Law and Social Anthropology - LLB (Hons)

Program Overview

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Overview

Social Anthropology (taught by our highly regarded School of Anthropology and Conservation) you engage in a holistic study of people's ideas, beliefs, practices and activities and develop a profound understanding of how and why people (including ourselves) do the things they do.

Our research-led teaching encourages you to take a critical view of the law, engaging with the latest research undertaken by expert academics. Our diverse, international community of staff and students provides a dynamic and engaging environment to gain the professional legal skills and knowledge you need to change the world we live in.

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Reasons to study a Law degree at Kent

Top 20 in

The Times Good University Guide 2023

State-of-the-art facilities including a dedicated moot courtroom

Study the issues that matter to you through our broad range of modules

Prepare for a successful career – this degree helps facilitate your ambitions to work in law as a solicitor or barrister, or as a lawyer internationally and opens doors to many other legal professions

Get involved in real legal practice and assist real clients through Kent Law Clinic

Take part in co-curricular activities including lawyering skills modules in Mooting, Mock Trial Advocacy, and Negotiation

Join one of our student-led law societies

Spend a year abroad at one of our many partner institutions

Participate in innovative and meaningful projects like Critical Law TV and the Kent Law Review

Learn from legal professionals on our Professional Mentoring Scheme

Study in a supportive environment with academic advisors and our Skills Hub which helps you succeed and achieve

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What you’ll learn

Our law degree sharpens your thinking and your powers of persuasion whilst you gain extensive legal knowledge. You study the detail of the law, as well as its history. You analyse judgments and legal developments while considering the political, ethical and social dimensions of the law. This critical approach facilitates your ability to interrogate and investigate the law. Not only does this enhance what is already a fascinating subject, but it also enables you to build well researched evidence bases and advocate your position, which is critically and vitally important in whichever professional occupation you aim to pursue.

Our popular mooting programme develops your advocacy skills in a simulated courtroom setting before a bench comprising local judges, practising barristers, solicitors and lecturers. Our Employability Support enables you to make connections, build your network, develop an understanding of the profession and plan for your future.

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Accreditation

This degree will help you prepare for a career in law as a solicitor or barrister. All of our undergraduate Law degrees contain the foundations of legal knowledge required by the Bar Standards Board to satisfy the academic component of professional training for intending barristers, and provide a strong foundation for students who wish to take the Solicitors Qualifying Examinations (SQE).

Program Outline

Course structure

Duration:

3 years full-time, 6 years part-time

The course structure below gives a flavour of the modules that will be available to you and provides details of the content of this programme. This listing is based on the current curriculum and may change year to year in response to new curriculum developments and innovation. Please note that the first-year modules listed for this degree are compulsory.

Please contact us for more detail about the exact composition of this programme of study.

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

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Stage 1

Compulsory modules currently include

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A discipline which arose with other social sciences in the mid- to late-nineteenth century, social and cultural anthropology has made a speciality of studying 'other' people's worlds and ways of life. With increasing frequency, however, anthropologists have turned towards 'home', using insights gained from studying other cultures to illuminate aspects of their own society. By studying people's lives both at 'home' and 'abroad', social and cultural anthropology attempt to both explain what may at first appear bizarre and alien about other peoples' ways of living whilst also questioning what goes without saying about our own society and beliefs. Or, to put it another way, social and cultural anthropology attempt, among other things, to challenge our ideas about what we take to be natural about 'human nature' (family, gender, race and more) and more generally force us to take a fresh look at what we take for granted.

Find out more about ANTS3010

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The module will introduce students to critical legal techniques grounded in critical legal and social theory. Throughout the course, concepts are introduced through socio-legal and critical investigation of selected case studies - such as new pieces of legislation, emerging political campaigns and prominent litigation - ensuring that the course maintains a focus on 'law in action'. Particular attention will be paid to developments in foreign jurisdictions and in the international arena. Accordingly, case studies will alter from year to year, and draw heavily on research projects on-going in the Law School. The course has a heavy focus on primary legal materials and core critical texts, but will also draw on film, museum artefacts, art and literature as appropriate.

Find out more about LAWS3130

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Section 1 Introduction to Obligations

a) The nature of the common law and its development.

b) The idea of precedent and legal reasoning.

c) The distinction between public law and private law.

d) The main divisions of obligations.

e) Drafting case notes

Section 2 Introduction to the law of contract

a) The historical development of contract law and its functions in the modern world.

b) A special area of study in contract e.g. formation and modification of contracts.

Section 3 Introduction to tort

a) The historical development of tort. An overview of different types of tort. The centrality of the tort of negligence and its role in the modern world.

b) A special study in tort – e.g. trespass to the person.

Section 4 Conclusion

A summary; critical approaches to the study of contract and tort; guidance to legal problem solving.

Find out more about LAWS3150

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Following on from 'Introduction to Contract and Tort', 'Introduction to Property Law' continues the study of private law by introducing students to property law. 'Property' is something we tend to presume we know about, and rarely examine as an idea or practice closely. Most often we use it to connote an object or 'thing', and presume that it has something to do with ‘ownership’ of that object; we use expressions such as, 'This is mine,' and often do not examine the detail of what that really means.

This module begins to unpack and examine the ideas and practices of property more closely, looking in particular at land to ask questions such as: what do we mean by ‘ownership’? What happens when a number of competing ‘ownership claims’ in one object exist? What are the limits of 'ownership'? Does 'ownership' entail social obligation?

When preparing for the module it will be useful to think about (and collect material on) current debates over contested ownership (or use) of property and resources, especially in relation to land.

Find out more about LAWS3160

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Part A: English Legal System

This module provides an overview of the English Legal System, including the following indicative topics:

1. An introduction to Parliament and the legislative process

2. The court structure and the doctrine of precedent

3. An introduction to case law, including how to identify and the importance of ratio decidendi and obiter dicta

Part B: Introduction to Legal Skills

The module also gives students an introduction to the basic legal skills that they will develop further in their other modules throughout the degree. The focus here is on specific exercises to support exploration and use of the library resources that are available, both in paper copy and electronically through the legal databases, and on understanding practices of legal citation.

Find out more about LAWS3270

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TERM 1

• Constitutionalism: history, theories, principles and contemporary significance

• Models of Government at national, local and supra-national levels

TERM 2

• Human Rights – history and contemporary significance and deployment

• The scope of governmental authority and its limits

• Judicial review and other forms of citizen redress

Find out more about LAWS5880

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Find out more about WLAWS201

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Stage 2

Compulsory modules currently include

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This module introduces ethnography and the ethnographic/documentary film as ways of understanding individual and social lives and the differences between cultures. The focus is critical and practical investigation of the research methods, production and communicative methods underlying them. Students will acquire both critical and practical training in these key ethnographic methodologies. The parallel histories of the development of ethnographic writing and visual anthropology will also be explored to facilitate integration between written and visual media. Indicative themes in the reading, analysis and practice of ethnography may include: (1) Critical and historical contextualisation and evaluation, (2) How to evaluate its contribution to key issues and topics in Social Anthropology; (3) Theoretical contributions; (4) Methodology and research methods; (5) The evaluation of the relationship between description and analysis (6) Examination of its structure, presentation and ability to communicate an understanding of a social and cultural group through the written word; (7) Ethnographies, photography and multi-media. Indicative themes in visual anthropology may include: (1) Collaborative and participatory media production (2) Photography, soundscapes and the senses (3) Cinema Verite and ethnographic film (4) Indigenous media, reception and publics (5) The transformative efficacy of video.

Find out more about ANTS6270

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The module is a cross-cultural analysis of economic and political institutions, and the ways in which they transform over time. Throughout the term, we draw upon a range of ethnographic research and social theory, to investigate the political and conceptual questions raised by the study of power and economy. The module engages with the development and key debates of political and economic anthropology, and explores how people experience, and acquire power over social and economic resources. Students are asked to develop perspectives on the course material that are theoretically informed and empirically grounded, and to apply them to the political and economic questions of everyday life.

Find out more about ANTS6310

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Over the course of the late twentieth century the modern state was transformed in far-reaching ways. The deregulation and privatisation of national economies, the rise of risk governance, the proliferation of administrative agencies and the increasing the involvement of experts in public policy have all profoundly affected the practice of government. At the same time, states responded to global problems cutting across national boundaries (eg, in finance, security and the environment) by governing through transnational networks and global institutions far removed from conventional mechanisms of democratic and legal accountability. These changes have dramatically transformed the landscape of public law - broadly defined as 'the practices that sustain and regulate the activity of governing'.

This module helps students to navigate this shifting constitutional terrain and grapple with the key legal and political challenges it poses. In Public Law 1 students learned about the core principles of constitutional and administrative law, exploring issues like parliamentary sovereignty, the separation of powers, judicial review, human rights and devolution. In the Law of the European Union students were introduced to the principle of multi-level governance through which the modern state operates. Public Law 2 builds on these insights by analysing the complexity of contemporary governance in detail. The aim is to have students think critically about (i) the changing nature of the state, global governance and regulation; (ii) how globalisation is changing the ways public law problems are governed; (iii) the key challenges these shifts pose for the protection of rights and (iv) the different techniques and processes for holding states and powerful actors to account.

Find out more about LAWS5920

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This module will build on the knowledge that students will have acquired during Stage 1 (such as in LAWS5880 Public Law 1). This module will develop student learning by focusing on foundational legal aspects of EU law as well as rules governing selected substantive areas of EU law, also taking into account the relevance of these rules to the UK. The module convenor will set out specific areas of study in the relevant module guide.

Find out more about LAWS5930

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This module introduces the student to the jurisprudence of equity and trusts. Building on knowledge and understanding developed in LAWS3160/LAWS5316 Introduction to Property Law and LAWS5990 Land Law, but also LAWS6500 Law of Contract and private law more generally, the module examines equity's contributions to private law and jurisprudence. The module is designed to challenge the somewhat dull image of this area of law and to encourage a critical and imaginative understanding of the subject. Departing from conventional approaches, this module does not study equity merely in regards to its role as originator of the trust. Equity is instead acknowledged to be what it really is a vital component of the English legal system, a distinct legal tradition possessing its own principles and method of legal reasoning, and an original and continuing source of legal development in the sphere of remedies. The law of equity and trusts is contextualised within a historical and jurisprudential inquiry, providing a wider range of possible interpretations of its development and application. What then becomes central to the module's approach is the complex interrelation of law with ethical, political, economic and jurisprudential considerations, and of that between legal outcomes, pragmatic concerns and policy objectives.

Find out more about LAWS5980

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The focus of the module is private property in English land: title by registration; squatting; owner-occupation; leases; covenants and land development. It builds on the Foundations of Property module to develop an in-depth understanding of English land law, its conception of property and its politics and effects. And it gives experience in how to advise clients on land law problems – and on how to avoid problems for clients.

Find out more about LAWS5990

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This module will offer a one-week overview of Contract law doctrine by reviewing the essentials of contract law gained by students in Introduction to Contract and Tort and provide an overview of the lectures to follow.

Thereafter, students will spend the majority of the time on contract doctrine and problem-solving in contract law, comprised of doctrinal topics not covered in LAWS3150 Introduction to Contract and Tort e.g. breach of contract and remedies, contractual terms, misrepresentation, termination and frustration of contracts and policing bargaining behaviour.

The remainder of the module will focus on contract theory (e.g. freedom of contract, relational contract theory, contract and the vulnerable, contract and consumption). This section of the module will overlay the doctrine covered in the previous section with a basic theoretical framework, and ground students' understanding of critical essay writing in contract law. It will also build on discussion of the purposes of contract law in Introduction to Contract and Tort.

Find out more about LAWS6500

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This module builds on students' learning from other private law modules such as Introduction to Contract and Tort, Introduction to Property Law and the Law of Contract. A specific aim of this module is to develop students' interest and proficiency in the use of case law based legal arguments as a way of solving legal problems and/or determining liability. The module therefore continues the practice of using case classes to discuss a limited number of modern cases in depth. This in-depth focus on modern decided cases will enable students to

• become increasingly familiar with the idea that cases can be read in different ways;

• observe and analyse the idiosyncrasies of legal language and argument within judgments;

• improve crafting legal arguments in this module and beyond;

• identify some of the contested boundaries of modern tort law.

Whilst case law continues to be central to tortious liability, the module will also consider the role played by statutes in tortious liability. Examples may include the liability of

• occupiers of land towards persons harmed on their land,

• manufacturers towards consumers; and

• publishers towards the potentially defamed.

The module considers these and other topics after having explored tort law's most important tort in detail. Tort law's most important tort is the tort of negligence. Much of the module is devoted to a detailed exploration of the elements of and legal concepts related to that tort. The assessed coursework will be an extended problem question relating to the tort of negligence where students will be required to use their learning to formulate a variety of legal arguments and to predict the likely outcome.

Towards the end of the module, the law of tort(s) is placed in its contemporary context of the so-called "Compensation Culture". It considers whether the relationship between tort law and its context can explain its shape or contemporary debates about it. By reflecting on the doctrine studied earlier in the module and observing where the lines of liability are currently drawn, students will be asked to think about what this reveals about private rights and obligations, the balance between responsibility for harm and freedom of action, access to justice and different conceptions thereof. These broader topics, with consequences for law reform, will be explored in seminars and in exam essay questions.

Find out more about LAWS6510

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Find out more about WLAWS202

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Stage 3

Compulsory modules currently include

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The module is of core relevance for students of anthropology, and a wide range of related disciplines preoccupied with the role of anthropologically-informed thought and cultural literacy in today's transnational and multicultural globe. It explores the relationship between social between social anthropology and the Contemporary World, and a series of themes that explore how anthropologists engage with the pressing political, social and environmental concerns and crises of their day. Through examination of 'hot topics' in the discipline, key debates in public anthropology, and anthropological and ethnographic theory, the module clarifies the relevance of anthropology for the world beyond the university, and educates you in how to adapt anthropological knowledge and skills to analysis of real world issues. It also advances core disciplinary understanding relevant to social anthropological modules in stages 2 and 3. Throughout, key objectives are to support you in developing and consolidating your understanding of contemporary anthropology and your own assessment of the wider utility of the social sciences, and to provide essential critical tools for understanding the changing world around us.

Find out more about ANTS5970

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In contrast to LAWS5080 (LW508) Criminal Law (at Level 5), this Level 6 module will consider each of the following discrete, but identical, topics to a much greater depth making use of, and improving, skills developed in earlier years of their degree programme:

• Introduction to the concept of crime, the structure of criminal justice and the general principles of liability

• Harm and the boundaries of criminal law

• Considering cases – how to effectively summarise cases and write a case note

• Murder

• Defences to murder

• General defences

• Manslaughter

• Non-fatal offences against the person

• Sexual offences

• Inchoate offences

• Complicity

• Property-related offences

Find out more about LAWS6010

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Find out more about WLAWS203

Optional modules may include

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This module is a one-term placement opportunity that allows you to teach aspects of your degree subject in a local school. Launched to coincide with Kent's 50th anniversary in 2015, it highlights the longstanding excellence of human and social science research and teaching at the University, and the important role the institution has in contributing to the local community.

If selected for this module you will spend approximately 6 hours in a Kent secondary school in the Spring term (this session excludes time to travel to and from the School, and preparation and debrief time with the teacher). Generally, you will begin by observing lessons taught by your designated teacher and possibly other teachers. Later you will act somewhat in the role of a teaching assistant by working with individual pupils or with a small group. You may take 'hotspots': brief sessions with the whole class where you explain a topic or talk about aspects of university life. Finally, you will progress to the role of "teacher" and will be expected to lead an entire lesson. Throughout the module you will be given guidance and support by a local convenor based in your academic school as well as the overall module convenor.

You will be required to keep a log of your activities and experiences at each session. You will also create resources to aid in the delivery of your subject area within the curriculum. Finally, you will devise a special final taught lesson in consultation with the teacher and with your local module convener. You must then implement and reflect on the lesson.

Find out more about ANTB5560

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Much of the material presented in this course forms part of the relatively new academic discipline of evolutionary psychology/anthropology. The goal of this course is to discover and understand the principles of evolutionary psychology and other complementary paradigms. The module explores human behaviour (primarily human sexual behaviours) from an evolutionary perspective. Topics covered are reproductive and mating strategies, parenting behaviour, kinship, cooperation, survival, status striving, jealously, and aggression. The course will provide an excellent understanding of the deeply biological nature of human behaviour, and develop skills in critical thinking. Students will be encouraged to bring relevant questions and observations to seminars and time will be allocated to deal with them.

Find out more about ANTB5650

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This module offers Stage 3 students the opportunity to design and execute a research project of their own devising. The topic, and the way it is researched, will be of the student's own choosing, in agreement with the student's supervisor. All students will have received training in ethnographic methods, basic photography, interviewing and sound recording, etc. in SE627. In this module, further training will be given in dissertation design and ethnographic writing.

Find out more about ANTS5340

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'Ethnicity' and ‘nationalism’ are matters of contemporary urgency (as we are daily reminded by the media), but while the meanings of these terms are taken for granted, what actually constitutes ethnicity and nationalism, and how they have been historically constituted, is neither clear nor self-evident. This module begins with a consideration of the major theories of nationalism and ethnicity, and then moves on to a series of case studies taken from various societies around the world., and then moves on to examine a number of other important concepts—indigeneity, ‘race’, hybridity, authenticity, ‘invention of tradition’, multiculturalism, globalization—that can help us appreciate the complexity and dynamics of ethnic identities. The general aim of the module is to enable and encourage students to think critically beyond established, homogenous and static ethnic categories.

Find out more about ANTS5730

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This module aims to develop your theoretical imagination by making you familiar with the central debates that have shaped anthropolog