Program Overview

LLB (Hons) Law with Criminology with Foundation Year

Course summary

Gain interdisciplinary expertise in law and criminology. Explore criminal justice and behaviour and the effect of law on society. Work with law firms and legal and social-justice providers. Consider the global reach of law, with opportunities for UK and international placements.

How you learn

Our award-winning tutors are experts in their fields. You’ll be taught by a range of lecturers who are experienced legal researchers, and who have years of experience in the legal profession as solicitors or barristers. You’ll collaborate with legal professionals and rights and justice practitioners to challenge law and its application, engaging with projects and initiatives which are making a difference in Sheffield, the UK and globally.

You learn through:

• Lectures
• Interactive workshops
• Independent research
• Case studies in simulated environments
• Live client projects
• Work placements

Modules

Year 1

• The Exploration Of Law, Crime, Justice And Society (60 credits)
  • Develops student study skills and academic knowledge in their chosen discipline.
  • Topics include:
    • Supporting your successful transition into Higher Education.
    • Identification and development of your academic, interpersonal and professional skills.
    • Defining and understanding concepts relevant to Law, Criminology, Policing, Psychology, and Sociology.
• Social Justice In Action (60 credits)
  • Develops students’ research and enquiry skills and knowledge within Human Rights and Social Justice.
  • Topics include:
    • Contemporary themes relevant to human rights and social justice.
    • Academic writing conventions.
    • International, national and local relationships.
    • Public, private and third-sector organisations/agencies.
    • Criminology, psychology, and sociology within human rights/social justice.
    • Diversity, equality, and inclusion.
• The Practice Of Law And Policing (60 credits)
  • Develops your knowledge, research, and academic writing skills, with emphasis on Civil and Criminal Justice, Human Rights and Social Justice.
  • Topics include:
    • Logical and coherent discussion and argument.
    • Identifying and using appropriate sources.
    • International, regional, and domestic legal frameworks and provisions.
    • The criminal justice system and the role of law enforcement agencies.
    • Public, private, and third-sector organisations and agencies.
    • Aspects of identity, culture, and values.
    • Contemporary human rights and social justice issues.

Year 2

• Applied Crime, Rights And Justice (20 credits)
  • Introduces you to core domestic and international criminal justice, in the context of social justice and global human rights issues.
  • Topics include:
    • How criminal justice works as a process and in action.
    • Problems of crime, offending and victimisation.
    • Global human rights and social justice issues.
• Criminal Law (20 credits)
  • Equips you with a thorough grounding in criminal law through practical problem-based learning.
  • Topics include:
    • Key concepts such as actus reus and mens rea.
    • Leading crimes.
    • Offences against the person.
    • Offences against property.
    • Main defences and doctrines.
• Introduction To Law & Legal Practice (60 credits)
  • Develops your knowledge of the English legal system, legal research and communication.
  • Topics include:
    • How are laws made and applied?
    • The English legal system and principles of the constitution.
    • Understanding key principles of European Union law.
    • Comprehending legal documents.
    • Social and cultural contexts impacting the application of law.
    • Developing awareness of professional skills.
    • How do lawyers communicate?
    • Identifying clients’ objectives.
    • Writing and drafting legal information for a variety of audiences.
    • Academic and personal development.
• Principles Of Contract Law (20 credits)
  • Applies legal knowledge to solve practical and academic contractual problems, while developing appropriate legal reasoning skills.
  • Topics include:
    • Principles of contract law.
    • How contracts are made: formation and terms.
    • How contracts are enforced: breach and remedies.
    • How contracts can change: factors that affect liability.

Year 3

• Land Law (20 credits)
  • Provides an understanding of the principles which underpin land ownership in England and Wales, as well as the law and processes related to the creation, protection and transfer of interests in land.
  • Topics include:
    • The origins, structure and sources of modern land (real property) law.
    • The role and practical importance of land law.
    • The doctrine of estates.
    • The nature and legal definition of ‘land’.
    • The distinction between fixtures and chattels.
    • Unregistered and registered titles, encumbrances and priorities.
    • The resolution of disputes relating to trust property.
    • Co-ownership and severance.
    • Mortgage creation, protection, rights and remedies.
    • Freehold covenants, easements and adverse possession.
• Legal Environments And Professional Skills (60 credits)
  • Explores the context of real-world enquiries, projects or instructions to introduce you to core practical legal skills, applied legal knowledge, and the personal values and attributes to thrive within a 21st century, globalised professional legal environment.
  • Topics include:
    • Practical legal knowledge.
    • Application to real-world matters.
    • Graduate attributes, personal and professional values.
    • Practical workplace skills.
    • Methods of goal setting and action planning.
    • Self-reflection for further study and graduate careers.
    • Academic and personal development.
• The Law Of Trusts (20 credits)
  • Explores the Law of Trusts, a foundational area of law in England and Wales, applying knowledge to real-world challenges.
  • Topics include:
    • A critical understanding of the historical development of trusts.
    • The modern application of trusts and role of trustee.
    • Developing an appreciation of requirements for express trusts.
    • Consideration of implied and public trusts.
    • A contemporary review of law relating to wills.
    • Will comparisons in a global context.
    • Exploration of injunctions and other equitable remedies.
• Tort Law (20 credits)
  • Develops a comprehensive understanding of English tort law in the context of contemporary 21st century issues.
  • Topics include:
    • Theories, purpose and types of torts.
    • Negligence: legal requirements for establishing liability.
    • Comparative study of international approaches.
    • Expanding principles to technology-related problems.
    • Defamation and privacy.
    • Land Torts: rules protecting against interference with land.
    • Critical understanding of defences.
    • Judicial approach to remedies.
    • Reforming Torts: critical debates on issues such as AI.

Year 4

• Professional Practice Experience (60 credits)
  • Provides you with experience and critical analysis of professional practice in a legal, social justice or human rights context – developing your skills and graduate attributes.
  • Topics include:
    • Analyse professional services and contexts.
    • Equality and diversity.
    • Sustainability and environmentalism.
    • Local and global justice.
    • Commercial awareness.
    • Professionalism and ethical practice.
    • Informative and persuasive writing.
    • Practical skills and personal values.
    • Academic and personal development.
    • Guided reflection.
• Commercial Law (20 credits)
  • Provides a real-world understanding of key aspects of commercial law, with a focus on the often-complex relationships that exist between multiple parties and stakeholders.
  • Topics include:
    • The agency relationship.
    • Creation, duties, rights and termination.
    • Passing of property and risk.
    • Nemo dat rule and exceptions.
    • Statutory implied terms.
• Company Law (20 credits)
  • Develops your understanding of how the main company structures in the UK are formed, owned, managed, operated, governed and dissolved – in the context of avoiding or resolving legal disputes.
  • Topics include:
    • Company promotion and formation.
    • Constitutional rules.
    • Corporate governance.
    • Directors’ management roles, powers and duties.
    • Shareholders’ strategic roles.
    • Legal environmental, social and governance obligations.
    • Decision making in companies.
    • Shares and shareholding in companies.
    • Protections for minority shareholders.
    • Company insolvency, liquidation and dissolution.
• Criminal Justice Theories And Realities (20 credits)
  • Provides you with the opportunity to experience the realities of working within the criminal justice system via simulated scenarios.
  • Topics include:
    • A range of criminal justice processes.
    • Organisations operating within the criminal justice system.
    • The criminal justice process as a whole.
    • Developing practice with criminological and criminal justice theory.
    • Understanding models of criminal justice in practice.
    • Due process, bureaucratic efficiency, victims and public engagement.
    • Managing offending behaviour, denunciation and degradation.
    • Legal framework within which key decisions are taken.
    • Action planning and evidence-based decision making.
    • Reflection on practice and development of professional identity.
• Employment Law (20 credits)
  • Provides an understanding of the legal basis of employment relations in the UK, applying knowledge to real-world problems within the foundations of employment contracts, employment status, fair and unfair dismissals, and equality in the workplace.
  • Topics include:
    • Employment status.
    • Contracts of employment.
    • Dismissals.
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion.
    • Professionalism.
• Extended Professional Practice (20 credits)
  • Builds your professional practice experience to focus on your personal and professional development, developing the attributes of a critical reflective practitioner.
  • Topics include:
    • Critical reflective professional practice.
    • Practical skills.
    • Personal values.
    • Professional graduate attributes.
• Family Law (20 credits)
  • Provides knowledge and real-world understanding of family law, its application in practice to the breakdown in relationships, and a critical awareness of its dynamic nature.
  • Topics include:
    • Marriage, civil partnerships and cohabitation.
    • Divorce and dissolution of civil partnerships.
    • Financial and property disputes following divorce/dissolution.
    • Domestic abuse.
    • Parental rights, parental responsibility and children’s rights.
    • Private child law disputes and resolution.
    • Public child law.
    • Child protection and the role of the state.
• Immigration Law (20 credits)
  • Develops your knowledge and understanding of immigration control and immigration rules.
  • Topics include:
    • Historical development of immigration control.
    • Human rights and immigration law.
    • Detention and extradition.
    • Control of entry.
    • Control after entry.
    • Citizenship and right of abode.
    • International and UK refugees and asylum law.
• Intellectual Property Law (20 credits)
  • Develops your practical skills and knowledge based on research of intellectual property law.
  • Topics include:
    • Copyright and neighbouring rights.
    • Patent, design and plant variety rights.
    • Trademarks and domain names.
    • Control of anticompetitive practices.
    • Assignment licensing contract models.
    • IP private international law.
• International Criminal Law And Justice (20 credits)
  • Explores and critically analyses systems, processes and debates of international criminal law and justice, through a variety of methods and interdisciplinary perspectives.
  • Topics include:
    • The history of international criminal law and justice.
    • Core crimes of international criminal law.
    • Structure and jurisdiction of the international criminal court.
    • The role and impact of victims.
    • Contemporary debates, challenges and inequalities.
    • International and interdisciplinary perspectives.
    • The future of international criminal law and justice.
• International Human Rights (20 credits)
  • Develops your knowledge and understanding of the main international and domestic human rights documents, in the context of the wider social and political environment.
  • Topics include:
    • Theoretical, ideological and moral foundation of human rights.
    • Historical and institutional history of human rights.
    • Current structures of human rights protection.
    • Established and emerging rights and their development.
    • Globalisation, environmental rights and humanitarian intervention.
    • Conflicting narratives of human rights.
    • Social justice, popular, and governmental approaches to human rights discourse.
• Law And Medicine (20 credits)
  • Provides an understanding of key legal rules and principles for medical law.
  • Topics include:
    • Ethical principles.
    • Assisted reproduction.
    • Abortion.
    • Consent.
    • Medical negligence.
    • Euthanasia.
    • Organ transplantation.
    • Global regulation.
• Law Of Evidence (20 credits)
  • Provides a real-world understanding of key principles and aspects of the law of criminal evidence.
  • Topics include:
    • Burdens and standards of proof, competence and compellability.
    • Corroboration and care warnings.
    • The rule against hearsay evidence.
    • Confession evidence.
    • Identification evidence.
    • Opinion evidence.
    • Discrimination, unfairness and inequalities in the operation and development of the rules of evidence.
• Public Interest Law And Judicial Review (20 credits)
  • Provides a sound knowledge and understanding of the legal procedures and institutional frameworks comprising Public Law, in the context of public interest campaigns.
  • Topics include:
    • Nature and scope of Public Law.
    • The development of modern administrative law.
    • The use of law and legal processes to effect social, political and ethical change.
    • Accountability of public bodies through judicial procedure.
    • Procedural aspects of judicial review.
    • Grounds for judicial review.
    • Procedural impropriety, illegality and unreasonableness.
    • Judicial review and human rights law and procedure.
    • Oral advocacy and legal argument presentation skills.
• Public International Law (20 credits)
  • Explores branches of public international law, providing a solid understanding of the associated sources and structures.
  • Topics include:
    • History of public international law.
    • Sources of public international law.
    • International organisations.
    • Subjects, statehood and self-determination.
    • Public international law and the use of force.
    • Law of armed conflict.
    • International humanitarian law.
    • Future of public international law.
• Sports Law (20 credits)
  • Examines a variety of real-life sport situations that require you to appreciate the social, business, legal and ethical dilemmas involved in the resolution of sporting disputes.
  • Topics include:
    • Anti-doping law.
    • Football law.
    • The Bosman Case.
    • The European Commission’s policy for sport.
    • European competition law and self-regulation.
    • Sport agents and regulation.
    • Broadcasting rights.
    • Civil and criminal liability in sport.

Future careers

This course prepares you for careers in:

• Legal profession (such as solicitor or barrister)
• Business and entrepreneurialism
• Human resources
• Financial services
• Teaching
• Higher education
• Public sector
• Regulatory services
• Law enforcement and probation

Previous graduates of this course have gone on to work for:

• Crown Prosecution Service
• The Probation Service
• DLA Piper
• Environment Agency
• Lincoln House Chambers
• NatWest
• Slaughter & May
• South Yorkshire Police
• Aquinas College
• Begbies Traynor
• CMS

Equipment and facilities

On this course you work with:

• Library services and study spaces
• Our on-campus legal and social justice service providers
• Moot court and other collaborative learning spaces
• Digital access to the latest legal material, commentary and analysis through our subscriptions to practitioners' databases
• Specialist software to manage client case-work

We’ve invested over £100m in new facilities to help you study how and when you want. This means 24-hour libraries and study spaces designed by our students.

Where will I study?

You study at City Campus through a structured mix of lectures, seminars and practical sessions as well as access to digital and online resources to support your learning.

Entry requirements

• UCAS points: 64
• This must include at least 32 points from one A level or equivalent BTEC National qualifications.
• GCSE: English Language or English Literature at grade C or 4, Maths at grade C or 4
• ACCESS: Access to HE Diploma, with at least 45 level 3 credits.
• If English is not your first language, you will need an IELTS score of 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in all skills, or equivalent.

Fees and funding

• Home students: Tuition fees for 2026/27 are not yet confirmed. Our tuition fee for UK students on this course in 2025/26 is £5,760 for the foundation year and £9,535 per year for the degree (capped at a maximum of 20% of this during your placement year).
• International students: Our tuition fee for International/EU students starting full-time study in 2026/27 is £18,000 per year (capped at a maximum of 20% of this during your placement year)