Honour School of Jurisprudence (Course 2)

1. Candidates in the School of Jurisprudence shall be examined in subjects from such branches of the law and of philosophy as may be prescribed by regulation.

2. No candidate shall be admitted to examination in this school unless they have either passed or been exempted from the First Public Examination.

3. The examination in this school shall be under the supervision of the Board of the Faculty of Law, which shall make regulations concerning it, subject always to the preceding clauses of this sub-section and to the concurrence of the Divisional Board of Humanities in respect of regulations concerning philosophy.

4. Candidates shall be examined in accordance with the Examination Regulations set out below. They will also be required to spend, after their matriculation, an academic year of residence in a European university approved in accordance with these regulations, and to have attended such courses at the approved university as are approved in accordance with these regulations, and to have passed such examinations at the approved university as the faculty board may specify.

5. The Law Board will approve courses at certain European universities. The list of approved courses will be available at the Institute of European and Comparative Law, St Cross Building, Manor Road.

6. Candidates may proceed to an academic year of residence at an approved university only if so permitted by the Board of the Faculty of Law. The board shall not give such permission unless the candidate presents (a) a certificate of linguistic competence relevant to the proposed year of residence and (b) a certificate from their society stating that they will have resided in Oxford for six terms (or three terms in the case of an applicant with senior status) since matriculation before proceeding to such residence, and (c) a statement in support from the head or a tutor of the candidate's society.

7. The certificate of linguistic competence may be provided only by a member of the University approved by the board.

8. Candidates will be required to pass certain examinations at the approved universities. Details will be available from the Institute of European and Comparative Law.

9. The Institute of European and Comparative Law will certify to the chair of the examiners for the Honour School of Jurisprudence the names of candidates who have satisfied the requirements for the year abroad.

10. The board may amend or add to any provision in Regulations 5, 8, and 9 by regulation published in the Gazette at any time before the commencement of the academic year to which such addition or amendment applies.

11. Candidates must have satisfactorily completed the Legal Research and Mooting Skills Programme.

12. Candidates shall be examined in the following seven core subjects:

• (i) Jurisprudence

  (ii) Contract

  (iii) Tort

  (iv) Land Law

  (v) European Union Law

  (vi) Trusts

  (vii) Administrative Law

13. In addition to the core subjects, candidates must offer two further option subjects from a list approved by the Board of the Faculty of Law. The list for the following academic year shall be posted in the Law Faculty Office and sent to college tutors, together with individual specifications and examination methods, not later than the beginning of the fifth week of the Hilary Term in the year before the Honour School examination will be held. Depending on the availability of teaching resources, not all option subjects will be available to all candidates in every given year. If any such subject has to be withdrawn after it has appeared on the lists approved by the Board of the Faculty of Law, notice will be given in the Law Faculty Handbook for Undergraduate Students for the relevant year, which will be published and made available on the Faculty website by Monday of noughth week of Michaelmas Term that year. Candidates selected for the Jessup Moot team may take the Jessup Moot option in place of one of the two option subjects. Further regulations for the Jessup Moot option appear under 17. below. In addition, candidates may offer a dissertation as one of their option subjects. Further regulations for students proposing to submit a dissertation appear under 18. below.

14. Candidates who have been awarded the Diploma in Legal Studies shall be examined in the same number of subjects as other candidates but shall not be required to repeat in the Final Honour School papers taken for the Diploma which would otherwise be compulsory.

15. Legal Research and Mooting Skills Programme

The Law Board offers a Legal Research and Mooting Skills Programme, which provides training in the use of legal information resources (both paper and electronic), legal research, and team-working. The programme will also check students' competence in the use of Information Technology. Students are required to undertake this programme and to complete the assessments which form part of it, to the satisfaction of the Programme Co-ordinator appointed by the Law Board. The Programme Co-ordinator will certify to the Chair of Examiners for the Honour School of Jurisprudence the names of those students who have done so.

16. Core Subjects

• (i) JURISPRUDENCE

  Candidates offering Jurisprudence will be examined in that subject by:

  • (a) an examination at the end of a student's final year of the Final Honours School, in which students answer two questions from a selection of ten, and

    (b) a single essay of 3,000-4,000 words to be written during the summer vacation between the end of Year 2 and commencement of Year 3 of the Final Honour School. Essay questions will be published by the Board of Examiners at noon on the Friday of the seventh week of the Trinity Term preceding the examination. The essay must be submitted electronically, by noon on the Friday of the week before noughth week preceding the beginning of the Michaelmas Full Term immediately following. On submitting the essay, candidates will also be required to submit an online declaration of authorship. Candidates will be contacted with details of how to access questions, and submit the essay. The essay must bear the candidate's examination number, but not their name or the name of their college.
    

• (ii) CONTRACT

  Candidates will be required to show a knowledge of such parts of the law of restitution as are directly relevant to the law of contract. Questions may be set in this paper requiring knowledge of the law of tort.

  (iii) TORT

  Questions may be set in this paper requiring knowledge of the law of contract.

  (iv) LAND LAW

  (v) EUROPEAN UNION LAW

  Comprises:

  • A. The basic structure and functions of the institutions; the aims of the EU; law-making; the composition and jurisdiction of the Court of Justice; the penetration of EU law into national legal orders.

    B. Free movement of persons and services.

    C. Free movement of goods.

• (vi) TRUSTS

  (vii) ADMINISTRATIVE LAW

  Questions will not be set on the law of local government or of public corporations except as illustrating general principles of administrative law.

  Candidates will be required to show a sufficient knowledge of such parts of the general law of the constitution as are necessary for a proper understanding of this subject.

17. Jessup Moot

The following further regulations apply to the Jessup Moot subject:

The Jessup Moot option may only be taken by candidates who are members of the Law Faculty’s team participating in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition (‘the Jessup Moot’). Candidates may not be assessed for both  this option and the full option subject ‘public international law’.

On being selected for the Jessup Moot team, each candidate will be required to sign a declaration acknowledging the obligations and expectations upon them. Details are provided in the Law Faculty Handbook for Undergraduate Students.  

Candidates will study subject matter falling within the field of public international law, as defined in the course description for the ‘public international law’ option provided in the Law Faculty Handbook for Undergraduate Students. In addition, candidates will study in detail the subject area covered by the Jessup Moot compromis (the competition problem set) in preparation for writing the memorials.

The means of assessment for the Jessup Moot option subject will be twofold.

• (i) By noon on the day after the deadline for submission of memorials to the Jessup Moot Competition, as published in the Undergraduate Handbook, (or if that deadline falls on a Friday, by noon of the following Monday), one of the option candidates must submit in electronic form to the Law Faculty Examinations Officer the following items on behalf of all of the candidates taking the option:

  • (a) two written assessments of up to 12,000 words each, which will constitute the appellant and respondent memorials submitted for the Jessup Moot for the year in question;

    (b) a declaration of joint authorship, signed by all the candidates, acknowledging that each has made a significant contribution, commensurate to that of the other team members, and confirming that each is aware that they will all receive the same mark for the submissions.

• The marks for the memorials will constitute 50 per cent of the total mark for the Jessup Moot option.

  (ii) Candidates will take the public international law examination at the end of their final year, but will answer only two questions (one from Part A and one from Part B) in a total of 90 minutes, rather than four questions in 180 minutes. The mark awarded will constitute the remaining 50 per cent of the total mark for the Jessup Moot option and will be added to the mark attained under i) to produce an overall mark for the option.

18. Dissertation

• (i) As one of their option subjects, students may undertake a dissertation of between 8,000 and 10,000 words, inclusive of footnotes but excluding bibliography.

  (ii) Students wishing to write a dissertation must submit a proposal of 500-600 words to the Law Faculty Office by Friday of the week preceding 0th Week of Michaelmas Term of the final year.

  (iii) Theses previously submitted for the Honour School of Jurisprudence may be resubmitted. No thesis will be accepted if it has already been submitted, wholly or substantially, for another Honour School or degree of this University, or for a degree of any other institution. No thesis shall, however, be ineligible because it has been or is being submitted for any scholarship or prize of this University.

  (iv) Students must submit the final dissertation using the University approved online assessment platform by no later than noon on Friday of Week 8 of Hilary Term of the final year of the course. Technical information on the requirements for online submissions is provided in the Course Handbook.

  (v) Students whose proposals are rejected or who miss the deadline for submission of proposals will instead pursue the two option subjects for which they signed up in the Trinity Term preceding their final year.

19. Statutes and other source material

Details of the statutes and other sources of material which will be available to candidates in the examination room for certain papers will be given in the teaching conventions and in examiners' edicts circulated to candidates.