Postgraduate Module Descriptor

LAWM089: Consumer Protection

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

The module aims to provide a critical understanding of the goals and instruments of consumer law, the emergence (and the tensions) of this ‘Europeanised’ regime, an overview of the realignment initiatives in this area and a deeper understanding of the enforcement issues (public and private as well as resort to ADR and ODR). The module aims to enable students to understand, assess and critically address the issues at stake in this area.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. demonstrate deep, systematic and critical understanding of the role, aims and underlying principles of Consumer law; 2. demonstrate detailed knowledge and understanding of the goals and instruments of Consumer law; 3. identify, explain, assess and analyse issues arising in the areas of Consumer law and identify and apply relevant legal rules and theories to those issues.
Discipline-Specific Skills	4. demonstrate a high level of ability in selecting, integrating and presenting, coherently and reflectively, relevant law and legal/theoretical arguments; 5. demonstrate a high level of ability in integrating and assessing information from a wide variety of primary and secondary legal sources, using this to produce reasoned arguments and analysis in relation to legal issues.
Personal and Key Skills	6. demonstrate effective, confident and autonomous ability to manage relevant learning resources/ information/ learning strategies, and develop your own reasoned arguments and opinions; and 7. communicate and engage in debate effectively and accurately, in a manner appropriate to the discipline and context.

How this Module is Assessed

In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.

Formative Assessment

A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay (case note)	2,500 words	1-7	Written and oral

Summative Assessment

A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
90	0	10

...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay	90	4,500 words	1-7	Written
Participation	10	Submitting a substantive contribution on the discussion forum or in the consumer news section on at least 5 separate occasions (in different teaching weeks, on different discussion topics) further guidance as to what constitutes substantive will be provided to students at the beginning of the module.	1-7	Written

Re-assessment

Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Essay	Essay (4,500 words)	1-7	August/September re-assessment period
Participation	Written comment on a recent development in consumer law (500 words)	1-7	August/September re-assessment period

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Basic reading:

For each week, a reading list is posted on ELE indicating the mandatory and recommended reading materials, which may be looked up either in the CURIA database (see link below) or through the University of Exeter Library databases.

Further, these textbooks may provide students with some general knowledge on consumer protection:

T Wilhelmsson & G Howells, Consumer Law (Edward Elgar 2019)

Ch Twigg-Flesner, Research Handbook on EU Consumer and Contract Law (Edward Elgar 2016)

N Reich et al, European Consumer Law (2nd ed, Intersentia 2014)

S Weatherill, EU Consumer Law and Policy (2^nd ed, Edward Elgar 2014)

I Ramsay, Consumer Law and Policy (3 rd Ed, Hart 2012);