Course overview

Law

What rights do you have when buying defective goods?

Why do courts sometimes rule that the government is breaching human rights?

In what circumstances can you be arrested and charged?

The answers to these questions can all be found in a law course. Law is the study of legal rules and regulations, and the context in which they are applied. You will learn about the key principles of English and European Community law and see how they evolve from case law and the various forms of law made by the government. In some units you will focus on the context in which law is made and the influences upon law-making. The course also offers opportunities to put your developing legal knowledge into practice in real-world situations.

Law is perceived as a difficult subject. It does demand that students absorb a lot of legal material and you will have a lot of reading to do. However, because of this law graduates are much in demand, not only from law firms but other organisations where legal knowledge may be useful, such as commercial companies or public bodies. There is no doubt that a law degree is a well-respected qualification.

As a qualifying law degree, students who pass the degree are able to go on to vocational training as barristers or solicitors.

European Studies

What is the European Commission?

How did Britain find itself within the European Union?

What makes a person essentially French, German or British?

European Studies is a broad and flexible study area. If you have an interest in languages for example, then you can pursue this by choosing optional units. You will also be introduced to the history of the European Union (EU), its government and politics. Other optional units allow you to explore social trends within the EU and how its member states interact with each other. Your deeper understanding of the EU and the effect that it has on the laws of its member states will equip you to work in a variety of fields, perhaps in another EU country or as an advisor to a UK employer on specialist EU matters.

Work placement

This degree has the option to undertake a one-year placement working in a paid, full-time role with continuous progression and a suitable level of responsibility. More information on the placement year can be found in 'Course content'.

The Placements Office will support you during your placement search, the subsequent recruitment processes, and when you have secured your placement and are working away from the University.

You will also have the opportunity to take part in practical activities and the Pro Bono Initiatives as well as mooting and negotiation (key practical skills) in internal and external competitions and as part of the assessment in some units.

Professional accreditation

This course is recognised by the Bar Standards Board and Solicitors Regulatory Authority as a qualifying law degree, allowing students who pass the degree and the foundation of knowledge subjects the right to go straight on to the vocational courses that are required to become a barrister or solicitor.

Contacts with the profession

Many of the activities which are part of the Pro Bono Initiative would not be possible without the support of the local legal community, and the School of Law prides itself on the good reputation it has in Portsmouth and Hampshire. We maintain good links with the Court Service in Portsmouth and with local judges, allowing us to facilitate court visits, marshalling and even work experience. Our mentoring programme also brings in members of the legal profession who work in local solicitors' firms, for the government and in a variety of other contexts, linking them with individual students. 

Course content

All LLB students follow a common core of legal subjects. This includes the foundations of legal knowledge units, which allow you to progress to vocational courses and into the legal profession. In addition, the University of Portsmouth will give you many opportunities to learn from legal work experience.

You may participate in other schemes run under the umbrella of our innovative Clinical Legal Education programme. These include the Innocence Project, the Employment Advice Clinic, and volunteering with Portsmouth Mediation Services, Portsmouth Trading Standards and Hampshire Police Constables. New schemes include working with BID South and Surestart.

There are also many other practical opportunities.

Year one

In your first year you will study the following law units:

• Legal System
• Contract Law
• Criminal Law
• Public Law I

You will also study the following European studies units:

• International Relations, States, Conflict and Cooperation
• Introduction to European Studies
• The Making of Modern Europe
• Political and Social Change in Contemporary Europe
• Europe in the Twentieth Century

Year two

In your second year you will be able to choose to begin your training with some of the Clinical Legal Education projects. You will also study the following law units:

• Employment law or Elements of Commercial and Consumer Law
• Land Law
• Law of Tort
• Careers and Research Management
• Public Law II

You will study the following European studies units too:

• Foundations of the European Union
• Governing the European Union

You will also choose a European studies option. Current options include:

• Language
• Nation, Language and Identity
• Contemporary European Thought

Placement year

This degree includes the opportunity for a one-year placement working in a paid, full-time role with continuous progression and a suitable level of responsibility. You will return to your studies from your placement with contemporary business experience, which will improve your ability to engage in debate and develop your strategic thinking, and perhaps indirectly boost your degree classification.

With employers now requiring graduates to have the key business competencies and experience alongside a good degree, work experience is more vital than ever. Due to its very nature a placement year is the best and most involving type of work experience you can do during your time at university. As such, a placement will help insure you are as employable as possible upon graduation.

The Portsmouth Business School Placements Office will support you not only during your placement search and the subsequent recruitment processes, but also once you secure your placement and are working away from the University. Our students have gained much from their work placements – listen to some of our students' experiences.

Year three/four

In your final year you will study the following law units:

• Equity and Trusts
• Discrimination and Human Rights

You will also choose one of the following:

• The Reflective Practitioner Course, where you can gain credit for practical experience. This can be:
  
  • in our new debt and consumer advice clinic
  • as a special constable
  • working with trading standards
  • working for a community mediation organisation
  • as a student volunteer with the University of Portsmouth's Innocence Project
  • as a student volunteer with the University of Portsmouth's Employment Advice Clinic
  • with Surestart as a debt adviser
• Legal Dissertation
• Legal Project and option unit from a wide range of law options including:
  • Company Law
  • Intellectual Property
  • Industrial Law
  • Environmental Law
  • Family Law

You will take the following European studies units too:

• Foundations of EU Law
• Economic and Social Law of the EU

You must also take two optional European studies units. These currently include:

• Protecting the Environment in the EU
• The Politics of Citizenship and Immigration in Western Europe
• Mass Communication
• France in the World

Teaching and assessment

The School of Law is praised by its students for the level of student support offered by staff. All academic staff have regular office hours and are almost always able to offer ‘open door’ access – if we are in and not doing something else then we are happy to see students.

At the start of your degree, you will be assigned a personal tutor who you will keep for the first two years of your studies. You will meet regularly with your personal tutor in timetabled sessions to discuss your progress. They will help resolve problems or questions that you may encounter along the way. In year three, your personal tutor will be your dissertation tutor.

Teaching is undertaken usually in the format of a one-hour seminar and one-hour lecture per week. Some courses will be different – they may be taught in the format of seminars alone or may involve online discussions using our Virtual Learning Environment.

Assessment is varied, with examinations forming an important, though not exclusive, part of the foundation of knowledge subjects. Other types of assessment include coursework essays, presentations and even participation in mock trials or written moot arguments.

Opportunities for mooting (a sort of mock trial) are given in both the Criminal Law and Law of Tort units, and help to develop the practical advocacy skills needed to be a lawyer. Role-playing also plays an important part of the Access to Justice and Law of Evidence units.

Career prospects

LLB Law and European Studies offers a wide variety of different career opportunities. Graduates on such a combined course may wish to become a lawyer in the UK or perhaps work elsewhere within the European Union. As there are opportunities to take optional language units, it is possible to build on existing language skills or learn entirely new languages, facilitating a career abroad.

Students wishing to pursue a career as a solicitor can come to Portsmouth confident in the fact that if they obtain a 2:2 or better they are guaranteed to be accepted on to Legal Practice courses at the College of Law and the University of Bournemouth.

Facilities and features

This degree programme is taught jointly by the School of Law and School of Languages and Area Studies (SLAS). Based in the Portsmouth Business School’s Richmond Building, the School of Law has state-of-the-art teaching facilities and staff with a wide variety of academic  and practical experience of law. The School has developed an innovative portfolio of undergraduate law degrees, which places a special emphasis on giving students the opportunity to gain practical experience of the legal system.

Placements are also possible (for more details see the practical opportunities and the Pro Bono Initiative web page). You will also have the opportunity to take part in mooting and negotiation (key practical skills) in internal and external competitions, and as part of the assessment in some units.

SLAS is one of the largest departments of its kind in the country, teaching six languages and associated area studies to more than 900 undergraduates on over twenty courses. It has the latest multimedia digital language laboratories and up- to-date classrooms with the latest teaching technology. It has a reputation for excellence in teaching and research and is attached to the Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR),  the UK’s leading centre for interdisciplinary European Studies, which was  assessed to be 100 per cent internationally excellent or world-leading in the last Research Assessment Exercise.

Mooting and negotiation

A moot is a mock appeal in which teams of two students argue points of law before a judge or judges. It is an excellent means of developing a student's research and argumentation skills, and will give you an opportunity to develop your confidence in public speaking.

Mock courtroom

You can be part of our full-blown mock trials and moots in our mock courtroom. The £1 million development is an exact replica of a crown court, complete with dock, witness box, public gallery, jury room and interview rooms.

Entry requirements

View all the entry requirements for LLB Law with European Studies for the academic year 2013/14 (opens in new window).