Criminal Law I Course Descriptor

Course Overview

The Criminal Law course seeks to teach both a selection of significant parts of the substantive criminal law, and the principles that underpin criminalisation. The course will explore the doctrine of criminal law and its justification and criticism.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies. 

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Interactive lectures/seminars

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

• Version 1:all sessions in the same sized group

OR 

• Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups. 

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE.

Summative Assessments

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Ashworth A, and Redmayne M, The Criminal Process (OUP)
• Ashworth A, Principles of Criminal law (Oxford)
• Child J and Ormerod D, Smith & Hogan’s Essentials of Criminal Law (OUP)
• Cook K, James M, and Lee R, Core Statutes on Criminal Law 2015- 2016 (Palgrave)
• Herring J, Criminal Law: Text, Cases and Materials (OUP)
•  Horder J, Ashworth’s Principles of Criminal Law (OUP)
• Jefferson M, Criminal Law (Pearson)
• Martin J, and Storey T, Unlocking Criminal Law (Routledge)
• Ormerod D, and Laird K, Smith & Hogan’s Criminal Law (OUP)
• Ormerod D, and Laird K, Smith & Hogan’s Text, Cases and Materials on Criminal Law (OUP)
• Wilson, W, Criminal Law (Pearson)
• Journals: The Criminal Law Review, The Journal of Criminal Law, Law Quarterly Review, Modern Law Review, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, The Cambridge Law Journal
• Media Sources: Students are encouraged to monitor news sources for issues of relevance, notably The Times Law Section and its new daily email service The Brief, available here: http://thetimes.co.uk/thebrief/signup/
• Electronic Resources: Westlaw, LexisNexis, Other Electronic Resource

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below are used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Theoretical Framework
• Principles of criminalisation
• Elements of a crime: mens rea and actus reus
• Liability without fault, strict liability
• Fatal offences
• Non-fatal offences against the person
• Sexual offences
• Theft and related offences
• Criminal damage
• Inchoate liability
• Complicity
• Defences: affirmative, failure of proof