Module Information
Course Delivery
| Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
|---|---|
| Lecture | 46 x 1 Hour Lectures |
| Seminar | 8 x 1 Hour Seminars |
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Exam | 2 Hours Exam Students are allowed the use of statute book | 65% |
| Semester Assessment | Statement of argument 2500 words in semester 1 | 35% |
| Supplementary Exam | 2 Hours Exam Students are allowed the use of statute book | 65% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Statement of argument 2500 words- if essay element failed | 35% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
1. Be able to explain the legal principles relating to land law.
2. Be able to analyse factual scenarios relating to land law and apply the principles of law to those scenarios.
3. Show evidence of having completed legal research in order to engage with legal debates and social and other responses to issues of land law from local, national and international perspectives and to recognise the impact of political, media and popular opinion on the law.
4. Show evidence of an ability to analyse a diverse range of legal materials and scholarly legal works and to integrate them to form new perspectives, theories or solutions to legal problems.
5. Show evidence of being able to assimilate information and to organise information in a way that indicates an awareness of the arguments in favour and against a proposition, and to be able to use those arguments in order to reason a conclusion and to justify how that conclusion was arrived at.
6. Be able to communicate results (orally and in writing) concisely and effectively at an academic level in English and/or Welsh using the relevant legal terminology correctly.
7. Be able to apply knowledge to the resolution of theoretical and practical problems.
Brief description
Land is a valuable commodity. Those who own land wish to retain it. Those who do not own land wish to acquire it. The law that regulates these relationships is land law. People who buy and own homes are governed by land law, as are people who rent houses and flats. People who make use of utilities such as gas, electricity and water are governed by land law. The theatre-goer and the football spectator are governed by land law, as are banks and building societies, married and unmarried couples and owners of towel rails, inquisitive horses and gate-posts in the shape of lions. Even the continued greenness of a square of land outside the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square in London is governed by land law. Accordingly, this module will include considerations such as what is land, what are the concerns of land law, and how rights and interests pertaining to land may be acquired, retained or lost.
Aims
The aim of this module is to introduce students to the principles governing the acquisition and retention of rights over land. The aim of the module is therefore to explain how an agreement made between one person and another becomes an agreement that confers a benefit or an obligation not on an individual but on a person in his or her capacity as the proprietor of an estate in land. Accordingly, that which is achieved between two individuals under the law of contract is reformulated in land law to create rights and obligations that may span the generations. This module therefore aims to introduce students to the concept of land, and the acquisition and formalisation of rights pertaining to one'r own land and land that belongs to another. It aims to contextualise land law within England and Wales? legal history and current social and economic realities. It also aims to develop the assimilation and presentation of legal knowledge, the formulation of reasoned and substantiated argumentation, and the ability to identify and evaluate the law'r solutions to actual and perceived social problems. A further aim of this module is to provide one of the foundations of legal knowledge that is required by students wishing to enter the legal professions.
Content
- Introduction
- What is Land?
- What are the concerns of Land Law?
- Ownership of land
- Rights over land belonging to another person
- The recognition of ownership and non-ownership rights
- Co-ownership
- Leases
- Mortgages
- Easements
- Covenants
- Conveyancing
Books & Readings
There is no single recommended textbook for this module. Details of suggested textbooks will be suggested in the lectures for this module, as publishers often publish new editions of textbooks over the course of the summer. However, students are permitted to take a statute book into the examination, and the following are examples of reasonable texts. Whichever textbook you decide to buy, you should, in addition, consult some of the other books on the list, together with any additional further reading that you may have been given in the form of cases, statutes, reports and journal articles.
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6