Module description
Advanced Property Law (APL) offers a research-oriented approach to expanding your knowledge and understanding of Property Law. Through APL you will engage in a deep way with cutting-edge Property Law issues. You will be assessed via a 5000-word extended-essay addressing a question of your own choosing. You will have the opportunity to work with a supervisor to develop your research question.
Over the first 6 weeks we will run seminars covering a variety of conceptually difficult and interesting elements of Property Law that you will not have engaged with before (or not considered in detail). An example syllabus is set out below:
- Human Rights and Property Law
- Trespass and Adverse Possession
- Land Registration
- Interests in the Family Home
- Proprietary Estoppel
- Property Theory
These topics have been selected because of their scope for further research. The seminars will be conducted by members of the teaching team who are experts in these areas and who would be willing to supervise projects relating to them. The topics naturally relate and feed into one another allowing you to construct a theme-based research question covering elements of different topics. The goal, in these first few weeks, is to build your knowledge about these issues, expose you to important property literature, and discuss different critical and methodological approaches to Property Law.
Alongside this core content, there will also be sessions covering creating a research question, researching Property Law, and writing a research piece.
Once students have selected their own research question, the amount of face-to-face teaching will decrease so you have the opportunity to pursue your own research. During this time, you will have meetings with your supervisor, you can also attend optional drop-in sessions and group writing sessions to support you with your extended essay.
Assessment details
4,000-5,000 word Essay (100%)
Educational aims & objectives
The aims of the Advanced Property Law module are:
- To allow students to develop their understanding of property law in relation to aspects which are conceptually more difficult than those studied on the core Property law Module.
- To expose students to seminal and important literature relating to Property law.
- To equip students with the ability to engage in critical analysis relating to property law.
- To develop students' ability to engage in independent research relating to Property Law.
- To develop students' ability to formulate, in writing, coherent analyses of Property Law.
- To enable students to produce their own research on a property law topic of interest to them and support them doing so.
Teaching pattern
Seminars/Tutorial hours:
16 hours - 8 x 2 hour seminars
2 hours - Meeting with ‘supervisor’ built into teaching hours
4 hours - Additional drop-in session and voluntary group writing session