BA (Hons) Business Law

Most modules in the first and second year of this Business Law course are taught by way of two one hour lectures per week and one tutorial per fortnight. Honours modules are often taught through attendance at one two hour seminar per week. Tutorial questions are discussed with tutors at regular intervals and contain a mix of problem and essay type questions. You will be encouraged to develop techniques to tackle answering problem questions using the law and ensuring proper citation of the law is given e.g., cases and legislation. During tutorials you will be encouraged to participate in discussions and work with your classmates to investigate the subject further.

There is an emphasis on writing skills and you will learn to be able to read and write about the law through your degree. You will be able to develop your research skills and learn how to properly reference and cite the law to support your arguments. This will culminate in your writing a 10,000 word law dissertation in your final year.

Often, there is presentation work either individually or in a group, assessed or unassessed. This helps develop communication skills, team working and organisational skills and encourages active learning. The role of feedback in learning cannot be underestimated so there will be extensive feedback given on all assessed work as well as feedback given by tutors for Practice questions submitted in tutorial, or there can be peer feedback too.

You will be assessed for each module taken throughout your degree. To cater for all learning types, we have various formats on offer per module throughout your degree such as:

• essays
• end of term exams
• class tests
• multiple choice tests
• online tests

A common format is an essay forming a part of your overall grade with an end of term exam. In some Honours modules, coursework forms a more significant part of the assessment weighting. Some areas of the law lend themselves better to one particular format or another.

You will specialise in law but the University’s modular system allows you in addition to dip into other areas of study for your first two years such as languages, management, economics, criminology, psychology, politics, the environment and much more before concentrating on law honours modules in 3rd and 4th year. This gives our BA students the great advantage of a diverse and varied education and the ability to place legal studies in a wider social or business context.

Study with the people who have written the books: The law modules have been designed by staff who publish and research in key areas linked to the module. Develop your research potential with our excellent research staff: the course offers a wide range of Honours options in Years 3 and 4 too and these are taught by staff who are experts in their field. You will often use their original research in your own research into subjects as diverse as intellectual property law,  environmental law, commercial arbitration, labour law, energy law, competition law, European law and private international law.

There are wide and varied teaching methods used on this Programme from group work, presentations, academic poster presentations as well as the usual lectures and seminar format. We try to ensure that we have guest speakers and lecturers every semester on relevant topics and we also have annual careers events for our Law students.

The culmination of your Honours degree is the dissertation process in the final year which allows you to get your teeth into a topical subject in law and to develop your own research skills even further. We have supervised dissertations in a wide range of subjects from banking crises to fathers’ rights concerning child residence to the legality of mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations and all points in between.

There are various Work Placement modules offered across the University available to take as options throughout your degree. In particular, the Law School offers a Work Placement Module in 3rd and 4th year where you are placed with an employer in the legal field for 30 hours of work experience. The employers we have worked with in the past include  Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, Virgin Money, Standard Life, Scottish Power, Scottish Children’s Reporter, the Equality Council, Glasgow City Council, CAB Grangemouth, CAB Stirling, Central Scotland Regional Equality Council (CSREC), Yeghoya & Jacula (Ontario, Canada), and several legal firms. Assessment is by way of a presentation and a piece of reflective writing.

The University’s Study Abroad schemes are available in 3rd year. The opportunities to study abroad are optional.  Students can apply to study at any of our partner universities in various parts of the world including the United States and Canada.

Dr Pontian Okoli, Course Director