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Law of Evidence (M5025)

15 credits, Level 6

Autumn teaching

This module is a critical study of the law of evidence in England and Wales. It also considers selected developments in other common law jurisdictions such as Australia, Canada and the USA.

You will explore developments in evidential rules and consider how they impact upon the fairness of the criminal trial including:

• the presumption of innocence
• burden of proof
• the right to silence.

You will also examine the relationship between human rights protections and evidential rules (for example confession evidence, sexual history evidence).

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.