Undergraduate LLB (Hons)
International Legal Studies with a Year Abroad
Sharpen your powers of persuasion, broaden your horizons and prepare for a successful international legal career.
Sharpen your powers of persuasion, broaden your horizons and prepare for a successful international legal career.
At Kent Law School our International Legal Studies course gives valuable added depth and a global dimension to your degree, as well as offering an unforgettable experience in another country, without any requirement to learn another language. If you want to start a successful legal career in the UK and globally, our International Legal Studies course is the first step to wherever you want to go.
You spend a year abroad between Stages 2 and 3 at one of our partner universities, where you are taught in English. Our current destination list includes Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Japan, and many more.
Our research-led teaching encourages you to take a critical view of the law, engaging with the latest research undertaken by expert academics. Our diverse, international community of staff and students provides a dynamic and engaging environment to gain the professional legal skills and knowledge you need to change the world we live in.
This degree will help you prepare for a career in law as a solicitor or barrister. All of our undergraduate Law degrees contain the foundations of legal knowledge required by the Bar Standards Board to satisfy the academic component of professional training for intending barristers, and provide a strong foundation for students who wish to take the Solicitors Qualifying Examinations (SQE).
We offer a wide range of clinical, practical and experiential opportunities to build your CV and make yourself marketable in the world of work.
for research quality in The Complete University Guide 2025.
Helping students to make career choices, understand the legal working world or to navigate the application process for both work and study.
You'll have the opportunity to study abroad with courses taught in English - A great way to discover new cultures and kick-start your global legal career.
A partnership between students, academics, solicitors and barristers providing free legal advice and representation to those unable to afford it.
The University will consider applications from students offering a wide range of qualifications. All applications are assessed on an individual basis but some of our typical requirements are listed below. Students offering qualifications not listed are welcome to contact our Admissions Team for further advice. Please also see our general entry requirements.
AAB
DDD
136 Tariff points from your IB Diploma, Typically H6, H6, H6 or equivalent.
English Language at grade C/4
Pass the University of Kent International Foundation Programme.
The University will consider applicants holding T level qualifications in subjects closely aligned to the course.
Pass the Access to HE Diploma with 45 credits at level 3, of which 30 should be passed at Distinction, 12 at Merit, and 3 at Pass; or 33 at Distinction, 6 at Merit, and 6 at Pass.
The following modules are indicative of those offered on this course. This listing is based on the current curriculum and may change year to year in response to new curriculum developments and innovation.
What are the institutions that make up the English legal system? Who are the participants in these institutions, and what are their roles? Do these institutions ensure that justice is done in individual cases?
You'll engage with a critical introduction to the main institutions of the English legal system. Explore how these structures and institutions are the result of historically contingent events, and what their limitations are. You'll also learn about legal method. Law, like other disciplines, has its own method which its practitioners apply in their working lives, for example constructing legal arguments based on the reading and interpretation of key texts and sources.
Throughout the module, you'll see how law is an interpretative exercise, and you'll be provided with key skills needed for your legal studies. This includes how to read, understand and summarise a legal case and Acts of Parliament, and how to conduct legal research. You'll complete the module with the fundamentals in legal method and legal skills you will be expected to know and build on for the rest of your degree.
What is law? What is its relationship with society? How does it operate? What is the source of its authority? The ‘common sense’ or ‘liberal’ view of law, often represented by legal institutions and legal actors, is that law is neutral, rational, objective, fair, and independent of political, economic or social imperatives.
In this module you'll learn about this fundamental liberal account of the nature of law. But you'll also learn about alternative ‘critical’ claims about law, which challenge this legal ‘common sense’ by highlighting its contexts, contradictions, omissions and limitations. These critical arguments step outside law’s own, internal viewpoint in order to reveal how its rules, procedures and enforcement are informed and shaped by relationships of power. The module introduces you to the critical legal approach, its methods and the foundational conceptual tools that will underpin your study of law at Kent.
What is the legal structure of the state in the United Kingdom? How is the power of the state encoded? What is the authority of government to act and what are the legal limits on those powers?
You'll gain an understanding of the fundamentals of public law, the key legal concepts deployed in this field and an insight into the procedural requirements that deliver accountability. Engaging in a critical introduction to the key features of the state, you'll learn about the legal powers government exercises. You'll also develop your ability to identify the key concepts of the constitution through your study and analysis of major constitutional cases, academic literature and parliamentary documents. Learning to interpret the open-ended nature of constitutional reasoning in an uncodified constitution, you'll also enhance your ability to critique the reasoning and conclusions of judgments in the cases that you analyse. This will equip you with an understanding of the mechanisms of legal accountability of public bodies and provide you with a repertoire of key legal concepts in the public law domain.
From commonplace, simple transactions, such as purchasing a bus ticket or a chocolate bar from a vending machine, to high-stakes commercial agreements, contracts govern countless interactions. You'll undertake a comprehensive study of the law of contract and its pervasive and essential role in our daily lives. You'll develop knowledge and understanding of the principles and theory of contract law and their application.
This module begins by introducing you to the law of contract, locating it within private law and looking at the historical development and its functions in the modern world. Thereafter, you'll explore the doctrine and problem-solving in contract law by considering the lifecycle of contracts, e.g., the formation of a contract, requirements for its enforceability, its terms and policing of bargaining behaviour, potential performance issues, its subsequent discharge, and remedies. You'll then focus on contract theory (e.g. freedom of contract and its limits), overlaying the doctrine studied with a basic theoretical framework and ground your understanding of contract law and contractual relationships.
Crime. It’s in the news. It’s on our screens. It’s happening all around us, sometimes to us, and sometimes by us. But what makes a crime a crime? As one of the foundations of legal knowledge, you'll master the core principles of criminal law and explore a range of offences tried in our courts on a daily basis. You'll be able to break down offences such as murder and theft into their constituent parts and apply them to an array of factual scenarios. You'll form the analytical skills necessary to advise parties on criminal liability and defences. While applying statutes and case law, you'll effectively communicate cogent arguments both orally and in writing. At the end of this module, you'll be able to evaluate the effectiveness of criminal law in the context of our criminal justice system as a whole and be equipped with the building blocks to analyse and evaluate any criminal offence.
How can insights from other disciplines inform our understanding of law? Building on the knowledge you have gained from Institutions of Justice and Critical Introduction to Law, this module poses different questions about the meanings, presumptions and histories of law, from the perspective of disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, sociology and politics.
Legal theories are systems of ideas or general principles intended to explain something. You'll be introduced to theoretical tools from other disciplines, for example decolonial thought, which attempt to explain aspects of human existence and action, including law. These theories, however, do not take law as their starting point but place it in a broader context. To harness these interdisciplinary theoretical tools, expect a constant engagement with film, poetry, literature and music. We will explore theoretical issues using stories across the world from ancient to modern times and use these insights to consider how law shapes people’s lives. The module aims to stimulate your intellectual curiosity and lay foundations for your study of optional modules in Stages 2 and 3.
What is property? What is the distinct character and effect of property rights compared to contractual and other personal rights? You'll be introduced to the nature of property generally, and then go on to focus on one particular form of property - ‘real’ property, or land, as distinguished from personal property. You'll examine the system of land registration in English law, and how this shapes the ability to enforce interests in land against others.
Various types of interests in land will be studied, to enable you to develop an in-depth understanding of English land law and an ability to apply your knowledge to legal problems relating to interests in land. You'll be encouraged to consider the politics of real property law and the impact of economic logics in this area of law. Exploring how property and land law shape relationships between people, you'll consider challenging subjects such as squatting, leases, and the financing of the family home.
What does it mean to say that someone is ‘negligent’? How do you know when liability for negligence arises? You'll explore in depth tort law’s most important tort: the tort of negligence, looking at its specific elements and legal concepts related to it. You'll develop proficiency in the use of case law-based arguments as a way of determining liability in tort. Through an in-depth focus on modern decided cases you will:
You'll also consider the role played by statutes in tortious liability, including in defences to tort claims, and the liability of occupiers of land, manufacturers and/or publishers. You'll learn how tort protects interests in land and the person.
Explore the relationship between tort law and its social context to explain its shape and contemporary debates about its scope. By observing where the lines of liability are currently drawn, you'll consider what this reveals about private rights and obligations, the balance between responsibility for harm and freedom of action, and access to justice.
What is equity? Does equity still have a role in modern law? What is a trust? How have trusts changed to meet changing social and economic needs? Do equitable doctrines and remedies and trusts law protect the vulnerable or protect the powerful?
Equity is a distinctive legal tradition in common law systems, with its own concepts, techniques, doctrines and remedies. You'll learn about the historical emergence of ‘equity’ rooted in the concept of ‘conscience’ and examine the fate of equity in the English legal system and other common law jurisdictions. You'll discover developments in equitable remedies concerned with remedying unconscionable conduct and abuses of power in private transactions, and the social, political and economic contexts of these developments. Arguably equity’s most important contribution is the trust. You'll learn the anatomy of the trust, how to create valid trusts, the obligations that trustees are subject to, and how these have changed to meet the evolving needs and desires of property owners and markets. In considering these transformations, you'll develop your ability to understand and critically assess the role of equity and trusts in contemporary law and society and reflect on the nature of private law.
How much power does the EU really have over its member states? When national interests and EU law clash, who should ultimately have the final say? You'll be introduced to EU law, by examining its foundational principles, key doctrines, and the institutions that shape its operation. In exploring the core aspects of EU law, you will gain a deeper understanding of:
Through analysing these substantive areas, you'll develop essential skills in applying legal principles, presenting complex arguments effectively, and evaluating the broader social, economic, and legal implications of EU law.
Approximately 75 percent of the world’s legal systems do not belong to the common law tradition but to the civil law tradition, which means that they were shaped not by English law but by Roman law, either directly (e.g.: France, Germany, Spain) or through colonisation (e.g.: Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico). Students aiming to operate on the international scene in whatever capacity are bound to come into contact with the civil law tradition.
You're introduced to the very different ways in which civil law governments, judges, lawyers and law professors think about the law. The materials and coursework are designed for those destined to spend time in a civil law jurisdiction, whether during a year abroad as part of your studies or in your future working life. It is also intended for students enrolling in the module out of an interest in foreign and/or comparative law.
How are work relationships regulated? You will gain a solid understanding of the principles of individual labour law as well as the importance of the employment relationship and the employment contract in the current social, political and economic context. As well as developing a detailed knowledge of fundamental aspects of labour law, you will be introduced to broader conceptual, critical and evaluative perspectives on the labour market and workplace regulation. You will integrate legal analysis and practical legal skills with a contextual and interdisciplinary understanding of debates around labour regulation. Key aspects of the modern employment relationship covered in the module will include the contract of employment (for example, its formation and its content, and the importance of employment status) and statutory employment protections (for example, unfair dismissal and redundancy protection regulations).
How is medical practice and decision-making influenced by bioethics, law and health policy? This module considers the legal regulation of medical practice in its ethical, socio-economic, and historical contexts. It draws on a range of critical, contextual, and interdisciplinary perspectives. You’ll learn about dominant traditions of bioethical theory and the major principles of medical law. Your knowledge and critical legal abilities will develop through discussions of ethical concepts and theories like consequentialism, virtue ethics, altruism, care ethics, deontology, justice, autonomy, beneficence, and non-maleficence. You’ll learn to critically analyse legal, social, and ethical tensions found in issues such as medical malpractice, consent to treatment and capacity, confidentiality, and clinical research. Module content will respond to changes in law, health policy and bioethics and to changes in health care services resulting from, for example, pandemics, NHS resourcing issues, national inquiries, and emerging clinical developments.
Addressing KLS in November 2021, the President of the UK Supreme Court, Lord Reed, identified jurisprudence as one of only three modules necessary for a future-proof law degree. Why? Because jurisprudence is immensely practical. It seeks to understand and consider the internal point of view of judges, practitioners and other legal actors, who want not predictions of the legal claims they will make, but arguments about what the law requires them to do and why. The subject matter is therefore not tort law, or contract, or crime, but law itself, seen from the inside, and located critically in historical and cultural context. In this way, Jurisprudence builds on and draws together all of the core modules, exploring the philosophical reasons why judges disagree within and across judgments. The grasp of the strikingly different and often hidden commitments jurisprudence reveals will benefit you in deeper understanding of your discipline and degree, in your ability to better comprehend legal materials, and in your production of more persuasive legal arguments in education and practice.
Devoted entirely to developing your practical skill in argument, your engagement and practice in this module builds ability and understanding that will benefit you in successful legal professional practice - and across many other areas of employment and everyday activity. Despite frequent mention in educational and employment contexts (where the skill is often tested as part of an interview process), few graduates have received the formal training needed to present knowledgeable, winning argument consistently and with self-belief. You gain a critical edge, empowering you to engage in argument effectively in any situation, both by developing the skill of presenting a compelling case and by sharpening your awareness of when poor or underhand arguments are being used against you, enabling you to call these out wherever they arise. Requiring no previous knowledge of any area of law, you will develop expertise in strategy, logic, fallacy identification and rhetoric from the ground up, in the only pure skills module in the law curriculum.
From war, poverty and genocide to decolonisation, trade and climate change, an understanding of the fundamentals of international law is essential to anyone wishing to make sense of the biggest challenges our world is facing. You'll be led step-by-step through international law’s foundational principles, sources and institutions, as developed, demanded, violated and enforced by states and various non-state actors. The aim is to familiarise you with the distinctive logic of international law – a logic that underpins every one of its specific regimes (such as international humanitarian law, the law of the sea or international investment law) and conditions the response of states, international courts and multilateral institutions to the problems these regimes address. You’ll learn how to apply this logic, bringing international law to bear on real-world politics, economics and history. But we’ll also reverse this relationship, bringing politics, economics and history to bear on international law in order to contextualise and think more critically about a discipline whose benevolence often goes unquestioned. Is international law always ‘part of the solution’, or might it be implicated in the very problems it is called upon to solve?
Why study Animal Law? Animal Law is a fast-developing field of study, scholarship and practice. Studying one of only a few courses if its type currently offered at a UK law school, you'll be introduced to important domestic, European and international legal instruments governing the treatment of non-human animals. You are encouraged to critically assess key theories developed in moral philosophy and ethics that have been a source of inspiration for many animal rights lawyers. You will explore and discuss, through a range of concrete examples, the extent to which ethical, historical, socio-economic, political, religious and other factors have shaped the development of Animal Law in the UK and around the world.
Can justice only be delivered in a court room? Is justice delayed, justice denied? What is the alternative? With an increasing demand on our civil justice system to deliver timely and cost-effective justice, you will evaluate whether there is a more appropriate way of resolving disputes to limit some of the damage caused by choosing only to litigate. You will master the core principles of appropriate dispute resolution (ADR) and using case law, identify how shifting judicial attitudes have led to an alternative to the court room. You will explore how ADR informs our understanding of broader themes of justice and learn how to advise a client as to the merits of ADR. By the end of this module, you will also develop the necessary practical skills to analyse and resolve a dispute through an understanding of various alternative dispute resolution processes such as mediation and negotiation before learning how to conduct a successful arbitration.
Can juries understand complex scientific evidence? A new technique for matching ear prints is developed - who decides when this new technique is sufficiently reliable to be used in court – scientists or judges? Does the CSI Effect really exist?
You will be examining these questions and more during the term, considering how criminal law makes use of science during the trial process. Forensic evidence is a rapidly developing area, new techniques such as digital biometric data are increasingly presented as evidence. This rapid expansion from fingerprints to DNA through to digital data has resulted in forensic evidence becoming increasingly debated in both the media and by the courts – from articles hailing DNA profiling as uncovering miscarriages of justice to those questioning a jury’s ability to understand highly complex scientific evidence.
You will critically investigate how different forms of forensic evidence are used, the reliability of scientific techniques, and their value and place within the criminal justice system. We will develop these ideas through engaging with contemporary issues of forensic evidence, placing them within the wider social and transnational context. This has included studies of the use of facial recognition technology, the idea of the CSI Effect, probabilities in a legal context, and sharing evidence across jurisdictions.
Going abroad as part of your degree is an amazing experience and a chance to develop personally, academically and professionally. You experience a different culture, gain a new academic perspective, establish international contacts and enhance your employability.
You spend a year between Stages 2 and 3 at one of our partner universities, where you are taught in English. For your year abroad, our current destinations include:
These destinations may change and places are subject to availability.
You are expected to adhere to any academic progression requirements in Stages 1 and 2 to proceed to the Year Abroad. If the requirement is not met, you will be transferred to the equivalent three-year course. The Year Abroad is assessed on a pass/fail basis and will not count towards your final degree classification.
Where could you go in a year?
My ‘You only live once’ decision to study in Japan is one of the best I’ve ever made. I had a fantastic year.Cheyenne Nolan Find out more
How does property law respond to new forms and conceptions of property in contemporary society? What do those responses say about property as a legal institution, and the role of power? Building on Property Law you'll look at property in its many different forms. You will be encouraged to question the common-sense understanding of property as privately owned 'things’, which the law merely recognises and protects. You will explore the active, constructive and political role of law in constituting the relationships which make up property in particular historical, philosophical and/or cultural contexts. Each week, you will engage with case studies and theoretical readings from a wide range of topics, such as: claims of ownership of human bodies and bodily materials; the contribution of property law to racialisation and the formation of social identities; the role of property interests in both exacerbating and responding to climate change; and emerging categories of property, including data derived from social media use. By examining how property law responds to developments and innovations in contemporary society, you'll will provide you with the critical thinking skills required for reflective and creative professional practice.
Your lecturers go on strike. Junior doctors stage a walkout. Do they have a legal right to do so? Why? You'll focus on the legal framework on collective bargaining and the right to strike. The Equality Act 2010 provides a legal framework that seeks to protect people from discrimination, including in the workplace. You'll consider how anti-discrimination legislation shapes the employment relationship. You will develop a detailed knowledge of key aspects of collective labour law and anti-discrimination legislation. Develop your capacity to integrate legal analysis and practical legal skills with a contextual and interdisciplinary understanding of human rights and equality regulation at work. You will examine freedom of association, a central feature of human rights and selected aspects of collective labour law such as the role and status of trade unions, the legal regulation of collective bargaining and the regulation of industrial conflict. You will study anti-discrimination legislation, particularly the Equality Act 2010, related to areas such as sex, ethnic origin, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief and age, as well as provisions for reconciling work and family life, such as pregnancy protection and parental leave.
What is the purpose of banking law? Why are banks subject to distinct forms of regulatory supervision? You will learn about UK banking law and about the broader social, economic, and political issues and controversies that have surrounded banking in the years since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. You will appraise and analyse the role of banks in money creation. You will explore the relationship between banks and the UK’s banking regulators, including the Bank of England. You will learn about the bank-customer relationship, the role of banks in the payments system and the anti-money laundering regime with which banks must comply. You will explore the lending of money by banks to their customers and the security taken for the loans granted. Throughout this module, you will be encouraged to consider and evaluate the tensions and controversies that banks and banking regulators face as they pursue their sometimes complementary, sometimes conflicting objectives.
How and why do states use law to regulate international trade and investment? How can international economic disputes be resolved? What are the implications for corporations and individuals? How have the answers to these questions changed over time?
You'll use a critical sociolegal approach to systematically explore the legal texts, social contexts and moral subtexts that make up international economic law. Focus is on trade and investment as two core economic activities, on multinational corporations and states as key actors and on regulatory systems such as contracts and treaties, including treaty-based international organisations such as the World Trade Organisation. You will explore the interplay between economic principles and international law principles, in times of calm and in times of crisis. You will engage with podcasts and films to bring to life multiple perspectives from, for example, the public, private, and third sectors; the relatively poor and relatively rich; and from local, national, regional and global levels.
When you bake a cake, you need a list of ingredients and a recipe. Imagine the adversarial trial is a cake. If the substantive law provides the ingredients, then it is the law of evidence that provides the recipe and teaches you how to bake.
You will be asked to think like a lawyer. You will develop skills in inferential reasoning and apply them to various scenarios. You will be able to assess whether certain pieces of evidence have relevance, sufficient weight and probative value that outweighs prejudicial effect. You will be able to apply various exclusionary rules and discretions, whilst also critically examining these rules in their social and political contexts.
Armed with the knowledge and skills obtained in this module, you will be in a great position not only to undertake the first steps towards qualifying as a barrister or solicitor, but also have the skills to be able logically and coherently analyse, reason and argue in all sorts of other contexts. The law of evidence is a compulsory subject for both the SQE and BSB (Bar Standards Board) Central examinations.
What other topic in the study of law can boast of being as inevitable as death? Tax law pervades the world of business and also has a major impact on decisions taken in the private sphere. It is highly political, having vastly greater redistributive effects than almost any other direct exercise of the power of the state. But it is not about numbers or computations. It is about questions of legal doctrine, the structure and meaning of people's dealings with each other and (putting the two together, as with other areas of law) the application of the law to the facts.
You will become familiar with several major topics in tax law, such as the taxation of business profits, the taxation of employment income, the taxation of capital gains and VAT. You will explore important questions of principle and you will consider the policy debates that arise from them. Underpinning it all it, you will acquire some of the insights that the study of tax law provides into the seemingly unending three-way struggle between human populations, privately held wealth and the coercive power of the state.
How does law institute and regulate material spaces? How do spatial configurations intersect with law? In this interdisciplinary module you will examine how the understanding of law, regulation and policy can be improved by studying the spaces and spatial orders that the law institutes and regulates, as well as the ways in which spatial configurations generate materialisations of and resistances to law. You'll draw from urban planning, urban law, architecture, urban governance, socio-legal and critical legal studies, legal geography, and spatial approaches across disciplines.
Case studies may include: prisons, ghettos, slums, social housing, homelessness, refugee camps, immigration detention facilities, modern, future, utopian cities, street art, activism and occupations, digital and virtual spaces, ecocide and the protection of oceans, coastlines, and forests, the availability and uses of public spaces and non-western cultures of spatial relations. Drawing on contemporary events and examples and methods from the social sciences and the humanities you will be introduced to dominant paradigms of understanding the intersection of law, space and power, and consider ways in which they can be challenged.
We live in an era when legal decision-making seems both increasingly influenced and increasingly challenged, by science and technology. How can we make sense of the relationships between law and the fast-changing world of science and technology? How do we pay attention to the risks, inequalities, and injustices that may be produced when states uncritically use new technologies, or fail to acknowledge the inherent limitations, or blind spots, of global scientific knowledge? You'll be introduced to several interrelated fields including law, socio-legal studies, Science and Technology Studies (STS), anthropology and sociology, to think about these questions. You will critically engage with contemporary examples such as public health regulations; climate change; law and scientific expertise; the regulation of reproductive technologies; science in the courtroom; and the use of technologies in legal decision-making. You will use the literature to not only frame debates but to find ways of challenging the dominant paradigms through which the relationship between law and scientific knowledge tends to be understood. Cross-cutting themes for the module will include: legal decision-making and scientific uncertainty; the role of expertise in legal decision-making; the interface between law, power and technoscience; notions of objectivity and truth both in law and science; global science, postcolonialism and global inequalities.
The day you have been dreading for two years has arrived. You always knew that you would have to go to court and tell them what happened. You’re scared, you’re young, you have a disability and you can’t communicate well. You are vulnerable. How will the court hear your evidence? Will the cross-examination be ‘like a wounded animal being tortured in court’? Who are you? Are you the victim or are you the defendant?
You will examine what it means to be a vulnerable person in the criminal trial. You will critically evaluate the laws and processes that exist to help vulnerable witnesses give the best evidence they can. You will appraise the role of different stakeholders, whether that be the defence advocate cross-examining, the judge ruling in a ‘ground rules’ hearing or an intermediary advising the court on what measures a witness or defendant needs.
You will consider the debates surrounding rape myths and sexual offence trial reforms. You will gain an understanding of how young offenders are treated in the criminal justice system, and whether their vulnerabilities are taken into account. You will examine these debates from a range of different perspectives.
Privacy, Data Protection and Cyber Law raised detailed questions which you have the opportunity to explore. These may include questions such as: Is privacy furthered or reduced by developments in AI and the metaverse? Who benefits from data generated in smart homes and how and where is it regulated?
You will build on the understanding developed in Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity Law, which introduces you to the key concepts and issues in the regulatory framework governing privacy, data protection and developments in cyber-crime and cyber security. You will engage in far more in-depth, critical enquiry and insight in the subject area using current issues and case studies as a platform for developing more specialist knowledge and ideas.
You will be adopting a research and scholarship led approach allowing you to make a more tightly focused analysis of emerging current issues in the area of data and cyber law than is possible in the earlier Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity Law module.
The specific topics considered will be revised annually to engage with current issues in data protection and cyber law, for example transnational cyber crime, developments in AI and data in a world of constantly emerging technology.
What is the interrelationship between political theory and law in our times? Drawing upon a broad range of political theory, you will explore key concepts of political relevance to law, such as: sovereignty, power, community, the subject and resistance. You will build a solid understanding of political theory in relation to these key concepts and then use this understanding to examine contemporary political and juridical questions, such as those of: democracy and citizenship, multiculturalism, bio-politics, secularism, terrorism, post-colonialism and contemporary formations of Empire. In so doing, you will gain the intellectual tools necessary to apply insights from political theory and philosophy to the study of law and its relevant problems.
Why is music as an art form controlled and occasionally criminalised by the state? What are the potential implications for artistic expression and cultural freedom within society? You will approach the relationship between music and law from two main points of view: one theoretical, and the other critical and sociological. You will first explore how music and the soundscape have been theorised as a specific legal and political problem in the field of Law and the Humanities. Drawing on these theoretical principles, you will go on to examine state intervention in censoring or controlling music and the attempt at criminalising specific genres of music. A specific focus will be the use of rap music in criminal trials in the UK and US, and the use of lawsuits as a weapon to criminalise heavy metal bands.
Millions of people have been forced to cross the borders of their home state and seek asylum. How do legal systems (national and international) provide or deny protection to asylum seekers and refugees and why? In this module you will engage critically with the matter of asylum and refugeehood in both a national and international context. You will be introduced to the sources of asylum and refugee law and a critical consideration of the relevant case law in the UK and internationally. You will employ interdisciplinary material to aid understanding and reflection on the historical and socio-cultural evolution of the governance and regulation of asylum and refugee subjects. In addition, you will devote critical attention to key contemporary problems in asylum and refugee law, and refugee studies more broadly, including current national and international developments and scholarly and practitioner reflections in the field.
You'll have already considered questions about the applicability of bioethical theories and concepts to legal decision-making and health care policy in your studies. Now you have the opportunity to explore and deepen your knowledge and critical legal abilities by exploring further questions such as how advances in genetic medicine challenge assisted reproductive regulation and the delivery of personalised medicine and whether social and ethical values about assisted dying, abortion, and public versus private medicine should be drivers for legal and regulatory change. You will build on the understanding developed in Law and Medical Ethics. You will engage in more in-depth and critical enquiry and will gain greater insight into bioethical, clinical, and legal tensions by examining current issues, regulatory developments, and case studies as a platform for developing specialist knowledge, ideas, and awareness. You will be adopting a research and scholarship led approach allowing you to make a more sustained, critical, and directed analysis of emerging issues in bioethics, health policy and medical law, such as pandemics, developments in genetics, xenotransplantation and the effects of ableism and structural racism.
When is a wedding a legal marriage? How does the law define domestic abuse? When can the state remove children from their parents’ care? Why is someone considered a legal parent in the first place?
You will consider these questions and more by learning about how law interacts with important aspects of personal life in the legal construction of families and responses to family problems. English family law is an exciting and fast-paced area of law. Many issues have undergone significant reform in recent years (marriage, civil partnerships, domestic abuse, child protection, adoption, divorce, child arrangements) and/or are currently the subject of major debates or reform proposals (cohabitation, weddings law, surrogacy, financial separation, child arrangements – again!). You will not only learn about what the law is, but also examine its underpinning policies and the socio-political context in which it operates.
Recurring themes and concepts will run throughout, such as the role of state intervention versus private ordering; individual or family autonomy; equality, rights and responsibilities within families; the priority and meaning given to child welfare; and strong norms and expectations attaching to gender, biology and heterosexual relationships. The extent to which English family law is inclusive of minority or disadvantaged groups in society will also be examined.
Teaching and assessment
Kent Law School emphasises research-led teaching, which means that the modules taught are at the leading edge of new legal and policy developments.
Through diverse and timely assessments tailored to each course level, we aim to support the development and demonstration of legal knowledge, critical approaches, and both general and legal skills. Our progressive assessment approach builds and connects knowledge, providing constructive and timely feedback to enhance student learning throughout the course.
Assessment can also incorporate assessment through oral presentation and argument, often in the style of legal practice (such as mooting), and client-based work and reflection through our Law Clinic.
As well as scheduled teaching hours, students in Kent Law School are expected to do an amount of independent study. For a student studying full time, each academic year of the course includes approximately 1200 learning hours. Our popular mooting programme develops your advocacy skills in a simulated courtroom setting before a bench comprising local judges, practising barristers, solicitors and lecturers.
For course aims and learning outcomes, including for Joint Honours courses and for Law with a Foundation Year, please see the course specification.
The University has an excellent employment record, with Kent Law School graduates commanding some of the highest starting salaries in the UK. Law graduates can go into a variety of careers, including:
Our degree course contains the foundations of legal knowledge required by the Bar Standards Board to satisfy the academic component of professional training for intending barristers. They also provide a strong foundation for students who wish to take the Solicitors Qualifying Examinations (SQE).
*The Government announced on 4 November 2024 that tuition fees in England for Home students will increase to £9,535 from £9,250 for the academic year 2025/26. This increase requires Parliamentary approval, which is expected to be given in early/mid 2025.
Tuition fees may be increased in the second and subsequent years of your course. Detailed information on possible future increases in tuition fees is contained in the Tuition Fees Increase Policy.
The University will assess your fee status as part of the application process. If you are uncertain about your fee status you may wish to seek advice from UKCISA before applying.
For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide.
Fees for undergraduate students are £1,900.
Fees for undergraduate students are £1,430.
Students studying abroad for less than one academic year will pay full fees according to their fee status.
This course includes a year studying abroad. Please see Kent’s Go Abroad webpages on costs and funding for more information.
Students may be required to visit a local court as part of their studies. Costs (if any) would relate to travel to and from a local court.
You will require regular access to a desktop computer/laptop with an internet connection to use the University of Kent’s online resources and systems. Please see information about the minimum computer requirements for study.
Find out more about accommodation and living costs, plus general additional costs that you may pay when studying at Kent.
Kent offers generous financial support schemes to assist eligible undergraduate students during their studies. See our funding page for more details.
We have a range of subject-specific awards and scholarships for academic, sporting and musical achievement.
Next steps
Any applicant to Law (this includes all Law programmes, including all joint programmes) who is currently studying or has previously studied Law at university level, even if the qualification was only partly completed or is incomplete, must state this clearly in the qualifications section of the UCAS form, and provide transcripts detailing this study direct to the University where available.
If you are from the UK or Ireland, you must apply for this course through UCAS. If you are not from the UK or Ireland, you can choose to apply through UCAS or directly on our website.
We welcome applications from students all around the world with a wide range of international qualifications.
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