FACULTY OF LAWS
Title & Code of
Course Unit
Course Unit
Module Unit Report Form
LAWS2004: Jurisprudence and Legal Theory
1.0
Year
Course
Convenor
Number
Enrolled on
Course
Average Mark
Gained
Standard
Deviation
Minimum Mark
2013/14
Maximum Mark
73
Median
65.0
John Tasioulas (2014), George Letsas (2015)
152
64.5
5.2
28
Module Statistics
Number of
Students
Marks
Percentage
Number
80-100
0.0 %
0
70-79
14.5 %
22
60-69
75.7 %
115
50-59
6.6 %
10
40-49
1.3 %
2
35-39
0.0 %
0
30-34
0.0 %
0
20-29
0.7 %
1
0-19
0.0 %
0
Absent
0.0 %
0
Irregular
0.0 %
0
Not Completed
1.3 %
2
Withheld
0.0 %
0
A Course Organizer’s Report (quality of student work, pace and content, appropriateness of teaching methods and effects of any action(s)
taken to resolve past problems)
The course is divided in three parts: (i) General Part, taught in lectures & small group seminars, (ii) Big Book, taught in
small seminar groups and (iii) Special Topic, taught in small seminar groups. The first two parts are assessed by exams
(50%) and the third part by essay (50%). Students performed well on average, at 64.5%. There was however a sense that
st
they were asked to cover too much content in Part A (1 term) and that the seminars were not enough to support the
lectures or the Big Book. By contrast, students did very well in the Special Topic essays, producing some excellent quality
work. The Jurisprudence team reflected on the course structure and decided to simplify it for next year (2014-15). Part A
was simplified, to focus mainly on theories about the nature of law (Bentham, Austin, Hart, Dworkin, Finnis) and specific
legal topics or areas of law (precedent, international law and human rights) and not covering political philosophy (as in
previous years). There is no special topic any more, and student are to write their essay on the Big Book. Seminars for
Part A have increased from 4 to 5 and Big Book seminars have increased from 3 to 4.
An issue arose during the examination. Questions for 2 (out of 12) big book groups were left out of the Exam Paper. This
affected 16 students approximately who could not answer a 3rd question as required. An effort was made to find or set the
questions during the exam but was unsuccessful. Some of the students affected answered a third question of their own
and others only answered two. After the exam, the course convenor (John Tasioulas) set new questions for the two Big
Book groups affected and the students took an additional exam, for 1 hour, on a later date. Following extensive
deliberation amongst the teaching staff, the Faculty Tutor and the Faculty office, every effort was made so as not to
disadvantage any student as a result of this issue. Wherever students had given two answers on the same big book, the
higher mark was taken into account. Action taken: With a view to minimize the possibility of similar problems in the future,
arising out of the fact that there 12 different teachers involved in the Big Book, the teaching team decided to change the
assessment of the course and have the big book assessed by essay, as opposed to exam. This was also taken to be a
more appropriate was of assessing the Big Book, since students will spend 4 seminars on it,
B Any Learning Resources problems (e.g quality of lecture or tutorial rooms)
Lecture-casts were not available last year. They will be introduced this year.
C Issues Identified by Students (from questionnaires, staff-student committee etc.) and Action Taken or Planned
Students identified the following issues: 1) Part A has too much content, is too diverse and too advanced 2) Different
Seminar groups on Part A focus on different parts of the lectures 3) There is no lecturecast for Part A 4) Insufficient
seminars on the Big Book and 5) Not enough guidance on the essay for the special topic.
The jurisprudence team met to address these issue over the summer. We have taken the following action for 2014-15:
1) Part A has been simplified, focusing mainly on theories about the nature of law (Bentham, Austin, Hart, Dworkin,
Finnis) and specific legal topics or areas of law (precedent, international law and human rights) and not covering
political philosophy (as in previous years). The structure of the course also changed. There is no special topic any
more, and student are to write their essay on the Big Book
2) All Seminar groups for Part A, follow the same handout and there are not disparities on what they cover.
3) Lectures are recorded and made available to students
4) Big Book seminars have increased from 3 to 4.
5) Students are to submit essay plan plus bibliography for their essay and to receive feedback on it.
D Issues Identified by Visiting Examiners and Action Taken or Planned
The External Examiner provided helpful comments on how to address the issue that arose during the examination (see
section A).
E Vice-Dean for Taught Programmes’ Comments and Action Taken or Planned