Foundation law units

Foundation law units run alongside the postgraduate taught programmes as either optional or mandatory units. These are available for students who have not previously studied in a common law jurisdiction.

There are seven foundation law units in total:

• Constitutional and Substantive EU Law
• Criminal Law and Criminal Justice
• Law of Contract
• Law of Tort
• Trusts
• Land Law
• Public Law

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LLM

Dependent on your circumstances, when studying an LLM programme it may be recommended to take a foundation unit. Only one foundation unit can be taken and it is taken instead of a specialist unit; therefore one foundation unit and three specialist units will be taken as opposed to four specialist units. Students who have studied in a common law jurisdiction cannot take a foundation unit; it is required they take four specialist LLM Units.

If you are applying for an LLM programme, you may or may not have to take a foundation unit depending on your circumstances:

Students from non-common law background

This includes students who have been educated in, for example, a society with a civil law system. Some of these students will want to study units with a strong English common law element (ie most commercial law options). Others will want to study, for example, public international law or European law. If you are a student from this legal background and want to study units with a strong English common law element, you are strongly recommended to choose one foundation unit as an option.

Students from a non-English law common law background

You cannot take a foundation unit as an option.

Students with a qualifying English law degree

You cannot take a foundation unit as an option.

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MA Law

When studying MA Law, students will take seven foundation law units as part of the course structure, regardless of academic background. Four foundation units are taken in first year, and three more in second.