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Module SXL-3111:
Land Law

Module Facts

Run by School of Law

20 Credits or 10 ECTS Credits

Semester 1 & 2

Organiser: Dr Gwilym Owen

Overall aims and purpose

Land Law is a compulsory module in the LLB programme. The aim of this module is to enable students to state and apply the rules of English and Welsh land law dealt with in the course accurately and relevantly. Students will be expected to develop a critical understanding of the key concepts of English and Welsh land law, particularly the distinctions – and the resulting consequences of the distinctions – between legal and equitable rights, personal and proprietary interests and registered and unregistered land. Students will be required to develop a critical appreciation of the particular circumstances – political, social, cultural and financial – in which English and Welsh land law has developed, particularly in relation to the major property legislation of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and in relation to substantive matters including the ownership of family property, the regulation of leases and the law of mortgages. Students will also be expected to develop a critical understanding of the actual and potential impact of human rights law and should have the ability to compare and contrast English and Welsh land law accurately and relevantly with the equivalent areas of any other legal system where relevant.

Course content

The module will allow the student to study English and Welsh land law, including the nature of land, the development of land law, the law relating to land registration and the distinction between registered and unregistered land, title to land, settlements of land, trusts of land and co-ownership, the law relating to freehold and leasehold estates in land, licences, easements and profits a prendre, freehold covenants, and the regulation of mortgages.

Assessment Criteria

excellent

  • Comprehensive knowledge
  • Detailed understanding
  • Extensive background study
  • Highly focussed answer and well structured
  • Logically presented and defended arguments
  • No factual/computational errors
  • Original interpretation
  • New links between topics are developed
  • New approach to a problem
  • Excellent presentation with very accurate communication

good

  • Strong knowledge
  • Understands most but not all
  • Evidence of background study
  • Focussed answer with good structure
  • Arguments presented coherently
  • Mostly free from factual/computational errors
  • Some limited original interpretation
  • Well known links between topics are described
  • Problems addressed by existing methods/approaches
  • Good presentation with accurate communication

C- to C+

  • Knowledge of key areas/principles
  • Understands main areas
  • Limited evidence of background study
  • Answer focussed on question but also with some irrelevant material and weaknesses in structure
  • Arguments presented but lack coherence
  • Has several factual/computational errors
  • No original interpretation
  • Only major links between topics are described
  • Limited problem solving
  • Some weaknesses in presentation and accuracy

threshold

  • Knowledge of key areas/principles only
  • Weaknesses in understanding of main areas
  • Limited evidence of background study
  • Answer only poorly focussed on question and with some irrelevant material and poor structure
  • Arguments presented but lack coherence
  • Several factual/computational errors
  • No original interpretation
  • Only major links between topics are described
  • Limited problem solving
  • Many weaknesses in presentation and accuracy

Learning outcomes

  1. Demonstrate a critical appreciation of the ways in which rights and interests in land are protected both at law and in equity, and in relation to registered and unregistered land;

  2. Relate the principal historical and contemporary characteristics of English and Welsh land law to their political, social, economic and cultural context;

  3. Critically explain the reasoning behind, and the practical implications of key twentieth and twenty-first century legislation relating to English land law – including the reforms of 1925, the Landlord and Tenants (Covenants) Act 1995, the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 and the Land Registration Act 2002;

  4. Apply a detailed knowledge of English and Welsh land law to complex actual or hypothetical factual scenarios;

  5. Show familiarity with the research and literature related to English and Welsh land law;

  6. Undertake independent legal research in relation to English and Welsh land law.

Assessment Methods

Type Name Description Weight
Written assignment 1
Final Exam 2

Teaching and Learning Strategy

Hours
Workshop

Workshops will routinely require students to engage individually and in groups in acquiring, commenting upon, critically evaluating and applying the principles and details of the subject under the guidance and instruction of the teaching team.

 16
Lecture

The module will be taught by means of 30 hours of lectures.

 30
Private study 154

Transferable skills

  • Literacy - Proficiency in reading and writing through a variety of media
  • Computer Literacy - Proficiency in using a varied range of computer software
  • Self-Management - Able to work unsupervised in an efficient, punctual and structured manner. To examine the outcomes of tasks and events, and judge levels of quality and importance
  • Exploring - Able to investigate, research and consider alternatives
  • Information retrieval - Able to access different and multiple sources of information
  • Inter-personal - Able to question, actively listen, examine given answers and interact sensitevely with others
  • Critical analysis & Problem Solving - Able to deconstruct and analyse problems or complex situations. To find solutions to problems through analyses and exploration of all possibilities using appropriate methods, rescources and creativity.
  • Argument - Able to put forward, debate and justify an opinion or a course of action, with an individual or in a wider group setting
  • Self-awareness & Reflectivity - Having an awareness of your own strengths, weaknesses, aims and objectives. Able to regularly review, evaluate and reflect upon the performance of yourself and others

Subject specific skills

  • Develop the ability to interpret legal rules and employ techniques of legal reasoning competently and efficiently in order to offer a range of solutions and conclusions to actual or hypothetical complex legal problems, all supported by relevant academic literature, jurisprudence and legislative research. Such solutions will be clearly communicated and presented
  • Develop the ability to analyse complex legal issues, set against the background of the political, social, economic or cultural contexts in which they may arise
  • Develop those skills which are necessary for scholarship and research in legal subjects, namely the ability to identify relevant primary and secondary legal sources and to retrieve accurate legal information using paper and electronic sources

Resources

Pre- and Co-requisite Modules

Courses including this module

Compulsory in courses:

Optional in courses: