Course overview

Law

What are your rights when you enter a mobile phone contract?

Is it right for courts to grant superinjunctions?

In what circumstances can you be arrested and charged?

These are the sort of topics that you will discuss as part of your law course. You will learn about the key rules of English and European law and see how they develop from cases and government-made law. In some units you will focus on who makes the law and what influences them. The course also offers opportunities to put your developing legal knowledge into practice in ‘real world’ situations where you can perhaps choose to train to be a Citizens Advice Bureau adviser or a mediator.

Law is perceived as a difficult subject. It does involve a lot of reading. 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 will give you a valuable qualification.

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

International relations

What is globalisation? How do we assess its impact?

Why do states go to war?

How do we understand global issues such as poverty and injustice?

Studying international relations will help you to understand the world in which you live. The course looks at key factors such as sovereign states, regional and international institutions, and non-state actors. It investigates the challenges by looking at core themes such as the changing nature of warfare, conflict between, within and across states, the impact of globalisation and interdependence on states and societies, and perennial global issues such as poverty, injustice and human rights.

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 mooting and negotiation (key practical skills) in internal and external competitions and as part of the assessment in some units. Take a look at the video of one of our mock trials to see students and staff in action as lawyers and judges.

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 Bar Professional Training Course or the Legal Practice Course required as part of the professional qualification to become a barrister or solicitor.

The course also provides exemptions from the law papers required to qualify as a Legal Executive or a Licensed Conveyancer. Unusually, our law degrees also offer the option to sit the Chartered Institute of Legal Executive (CILEx) practice papers, gaining full exemption from the academic stage required by the Institute. Graduates who successfully complete their degree and the CILEx papers with us will be able to go straight on to seek work as a paid trainee Legal Executive.

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. More opportunities to gain practical experience can be found in mooting and negotiation and practical opportunities and the Pro Bono Initiative.

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 School of Law will provide you with many opportunities to learn from experiencing law in practice as a volunteer in one of our pro bono initiatives.

Unusually, we offer the option to become fully trained volunteer advice workers for the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) as part of the degree programme. You may also participate in other schemes run under the umbrella of our innovative pro bono programme. These include our in-house Employment Advice Clinic, volunteering with Portsmouth Mediation Service, Portsmouth Trading Standards and Hampshire Police Constables. New schemes include working with BID South and the British Red Cross.

There are also many other practical opportunities described later in these pages. You can also have a look at law students in action in one of our mock trials held in our mock courtroom.

Year one

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

• English Legal System
• Contract Law
• Criminal Law
• Public Law

You will also study the following international relations units:

• Introduction to International Relations
• Introduction to Political Thought.

Year two

In your second year you can begin your training with some of the pro bono projects. You will also study the following law units:

• Land Law
• Law of Tort
• Research and Professional Development

You will also study the following international relations units:

• International Politics
• International Relations Theory

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 core units:

• Equity and Trusts
• EU Law
• Discrimination and Human Rights Law
• Public International Law

You will also choose one of the following:

• Legal Dissertation
• Legal Project
• The Reflective Practitioner Course, where you can gain credit for practical experience gained of the legal system. 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 Employment Advice Clinic

Law options at this level include:

• Company Law
• Intellectual Property Law
• CILEX Level 6 Practice
• Family and Child Law
• Evidence and Advocacy
• Private International Law

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.

In every year of your degree you will be assigned a personal tutor. You will meet regularly with your personal tutor in timetabled sessions to discuss your progress and to help to resolve problems or questions that you may encounter along the way. In year three, your personal tutor will also be your dissertation tutor or the member of staff supervising your pro bono work.

Teaching is undertaken usually in the format of a one-hour seminar and one-hour lecture per week. Some units will be different – they may be taught in the format of seminars alone or may involve you working more independently with the supervision of a member of staff.

Assessment is varied, with examinations forming an important, though not exclusive, part of the core law subjects. Other types of assessment include coursework essays, presentations 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.

Career prospects

Graduates on this course may wish to become a lawyer. Lawyers come in a variety of forms, from the traditional professions of the barrister and solicitor, to the legal executive (the third legal profession), paralegals, and those working for advice centres, public bodies (such as trading standards) and legal departments within commercial or voluntary sector organisations. However, law offers a wide variety of different careers opportunities and many law graduates do not pursue careers as lawyers. Because the degree is viewed as very demanding law graduates are in high demand on graduate trainee schemes in a variety of different sectors including human resources/recruitment, financial services and other areas of industry. University of Portsmouth graduates have gone on to become qualified solicitors, human resources managers and have worked for large financial organisations, as well as gaining paid work within the voluntary sector.

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.

Combining Law with International Relations offers an even wider variety of career opportunities. A specialisation in international relations will serve as excellent preparation for a range of careers in government, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, pressure groups, voluntary organisations, policy research, the media and multinational corporations.

For further career advice please visit the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives website.

Facilities and features

Based in Portsmouth Business School’s Richmond Building, the School of Law has state-of-the-art teaching facilities and staff with both practical and academic 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 whilst studying for the degree.

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. You can have a look at it being used in a recent mock trial involving staff and students.

School of Social, Historical and Literary Studies

SSHLS offers teaching in Politics and International Relations of the very highest quality. Curriculum content, teaching strategies and overall student experience regularly wins praise from external auditors and examiners and national student surveys. The Politics and International Relations staff have also been successful in winning external funding from a variety of sources such as the British Academy, the Economic and Social Research Council, NATO and the Nuffield Foundation. Such funding has facilitated writing projects, international conference organisation and attendance and empirical studies.

Entry requirements

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