Law and Resistance (M5115)
15 credits, Level 6
Autumn teaching
We will focus on the themes of race, class and gender struggles, and how law responds to these.
There are two Law and Resistance modules. Together, these are intended to give you a comprehensive and innovative understanding of critical legal approaches to law and resistance. These are sometimes called ‘alternatives’ to the ‘properly legal’ perspective of legal positivism.
This module is split into ‘critical perspectives’ on resistance and ‘aw and’ perspectives (for example law and ethics, law and race). You may be taking both modules or only this one.
We will be challenging your preconceptions about what law is and how resistance happens. We will be asking the question of not only ‘what is law’ but:
- ‘How’ does law come to have the force it has?
- Is law about power? About violence and/or disorder?
- What roles do gender, race and class play in how we experience the law?
- What roles do gender, race and class play in how we experience the law?
The course is taught via case studies that include the Black Lives Matter protests, decolonising the curriculum and gender-based violence.
Teaching
100%: Seminar
Assessment
100%: Practical (Portfolio)
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 2025/26. 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.
Courses
This module is offered on the following courses: