Module LAW3171 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
LAW3171: Human Rights and Human Dignity
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
The module's aim is to take you 'behind the scenes' of the development of a new area of legal knowledge, and give you the opportunity to develop familiarity with some of the methodological and theoretical issues involved in the construction of a new legal concept by scholars and judges. The module focuses on key issues raised in the international discussion on human dignity so as to anchor your reflection in a set of examples, while providing you with a range of specific issues illustrating this concept’s actual and potential uses in law.
The module is suitable for students interested in constitutional law, human rights law, comparative law, legal theory and critical thinking. By engaging you with methodological issues and discussing the apparent paradoxes and difficulties of the concept of dignity, the module is also suitable for students who aspire to practise law, especially in the area of human rights.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Demonstrate detailed knowledge of the selected issues on human dignity considered in the module and a substantial range of major concepts, values and principles relevant to its application; 2. Demonstrate critical awareness of methodological dimensions of the study of human dignity as a legal concept; 3. Demonstrate critical awareness of a wide range of legal, political, social and contextual implications of the areas of human dignity studied; |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 4. Define complex legal problems, identify their relative significance and select appropriate methods for investigating and critically evaluating them; 5. Integrate and assess information from primary and secondary legal sources using appropriate interpretative techniques; |
| Personal and Key Skills | 6. Manage relevant learning resources and to develop own arguments and opinions with minimum guidance; 7. Work independently and to manage time efficiently in preparing for scheduled learning activities and assessments. |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
- Introduction to the concept of human dignity: Historical and philosophical origins, post-1945 context, key questions and problems
- Human dignity and human rights: human dignity as foundation of human rights, selected jurisdictions (e.g. Germany, ECHR, EU and UK), significance of human dignity as foundation of human rights; unresolved questions
- Specific human dignity and human rights tensions and synergies, e.g. human dignity and equality, human dignity and privacy – human dignity and life – human dignity and prohibition of torture
- Human dignity conumdrums, crises and potentials, e.g. human dignity v autonomy; ‘illiberal’ models of human dignity; human dignity, time and environmental justice; dignity of the non-humans.
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 28.5 | 121.5 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 22 | 11 x 2 hour lectures |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 4.5 | 3 x 1.5 hour workshops |
| Guided Independent Study | 48 | Study group for lecture preparation and work |
| Guided independent study | 18 | Workshop Preparation |
| Guided independent study | 55.5 | Independent reading and research |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
