semester
Educational Aims
To provide students with an intellectually rigorous, contextualised, critical and reflective advanced understanding of criminal evidence and trial procedure in England and Wales, with an emphasis on the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of procedural scholarship, law reform and legal policy-making, and with reference to its broader social and political contexts.Learning Outcomes
a) To impart advanced knowledge and understanding of major aspects of criminal trial procedure and evidence, including substantive topical knowledge; the relationship between legal theory and practice in a concrete area of law; the moral and political foundations of positive law development and reform of law.
b) To develop intellectual skills in understanding the relationship between legal theory and practice in a particular concrete area of law; forensic reasoning and problem solving; doctrinal and conceptual legal analysis; critical reflection on the development and reform of the law.
c) To further develop professional practical skills of forensic argumentation, reasoning and problem-solving; doctrinal and conceptual legal analysis; policy formation; and critical reflection on the development and reform of the law.
d) To develop key transferable skills in understanding the relationship between theory and practice; reasoning and problem-solving; technical, linguistic and conceptual analysis; critical reflection on public policy development and reform.
e) To foster an appreciation of ‘law in context’, linking technical doctrinal and institutional/procedural issues to their broader social context, highlighting contemporary controversies in criminal litigation and moral choices in contemporary legal policy-making.
f) To introduce students to the nature and salience of interdisciplinary scholarship, law reform and policy-making; to raise awareness of methodological protocols in assessing research in other disciplines (eg psychology, sociology, forensic science, criminology) and its extension to aspects of doctrinal procedural law and process; to introduce and reflect critically on the idea, and practices, of evidence-based policy-making and law reform.