Course Code : LAW 402
Course Title : Family Law
Weekly Teaching Hour: 2-hours lecture per week, 1 (1-hour) tutorial every week
Who may enrol : Compulsory course for year 4 (Senior) LLB students
Prerequisites : Previously studied and passed a Laws course
Lecturer : To be announced on August 2020
Description : A course which studies the legal constitution and regulation of personal relationships, as well as how that regulation affects individuals’ relationships with the state.
In this course you will study the legal constitution and regulation of personal relationships, and how that regulation affects individuals’ relationships with each other and with the state. We look at the problems people encounter in those relationships and the legal responses to those problems. We are as concerned with what actually happens in practice and the policy behind it as with the law as stated in the books.
We will explore law’s role in constituting, regulating and dissolving family relationships, including those between adults, between adults and children and between families and state institutions. You will be asked to think about financial issues, family violence and the care of children.
We will look at families and family law in their social and cultural contexts. We consider not just what the law is but why it is what it is and what significance, if any, attaches to this.
This course should engage you with current controversy and give you an insight into state policy, the position of women and children and the state of the contemporary family.
Recommended Textbook (s) and Supplementary Books :
- J Miles, R George and S Harris-Short, Family Law: Text, Cases and Materials (OUP, 2019) and
- J Herring, Family Law (Longman, 2017).
- Family Law: Textbook, 17th Revised edition, by Malcolm Dodds (Editor), HLT Publications; ISBN-10: 0751005398, ISBN-13: 978-0751005394
- To get to grips with the social and policy implications of the subject, though, you’ll be directed also to a range of reading beyond cases and textbooks.
Course Assessment:
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Class Participation 10%,
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Mid-term Examination 30%, 30% Coursework 2,000 words
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Assignments 10%, 2 x formative essays
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Final Examination 50%, 70% Take-home exam 72 hours, 3,000 words),
Attendance 95 % compulsory.