Legal Studies

From interpersonal violence to political violence, from sex crimes to organized crime, from the family sphere to the public arena, from “news stories” to historical trials, criminal justice reveals our societies, their obsessions, the norms and values that underpin them and evolve over time. Society protects itself by criminalizing deviance and transgression, and in the courtroom, the repulsive figures of this deviance are forged and assigned to the dock. In contemporary France, the legitimacy and symbolic force of the sanction, in terms of the law but also under the weight of representations, social expectations and media focus, are the subject of constant questioning, as the emergence of the victim figure tends to redefine the balance of penal interactions.

This course provides skills to find, use, and read legal resources (e.g., statutes, cases, and so on) associated with English law. The lectures mainly deal with the law and legal system of England (e.g., what are main legal sources in English law, how English courts are organized, what are main features of the English legal profession, what is the meaning of common law or case law and how it works, and how common lawyers interpret statutes, etc.). The course also provides an understanding of the differences between civil and common law traditions.

This course introduces students to the structure and core elements of criminal liability. It engages with aspects of criminal law theory, and requires students to think critically about the types of conduct that should be criminalised and the circumstances in which individuals should be held criminally responsible for their actions.

Lacking the basic grammar of “Western” modern constitutionalism, such as the separation of powers and judicial constitutional review, the Chinese constitutional law is key to understanding many controversies about China in the international community, especially those concerning human rights protection and the governance of autonomous regions (such as Xinjiang and Tibet) and special administrative regions (notably Hong Kong). To help better understand the characteristics of China's political and legal system and reflect on the role of the constitution in a state and how it should be enforced, this course provides a comprehensive introduction to the historical trajectory of constitution making and amending in China, the features of the current constitution, and the latest developments of its implementation, understood in the social, political, and economic contexts of China and from a comparative perspective vis-à-vis the “West.” At the same time, the course introduces some basic concepts in legal theory and constitutional law, as well as various approaches of comparative legal studies.

This course focuses on psychological aspects of the criminal justice system and combines theoretical and practical approaches to activities central to the processes within, such as interviewing witnesses and suspects, person identification, detecting deception, and jury decision-making. It further focuses on the intersection of neuroscience and psychology and the "science" and associations between cognitive development, disorders, and offending.
Consideration is given to psychological theories of predisposing and precipitating factors that influence criminal behavior. Students learn about the approach of the criminal justice system to those with mental disorders as well as treatment options. They are also introduced to assessing risk and decision-making within the wider system.