Program Overview

Law with Foundation Year

Overview

The Law with Foundation Year program is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the legal system, preparing them for a rewarding career in law and justice. This four-year program combines academic study with practical experience, equipping students with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in their future studies.

Course Details

Foundation Year

• Introduction to English Law: This module provides a fundamental understanding of the key areas of English law, introducing students to the core areas of law studied on the LLB course and the basic skills needed to advance to level 4.
• English Legal Systems: This module covers the functions of the law in society, the court system within England and Wales, the manner in which law is made in England and Wales, and the individuals working within the legal profession.
• Academic and Personal Skills: This module helps students develop essential skills for academic success, including technology, library use, referencing, and academic writing.
• Further Legal Knowledge: This module introduces students to further areas of legal knowledge beyond the core modules on the law degree, covering cyber law, family law, medical law, human rights law, and public international law.
• Introduction to Legal Skills and Attributes: This module introduces students to core academic and legal skills, including legal research, analysis, and problem-solving.

Year One

• Contract Law: This module concerns itself with the rules governing legally binding agreements between two or more parties.
• Legal Systems and Digital Legal Skills: This module introduces students to the English legal system and its role within society, as well as the importance of digital skills within the law.
• Legal Writing and Analytical Skills: This module develops students' skills in legal reasoning, analysis, and writing.
• Tort Law: This module covers the core areas of Tort, including Negligence, Breach of Duty, Causation, Vicarious Liability, Psychiatric Harm, Occupiers Liability, and the land tort of Nuisance.
• Criminal Law: This module explores the criminal law system in England and Wales, focusing on substantive criminal law.
• An Introduction to Legal Ethics and Concepts: This module develops students' understanding of legal ethics and concepts, including the nature of law, legal practice, and legal decision-making.

Year Two

• Legal Professional Development: This module enables students to plan and carry out professional development activities to increase their employability and performance.
• Land Law: This module breaks down difficult legal concepts, such as ownership versus possession, adverse possession, and the various rights and interests that exist in Land.
• Public Law: This module analyzes the nature and structure of the UK constitutional arrangements post-Brexit.
• European Union (EU) Law and the UK: This module develops students' understanding of the law of the European Union, including the fundamental constitutional structures of the EU and the law of the single market.
• Optional modules:
  • Media Law: This module introduces students to the key aspects of Media Law, including the freedom of the press, reporting restrictions, and pretrial publicity.
  • Commercial and Consumer Law: This module examines the law relating to the sale and supply of goods and services, agency, product safety, insurance, and consumer credit.
  • Intellectual Property Law: This module explores patents, trademarks, and copyrights, including the key concepts of intellectual property law and the justification for these laws.
  • Human Rights Law: This module focuses on understanding the scope of protection afforded by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), especially in light of its integration in the UK with the Human Rights Act 1998.

Year Three (Route One)

• Equity and Trusts: This module provides an introduction to an invisible system of justice that runs alongside the common law, known as Equity.
• Civil and Criminal Litigation: This module builds on the fundamental principles of law, enabling students to gain knowledge and skills to understand how civil and criminal litigation is applied in practical situations.
• Law in Action: This module develops students' hands-on legal skills, working under supervision in the University's SILKS Law Clinic on housing, employment, and family law cases.
• Company Law: This module develops students' problem-solving skills, focusing primarily on the enhancement of individual research and analysis, through a critical review of key legal, contractual, and practical issues relevant to corporate legal practice.
• Optional modules:
  • Family Law: This module looks at how the law defines 'family' and the impact that this legal definition has on how the area is regulated.
  • Employment Law: This module considers how the law defines 'employment' and the impact that this legal definition has on how the area is regulated.

Year Three (Route Two)

• Equity and Trusts: This module provides an introduction to an invisible system of justice that runs alongside the common law, known as Equity.
• Optional modules:
  • AI and Law: This module introduces key technologies that have the potential to change how lawyers operate in practice, with a particular focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI).
  • Medical Law and Ethics: This module looks at the interplay between the ethical, practical, and moral dimensions that affect the healthcare professionals' decision-making process.
  • Employment Law: This module considers how the law defines 'employment' and the impact that this legal definition has on how the area is regulated.
  • Criminal Justice and Punishment: This module introduces students to the form, key features, and purpose of the institutions of the contemporary criminal justice system in England and Wales.
  • Family Law: This module looks at how the law defines 'family' and the impact that this legal definition has on how the area is regulated.
  • Legal Research Project: This module enables students to undertake a doctrinal legal research project under the supervision of an academic member of staff with relevant expertise and experience.
  • Caring for Clients in the Working Environment: This module looks into care for clients and how to build a good relationship.
  • Competition Law and the Digital Economy: This module introduces students to the approach to competition law and policy, enabling them to critically analyze and discuss contemporary issues of competition law and policy.
  • Industrial Law: This module breaks down difficult legal concepts, such as corporate criminal liability and corporate manslaughter, and the various statutory duties and obligations that exist in health and safety law.
  • International Law: This module develops students' understanding of the role of law across international boundaries, considering the nature and history of international law, the way in which public and private international law is made, and distinct issues such as statehood and state immunity.
  • Company Law: This module develops students' problem-solving skills, focusing primarily on the enhancement of individual research and analysis, through a critical review of key legal, contractual, and practical issues relevant to corporate legal practice.
  • Environmental Law: This module develops students' understanding of environmental law, including the key concepts, principles, and policies that underpin environmental law.

Requirements

• GCSE: Maths and English at grade C / grade 4 or above.
• UCAS Tariff points: 64 UCAS tariff points from A Levels or equivalent.
• A level: 64 UCAS tariff points from A Levels or equivalent.
• BTEC National Diploma: MPP in any subject.
• T levels: Pass – D or E.
• Scottish Highers: 64 UCAS tariff points.
• Irish Leaving Certificate: 64 UCAS tariff points.
• European Baccalaureate: 64 UCAS tariff points.
• Access to HE: Pass Level 3 with 64 points.

Tuition Fees

• Full-time home: £5,760 for Foundation Year and £9,535 for subsequent years (2025/26).
• Full-time home: £5,760 for Foundation Year and £9,535 for subsequent years (2026/27).

Additional Costs

• Books, stationery, printing, binding, and general subsistence on trips and visits.

Career Links

• Barrister
• Barrister's clerk
• Paralegal
• Company secretary
• Licensed conveyancer

Student Information

• Terms and conditions
• UCAS information: Course ID M101, Institution S03.