Child Law (M5008)

15 credits, Level 6

Autumn teaching

This module introduces you to the most important rules of Child Law. It outlines the rules on parental status and parental responsibility, child protection, contact and residence disputes and other disputes about what should be done for children. It also reflects on the central ideas that frame child law including the welfare principle and children’s rights.

The module does not just reflect on the rules and principles of child law. It considers the application of those rules and principles in the social and political contexts in which they operate. The module requires you to think about the nature of the parental relationship and the relationships that adults have with children in society more generally – and it reflects on these issues in the broadest possible way. It will encourage you to think about the appropriateness of the rules that govern our children and their status in the family.

The module will be both theoretical and extremely practical.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 20 hours of contact time and about 130 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.