Module LAW3021: LABOUR LAW

Department: LAW

LAW3021: LABOUR LAW

Prerequisites

• Employment Law (LAW2111) OR as a corequisite

Corequisites

• Employment Law (if not taken as a prerequisite).

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To provide students with a sound understanding of the law relating to trades unions and their members.
• To enable students to develop an insight into current issues and possible future developments in labour law.
• To provide students with the opportunity to develop proficiency with online legal research tools.

Content

• Introduction to labour law.
• General principles of industrial relations and the historical background.
• The legal status of trade unions.
• Trade union recognition and collective bargaining.
• collective bargaining and collective agreements.
• Common law and statutory intervention in internal trade union affairs.
• Freedom of association and the right to organise and bargain collectively.
• Protection against discrimination on grounds of trade union membership or activities.
• Industrial conflict and individual employees.
• Industrial conflict and the trade unions.
• Picketing and the potential civil and criminal liability of trade unions.
• The use of injunctions in industrial disputes.

Learning Outcomes

• Students should be able to demonstrate a sound understanding of the existing law on trade unions.

• Students should be able to:
• Apply the existing law to given factual scenarios and advise accordingly.
• Analyse and evaluate the existing law in light of the legal, social, economic and political questions raised.
• Engage in informed debate concerning future changes in the law.

• Students should be able to:
• Demonstrate developed analytical and writing skills, including the ability to work independently and to take responsibility for their own learning.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures are used primarily to impart knowledge - and also to suggest approaches to evaluation and critical analysis;
• Tutorials will be used to develop and enhance students capacity for legal-problem solving in a particular factual situation, evaluative critical analysis and their appreciation of laws' linkage with broader fields of enquiry;
• Assignments (formative) are used both to develop problem-solving skills, the ability to engage in sustained evaluation of proposed schemes of reforms, and the ability to evaluate the law in a critical and contextual way.
• Summative assessment comprises one unseen examination of two hours fifteen minutes (including fifteen minutes reading time). Students are given a choice of questions to answer, but the paper is structured in such a way as to assess students on all the specific outcomes. Essay questions are used to assess knowledge, the ability to apply the law to factual scenarios, evaluative capacity and an awareness of placing the analysis of law in wider contexts of enquiry.
• Students will be supported and encouraged in the development of their research and writing skills.Students will be supported and encouraged in the development of their research and writing skills.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

1 2000 word essay

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University