Course

Legal culture and comparative law (BRV330)

The Norwegian legal culture has recently been under a lot of pressure. This is mostly due to the international obligations that the students learn more about in the courses BRV230 Human rights and BRV200 Norwegian and International Legal Institutions. These obligations lead to major changes in the Norwegian legal culture, as well as the other legal cultures that have ratified the same international obligations. In BRV330, we will learn about the Norwegian, English, American, French and German legal cultures and how they have become as they are today. Further on, we will discuss the challenges that these legal cultures face today due to the above-mentioned international obligations.

The course is taught in the autumn of 2021. It will then be moved to the spring semester and will be taught again from the spring semester 2024.


Dette er emnebeskrivelsen for studieåret 2021-2022

See course description and exam/assesment information for this semester (2024-2025)

Semesters

Fakta

Emnekode

BRV330

Vekting (stp)

5

Semester undervisningsstart

Autumn

Undervisningsspråk

English

Antall semestre

1

Vurderingssemester

Autumn

Timeplan

Vis timeplan

Litteratur

Pensumlisten finner du i Leganto

Content

This course will give the students knowledge of how legal cultures are defined, how they are established and to what extent a legal culture undergoes changes when encountering other legal cultures. It will especially focus on the six legal cultural elements of conflict resolution, norm production, ideal of justice, legal method, degree of professionalisation. Thereafter the students will obtain knowledge about the English, American, French and German legal cultures.

Learning outcome

Knowledge: Upon completion of the course, the students should:

  1. In terms of legal culture in general:
  • Have the necessary background knowledge regarding law as culture
  • Have knowledge about how legal cultures are formed
  • Have knowledge about the encounter among legal cultures
  • Have knowledge about legal cultures and reception of law
  • Have knowledge about the tools used when analysing a legal culture 
    1. Regarding the Norwegian, English, American, French and German legal cultures:
    • Have general knowledge about common law and civil law
    • Have knowledge of the Norwegian legal culture
    • Have knowledge of the English legal culture
    • Have knowledge of the American legal culture
    • Have knowledge of the French legal culture
    • Have knowledge of the German legal culture
    • Have knowledge about the challenges that EU law and the European Convention on Human Rights are raising for the English, French and German legal cultures.

      • Skills: Upon completion of the course, the student should be able:

      • To explain and discuss how legal cultures are composed by the legal cultural elements of conflict resolution, norm production, ideal of justice, legal method, degree of professionalisation and character of internationalisation.
      • To explain and discuss the character of the abovementioned legal cultural elements in the Norwegian, English, American, French and German legal cultures.
      • To be able to explain and discuss ongoing changes of the above mentioned legal cultural elements in the abovementioned legal cultures.

Forkunnskapskrav

Ingen

Exam

Form of assessment Weight Duration Marks Aid Exam system Withdrawal deadline Exam date
Homeexam 1/1 28 Hours Letter grades Inspera assessment — —


Vilkår for å gå opp til eksamen/vurdering

,
There is one mandatory assignment that will be graded as passed/failed. The assignment can be written in either a Scandinavian language or in English. More information about this coursework requirement will be announced on Canvas.

Fagperson(er)

Study Program Director:

Lana Bubalo

Course coordinator:

Andrea Minto

Method of work

The course is delivered as lectures, seminars and a mandatory hand-in. We expect the students to use app. 120-150 hours to complete this course. 20 of these hours will be lectures and other organized teaching, work in groups requires 30 hours and self-study and preparing for lectures require 70 hours. Finally, students are expected to spend 30 hours for writing the mandatory assignment and the home exam.

Åpent for

Law - bachelor's degree program
Exchange programmes at UIS Business School

Emneevaluering

Students will have the opportunity to give feedback on the course first in an early dialogue, and then in a written course evaluation at the end of the course.

Litteratur

Book

Comparing legal cultures Sunde, Jørn Øyrehagen; Koch, Søren (red.), Bergen, Fagbokforlaget, 804 sider, [2020], isbn:9788245033946, Les artiklane: "Managing the Unmanageable - An Essay Concerning Legal Culture as an Analytical Tool" (Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde), «An Introduction to Norwegian Legal Culture» (Marius Mikkel Kjølstad, Søren Koch og Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde), «A Legal Cultural 'Take' on the Legal System of England & Wales» (Christian N. K. Franklin), «An Introduction to French Legal Culture» (Sunniva Cristina Bragdø-Ellenes), «An Introduction to German Legal Culture» (Søren Koch) og "A View of the Legal Culture of the United States of America" (Lloyd T. Wilson Jr.).

Kontakt

Study Program Director:

Lana Bubalo

Course coordinator:

Andrea Minto

Tilbys av

UiS Business School

UiS School of Business and Law

The course description is retrieved from FS (Felles studentsystem). Version 1