The aims of this module are to:

give students the opportunity to engage with advanced issues in constitutional law and theory at the UK, EU and/or international level;

highlight contemporary controversies and challenges in constitutional law and theory;

draw on staff research expertise to engage students in major constitutional debates;

prompt reflection on the broader questions about how different types of constitutions operate at different levels in the modern world.

(LO1) Students will be able to analyse and understand a number of contemporary constitutional challenges.

(LO2) Students will be able to assess different arguments about how constitutional challenges should be resolved or confronted.

(LO3) Students will be able to evaluate how ideas of constitutionalism operate (successfully and unsuccessfully) in different legal contexts (whether domestic, European or international).

(LO4) Students will be able to reflect more widely about the different functions of constitutional law, and the different meanings of constitutionalism, in the light of the substantive topics covered during the module.

(S1) Legal and Political Reasoning
The module will help students to evaluate different constitutional arguments, and think about the legal and political implications of different constitutional challenges and events.

(S2) Legal Research
The module will encourage students to conduct wider reading in the subjects covered in any specific year.

(S3) Critical Analysis
The module will prompt students to think critically about the operation of constitutional law, its strengths and its limitations, through the choice of the three core substantive topics which will reflect major current challenges in the field.

(S4) Discussion and Debate
The seminars will be based around the discussion of the various constitutional challenges being considered in the module, and students will be encouraged to debate these issues from different perspectives to better understand the competing positions which may be adopted.

(S5) Essay Writing
The assessment in the module will require students to convey their knowledge and understanding of the relevant issues in writing – we will support their preparation for this with materials relating to essay writing and showing how good arguments can be developed.

The syllabus will be dynamic and fluid, depending on the major challenges in constitutional law which are occurring at the relevant time, the staff members who are available to teach in any given year, and their changing research interests. There will be a common set of introductory lectures, and then three core substantive topics in which to explore these issues. The module will end with a final set of reflective lectures.

Indicative topics include:

Constitutional Reform in the UK
The Protection of Fundamental Rights
Scrutiny and Accountability
Global Constitutionalism
Comparative Constitutionalism
The UK and the EU After Brexit
Referendums and Democratic Theory
Constitutional Ideologies
Legal and Political Constitutionalism
Constitutionalism and Political Economy
Critical Approaches to Constitutional Law

Teaching Method 1: Lectures

Scheduled Directed Student Hours: 22 hrs (@ 1 hr x 11)

Teaching Method 2: Seminars

Scheduled Directed Student Hours: x 4 seminars @ 90 mins ( 6 hours total)

Self-Directed Learning Hours: 122 hours

Description: Primarily this will be time spent reading in preparation for seminars, and conducting further independent research and reading around the various topics covered in the module.

We will set core textbook reading for each of the four seminars, along with additional reading from the wider academic literature for discussion. We will encourage the students to go beyond this in their self-directed learning hours, and emphasise that developing a wider appreciation of the subject will be essential to achieving outstanding marks.