Undergraduate Module Descriptor

LAW1035: Constitutional and Administrative Law

This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.

Module Aims

This module aims to enable you to develop:

  • An understanding of the concepts, traditions and principles underpinning the constitution of the UK.
  • An understanding of the main recent constitutional reforms of the United Kingdom constitution, especially in relation to Europe, devolution, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.
  • An understanding of the nature, basis and continuing development of judicial review in the United Kingdom.
  • An ability to analyse the links between public law and the exercise of political and judicial power.
  • An ability to begin to use, analyse and critique materials and texts.
  • An ability to articulate and discuss issues relating to public law.

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 Skills1. demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the law, institutions and procedures covered on the module, using appropriate concepts, interpretative techniques and terminology;
2. identify and analyse (with guidance) the general concepts and principles relating to constitutional and administrative law, together with related theories and academic commentary;
3. research a legal question and demonstrate competence in applying constitutional and administrative law in order to formulate and evaluate a response to it;
4. demonstrate competent understanding of some of the relevant legal practice, social, economic, political, historical, philosophical, ethical and cultural contexts within which constitutional and administrative law operate;
Discipline-Specific Skills5. demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a range of legal rules, concepts, values and principles, and the ability to explain and discuss the relationships among them;
6. make an informed judgement about the merits and relevance of particular information and make reasoned choices between alternative solutions or arguments;
7. communicate technical legal information and argument effectively and concisely, orally and in writing, in a manner appropriate to the discipline;
Personal and Key Skills8. take responsibility for own learning (with support), and to work effectively with others within a group, meeting obligations to the other members of the group;
9. identify, retrieve and use efficiently a range of library-based and electronic resources with some guidance;
10. manage time efficiently in preparing for learning activities, and to work independently within a limited time frame, to complete a specified task.

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.

Mark Elliott  and Robert Thomas, Public Law (OUP, 2014)


You are expected to keep up to date with topical events. This is best done by reading newspapers such as The Times or The Independent. You may also find recent and current editions of specialist journals, such as Public Law and Modern Law Review which are available in the Law Library, useful for this purpose.