BA Joint Hons French & Law

You'll take two combined classes: French 1A (semester 1), French 1B (semester 2). These courses are mainly organised around a linguistic progression towards level B1 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. There's a regular input of cultural background which takes the form of three lectures in semester 1 and two in semester 2 covering the following topics:

• The Making of Modern France
• France in a Global Context
• Understanding the French Republic
• French Identities
• Contemporary French Society 

In addition, there's an introductory lecture in semester 2 entitled ‘What is translation about?’.

The aims of this class are to:

• provide you with a basic knowledge of the history, structure and institutions of the Scottish legal system
• provide you with the skills required to find, interpret and analyse the law applicable in Scotland, from all their various sources
• introduce you to competing conceptions of law
• introduce you to legal reasoning

The aims of this class are to develop knowledge and critical analysis of:

• the nature of the United Kingdom constitution, including the ways in which the constitution has changed in recent decades, and key proposals for further reform
• the sources of constitutional rules, both legal and non-legal
• the central principles of the constitution, including democracy, the rule of law, the separation of powers, the sovereignty of Parliament, responsible government, and fundamental human rights
• the structure, composition, functions and powers of legislative, executive and judicial institutions in Scotland and the United Kingdom
• the impact of European Union membership on the location of power within the United Kingdom constitution, and of the relevance of European human rights law

Cultural focus: time (35 hour week, RTT and ‘ponts’, paternity/maternity leave, …) & ‘human resources’ (hierarchical organisation, discrimination, unions, relocation,…)

Linguistic focus: the negation, asking questions, using pronouns.

Cultural focus: the origins of the European ideal, Europe and the EU viewed from France.

Linguistic focus: subjunctive mood.

Cultural focus: a historical view of immigration in France and a look at the specificity of the French ‘integration’ system.

Linguistic focus: the system of tenses in French (concentrating on past tenses).

Cultural focus: a further look (after first year) at French politics, concentrating on topical issues.

Linguistic focus: modal verbs.

Cultural focus: decentralisation, importance of regions in France.

Linguistic focus: the passive voice.

Cultural focus: the French economy (role of the state, …), marketing à la française

Linguistic focus: equivalent of –ing in French.

In addition, students specialising in French take the French Culture and History 2 class. This class focuses on the Occupation and French Colonialism/Decolonisation. The historical context for each topic is first set, and documents from the two periods studied, before discussion moves on to the cultural domain, via analysis of the following texts and films:

• Au Revoir les Enfants (film, Malle)
• Stupeur et Tremblements (text, Nothomb)
• L'Étranger (text, Camus)
• Le Samourai (film, Melville)
• Anthology of historical texts relating to the Second World War
• Anthology of historical texts relating to French Colonialism/Immigration

Following on from Public Law 1, Public Law 2 aims to consolidate knowledge and understanding of constitutional and administrative law. Students taking this class will be required to have taken Public Law 1 in the first year. It'll build upon knowledge of the key concepts and institutions of the UK constitution.

As a second year class, its rationale is to give you the opportunity to progress from an understanding of the constitution to an understanding of the role of the law in the constitutional control of public power. This course encourages you to adopt an evaluative and critical stance towards ongoing constitutional developments. The course will focus on control of administrative action, both by the judiciary and by ombudsmen. The protection of individual rights will be a key feature, focusing on judicial protection but also encompassing the role of human rights institutions in the UK and Scotland. The future control of public power will be discussed, including topical debates concerning constitutional reform in this area.

Family law concerns the control which the law exerts over domestic relationships and families; it affects everyone to a greater or lesser degree.

Topics include:

• the legal status of children, parental responsibilities and rights and the upbringing of children - including issues in adoption and fostering, local authority care and the Children's Hearing system
• legal consequences of marriage/civil partnership
• divorce - including what happens to the family and its financial consequences
• unmarried domestic relations, opposite-sex and same-sex

Commercial law is a second year compulsory subject on the LLB (and LML) degree. The class provides you with an understanding of commercial law in a Scottish context. It partially meets the commercial law subject requirements and related skills outcomes of the Law Society of Scotland and the Faculty of Advocates (albeit that some of the commercial professional topics, eg sale of goods and insurance law, are dealt with by other courses).

Building on the knowledge you acquire in first year, the general academic objective of the course is to examine the basic principles and rules concerning core aspects of commercial law, including the main principles of agency, partnership and company law, the law relating to various methods of payment (including consumer credit and bills of exchange) the rules governing the ways in which creditors can ‘secure’ repayment of a debt (eg through taking personal guarantees from third parties for repayment of the debt, or by establishing rights in security over debtor property); the basic principles of diligence; the consequences of both corporate and individual debtor inability to repay debts (corporate insolvency and personal bankruptcy respectively).

While the focus of the class is on ‘a black letter’ analysis of relevant statutory and common law in the broad commercial area, in order to aid understanding of relevant principles, the class also examines the policy rationales underlying the current law and recent and projected reforms in this area

The design of this class is primarily aimed at enhancing your ability to read cases, deal with case law and apply the techniques of case-analysis and common law development.

You'll acquire an in-depth and up-to-date knowledge and understanding, from both a legal and a social perspective, of the rules of law governing involuntary obligations, that is to say the law of delict and the law of unjustified enrichment.

You'll acquire the ability to apply the rules of law to particular fact situations in order to provide definitive answers to the problems exposed in these situations.

You'll develop critical and reasoning skills, giving you the ability to make and present personal and informed judgments on the rules of law and their application within the domestic legal system.

The general rationale of this class is to provide you with a contemporary understanding of the law of property, trusts and succession in Scotland, and to meet Law Society of Scotland requirements in this subject-area.

The EU law class focuses on the constitutional and institutional order of the EU as well as one the internal market. To this end, the class looks at the European integration process, the EU institutions, EU competences, the decision-making process within the EU, the principles underpinning the EU legal order and the principles governing the internal market.

Cultural focus: a historical review of slavery and a look at modern forms of slavery.

Linguistic focus: reinforcement work on subjunctive mood, passive voice and negative forms.

Cultural focus: the impact of consumerism on the environment.

Linguistic focus: adjectives and comparative, hypothesis, conditional mood.

Cultural focus: a look at current issues in the French education system.

Linguistic focus: reported speech, imperative mood, a further look at pronouns.

Cultural focus: practical module aiming at preparing students for the year abroad.

There is also a French Studies 3 class: Freedom and Identity in France and the Francophone world. This class is based on the study of the following texts and films as examples of the treatment of the class’s twin themes:

• Milou en mai (film, Malle)
• Poverty (various texts)
• The Dreyfus Affair (various historical texts)
• Monsieur Klein (film, Losey)
• Rue des Boutiques Obscures (text, Modiano)
• National Identity in the Third Republic (various historical texts)

The main aim of this class is to introduce you to the major theoretical ideas and values of law, and to debates about those ideas and values, thereby enhancing their understanding of law in general.

The class explores relationships between law and morality, law and society and between law and power. In doing so, the course also explores what we mean by law, morality and power. The course requires you to work on your own and make an oral presentation and trains you in concise thinking.

The aim of the class is to introduce you to the law of landlord and tenant, and to concepts of housing need and market allocation of housing resources and the different ways in which such concepts are interpreted and operated in modern Britain.  The method of teaching and assessing the class is designed to enhance learning, academic and transferable skills.

This class aims to provide you with an understanding of the problems inherent in situations involving a foreign element and the basic concepts and principles of Scots international private law. More particularly, attention will be given to the rules which establish when the Scottish court has jurisdiction in any case involving a foreign element. The class will also determine the applicable law in cases involving international elements heard before a Scottish court and the rules on recognition and enforcement of judgments in certain contexts.

The International private law rules in relation to:

• contract
• delict
• marriage
• divorce & nullity
• parent & child
• property
• insolvency & succession

Tutorials for this class take place on Saturday mornings.

This class is not recommended for Erasmus exchange students.

Most industrialised countries, and the European Union now have elaborate laws, rules and procedures for ensuring the maintenance of a competitive economy. This course looks at how the competition laws of the United Kingdom and the European Union affect how business operates in Britain.

If you're contemplating a career in business, or are simply a consumer, some knowledge of competition is useful. If you're a student of industrial economics, or of marketing, some knowledge of competition law is a wise precaution. Moreover there are considerably more job opportunities in this area, whether as an economic adviser, legal practitioner or in-house lawyer advising on effective compliance.

Although we are all equal in the law, some are treated more equally than others. This module examines the nature of discrimination and some of the reasons for it, and the history of the law which tries to prohibit it and promote equality. The class looks in depth at the Equality Act 2010 and relevant case law. It covers the protected characteristics, direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, victimisation and disability discrimination, including the duty to make reasonable adjustments. As well as individual anti-discrimination law in employment and goods and services, the class examines preventive and pro-active measures, including positive action and the public equality duty and the arguments around their nature.

Assessment consists of a group presentation on an approved topic of your choice and a piece of coursework requiring problem solving skills and analysis of law and policy.

The Ethics and Justice class aims to introduce you to the world of work by bridging the gap between theory and practice, and by providing you with the intellectual and practical tools to deal with the personal and practical dimensions of law in a competent, ethical and socially responsible manner.

The class will help to develop your legal, intellectual and practical skills, and provide you with an opportunity to reflect on the effectiveness and ethics of what you do and how this fits in with problems of access to justice. It will also enhance your understanding of the social and economic context in which legal rules operate.

This class is only open to Law Clinic students with case experience.

The extensive uptake of new digital information technologies and particularly, the internet, has resulted in expanding our legal universe, with new laws being created, the application of older laws being challenged and reconfigured and, unavoidably, new legal challenges arising due to conflicts of regulatory decisions with technological advances.

The aim of the class is to address the basic issues arising from the advent of the internet and related digital technologies and familiarise you with important legal developments that have taken place in the last 20 years.

This class encourages you to think constructively and critically about contemporary issues in the field of criminology. It also focuses on contemporary responses to crime in the fields of punishment, imprisonment and penal policy, with reference to developments in Scotland and beyond.

This class deals with the questions, what are those 'basic' or 'fundamental' rights and freedoms to which every individual is entitled in a democratic society, and how to protect them against possible violations.

The class focuses on a selection of the most prominent human rights which have resulted in considerable amounts of litigation.  You'll consider the right to life, right not to be tortured, freedom of expression, children’s rights and issues regarding terrorism.

This class aims to provide you with an understanding of employment law in a UK and EU-wide context and to introduce you to the sources, principles and main features of employment law.

You'll learn about key employment protection provisions and the major collective provisions of employment law in the UK, including the legal position of the contract of employment, the status of employee, the law and practice of unfair dismissal, discrimination law and working time regulations.

The class will focus on practical employment law involving practitioners, an Employment Judge and an Employment Tribunal visit.

This course is concerned with the legal relationship of banker and customer and the services offered by bankers in the community. It examines the financial instruments employed in financing trading and other transactions and is especially concerned with the law and practice of lending, both secured and unsecured.

Intellectual property is integral to all our daily lives, whether it is the music we listen to, the news we read, or chair we sit on, as well as providing the resources necessary to produce new medicines, and the superabundance of brand marketing to which we are routinely subjected.

The class will study the law of patents, trademarks (registered and unregistered), copyright, and moral rights, and the law of confidence (which includes trade secrets). Both the substantive law, and the underlying policy behind providing exclusive rights for this type of property will be examined.

Interested in what is going on in Syria? Concerned about what may or may not be going on in North Korea? Pondering why troops are still in Afghanistan? Then public international law might be the class for you.

The class explores the relationships between states as among themselves and with international institutions. As well as giving an overall view of the area, we'll also look at specific incidents which have arisen and which have been dominated by international law, and which in turn have made huge contributions to the area.

The syllabus looks at sources including treaties and customary law, statehood, the collective use of force, state responsibility and terrorism, the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.

This class is evening teaching only.

In Scotland, local government employs around 250,000 people. Every council has its own legal department and nearly 10% of practising solicitors in Scotland are employed by local authorities. It is essential that lawyers in private practice have knowledge of how local government works.

The course will cover a selection of the following topics:

• what local government is and what does it do
• the constitutional position of local government
• the structure of Scottish local government and its statutory framework
• elections to and membership of a local authority
• rights, duties, liabilities and restrictions of councillors
• the councillors’ Code of Conduct and registration of interests
• the powers of local government; the ultra vires rule; community planning; the power of wellbeing; publicity powers
• byelaws, management rules and private Acts of Parliament
• how councils work; the political dimension
• external controls on local government; the courts; the ombudsman, the Standards Commission, the Accounts Commission
• a brief guide to local government finance

The language course is based on a series of thematic dossiers dealing with current issues in France and the Francophone world. The focus of the class is on reinforcing and developing key professional language skills, such as translation into English, translation into French, liaison interpreting, and 'exposé' (formal oral presentation).

Students in Joint Honours French will additionally have one or more French Studies 4 classes. Everyone will take the Core Class, Images of Women, which considers the changing portrayal of women over the centuries, using the following texts as the basis of discussion:

• Madame Bovary (novel, Flaubert)
• Fatale (novel, Manchette)
• L’événement (Ernaux, novel)
• Women in the Paris Commune of 1871 (various historical documents)

Joint Honours students not writing a dissertation in French will take these two further classes:

• The Occupation and its portrayal in French films
• France since 1945