LLB (Hons) Law

Law graduates find employment in a diverse range of roles, both inside and outside the legal profession. Studying law will develop your communication, interpersonal, and problem solving skills, which will make you stand out to employers across a number of fields. Graduates from our programme work as:

• Barristers and in-house lawyers for companies
• Solicitors, paralegals and legal executives
• Journalists and media professionals
• Politicians and senior civil servants
• Business directors and managers
• Public and voluntary sector managers
• Teachers and legal academics

• Get ahead with a programme designed to help you stand out with employers, whatever your career goals.
• Have flexibility and choice in what you study: the first two years include traditional subjects, such as Criminal Law and Tort, alongside learning dispute resolution skills and a range of optional modules. In your final year you have lots of choice so can tailor your degree to your interests and career ambitions. Our optional modules include legal subjects such as Family, Employment, Environmental, Intellectual Property, Business, Immigration, Human Rights, and Cybercrime.
• Study modules with emphasis on developing your legal and employability skills as well as professional practice.
• Gain valuable, professional experience by participating in our award-winning, pro-bono Law Clinic. Here you work under the guidance of legal practitioners, with real clients making a real difference in the community, without taking time out of your studies. You can do this for credit towards your degree or as a volunteer.
• Join our outstanding Student Law Society, which offers networking opportunities and organises competitions. Our students have excelled in winning national client interviewing and mooting competitions.
• Benefit from excellent research-informed and practice-led teaching by highly qualified staff, including legal practitioners. We have internationally renowned researchers in areas such as the environment, marine protection, immigration and intellectual property. We give policy advice, regionally and nationally, and work for change. We publish an on-line journal, the Plymouth Law Review, with contributions from both staff and students.
• Be part of a supportive community and learning environment, with a dedicated personal tutor system and strong alumni links.

We keep our class sizes small, so we have a close-knit community of like-minded students and staff, which will give you the encouragement and support you need to excel.

• Year 1

• In your first year, you’ll learn about the core theories, principles and processes of the law, introducing you to how it’s studied and practised. You’ll be able to join the Student Law Society and take part in mooting, debating, negotiation and advocacy competitions. We’ve structured the curriculum so that alongside studying the English legal system, Contract, Tort, Public Law and Human Rights, you’ll start to develop the critical thinking and self-reflective skills that will equip you for your chosen career, including through our Ethics and Legal Reasoning Module.
  

  Core modules

  • LAW401 Contemporary Legal and Human Rights Issues

    This module focuses on developing critical thinking about the role of law in dealing with the challenges of social change in the 21st century. This discourse will be positioned within a detailed understanding of the concept of human rights (in a national, European and international context) and the legal principles involved in the protection of such rights, with specific reference to the European Convention on Human Rights and UK Law.

  • LAW402 Contract Law

    An introduction to the law of contract through study of the essential elements in contract formation. This module then considers the nature and relative significance of contractual terms.

  • LAW403 Legal Systems and Skills

    An overview of the English Legal System with reference to the criminal and civil legal processes and procedure. An introduction to the relationship between English law and procedure in a wider international context. To introduce an understanding of the requisite legal, transferrable and practical skills that underpin the study of law, including basic issues of ethical and professional conduct.

  • LAW404 Ethics and Legal Reasoning

    This module will offer learners an opportunity to evaluate different concepts of justice, law and ethics, and to assess and discuss critically their importance in legal and non-legal contexts. It will provide a basic introduction to jurisprudential concepts, the types of arguments used in legal reasoning, and the relevant background of theoretical accounts, linking these with ethical and normative considerations present in human activity and institutional decision making.

  • LAW405 Public Law

    Administrative Law, examining fundamental theories and principles, and their application and practice within the British constitution.

  • LAW406 Tort Law

    The Law of Tort is concerned with the creation and imposition of civil rights obligations on people generally. It is focused on the legal protection of a number of key rights, such as the right to bodily integrity, reputation, enjoyment of property and privacy amongst others.

• Year 2

• In your second year, you’ll focus on real-life scenarios and develop practical skills in areas such as negotiation and advocacy through our very successful Dispute Resolution Skills module. You’ll study Property Law and Criminal Law in depth and begin to tailor your degree to your specific interests by choosing from a range of modules including, for example, Family, Employment, Environmental, Intellectual Property, EU, Immigration, Human Rights and Cybercrime. You’ll also have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience volunteering in our award winning Law Clinic, either as a volunteer or for credit towards your degree programme, and will receive support in gaining a placement if you wish to take the optional placement year.
  

  Core modules

  • LAW511 Criminal Law

    This module provides in depth examination of core principles and concepts of criminal law, an introduction to modes of participation, and detailed analysis of selected offences and defences.

  • LAW512 Dispute Resolution Skills

    This module focuses on the development of transferable skills based on real-life scenarios with an emphasis on enhancing employability. It revolves around dispute resolution exercises helping "clients" to resolve disputes using role-play and teamwork. It is designed to enhance practical skills such as negotiation as well as so called 'soft skills' such as people skills and problem solving. It also includes relevant elements of practice and procedure, such as analysis of the merits of a claim or defence and preparing a case for trial as well as selected pre-action considerations and trial procedures.

  • LAW513 Property Law

  Optional modules

  • LAW514 Environmental Law

    The module provides an examination of key themes in environmental law, with a focus on the generation, application and enforcement of this law within a critical and applied context.

  • LAW515 Family Law

    This module aims to provide a critical and contextual understanding of family law, with exploration of relevant legal principles from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The principles focussed on will include the regulation of domestic relationships between adults, as well as the regulation of parent-child relationships.

  • LAW516 Human Rights Law

    This module provides an in-depth analysis of the law relating to human rights with reference to national, regional and international law principles. It examines the development and scope of fundamental rights in both theory and practice, and the legitimate limits and restrictions on rights in the interests of balancing conflicting interests in democratic societies.

  • LAW517 Cybercrime

    This module provides in depth examination of core principles and concepts of criminal law, an introduction to modes of participation, and detailed analysis of selected offences and defences.

  • LAW518 Employment Law

    This module provides students with knowledge of a specialist area of law, namely Employment Law, whilst also continuing to offer development of transferable and practical legal skills.

  • LAW519 European Union Law

    This module focuses on the law of the European Union. There will be emphasis on the means of enforcing EU Law and substantive legal areas such as the free movement of persons and goods and competition law.

  • LAW521 Intellectual Property Law

    This module focuses on the law and concepts of intellectual property, examining in addition related legal themes of information access, dissemination and control.

  • LAW522 Law, Literature and the Screen

    To introduce students to fictional and factional representations of the legal order in prose, film and TV, and to examine the inter-connections between law, literature and the screen.

  • LAW523 Placement Preparation

    This module is designed to assist students intending to take the optional placement year, both in terms of securing an appropriate placement, and in being prepared for the placement itself by further developing knowledge and skills including those delivered by LAW512 Dispute Resolution Skills. The module is not assessed but engagement with it will be monitored as a requirement to undertake the Placement Year.

  • LAW525 Community Legal Engagement (Street Law)

    A module in which students apply knowledge and develop practical and transferable skills. This may be in the Street Law Clinic but some students may choose to volunteer with one of the Law Clinic’s community partner organisations or find their own volunteer placement.

• Optional placement year

• Gain valuable on-the-job experience through our optional placement year. We will support you in your second year in deciding whether to take this opportunity, and assist you in finding a placement and in being prepared for it. The placement could be in any appropriate external setting. Alternatively, you can gain this experience by selecting our Work-Based Learning module in your final year.
  

• Final year

• In your final year, you’ll have the opportunity to demonstrate your research skills with a dissertation on a legal issue that inspires you, or undertake work-based learning for credit, including within our Law Clinic. You’ll be able to further tailor your degree to your interests and career ambitions by choosing from a selection of Law modules such as, for example, those intending to progress to vocational training as either a solicitor or barrister, including Criminal Law and Practice, Business Law and Practice, and Trusts and Practice.
  

Every undergraduate taught course has a detailed programme specification document describing the course aims, the course structure, the teaching and learning methods, the learning outcomes and the rules of assessment.

The following programme specification represents the latest course structure and may be subject to change:

LLB Law Programme Specification 6851

UCAS tariff

104 - 120

A levels: Including a minimum of two A levels. Excluding general studies.

GCSE: All applicants must have GCSE (or equivalent) mathematics and English at grade C or above.

18 Unit BTEC National Diploma/QCF Extended Diploma: DMM–DDM in any subject. 12 Unit BTEC Diploma: D*D to D*D* dependent on subject.

BTEC National Diploma modules
If you hold a BTEC qualification it is vital that you provide our Admissions team with details of the exact modules you have studied as part of the BTEC. Without this information we may be unable to process your application quickly and you could experience significant delays in the progress of your application to study with us. Please explicitly state the full list of modules within your qualification at the time of application.

Access: Pass a named Access to HE Diploma in any subject with at least 33 credits at merit/distinction.

International Baccalaureate: 27–30 overall to include Higher Level 4 English and Maths accepted within: Higher Level = 4, Standard Level = 5.

All relevant international qualifications will be considered - please contact admissions@plymouth.ac.uk.

Short of the entry requirements for this course? Don’t worry you may be eligible for a foundation year to prepare you for possible entry onto this course for the following year.

English language requirements 

We welcome applicants with international qualifications. To view other accepted qualifications please refer to our tariff glossary.