This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
This module presents students with a selection of the most important contemporary debates in the field of law and the humanities. Drawing in any one year from a range of current issues in the field, the module addresses a larger set of themes situated at the intersection between the humanities and law. These themes include: textuality, performativity, representation, memory, iconography, tradition, the archive, rhetoric, aesthetics, and affect. The module therefore encourages a deeper understanding of law's relationship to humanities disciplines such as literature, visual culture, history, language, and political and social theory.
Total study hours: 200
Contact hours: 20
Private study hours: 180
All law postgraduate programmes. Available to postgraduate students from other schools at the convenors' discretion.
Main assessment methods
Four posts on the module blog (10%)
Research essay, 4000-5000 words (90%)
Reassessment methods
Reassessment instrument: 100% coursework
Jonathan Bate (ed) (2011) The Public Value of the Humanities (London: Bloomsbury)
Peter Brookes (ed) (2014) The Humanities in Public Life (New York: Fordham University Press).
Margaret Davies (2002) Asking the Law Question (2nd Edition) (Sydney: Lawbook Co.).
Costas Douzinas and Adam Gearey (2005) Critical Jurisprudence: The Political Philosophy of Justice (Cambridge: Hart Publishing).
Marett Leiboff and Mark Thomas (2014) Legal Theories: contexts and practices (Sydney: Thompson Reuters).
Martha Nussbaum (2010) Not for Profit (Princeton: Princeton University Press)
Austin Sarat et al (eds) Law and the Humanities: an introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the specific importance of humanities scholarship and scholarly perspectives to the
history, nature and thought of law
2. Demonstrate a systematic appreciation of the nature and value of humanities research perspectives in the contemporary study of law and
the academy more generally
3. Critically understand and analyse key issues and debates in contemporary law and humanities scholarship.
4. Critically reflect on how specific humanities research perspectives can inform and shape students' own scholarly engagement with law
and legal inquiry
5. Develop a research question of contemporary relevance to the law and humanities academy
6. Synthesise competing theories and critical perspectives relevant to a humanities-based approach to law
7. Critically evaluate examples of scholarship relevant to a humanities-based approach to law
8. participate in an exchange of informed views in a public online forum on topics relevant to the discipline of law and the humanities
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Evaluate and synthesize complex material from across various disciplines (law, literature, social and political theory, history, theatre and
film studies)
2. Demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the specificity of textual analysis in humanities methodologies
3. Make well-constructed and structured arguments
4. Formulate a viable research question
5. Deploy critical and self-reflexive modes of thought and analysis
6. Demonstrate sophisticated independent learning
7. Undertake independent research on a specific topic
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