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2023/2024

Introduction to Law

Code: 103499 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500257 Criminology FB 1 1

Contact

Name:
Marc Abraham Puig Hernandez
Email:
marcabraham.puig@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.

Teachers

Marc Abraham Puig Hernandez
Barbara Lirios Monllor Taltavull

External teachers

Paz Olaciregui

Prerequisites

In order to follow the subject properly, it is essential to have optimal linguistic and reading competence according to the level of university studies


Objectives and Contextualisation

To give students the basic tools to understand the world of Law based on the exposure and analysis of different perspectives and approaches. Propose the analysis of law and other regulatory systems and the relationship they have with the State, society, human rights, and ethical principles.


Competences

  • Ability to analyse and summarise.
  • Drawing up an academic text.
  • Properly using the legal, psychological, pedagogical and sociological language.
  • Respectfully interacting with other people.
  • Students must demonstrate they know the legal framework and operating model of the crime control agents.
  • Students must demonstrate they know the legal/penal response framework to criminality (constitutional law, police law, procedural law and criminal law).
  • Verbally transmitting ideas to an audience.
  • Working autonomously.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Ability to analyse and summarise.
  2. Drawing up an academic text.
  3. Drawing up legal texts using specific language.
  4. Explaining the latest functionality criteria in the application of constitutional law to the criminal act.
  5. Knowing the legal vocabulary.
  6. Matching the criminal law corpus with its implementation in the criminological field.
  7. Respectfully interacting with other people.
  8. Verbally transmitting ideas to an audience.
  9. Working autonomously.

Content

1. Ways to approach the Law: Jurisprudence, Sociology of Law and Legal Philosophy.

2. Law and Morals.

3. Law and society.

4. Law, power, and State

5. Determination of the Law: Nautral Law, Legal Positivism, and Legal Realism.

6. Theory of the norm.

7. Legal system.

8. Sources of Law.

9. Fundamental legal conceptions.

10. Legal interpretation.

11. The application of Law.

12. Legal argumentation.


Methodology

The instruction and training of the students is based on the following activities:

 

1. Directed activities:

1.1 Lectures: where students learn the conceptual bases of the subject and learn the regulatory and jurisprudential legal framework. Lectures are the activities in which less interactivity is required of the student and are designed as an exhibition to establish the conceptual references in each topic.

1.2. Seminars: where the students, in small groups, analyse previously prepared practical cases together with the teaching staff. In specific cases, the cases will be worked out in class. The basis of the practical work is the understanding and application of the concepts explained in the theoretical classes.

1.3. Assessment: continuous assessment activities and final exam

 

2. Supervised activities:

These are activities that the students develop in the classroom, with the supervision and support of the teaching staff. It is about the preparation of some practical case in the classroom.

 

3. Independent activities:

3.1. Preparation of practical activity documents: which will be delivered and analysed in the classroom.

3.2. Search for bibliography and instrumental materials for the resolution of practical cases. In some cases, students will have to search for the documentation independently

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures 18 0.72 5, 6, 4
Seminars 18 0.72 5, 6, 4, 3, 7, 1, 8
Type: Autonomous      
Group research project 25 1 6, 3, 2, 7
Preparatory work for seminar exercices 34 1.36 5, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1, 9
Preparing for tests 50 2 5, 2, 1, 9

Assessment

1. Model of  evaluation. 

1.1. The continuous evaluation of the subject is carried out by accounting for: exam grades (50%), practical exercises (40%), and attendance and participation in the classroom (10%).

1.2. The single assessment will consist of a first activity (25%), a second activity (25%), and a common activity, identical to the final continuous assessment exam (50%). The test must be repairedwith the obligatory bibliography of the subject.

2. Exam. The final exam (shared by a single assessment and continuous evaluation) will consist of two exercises:

- Multiple-choice exam. The minimum score for this part is 5/10.

- Open questions. Students will be required to develop, at a minimum, two reasoned answers to two previous questions.

That is, only those students who obtain the minimum score in each part will pass the exam. To pass the exam, the final grade of the test must be at least 5.

The final grade will be obtained from the mean of the two exercises.

3. Resit

Students who do not pass a part of the exam will have the opportunity to re-evaluate this part on a second exam date. This second exam will have the same formal and assessment conditions as the first exam. For single-assessment students, the same recovery system will apply as for continuous assessment.

4. Consequences of fraud. A student who cheats or attempts to cheat at the exam will get a 0, losing the right to a second chance. Plagiarism in an assignment will result in the suspension of the assignment, recidivism in the subject, and the loss of the right to re-evaluation.

If a student copies or tries to copy in the exam, they will fail the subject with a 0 and lose the right to re-evaluation. Plagiarism in an assignment will result in the suspension of the assignment, recidivism in the subject, and the loss of the right to re-evaluation. However, use tools like ChatGPT or something similar.

5. Punctuality. 

Classes start on time. It is not allowed to enter the class once it has started or to leave before its completion, except with reasonable justification. 

6. Essays.

The practices carried out in the seminars will be done collectively during the sessions specifically planned within the framework of the topics contained in the subject's program.

These practices involve continuous work by the students. For each seminar, the materials that the students will have to work on beforehand through the Virtual Campus will be provided in advance.

Students will have to hand in two individual practice papers:

- A first task is a written and individual analysis exercise on one of the practice topics discussed during the seminar sessions. This exercise must be passed with a 5 out of 10. Students who do not pass this mandatory minimum grade can reassess the practical part through a specific question in the final exam on one of the topics covered in the seminar.

- A second exercise that will be carried out collectively will consist of: i) a group debate on one of the topics proposed by the teachers. An internal debating league and a final debating phase will be held and organized. Each group will have to defend a specific position on one of the proposed topics; ii) presentation by discussion groups of the conclusions of one of the topics discussed during the internal and final phases.

Written works in which an inappropriate use of quotes and texts is detected, plagiarism, or which cannot justify arguments used in their practice, will be evaluated with a grade of 0 and will receive a warning. In case of repetition of the conduct, the student will suspend the subject (0) and will lose the right to re-evaluate.

7. Attendance. 

Since class attendance is mandatory, participation requires, firstly, that the student has attended all classes, unless there is adequate justification. Students who do not attend at least 80% of the classes cannot be assessed. Absences can only be justified for reasons of illness or other force majeure and for academic reasons previously authorized by the teaching staff.

In addition, the attitude of the students and their active participation in the development of the classes will be assessed.

Students who repeatedly will be warned by the teaching staff for not keeping quiet during classes or maintaining an attitude that involves interruptions and inconveniences for the normal development of classes may be penalized with a reduction in their final grade resulting from the three previous sections.

8. Schedule of activities.

On the first day of the course, students will have available (in the subject space on the Campus Virtual) a schedule of the theoretical and practical activities to be carried out during the course, which will be organized weekly.


Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Attendance and participation in class 10 2.5 0.1 5, 3, 2, 7, 1, 8, 9
Essays 40 0 0 5, 7, 1, 8, 9
Exam 50 2.5 0.1 5, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1, 8, 9

Bibliography

Compulsory reading

Añón, M. José, et. al. (2021). Teoría del Derecho (2a ed.). Tirant lo Blanch.

Complemetary bibliography

Atienza, M. (2012). El sentido del derecho (2a ed.). Ariel. 

Atienza, M. (2017). Filosofía del Derecho y transformación social. Trotta. 

Atienza, M. (2015), El Derecho como argumentación. Ariel. 

Casanovas, P. (2017). Sub lege Pugnamus. De la Gran Guerra a les grans dades. Publicacions de la Universitat de Barcelona. 

Casanovas, P. & Moreso, J.J. (2020). El ámbito de lo jurídicoLecturas de pensamiento jurídico contemporáneo. Ed. Olejnik. 

Calvo García, M. (2000). Teoría del Derecho (2a ed.). Technos. 

Calvo García, M. & picontó, T. (2017). Introducción y perspectivas actuales de la sociología jurídica. Editorial UOC. 

De Lucas, J. (coord) (1997). Introducció a la teoria del dret (3a ed.). Tirant lo Blanc. 

Dworking, R. (2012). Los derechos en serio. Ariel. 

De Sousa Santos, B. (2009). Sociología jurídica crítica. Para un nuevo sentido común en el derecho. Trotta.

Freeman, M. D. A. (2011). Lloyd’s introduction to jurisprudence (8a ed., Reimpr.). Sweet & Maxwell. 

Moreso, J. J. & Vilajosana, J. M. (2004). Introducción a la teoría del derecho. Marcial Pons. 

Puigpelat, F. (Coord.) (1996). Teoria del dret. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. 

Riddall, J. G. (2008). Teoría del DerechoGedisa. 

Rodríguez-Palop, M. E. (2010), La nueva generación de derechos Humanos Dykinson. 

Ruiz-Resa, J. (2017). Teoría del derecho. Tirant lo Blanch.


Software

None