Legal Studies

This course helps students to understand how principles of human rights and social justice underpin social work today. The course introduces students to international human rights frameworks and legislation relevant to social work law and policy. There is a focus on law and policy as it affects social work practice in the UK, particularly in Scotland, and students also consider examples from a wider international field. The course forms a substantial part of the social work degree program and reflects the Standards in Social Work Education set for social work qualifying programs in Scotland. The course welcomes students who are not registered for the social work program but who are interested in how law and policy work together in this important area of social welfare.

This course uses microeconomic theory to understand and evaluate law and public policy. It covers four main economic theory areas: property, contracts, torts, and legal processes. The economic theory of property section covers bargaining, protection of property rights, and the economics of government taking. In economic theories of contracts, topics include remedies as incentives, formation defenses, and performance excuses. Economic theory of torts examines tort liability, evidentiary uncertainty, punitive damages, and product liability law. The final section on economic theory of legal processes covers why people sue, settlement bargaining, and trials and appeals. 

The course poses questions about the importance of human rights relative to other good and values; the supposed "universality" of human rights; the troubled relationship between international human rights law and national law; the effectiveness of the regional and global protection of human rights; and the relevance of human rights in a world of stark global inequalities, mass migration, and rapid climate change.

China’s rise posts various challenges to conventional thinking about law, society and economic development, especially after the 2008 global financial crisis. How can China offset its institutional weaknesses at home while achieving impressive economic results worldwide without moving closer to the existing models of western countries? Is China’s transition really unique in terms of East Asian experiences such as those of Taiwan, Japan, and Korea? Also, China’s experience illustrates a latecomer paradox: Does the latecomer have an advantage as a result of quick replication of institutional innovation and technology? Conversely, do latecomer states lack the incentive to carry out fundamental reforms as a result of easy success? This course examines China’s experience in the context of law, society and development and explores whether and what lessons they provide for conventional development thinking. It compares China with Taiwan and other East Asian countries and examines a wide range of legal institutions and their practices, including political system, corruption control, contract, property, banking, corporate law, foreign investment and trade and study how such institutions interact with existing ones in the context of local economic conditions, societal and political networks, and legal culture legacy. Assessment: Class Performance (20%), final paper (80%).

This course introduces the enterprise of comparative constitutional law as a judicial practice and as a field of academic study. It compares, across various constitutional systems, issues of constitutional structure, judicial review, separation of powers, constitutional interpretation, constitutional amendments, and individual rights. Additionally, the course considers various approaches that have been used to solve similar constitutional problems, with special attention given to equality, freedom of expression, religious freedom, and the recognition and adjudication of social and economic rights.

This course introduces students to what lawyers and jurists call legal reasoning; the ways and mechanisms through which lawyers frame their understanding of social conflicts and structure legal arguments. Not unlike other professions, lawyers tend to perceive and communicate about the world through the lenses of the typical jargon and tools of their trade, such as rights and obligations, authority, and the fundamental conflict between freedom, security, and order. The course also studies how lawyers mobilize legal and non-legal elements, including rules, morals, constitutional principles, language, and economic or sociological facts and arguments, to frame a particular situation and argue for a particular position; convince a decision maker; and achieve certain goals, whether their own, those of their client, or those of justice or policy. This course is not an introduction to law or legal theory but rather an introduction to the lawyer's toolbox to argue and win a case. Discussion includes issues and phenomena of the digital transformation like Artificial Intelligence, privacy, and the regulation of the Internet to discuss legal reasoning in the 21st century. Course materials are primarily from Anglo Saxon legal culture and, where possible, European Union law.