LL409E Half Unit
Comparative Constitutional Rights
This information is for the 2020/21 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr Kai Moller NAB7.01
Availability
This course is available on the Executive LLM. This course is not available as an outside option.
Available to Executive LLM students only. This course will be offered on the Executive LLM during the four year degree period. The Department of Law will not offer all Executive LLM courses every year, although some of the more popular courses may be offered in each year, or more than once each year. Please note that whilst it is the Department of Law's intention to offer all Executive LLM courses, its ability to do so will depend on the availability of the staff member in question. For more information please refer to the Department of Law website.
Course content
This course examines a range of controversial issues in human and constitutional rights law from a comparative perspective. These include: Abortion; 'Deviant' Sex: Sodomy, Sado-Masochistic Sex, and Incest; Same-Sex Marriage; Religion in the Public Sphere; Hate Speech and Denial of the Holocaust; Obscenity. We will approach them by comparing and contrasting judgments from courts all over the world, with an emphasis on cases from the U.S. Supreme Court, the Canadian Supreme Court, the South African Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights, the U.K. Supreme Court, and the German Federal Constitutional Court. The goals of the course are, first, to introduce the students to the jurisprudence of those extremely powerful and influential courts, and, second, to invite them to think about and critically analyse some of the most controversial, difficult, and important rights issues of our time.
Teaching
24-26 hours of contact time.
Formative coursework
Students will have the option of producing a formative exam question of 2000 words to be delivered one month from the end of the module’s teaching session by email.
Indicative reading
The course is mainly case-based; however, interested students may find the following book helpful: V Jackson and M Tushnet, Comparative Constitutional Law, 3rd edition, 2014.
Assessment
Assessment path 1
Essay (100%, 8000 words).
Assessment path 2
Take-home assessment (100%).
Important information in response to COVID-19
Please note that during 2020/21 academic year some variation to teaching and learning activities may be required to respond to changes in public health advice and/or to account for the situation of students in attendance on campus and those studying online during the early part of the academic year. For assessment, this may involve changes to mode of delivery and/or the format or weighting of assessments. Changes will only be made if required and students will be notified about any changes to teaching or assessment plans at the earliest opportunity.
Key facts
Department: Law
Total students 2019/20: Unavailable
Average class size 2019/20: Unavailable
Controlled access 2019/20: No
Value: Half Unit
Personal development skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills
