Studying at York
Criminal Law, Criminal Process & Children (Case Study) - LAW00074H
Module summary
This module provides students with an opportunity to apply and develop further their problem-based learning skills in the context of a complex case study that focuses on issues of the role of state, blame, truth, justice and the welfare of children. Students will work through the scenario in student law firms carrying out a deep analysis of a range of legal, practical and ethical issues, and agreeing learning outcomes such as to develop their required knowledge across a number of areas of law that arise in these areas, which may include criminal law, criminal processes, human rights, the welfare of children and the role of the state in promoting these interests. From their final analysis, students will individually choose to work in more depth on two different outputs - developing writing and presentation skills for different audiences - examining issues of their choice arising from the case study. Students will also be able to choose the perspectives, e.g., practice-focused, academic, international/comparative, socio-legal, from which they address their selected issues. Students will receive feedback from their tutor and peers on their choices of issues, outputs and perspectives, and also on their outputs as they develop them.
Related modules
Pre-requisite modules
Co-requisite modules
- None
Prohibited combinations
- None
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 2023-24 |
Module aims
The module will use a complex criminal and family law case study to enable students to develop to a higher level their problem-based learning skills, particularly those of analysis and research, including in substantive areas that they may not have previously studied. In addition, students will develop and apply higher level holistic knowledge of interconnected areas of criminal law, evidence, criminal procedure, and the laws relating to child protection and child welfare (among other possible areas) as they arise from the case study. Students will also develop written and presentation skills in producing a compact, high quality body of work, including the ability to review, edit and improve initial drafts based on peer and tutor feedback, and the ability to write for and present to different audiences. The module will feature both collaborative and independent learning. As part of the latter, following an in-depth analysis of the case study, students will have the opportunity to choose the specific forms of written output, issues and perspectives on which they will be assessed against the module learning outcomes.
Module learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Analyse a complex scenario concerning criminal law, criminal procedure and the law relating to children;
- Identify a range of legal, practical and ethical issues arising from a number of chosen perspectives;
- Explain a range of substantive and procedural legal and ethical concepts applicable to those issues;
- Prepare a detailed, critical, legal and practical analysis;
- Evaluate legal and practical issues from a number of chosen perspectives;
- Write a number of varied pieces of work informed by detailed research;
- Present a draft of a piece of work to a conference of peers;
- Review peers' developing work and provide feedback, whilst receiving and acting on feedback on their own work;
- Edit, improve and prepare finalised versions of pieces of written work
Module content
This module develops from core PBL learning the complexity, number of issues and types of legal and other issues within case studies, to facilitate development of higher level knowledge and a range of higher-level intellectual skills, both academic and practice-focused. Within these scenarios, students will have the scope to define their own written assessment outputs, aligned to the assessment requirements and module aims and learning outcomes. Through these outputs, students will be able to demonstrate interconnected knowledge, skills, attitudes, objectivity and understanding, in a high quality, compact body of work. The latter could include any of:
- Essay for academic audience
- Op-ed piece for media outlet
- Article for professional journal
- Research memo for counsel
- Advice or Opinion from counsel
- Briefing memo for child welfare professionals
- Presentation for relevant interest groups
- Panel debate for public audience
- Case analysis
- Legislation and procedural rules analysis
- Briefing for MPs and Peers
The legal issues developed through the case study will include aspects of many of the following:
- Substantive criminal law
- Criminal procedure
- The rules of evidence
- Substantive law on the welfare of children
- Procedure in relation to the welfare of children
- Human rights law, including the fair trial and rights to a family life
- Constitutional law and the rule of law
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 30 |
| Essay/coursework | 70 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
Formative work is embedded through the preparation of the assessed items as noted above. Formative feedback from tutors and peers then informs students in reviewing, editing and preparing final versions for summative assessment.
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 30 |
| Essay/coursework | 70 |
Module feedback
Students will receive feedback on development of their case study analysis from their tutor and peers during workshops in weeks 2, 3 and 4 of the module. They will then receive feedback on their written body of work - to form their final assessed portfolio - through a series of interactions with peers and tutors.
Indicative reading
Given the problem-based learning nature of this module, the focus on research skills, and the flexibility in choice of issues and perspectives on which students can prepare their written body of work, there are no key texts for this module.